The European Commission's most senior trade official has defended Peter Mandelson over claims of a conflict of interest during his time in Brussels as Trade Commissioner.
Mandelson defended in smear row
Lord Mandelson, now the UK's Business Secretary, has been accused of giving multimillion-pound trade concessions to a Russian aluminium billionaire who entertained him on his superyacht.
But David O'Sullivan, Director-General of the Commission's trade department, denied that Lord Mandelson personally intervened to influence decisions on aluminium import tariffs.
The allegations were raised in the Commons earlier, when Commons Leader Harriet Harman dismissed Tory calls for a debate about press claims which she described as "unjustified" smears.
The claims centre on Commission decisions taken on Lord Mandelson's watch which allegedly resulted in businessman Oleg Deripaska gaining up to £50 million a year thanks to changes in EU import duties.
Mr O'Sullivan, who worked closely with Lord Mandelson during his four years in Brussels, said in an open letter to British newspapers that all relevant decisions had been taken in line with EU law, transparently, and in the interest of EU companies and consumers.
The letter declared: "I am very surprised by the allegations in the British Press about Peter Mandelson, Oleg Deripaska and aluminium. The claims that have been made in various newspapers hint to Peter Mandelson's personal intervention in his capacity of European Commissioner for Trade in favour of the Russian aluminium company RUSAL. I would like to clarify that no such intervention ever took place."
He says decisions on tariffs and "anti-dumping" duties on Russian aluminium were "based on sound facts".
The letter acknowledges that Lord Mandelson "facilitated a compromise proposal in 2004 which cut raw aluminium tariffs from six to 3%".
Reports of Lord Mandelson's links to Mr Derispaska have appeared in the Sunday Times and Times newspapers and the Daily Telegraph.
I thought he was already kicked out of Cabinet jobs 2 times already for this kind of behaveour, the general public has to short a memory so they shoved him off to bussels where he just continued, obviously they give him his new job as business adviser and got him out of brussels before this story broke about this conduct issue there!!!
Mandelson defended in Another smear row
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BASEL
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Mandelson defended in Another smear row
To resist the influence of others, knowledge of one's self is most important.
Draw from your past....... but don't let your past draw from you
Yama, The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was..... is lost. For none now live who remember it.
For all your Computer needs www.btlogic.co.uk
Draw from your past....... but don't let your past draw from you
Yama, The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was..... is lost. For none now live who remember it.
For all your Computer needs www.btlogic.co.uk
sure i done a post on this cretin a while back before he was hustles back into the cabinet (should have keep him there) tell you what you can say what you want about him but i would'nt leave him alone with my child. tour of duty in hell first before that me thinks. just look at him, i mean LOOK at him. creepy man. slime on a stick he is indeed!
Well you may throw your rock and hide your hand
Workin' in the dark against your fellow man
But as sure as God made black and white
What's down in the dark will be brought to the light
Workin' in the dark against your fellow man
But as sure as God made black and white
What's down in the dark will be brought to the light
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BASEL
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Its not that that scares me it is the power he must wield and well where here where did the LORD Mandelson come from
To resist the influence of others, knowledge of one's self is most important.
Draw from your past....... but don't let your past draw from you
Yama, The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was..... is lost. For none now live who remember it.
For all your Computer needs www.btlogic.co.uk
Draw from your past....... but don't let your past draw from you
Yama, The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was..... is lost. For none now live who remember it.
For all your Computer needs www.btlogic.co.uk
sold his soul years ago that one! More I watch politics and the likes the more it seems to me that the higher in power these people get the less human they seem . Don't mean that in a literal sense but in the sense that they all seem so soulless and out of touch with ANYONE I know or met and I've met some different kinds of folks along this road called life but these people in power...man they seem like another being! lol read that to myself and I'm sticking to it because it makes sense to me. Next time you see any off these people in power be it Politicians, Royalty, Religious high powers etc ask yourself if ANY of them remind you even the slightest bit like someone you know in real life (everyday life) and then maybe you might get what I mean!
Well you may throw your rock and hide your hand
Workin' in the dark against your fellow man
But as sure as God made black and white
What's down in the dark will be brought to the light
Workin' in the dark against your fellow man
But as sure as God made black and white
What's down in the dark will be brought to the light
-
BASEL
- Site Administrator
- Posts: 1328
- Joined: Sat Sep 22, 2007 12:24 am
- Location: dark side of the moon
- Contact:
Peter Mandelson is facing renewed calls to detail all his meetings with Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska after admitting their contact went back two years further than previously publicly stated.
The Business Secretary used a letter to The Times to confirm reports that he first met the aluminium magnate four years ago - and to insist such relations with senior figures helped make him a better minister now.
A statement issued when the now Lord Mandelson returned to London from his EU Commission role in Brussels for a shock return to the Cabinet earlier this month mentioned meetings in 2006 and 2007.
However The Guardian reported that the two men had been seen together by a journalist at a Moscow restaurant in October 2004 after Lord Mandelson was appointed trade commissioner but before he took up the post.
Confirming the claim in The Times, Mr Mandelson wrote: "During the weekend when I moved from Brussels to London and prior to me being admitted to hospital for an urgent medical procedure, a statement was released to the press which said I had had meetings with Mr Deripaska in 2006 and 2007.
"Some people formed the reasonable view therefore that my first meeting with him was in 2006. This is not the case: to the best of my recollection we first met in 2004 and I met him several times subsequently."
Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker said further details were now required. "The earlier statement about Mr Mandelson's meetings Mr Deripaska was clearly spin, which is now becoming un-spun," he said.
"Peter Mandelson does not say whether these meetings were in an office in Brussels with other EU officials, or on his yacht eating canapes. He must urgently publish a full list of each meeting detailing where these meeting were and what was discussed.
"If Peter Mandelson really played no part in the aluminium negotiations, as he seems to be claiming, then what was he doing as the EU Trade Commissioner.
"This letter is clearly an attempt to head off further bad coverage in the press, which he may be anticipating. This seems like a tactic to avoid a third resignation."
A by product of aluminium production is Calcium Fluoride (CaF2), is also known as fluorite or fluorospar AKA Fluoride which as you should know has just started to be added to UK tap water, Fluoride is highly dangerous and does not stop dental cavities as told, so i ask put these two statements in prospective and what do you get? another deal done behind the scenes by giving big favours in return, so mandy is at it again, somebody seriously wants to tap this guy (no pun intended)
To resist the influence of others, knowledge of one's self is most important.
Draw from your past....... but don't let your past draw from you
Yama, The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was..... is lost. For none now live who remember it.
For all your Computer needs www.btlogic.co.uk
Draw from your past....... but don't let your past draw from you
Yama, The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was..... is lost. For none now live who remember it.
For all your Computer needs www.btlogic.co.uk