After all the hue and cry – the 153,000-strong petition calling for “strong exemplary measures” to be taken against him, and the summary stripping of his EU ‘red carpet’ privileges – an ad hoc European Union ethics committee has concluded that former EC boss Durão Barroso did not violate any rules of integrity when he accepted a millionaire position within Goldman Sachs investment bank.
He did however demonstrate a lack of prudence/ good judgement or however else “sensatez” is to be translated into English.
The committee was responding to a request by current EC president Jean-Claude Juncker for a statement on Durão’s smooth passage from the corridors of political power, to those peopled by the world’s bankers.
According to short reports published this morning by the nation’s media, the committee considered that Barroso “had not shown the prudence that one would have expected from someone who occupied the position of (EC) president for so many years”, but that in effect, he had “not violated his duty of integrity and discretion”.
How this will affect the damning withdrawal of Barroso’s so-called red carpet privileges is what remains to be seen.
Certainly, the news will give the former PSD prime minister further ammunition for a challenge.
He has already lambasted the removal of his VIP privileges as “discrimination”, suggesting he was singled out for simply being Portuguese (click here).
Since then, however, Público has carried in-depth reports suggesting that Barroso’s relationship with Goldman Sachs goes back a great deal longer than the EC was initially prepared to reveal (click here).
