Oettinger caught up in new allegations over ethics

MEPs concerned over private plane trip with pro-Russian German businessman.

European Commissioner for Digital Economy Günther Oettinger is caught up in a new case of alleged ethics violations concerning a trip he took on the private plane of a pro-Russia German businessman.

Oettinger took a private plane to fly from Brussels to Budapest May 18 that was owned by Klaus Mangold, a former member of the board of management of automaker Daimler (formerly known as DaimlerChrysler).

Mangold, sometimes referred to as “Mr. Russia” by German press, ran a German industry lobby for stronger economic ties with Moscow and has repeatedly called to drop Western sanctions against Russia for its invasion and seizure of Crimea from Ukraine.

The commissioner was asked about this plane trip by Greens MEPs Rebecca Harms and Benedek Jávor. In his response, published earlier this month, Oettinger said he took the private plane “due to the lack of commercial flights.”

MEP Jávor disputed Oettinger’s explanation. “It’s simply not true what the Commission is saying … that there was no available commercial flight on that day,” he told EUobserver in a reaction. Jávor asked for more details from the Commission, saying that if the Commission didn’t pay for the trip, Oettinger broke the code of conduct.

Harms said the German commissioner clearly violated transparency rules and “will have some tough questions to answer when he appears in front of members of Parliament before taking over his new duties.”

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The Commission said it didn’t have an immediate comment but was working on a longer response to the allegations.

The Commission published its initial response to Harms and Jávor the morning of Oettinger’s apology about his off-color remarks offending Chinese diplomats, the LGBTI community and women in a speech. It came a week after the German politician was tapped to replace outgoing Commission Vice President Kristalina Georgieva.

The news of the plane trip was first reported on the Hungarian website 444.

Matthew Karnitschnig contributed reporting from Berlin.