Roberta Metsola Under Fire Over Husband’s Lobbyist Role For A Major Cruise Ship Company
Roberta Metsola is facing fresh criticism for not declaring her husband’s role as an EU lobbyist for a major cruise ship company.
A Politico article questions why Metsola’s post-Qatargate transparency reforms oblige the European Parliament’s senior members to declare potential conflicts of interest, including those involving their family members, but exempt the President from these new rules.
Ukko Metsola is a vice-president of the Royal Caribbean Group, one of the largest cruise ship companies.
He has lobbied the EU on their behalf and has sought to influence EU climate legislation that impacts the cruise ship industry by introducing a price on maritime carbon emissions.
Ukko Metsola had expressed his backing for the Green New Deal but sought EU support for the transition and lobbied for carbon tax revenues to be sent to the cruise ship industry to invest in cleaning up their operations.
A spokesperson for Metsola denied that there existed a potential conflict of interest.
He said the new transparency rules were aimed at vice presidents in charge of a specific portfolio, while Metsola as President “represents the interest of the European Parliament as an institution”.
Ukko Metsola also formally registered himself as a lobbyist, which is publicly available.
He told Politico that he and Roberta had a “Chinese wall” regarding their jobs. He said that since she was elected President, he stopped lobbying MEPs directly “to prevent even the perception of impropriety” and that Royal Caribbean has now hired an extra person to engage the Parliament.
“I would like to think that we have managed it extremely well,” he said.
However, Transparency International EU director Nicholas Aiossa said there is no reason why Metsola, or any President, should be exempt from filing declarations of potential conflict of interest.
“I would argue that if you have a spouse that is involved in any activity, paid or unpaid, seeking to influence the policymaking of the EU, that the MEP should declare it,” he said.
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