The European Ombudsman has closed its investigation into the European Commission’s DG SANTE, which stood accused of hiring a biased contractor to help rewrite European law on safer nicotine products.
The investigation followed a complaint lodged by Tobacco Europe – big tobacco’s lobbyists – which claimed that the European Network on Smoking Prevention (ENSP) should have been excluded from the contract by conflict of interest rules.
The complaint centred on the fact that ENSP signed a declaration saying their staff did not work on any tobacco related project in the four years prior to the award of the contract, when in fact they had. The Commission’s argument – that this was a clerical error and was only supposed to exclude staff who had worked for the tobacco industry – was accepted by the Ombudsman.
But the Ombudsman did not let DG SANTE off without criticism.
“It is regrettable that the Commission did not acknowledge ENSP’s interest in tobacco control in its exchanges with the complainant and then failed to explain how it assessed this interest in view of the ENSP’s role under the framework contract”, the Ombudsman concluded.
With Parliament’s attention turned to the role of EU-funded NGOs in lobbying for the European Commission, it’s worth remembering that ENSP has also lobbied the EU institutions – specifically seeking harsh restrictions on safer nicotine products – while under contract to help revise the very laws it’s been lobbying on.
Such lobbying from environmental NGOs has been deemed “inappropriate” by EU Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin.
