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Parliamentary question - E-006993/2020Parliamentary question
E-006993/2020

Decision of the European Ombudsman regarding the Commission’s decision to award a contract to BlackRock for a study on integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) objectives into EU banking rules

Question for written answer  E-006993/2020
to the Commission
Rule 138
Dimitrios Papadimoulis (GUE/NGL), Manon Aubry (GUE/NGL), Dietmar Köster (S&D), Damien Carême (Verts/ALE), Marie Toussaint (Verts/ALE), Maria Arena (S&D), Michèle Rivasi (Verts/ALE), David Cormand (Verts/ALE), Emmanuel Maurel (GUE/NGL), Alexis Georgoulis (GUE/NGL), Konstantinos Arvanitis (GUE/NGL), Salima Yenbou (Verts/ALE), Karima Delli (Verts/ALE), Monika Vana (Verts/ALE), Aurore Lalucq (S&D), Rasmus Andresen (Verts/ALE), Sylvie Guillaume (S&D), Elena Kountoura (GUE/NGL), Benoît Biteau (Verts/ALE), Eric Andrieu (S&D), Raphaël Glucksmann (S&D), Petros Kokkalis (GUE/NGL), Ernest Urtasun (Verts/ALE), Helmut Scholz (GUE/NGL), Delara Burkhardt (S&D)

On 23 November 2020, the European Ombudsman published her decision regarding the case of the Commission awarding to BlackRock Investment Management a contract to carry out a study on integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) objectives into EU banking rules[1]. The Ombudsman mentions that the Commission’s internal guidance document falls seriously short on providing sufficient clarity to its staff on the issue of assessing conflicts of interest. The Ombudsman also mentions that the obligation to treat applicants equally does not relieve the Commission of its obligation to critically examine all factors likely to affect the execution of a contract, not all of which apply equally to every bidding company. The Ombudsman concludes that the Commission should have been more vigilant and that its decision to award the contract to BlackRock did not provide sufficient guarantees to exclude any legitimate doubt as to the risk of conflicts of interest.

Last updated: 7 January 2021
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