The Basque Chamber rejects the EH Bildu bill against “revolving doors”

Euskaraz irakurri: Legebiltzarrak baztertu egin du EH Bilduk “ate birakarien” aurka egindako lege proposamena

The Basque parliament will not consider the bill EH Bildu, which aims to end the “revolving doors” of public offices by also regulating the activities of private companies. EH Bildu’s proposal has been rejected by the PNV and PSE-EE, parties that have warned that the text goes beyond the purview of the parliamentary institution.

Elkarrekin Podemos-IU has joined the initiative, while Vox has opposed it and PP+Cs has abstained.

The failed legislative proposal aimed to amend the law adopted in 2014 regulating the code of conduct and conflicts of interest of civil servants in order to prevent civil servants from jump directly to leadership positions and boards of directors of private entities when delegating their responsibilities to the administration.

In this sense, it proposed to give the grace period of two years the status of law for the transition from a public office to a private enterprise and defined the rights and obligations of private entities to respect this period.

Also EH Bildu proposed to create an independent body for the code of ethics and good governance which decides on the transfer of public functions to private companies and which introduced the incompatibility of membership of the Basque court of public accounts for those who were general deputies and mayors.

Of EH Bildu, Josu Estarrona has defended that his proposal aims to “give prestige to politics”, so that the access channels of responsible positions to private companies are “legally limited and regulated by democratic hygiene”.

“Voting is not closing the road to ending revolving doors, by keeping them well oiled and open to keep them spinning,” said Estarrona, who insisted the initiative is legal.

Along the same lines, Gustavo Angulo (Elkarrekin Podemos-IU) has assured that this “phenomenon” is “firmly rooted” in the Basque Country, where “names closely associated with the PNV have been signed by the boards of directors of electricity and energy companies”, who has therefore advocated “ending this network of influences and limiting the power of big business”.

According to Jon Andoni Atxutxa (PNV), the intention to limit private activity goes “significantly beyond” the competence of the Basque parliament. For this reason, he has assured that the text has “questionable legal suitability” and has argued that “it contributes nothing”, hence his group’s opposing vote.

Along the same lines, the socialist Ekain Rico has defended that the path to follow lies in the preparation, already underway, of the preliminary draft transparency law, for which he has insisted that today’s vote “closes no path”.

Luis Gordillo (PP+Cs) has explained that his abstention is in response to the fact that his group believes that this matter should be taken “seriously”, for which he has indicated that he will take other measures to the House to “to achieve an independent public sector”. management and efficient.”

Finally, Amaia Martínez (Vox) said that EH Bildu is only concerned about “the revolving doors at the entrance”, while Vox is concerned about “the doors at the exit, the ones that take advantage of ETA inmates to get out of prison without regrets.” to come”, with the consideration that “the PNV is the champion of revolving doors”.