Saturday

2nd Dec 2023

Swedish candidate adds heat to EU ombudsman vote

  • Cecilia Wikström, the Swedish former MEP, defended her roles with two outside companies on Tuesday (Photo: European Parliament)

"I have not been a lobbyist, am not, and never will be. Full stop," the Swedish woman who wants to oversee good conduct by EU institutions, Cecilia Wikström, said in Brussels on Tuesday (3 December).

Wikström, a 54-year politician from Sweden's Liberal People's Party, is paid €7,000 a month by two Swedish firms called Beijer Alma and Elekta, which make industrial parts and do radiotherapy.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

And when Matt Carthy, an Irish nationalist MEP, asked her what they paid for if not her "influence", Wikström replied by quoting one of her Elekta colleagues.

"Once a person from ... Elekta, which is fighting cancer on all the continents of this world with its radiation medicine, said: 'We already have [professional] lobbyists in Brussels and we don't wan't her [Wikström's] role to be about that'," she said.

"They [Beijer Alma and Elekta] need me for some common sense," she added.

She has promised to give up her side-jobs if she wins the ombudsman title, which, anyway bears a smaller risk of financial conflict of interest than other EU top posts.

But Wikström's entry into the race has generated extra heat than ombudsman hearings normally see.

The campaign team of Emily O'Reilly, an Irish former journalist who currently holds the post, circulated a photo of Wikström with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to hammer home its message that "Ms. Wikström was a corporate lobbyist".

And it was like deja vu of the Sylvie Goulard fiasco for one German Green MEP.

Deja vu?

The European Parliament rejected Sylvie Goulard, France's first pick for EU single market commissioner, in November, in part because of her lucrative side-job.

Even Wikström's own Liberal People's Party removed her from its list in the last EP elections in May due to her Beijer Alma and Elekta income.

And "the parallel [with Goulard] is quite obvious" Daniel Freund, the German MEP, told EUobserver on Wednesday.

"She [Wikström] is really just not the right candidate," Freund said.

The EP petitions committee also cross-examined four other hopefuls on Tuesday, prior to a plenary vote in December on who gets the ombudsman post.

The candidates included Julia Laffranque, an Estonian judge at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, a pan-European tribunal, who became a favourite after earlier getting 90 MEPs to back her.

They also included O'Reilly, who got 84 MEPs, Giuseppe Fortunato, an Italian ombudsman (49 MEPs), and Nils Muižnieks, a former human rights inspector (43).

Wikström got 47 signatures.

She is said to have the backing of the centre-right European People's Party, the EP's largest bloc, as well that of her liberal Renew group.

But the December vote will be a secret ballot, leaving MEPs more free to follow their conscience than the whip's line.

'Little' rule

The EP, in February, also voted to bar former MEPs from running for EU ombudsman until after a three-year "cooling off period" to make the office politically impartial.

Wikström herself, who was still an MEP in February, voted for the new rules in the so-called 'Rangel report'.

But when asked on Tuesday why she had now changed her mind, Wikström replied she had never liked the three-year rule and had waved it through only because she thought it would never be adopted.

The 'Rangel rule' on cooling off is currently being discussed by MEPs and EU officials in behind-closed-doors talks in Brussels called "trilogues".

And this "particular little piece of a few lines" will probably be taken out in the end, Wikström predicted.

"I have proven that I am an impartial person. Impartiality is a virtue," she said.

"So you voted for something publicly in the hope that it would be diluted in the trilogue negotiations. Is that not the type of thing that the EU ombudsman should be a bulwark against?", Carthy, the Irish MEP, also said.

Opinion

Defending the defenders: ombudsmen need support

Ombudsmen are often coming under attack or facing different kinds of challenges. These can include threats, legal action, reprisals, budget cuts or a limitation of their mandate.

Agenda

New commission and Malta in focus This WEEK

Ursula von der Leyen and her new team of commissioners will have their first meeting on Wednesday. In the meantime, Malta descends into political turmoil over the death of an investigative journalist.

Exclusive

Ombudsman backs EUobserver on MEP expenses

The European Parliament should have granted access to documents on a decision about how transparent MEPs should be in future with their office expenses, says EU Ombudsman.

Opinion

'Pay or okay?' — Facebook & Instagram vs the EU

Since last week, Mark Zuckerberg's Meta corporation is forcing its European users to either accept their intrusive privacy practices — or pay €156 per year to access Facebook and Instagram without tracking advertising.

Latest News

  1. Israel's EU ambassador: 'No clean way to do this operation'
  2. Brussels denies having no 'concern' on Spain's amnesty law
  3. Dubai's COP28 — a view from the ground
  4. Germany moves to criminalise NGO search-and-rescue missions
  5. Israel recalls ambassador to Spain in new diplomatic spat
  6. Migrant return bill 'obstructed' as EU states mull new position
  7. Paris and Berlin key to including rape in gender-violence directive
  8. What are the big money debates at COP28 UN climate summit?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  3. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  4. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?
  5. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  6. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  3. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  4. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersGlobal interest in the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations – here are the speakers for the launch
  6. Nordic Council of Ministers20 June: Launch of the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us