Conference « Ethics and transparency: which tools to ensure citizens’ trust? »

Conference program of June 9th, 2022

Opening remarks and debate (9:00 – 11:00) : Is transparency a necessary condition to strengthen citizens’ confidence in institutions ?

Introduction by Mr. Didier Migaud, President of the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life

Opening speech by Ms. Věra Jourová, Vice-President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency

Opening speech by Ms. Emily O’Reilly, European Ombudsman

Followed by a debate between Mr. Didier Migaud, Ms. Věra Jourová and Ms. Emily O’Reilly, moderated by Mr. Antoine Gaudemet, Professor of law at the University of Paris-Panthéon-Assas

Panel 1 (11:30 – 1:00 pm) : How to prevent conflicts of interest in the public sphere?

Keynote speech by Mr. Jean-Marc Sauvé, former Vice-President of the Council of State, former secretary-general of the government, former President of the Commission for the financial transparency of political life

Georgeta Luminita Nicolaie, Director of the Investigation and Disciplinary Office of the European Commission

Françoise Tulkens, President of the Federal Ethics Commission of Belgium

Moderated by Mr. Mustapha Mekki, Professor of law at the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne

Panel 2 (2:30 – 4:00 pm) : The regulation of lobbying in the European Union and its Member States: existing frameworks and prospects ?

Keynote speech by Mr. Bernard Cazeneuve, Partner in the law firm August Debouzy, former Prime Minister, rapporteur of the commission « for a European compliance law » for the Lawyers’ club

Patrick Lefas, President of Transparency International France

Maria Olivan Aviles, Coordinator of the EU Transparency Register

Gemma Calvet i Barot, Director of Barcelona Transparency Authority

Moderated by Mr. Julio Bacio Terracino, Head of Division, Public Sector Integrity at the OECD

Closing remarks (4:00 pm)

Closing speech by Mr. Didier Migaud, President of the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life

Speaker biographies

Julio BACIO TERRACINO – Head of Division, Public Sector Integrity (OECD)

Julio Bacio Terracino is Head of Division, Public Sector Integrity at the OECD. He has previously worked as an independent consultant on anti-corruption, a human rights and governance officer at the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and a legal advisor in the private sector.

Gemma CALVET I BAROT– Director of the Agency of Transparency of Barcelona

Gemma Calvet i Barot is a lawyer who graduated from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1991. She has held various public positions such as General Director of Drugs in the Basque Country, member of the Ethics Committee of the Police of Catalonia, professor at the Public Security Institute of Catalonia and President of the Commission for Justice and Human Rights of the Parliament of Catalonia. As an independent MP, she drafted the Law 19/2014 on Transparency, Right to Information and Good Governance. She is currently Director of the Agency for Transparency of the Metropolitan Region of Barcelona.

Bernard CAZENEUVE – Lawyer and former Prime Minister of France

Bernard Cazeneuve is a French lawyer. He was mayor, deputy, president of an urban area, Minister Delegate for the budget then Minister of the Interior in 2014. He served as Prime Minister of François Hollande from December 2016 to May 2017. He has since resumed his career as a lawyer within the law firm August Debouzy.

Antoine GAUDEMET – Professor at the University Paris-Panthéon-Assas

Antoine Gaudemet is Professor of Private Law at the University of Paris-Panthéon-Assas. His current academic work focuses on financial, banking and compliance issues. He is vice-president of the Paris School of Law and Management. He was a French delegate to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law and the Institute for the Unification of Private Law. He is also a member of the ethics committee of Radio France and of the scientific committee of the European Law Review.

Věra JOUROVÁ – Vice-President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency

Věra Jourová was appointed in 2019 as Vice-President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency . Her portfolio includes ensuring the openness of the democratic system, upholding the rule of law, tackling disinformation and preserving media pluralism. A Czech politician, she previously held the position of European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality from 2014 to 2019. In this capacity, she worked on the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation.

