Oettinger under fire for flag comments

MEPs say European commissioner for energy should retract statement about member states that break budget rules.

MEPs have condemned comments Günther Oettinger, the European commissioner for energy, reportedly made suggesting that flags of member states in breach of EU budget rules should be flown at half-mast outside EU institutions.

A cross-party group of 150 MEPs today sent a letter to José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, demanding that the German commissioner retract the reported comments he made in an interview with the German newspaper Bild Zeitung last Friday or resign.

Rui Tavares, a Portuguese Green MEP, said Oettinger’s flag comment was “unacceptable from an EU commissioner supposedly tasked with defending the European interest”.

He added: “Günther Oettinger must be forced to retract his statement or resign.”

The letter, which is signed by the MEPs, will tomorrow be presented to the Parliament’s Conference of Presidents, which groups the Parliament’s political group leaders and Jerzy Buzek, the Parliament president.

In a statement issued by the Commission today, Oettinger said that his flag idea was an “unconventional one and, I would admit, probably misleading”.

He said that that in the interview he “did not propose this idea, nor did I support it”.

Oettinger added that amid the difficult budgetary situation in many member states, “serious efforts are required on all sides. This is the view of the European Commission which I fully support.”

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