The Code of Conduct for Commissioners - Improving Effectiveness and Efficiency

The aim of the external study was to provide the Committee on Budgetary Control, and also the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, with an independent evaluation of the current Code of Conduct applicable to Members of the European Commission with the aim of rendering the Code of Conduct more useful. The most important recommendations essentially focus on improving the Commissioners’ declaration of interests, limiting the Commissioners’ (national) political activity, strengthening post-office employment requirements, introducing additional transparency on Commissioner travel, strengthening the policy on the acceptance of gifts, providing for a specific course of action in the case of conflicts of interest arising in office, introducing monitoring and evaluation, and ensuring oversight in relation to the President of the Commission, highlighting existing complaints procedures in front of the European Ombudsman and providing for sanctions of minor Code of Conduct infringements. Those recommendations aim to render the Code of Conduct a more effective instrument in promoting ethical conduct and in increasing public trust in the EC’s ethics regime.