Petition piles pressure on Barroso for Goldman Sachs job, as it reaches over 80,000 supporters
Former European Commission president Jose Barroso has come under increased pressure for taking up a role at Goldman Sachs, after a petition calling for "strong exemplary measures to be taken against" him reached over 80,000 supporters.
The petition, which is being hosted on change.org and was started by an anonymous group of employees of the European Institutions, slams Barroso for joining "one of the banks most implicated in the subprime crisis that led to the financial crisis of 2007-2008…as well as one of the banks most involved in the Greek debt crisis".
However, the writers also point out that Barroso's move to the advisory role in London, which will likely involve helping the US bank navigate Brexit fallout, "feeds into a political context which is not only Eurosceptic but now even openly Europhobic".
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The petition was started in July shortly after Barroso's non-executive chairman role at Goldman Sachs International was announced and will run until September. At time of writing, it has gained 80,073 supporters.
As well as losing the pension allowance he is entitled to as an ex-European Commission president, those who started the petition would also like to see all honourary titles linked to European Institutions be suspended.
A Goldman Sachs spokesperson said: "We follow strict rules set by our global regulators in the hiring of ex-governmental officials. Jose Manuel took the role after an 18-month restriction period following the end of his term at the European Commission, a longer period than that imposed by most European institutions."