Patrick LEFAS – President of Transparency International France

Patrick Lefas began his career as a civil administrator within the Ministry of Economy and Finance. He then joined the Prime Minister’s office. In 1990, he was appointed head of the economic cooperation department in the economic affairs department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, before joining the French federation of insurance companies in 1994 as director of European and international affairs. In 1998 he joined the Court of Audit as a senior adviser. In 2011 he was appointed president of the third chamber of the Court of Audit. He was elected president of the NGO Transparency International France in 2020 for a period of three years.

Mustapha MEKKI – Professor at the University of Paris 1-Panthéon Sorbonne

Mustapha Mekki is a Professor at the University of Paris 1-Panthéon-Sorbonne. He is an elected member of the National Council of Universities. His area of research covers sociology and legal theory, civil law, business law and environmental law. He is a European expert at the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.

Didier MIGAUD – President of the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life

Didier Migaud was deputy for Isère from 1988 to 2010 and successively held the positions of general budget rapporteur (1997-2002), quaestor (2002-2007) and chairman of the finance committee at the National Assembly (2007-2010). He was subsequently First President of the Court of Audit and has been President of the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life since 2020.

Georgeta-Luminita NICOLAIE – Director of the Investigation and Disciplinary Office of the European Commission

Georgeta-Luminita Nicolaie is a Romanian lawyer, who was previously a judge at the Bucharest First Instance Court, Deputy Director and then Director of the National Institute of the Judiciary. Subsequently, she was Legal Counsellor at the Permanent Representation of Romania to the EU and then Head of different units. Since 2019, she is the Director of the Investigation and Disciplinary Office of the European Commission.

Maria OLIVAN AVILES – Coordinator of the Transparency register of the European Union

María Oliván Avilés is the Head of the Unit in the Secretariat-General of the European Commission in charge of the wider corporate transparency policy of the Commission. Among other areas, this includes the application of the EU legislation on public access to documents, the policy on the transparency of lobbying and the EU’s interactions with interest representatives, as well as the operation of the EU Transparency Register, for which she acts as the Coordinator of the interinstitutional Secretariat (European Parliament/Council of the European Union/European Commission).

Emily O’REILLY – European Ombudsman

Emily O’Reilly was first elected as the European Ombudsman in July 2013. Following the European Parliament elections, she was re-elected for a five year mandate in December 2014 and again in December 2019. Previously, she had been Ireland’s first female Ombudsman and Information Commissioner, having been appointed in 2003, and Commissioner for Environmental Information from 2007. Emily O’Reilly is an author and a former journalist and broadcaster, whose career has attracted significant domestic and international recognition.

Jean-Marc SAUVÉ – Former Vice-President of the Council of State, former Secretary General of the Government, former President of the Commission for Financial Transparency in Political Life.

Jean-Marc Sauvé is a senior French civil servant. He joined the Council of State, where he was appointed Vice-President in 2006, and became its Honorary Vice-President in 2018. He held various positions in the Ministries of Justice and Interior, and was the secretary-general of the government between 1995 and 2006. In November 2018, he was appointed chairman of the independent commission of enquiry into sexual abuse of minors within the church (Ciase). He is also the Chairman of the Ethics Committees of Paris 2024.

Françoise TULKENS – Co-President of the Federal Commission of Ethics of Belgium

Françoise Tulkens was a judge at the European Court of Human Rights (1998-2012) and Vice-President of the Court from February 2011 to September 2012. Since 2011, she has been an associate member of the Royal Academy of Belgium and chaired the King Baudouin Foundation from 2011 to 2015. In 2012, she was appointed member of the United Nations Advisory Committee on Human Rights in Kosovo. In 2017, she served as Chair of the International Monsanto Tribunal organized by civil society in The Hague. Currently, she is an expert of the Inter-Ministerial Commission on Women’s Rights and Co-Chair of the Federal Commission on Ethics of Belgium with Luc Willems since 2016.