BRUSSELS — The
European Commission on Wednesday said France
should do more to apply corporate lobbying rules, a warning that came with
President Emmanuel Macron under pressure over his ties to US ride-hailing firm
Uber.
اضافة اعلان
In France a “significant number of concerns remain
as regards the application of rules on lobbying for all relevant actors,
including at top executive level,” said the commission.
The remarks were part of the commission’s annual
report on the state of the rule of law in the EU.
The criticism of France comes just days after the
“Uber Files” revelations, a vast, international investigation by journalists
based on thousands of leaked internal company documents.
Amongst a trove of other details, The Guardian and
Le Monde revealed privileged exchanges between Uber and Macron when he was
economy minister, between 2014 and 2016.
The Commission’s report did not refer to the scandal
or to Macron. But it said the French authority responsible for tracking and
limiting the impact of lobbying “lacks human and technical resources”.
The report also criticized Poland and Hungary,
saying democracy and fundamental rights were still under threat.
Poland was pilloried above all for the judiciary’s
lack of independence. The commission criticized Hungary’s failure to adequately
prosecute high-level corruption cases.
Poland’s Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro lashed out
at the report, accusing the European Commission of seeking to “overthrow power
with a democratic mandate in Poland”.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Gergely Gulyas denounced “a
new, not very interesting chapter in the defamation campaign” of Brussels
against his country.
Vera Jourova, the
EU Vice-President responsible for
values, stressed that this year’s report was set in an “extraordinary
geopolitical context”.
While Russian
President Vladimir Putin violates human rights in Ukraine, the EU can “only
remain credible if our own house is in order”, she added.
According to the report, neither Poland nor Hungary
guarantees freedom of the press.
Germany was also asked to take stronger action to
curb the political influence of lobbyists.
The report said the German government had to tighten
rules against the so-called revolving door where senior civil servants jump to
private-sector jobs and use their influence on government.
That demand came as former chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder is under fire for his activities for Russian energy companies and
faces expulsion from his SPD political party.
He was not named in the report.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
