Kitchen cabinet height
Pressure is growing on the Commission to release records of Lord Mandelson's meetings with Mr Deripaska while he was serving as European Trade Commissioner.
Lord Mandelson, who left Brussels on October 3 to take the job of Business Secretary in Gordon Brown's Cabinet, admitted for the first time yesterday that he knew the Russian oligarch since at least 2004, when the pair dined together at a fashionable Moscow restaurant just weeks after he was appointed Trade Commissioner and shortly before taking up the post.
He met Mr Deripaska several times over the next four years, culminating in a number of social events on the Greek island of Corfu in August this year at which shadow chancellor George Osborne was also present.
There have been claims that Lord Mandelson's apparent closeness to the Russian businessman may have compromised his position as Trade Commissioner. In that role Lord Mandelson cut tariffs on imports of aluminium into the EU which benefited Mr Deripaska's company Rusal one of the world's largest manufacturers of aluminium to the tune of tens of millions of pounds.
Under the European Union's 'access to documents' regulations, upheld in the EU courts last year, the Commission should make public details of meetings between Commissioners, their officials and lobbyists.
But repeated requests by The Sunday Telegraph for details of meetings between Lord Mandelson and Mr Deripaska, under the EU's transparency '1049 rule', have been flatly refused
The Business Secretary, who has twice been forced to resign from the Cabinet, was in the embarrassing position of having his integrity questioned again after he admitted yesterday that he had misled the public just days into his new role.
Senior Opposition MPs led the calls for Lord Mandelson to detail fully his relationship with Oleg Deripaska, the multi-billionaire owner of the world's biggest aluminium company.
It was also claimed that the Labour politician had indeed played a key role in last week's decision by Nathaniel Rothschild, a wealthy hedge fund manager, to turn the spotlight on George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, for allegedly seeking a 50,000 donation to the Tory Party from the Russian
Blog Archives:
Tile contractor
Billabong sweatshirts
Reface cabinets
Cutting granite tile
Terra cotta tiles
Modest t shirt
Anchorman t shirts
Kitchen cabinet storage
Motobecane moped
Snowboarding shirts
Diagnosis of asthma
Tumbled marble tile
Granite marble tile
John deere shirt
Buying mopeds

<< Home