France's Liberation has accused Commissioner Johannes Hahn of corruption

 

The French daily Liberation accused European Commissioner Johannes Hahn of corruption, saying Hahn had allowed himself to be invited on hunting trips and expensive dinners and lunches by foreign lobbyists without being required to report, the Austrian public service ORF reported. and the daily Der Standard.

The newspaper states that Khan accepted the invitation to go hunting with Belgian lobbyists in December 2015 and points out that the Code of Conduct obliges him to report to the European Commission on the invitation he received from the large landowners' lobby (ELO).

  An unnamed Khan spokesman told ORF and Standard that the invitation was purely private. He said he took part in the hunt with his then-partner, who has a hunting license.

Khan believes that it was not necessary to announce this invitation in the transparency register.

According to Der Standard, the Austrian commissioner is also involved in other situations of conflict of interest.

So in June this year, he even had lunch or dinner three times with Austria's representative on the audit committee, Helga Berger.

He was once accompanied by his current partner, Susanna Rhys-Passer, a former vice chancellor.

  According to the newspaper, Berger paid for the restaurant and forwarded the bill to the audit committee.

Khan's cabinet says such meetings are part of a regular exchange of views between commissioners and representatives of institutions and organizations, and this should not have been reported.