A key member of Ursula von der Leyen's proposed European Commission team did not declare two loans worth nearly €1 million to MEPs scrutinizing her appointment because she said she did not believe the rules required her to do so, according to a letter seen by POLITICO.

Legislators on the Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee (JURI), which must scrutinize the Transport Commissioner-designate Rovana Plumb's declaration of financial interests — and those of other proposed commissioners — have raised questions over whether the financial transactions could pose a potential conflict of interest.

Marie Toussaint, a member of the committee and a French Green MEP, said some commissioners-designate initially provided declarations of financial interest to the committee “that were contradictory with declarations that were presented previously” and were therefore asked for an explanation.

In the case of Plumb, for example, there was “a significant difference between the one she presented to us and the one she declared in Romania," Toussaint said.

The questions over Plumb's financial interests could complicate her efforts to win Parliament's approval. A veteran Romanian government minister, she already faces scrutiny over a 2017 corruption case, in which she was accused of aiding the leader of her Social Democratic Party in an illicit real estate deal involving an island in the Danube River.

Some MEPs argued that Plumb's financial situation raises potential financial conflicts of interest.

She has previously denied any wrongdoing in that case and did not respond to a request for comment from POLITICO on the new financial questions.

Closed-door meeting

Ahead of their confirmation hearings, 10 members of von der Leyen's proposed team were asked by the committee to provide further information on whether their assets could lead to conflicts of interest in the performance of their duties. Committee members are set to determine at a closed-doors meeting Wednesday if the extra information — in the form of letters seen by POLITICO — passes muster.

If the committee deems it insufficient, they may decide to suspend that commissioner-designate's confirmation hearing. The hearings are scheduled to take place between September 30 and October 8, with the new Commission expected to take office on November 1.

Under the Parliament's rules, if the committee identifies a conflict of interest, it can draw up recommendations aimed at resolving the conflict — such as directing the nominee to renounce the financial interests in question or recommending changes to the candidate's portfolio. "In more serious cases," the committee can conclude "on the inability of Commissioner-designate to exercise his/her function."

In a letter addressed to Lucy Nethsingha, the chair, Plumb argued that neither loan had to be declared under the Code of Conduct for commissioners. In the letter, she confirmed that she included an €800,000 loan received in 2007 — to be paid back by 2030 — in the declaration of assets she submitted to the Romanian parliament when she was an MP.

She said she did not include it in the EU financial declaration because loans for the purchase of real estate for private purposes do not “normally" have to be declared under the Commission's code. In the case of a donation of 800,000 Romanian lei (almost €170,000) she made to her Social Democratic Party ahead of the European election this year, she said it did not generate any conflicts of interest or constitute an investment or placement on the market.

Plumb says she received the money for the donation as a loan from an individual she does not name in the submission to the Commission, although she said the lender had been registered with the Romanian parliament. According to that parliament's register of financial interests, the loan is due to be paid back over two years.

According to the Code of Conduct, commissioners-designate are obliged to declare any financial interests, including assets and liabilities, "which could be considered to be capable of giving rise to a conflict of interest. Bank accounts, specific goods or loans for the purchase of real estate for private purposes do normally not have to be declared. Investments of a value of more than EUR 10 000 have to be declared in all cases."

Some MEPs argued that Plumb's financial situation raises potential financial conflicts of interest. Daniel Freund, a German MEP and former head of EU advocacy at NGO Transparency International, said he regards Plumb's letter to the committee as unsatisfactory.

Nine others from von der Leyen's proposed team were asked by the committee for more information.

“She did not answer the questions of the Parliament, and she did not take away any of the concerns," said Freund, who serves as the Greens/EFA group's coordinator in the Parliament's Constitutional Affairs Committee, which is responsible for ethics rules.

“She merely says that different rules in Romania and in the European Commission lead to differences in the declaration," he said, adding that the submission does not explain her "financial situation, donations to her party, loans where nobody knows how she manages to pay them back."

Referring to the earlier corruption allegations, Daniel Caspary, a prominent German MEP from the center-right European People's Party, said: "If the things that circulate come true, then we have a serious problem."

Financial interests

Nine others from von der Leyen's proposed team were asked by the committee for more information. The nominee for foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said in his letter to the committee dated September 23 that he had been asked to “consider the possibility of disposing of my shares in Bayer, Iberdrola and BBVA in order to prevent any conflict of interest.”

He wrote: “I have not considered this possibility so far, since these shares represent a small amount of my financial assets. More importantly, the sectors of activity of these companies (renewable energies, pharmaceutical and banking) are not related with the responsibilities for which I have been designated.”

Health nominee Stella Kyriakides wrote in her letter dated September 20 that “as of last Friday,” she had sold her "bonds" in the Starbucks Corporation. She also resigned “with immediate effect” from the breast cancer patients group Europa Donna Cyprus and the Miracle Babies association, which helps infants born prematurely.

Portugal's Elisa Ferreira, the proposed nominee for cohesion and reforms, confirmed in her letter that she had decided to “sell the shares” she had in the Portugal-based company Sonae. The shares' value amounted to €13,789 on September 19.

France's Sylvie Goulard, the commissioner-designate for the single market, explained in her letter dated September 23 why her declaration of interests submitted as a member of the European Parliament is different to the one she submitted as a commissioner-designate.

“I scrupulously declared to the European Parliament some activities before taking them up, which turned out to be non-existent,” Goulard wrote.

Didier Reynders, Belgium’s foreign minister and proposed justice commissioner, was asked to clarify “the field of activities” of his SICAV, a collective investment fund in Belgium. “The investor has no influence on the investment choices made by the SICAV’s managers,” Reynders wrote in his letter, which came with a 44-page annex.

Other commissioners-designate who sent additional information on their finances include the Czech Republic's Věra Jourová, Poland's Janusz Wojciechowski, and Lithuania's Virginijus Sinkevičius.

Despite the committee's work in scrutinizing the nominees' financial declarations, Freund said that ultimately, the committee is likely to wave through any potential conflicts of interests because it "neither has the time nor the resources to properly investigate conflicts of interests.” The committee can only examine financial declarations. It cannot carry out investigations.

“The current procedure is not enough to scrutinize the future Commission thoroughly,” Freund added. “That’s why we need an independent ethics body that will investigate any possible violations of ethical conduct and sanction offenders.”

Toussaint echoed Freund’s remarks, saying the committee’s examination is “only an initial filter.”

“The work we do is incomplete, and we don’t even interfere into any political issue," Toussaint said.

Carmen Paun and Hans von der Burchard contributed reporting.