He Political mess over European aid to ArcelorMittal continues to grow. The fact that the European Commission has confirmed Diego Canga’s announcementPP candidate for the presidency of the Principality, that the long-awaited subsidy would arrive today has further inflamed the spirits in the Socialist ranks.
Yes, the Industry Minister, Reyes Maroto, had censured Canga, accusing him of “poor ethics” and denying the information he had given; Now, once the news advanced by the PP candidate and senior EU official on leave of absence was confirmed, the Socialists can no longer deny the information, but they have transmitted their monumental anger at what they understand to be an illegal political use of EU information by Kanga.
Jonas Fernandez, Asturian MEP of the PSOE, has been the one who has made public his intentions to ask that the “leaks” to Canga and his use of European information to which he has access be investigated.
In this sense, it has announced a “urgent written question” to Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President responsible for competition policy at the European Commission, “due to the leaks of Diego Canga, especially those of last December 10, when he was still an acting official, breaching articles 17.1 and 17.2 of the regulations for public employees”.
What happened on December 10?
Jonás Fernández refers to a similar maneuver by Diego Canga estimating the dates of the previous relevant step taken regarding the final approval of European aid to Arcelor: pre-notification.
Canga, at that time, did not yet have leave as a senior EU official and Jonás Fernández understands that, on that occasion and also on this one, may have breached those itemswhich establish that “the official will refrain from disclosing without authorization any information that he has received in connection with his duties, unless said information has already been made public or is accessible to the public”, as well as that “the official will continue to be subject to this obligation after leaving office”.