It has been reported that a former President of the European Commission has used his attendance at the secretive Bilderberg Conference to lobby for a current Commissioner’s appointment as United Nations (UN) Secretary-General.
The former European Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, has been attending the Bilderberg Conference being held this year in Dresden, Germany. According to EurActiv, he has used his time there to lobby for the nomination of Bulgaria’s European Commissioner for the UN’s top job.
Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva is the European Commission’s Vice-President for Budget and Human Resources. Having spent most of her career working for the World Bank, initially as an environmental economist, she is the only one of the seven Vice-Presidents never to have served as a national minister.
Commissioner Georgieva has confirmed her attendance at the Bilderberg meeting, saying that while it was in her private capacity she neverthless “presented the position of the Commission.” As Breitbart News previously reported, conspiracy theorists like to claim the conference is in fact “a cabal of 130 of the world’s most powerful public and private crony leaders plotting for global domination.”
This year sees guests including: King William of the Netherlands; former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger; German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble; Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde; President of Greece’s New Democracy Party Kyriakos Mistotakis; Irish Minister for Finance Michael Noonan; and other high ranking political leaders and captains of industry like Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary.
The Chief Economics Commentator of the Financial Times, Martin Wolf, is also attending the conference at which meetings are held in conditions of absolute privacy.
Commissioner Georgieva is not currently her home country’s first choice for the job of UN Secretary-General. In February, Boyko Borissov, the Bulgarian Prime Minister, confirmed Irina Bokova has her country’s nomination. She currently leads the United Nations largest agency, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
Neverthless, Mr. Barroso is understood to have visited Bulgaria earlier this week to urge Prime Minister Borissov to change his country’s nomination. Domestically, Commissioner Georgieva’s supporters — who EurActiv reports are close to the George Soros’ Open Society Foundation — are adding their pressure, but Mr. Borissov is said to have no intention of withdrawing Ms. Bokova’s nomination.
Lacking domestic support for her nomination, Commissioner Georgieva has sent former Portuguese MEP Mário David to lobby other countries to nominate her as UN Secretary-General. Hungary and Albania have been contacted, the latter of which may support her.
Although such a move is perfectly legal it is unprecedented, and the chances of candidates not supported by their own country landing the top job at the UN are weak.
Dick Roche, Ireland’s former Minister of State for European Affairs, told EurActiv he sees Commissioner Georgieva’s activities at the Bilderberg Conference as “a sinister development”. In an email to the organisation he wrote:
The Bilderberg Group can discuss whatever it wants. However as a private organisation operating behind closed doors it certainly:
- should not be secretly briefed on EU policy
- should play no role in evolving EU policy
- should certainly not be used as a behind the scenes instrument to manipulate the most important position in international diplomacy.
The Commission should release the full text of any statement made by the Commission VP .
It is incredibly improper for the former Commission President to seek to pressurise a member state on a matter of sovereign policy.
It seems to me that all sorts of lines are being crossed here.
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