Frattini – proud to be Italian

Only recently has the European Commission released the list of special advisors to the Commissioners. There are few elements of conflicts of interests, well articulated by Corporate Europe Observatory (with an ironic aronym CEO), but even more impressive is the list of the advisors on the pay slip of Mr Frattini – one of the Vice-Presidents of the Commission, in charge of Justice, Freedom and Security. Thinking probably that he has to formulate Italian policies not European ones, he hired 11 Italian advisors. 11 out of 11 on the list…

Besides that, one of them is, according to Financial Times, charged with fraud in Italy (You might just shrug and say: many Italians are). 

And few Commissioners do not have any advisors at all, although holding important portfolios. A perfect example is the Slovenian Commissioner Janez Potočnik, who perhaps couldn’t in practice convince Mr President that in fact Research has something to do with job creation…