The Minister of Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher will not be able to deal with matters related to three companies, including the oil company Perenco, of which her father was a leader, according to a decree published on Tuesday in the Official Journal and published a week after an investigation by the media Disclose. She had revealed that the children of Ms. Agnès Pannier-Runacher held shares in a French company, not mentioned on her declaration of interests, and whose funds are partly domiciled in tax havens.
Published a week after an investigation by the media Disclose which provoked strong political reactions, the decree indicates that the Minister “does not know of any acts of any kind relating to the international defense consulting group, the EP2C group and the Perenco group”.
“The corresponding powers are exercised by the Prime Minister”continues the decree, “in accordance” to a 1959 decree stipulating that “the Minister who considers himself to be in a situation of conflict of interest informs the Prime Minister in writing, specifying the content of the questions for which he considers that he should not exercise his powers. The latter refrains from giving instructions to the administrations placed under his authority or at his disposal, which receive their instructions directly from the Prime Minister”.
“On the occasion of the update of her deportation decree due to the change of post of her companion, the minister took the initiative to integrate Perenco into it, in order to cut short any criticism”, said the minister’s entourage in a statement sent to AFP on Tuesday morning. The companion of Ms. Pannier Runacher, Nicolas Bays, has joined the company Défense conseil international, from the same source.
On November 8, the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP) launched investigations and verifications, after information from Disclose revealed that his children held shares in a French company, not mentioned on his declaration of interests. , and whose funds are partly domiciled in tax havens.
The minister’s father, Jean-Michel Runacher, created this civil society in France in 2016, named Arjunem, as part of a transmission of assets. Four of her grandchildren are partners, including the three children of Mrs. Pannier-Runacher who were minors at the time, and for whom the minister signed as legal representative.
According to Disclose, this heritage comes from hedge funds, based in Delaware, Ireland and Guernsey, and in which Perenco also held investments.
Questioned in the National Assembly and accused of conflict of interest by members of the opposition, Ms. Pannier-Runacher had denounced “false and slanderous allegations”assuring that this subject had no “no link with (his) functions as minister”and referred, about the origin of funds, to his father.
She claimed that her children were bare owners and therefore received no dividend, Jean-Michel Runacher remaining the usufructuary, and that the financial products were deposited in a bank in Luxembourg. She also indicated that her father had “contributed fund units that have no connection with Perenco” and that it was “investments acquired in the past as part of his personal investments”.
Regarding Perenco, the ministry reiterated on Tuesday that “the minister has never had to take a decision concerning this foreign group, nor even to meet its representatives within the framework of her functions in the government”.