The European Parliament investigates conflicts of interest of 10 commissioners, including Fitto

The Legal Affairs Committee (Juri) of the European Chamber, according to what we understand from qualified parliamentary sources, has requested further information on ten designated commissioners. Among these, the same sources explain, there is also the Italian candidate Raffaele Fittowho would have been asked for additions to his real estate holdings.

The Juri commission is responsible for examining any conflicts of interest of the candidates. Today it started the examination on the basis of the confidential documents sent by the commissioners designated in recent days.

Politico.eu has published what could be the declarations presented, they are confidential documents and will only be made public once the examination process is finished. According to these leaks, Fitto declared that he owns seven apartments, and has shares in three others. His real estate assets, all in Italy, also include land, two garages and a cellar. He would also have declared that he owns 15% of a pharmacy in Brindisi whose value is estimated by Fitto himself at 150 thousand euros. According to the sources cited, Fitto would have been asked for additions regarding his real estate holdings. However, the judicial cases that involved him in the past were not taken into consideration.

The vice president, Valdis Dombrovskiswas instead ‘postponed’ because it essentially submitted an empty conflict of interest declaration. Other commissioners did not reveal the list of clients they advised in their previous roles. Everyone has until Thursday to submit the required supplementary documents.

“There are some problematic commissioners but these problems can be taken into consideration by the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Chamber because the points in question are not mentioned in the letters sent by the candidates.” The leader of the EU Left, the French, said this Manon Aubryspeaking to the press at the end of the session of the Legal Affairs commission on the evaluation of the conflicts of interest of the commissioners-designate, Aubry also indicated Raffaele Fitto, Maria Luis Albuquerque e Martha Kos.

“Even the Dutch commissioner Hoekstra he worked at Shell and was mentioned in the Panama Papers and he will be entrusted with the tax dossier but all this, according to current regulations, cannot be taken into consideration in the evaluation procedure and there is not enough time”, concluded Aubry .