EU imposes restrictions on former climate official over his new gas role

The EU has allowed a former top Green Deal official to take up a role for a major gas network operator — although with restrictions imposed on his work there.
Diederik Samsom, who was chief of staff to former EU Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans and a key architect of the European Green Deal, announced in June that he would be joining the Dutch state-owned firm Gasunie as chair of the supervisory board.
Shortly afterward, it emerged that Samsom had accepted the paid role before applying for clearance from the European Commission under its revolving door rules, which are aimed at preventing conflicts of interest and undue influence on officials.
On Thursday, Commission spokesperson Balazs Ujvari told POLITICO via email that “after a thorough examination of Mr. Samsom’s responsibilities in the Commission, of his envisaged professional activity and of risks resulting thereof for the interests and reputation of the Institution, the Commission has imposed clear conditions and has authorized the employment, subject to respect of the restrictions.”
He added: “The aim of these restrictions is to prevent any risk of a real, potential or perceived conflict with the Commission’s legitimate interests, whilst also respecting the fundamental principle of former staff’s right to work.”
In a statement, Samsom said: “Today the Commission has informed me that — within the usual restrictions that apply to former Commission officials — it has no objections to my non-executive role as chair of the Supervisory Board of Gasunie. The Commission regrets my belated notification. I already stated that I also regret that, due to an error from my side, the notification did not reach the Commission in time. I thank the Commission for its positive decision.”
The Commission would not disclose the conditions it had placed on Samsom due to the need to respect his privacy through data protection rules, Ujvari said. He added that the restrictions would, however, be detailed in a report published once each year.
It is a standard rule that former senior officials are banned from lobbying the Commission on matters related to their previous work for 12 months.
But in addition to that, Ujvari said, the Commission “can and has been imposing very strict restrictions” on exiting officials’ private sector employment.
Examples of these conditions include time-limited bans on professional contacts between the former staffers and their old colleagues; limits on specific work activities, such as cases or legislative files; and restrictions on the client list the exiting official can draw up.
During his five-year stint at the Commission, Samsom led a policy-making team that developed a groundbreaking set of laws designed, ultimately, to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the EU to net zero. That included legislation to reshape the types of fuels used to power factories and heat homes and move away from the use of natural gas.
Transparency campaigners had criticized Samsom, a former Greenpeace campaigner and head of the Dutch Labour Party, for taking a job with a company that deals primarily in transporting gas, a highly polluting fossil fuel.
Campaigners also raised concerns when it emerged that Samsom had met three times with Gasunie in his official EU capacity. Samsom strongly denied any conflict of interest, pointing out he had met with hundreds of organizations while consulting on the Green Deal.
When he announced his appointment, Samsom said he was intent on helping Gasunie shift its business model to cleaner-burning fuels, such as hydrogen. He started his employment on July 1.