Marta Kos is an unacceptable candidate for the position of European Commissioner for several different reasons. A collaborator of the Directorate for State Security (UDBA) of the former Yugoslavia? Accused of mobbing? A close companion of the transitional left? Serious lack of experience? And now, the Brussels-based Politico is worried about something else, too – on top of all of the above, Marta Kos also works for a lobbying company!
The Slovenian media, operating under the banner of the transitional left, quickly translated Politico’s accounts, who blamed the delay in the appointment of the European Commissioner on the Slovenian opposition. This is, of course, a lie, as we exposed yesterday. The truth is that the foreign journalists who produce such accounts most often use the same journalists who then translate their accounts for the Slovenian audience as their sources.
The news that is not part of the narrative of the first-class elite, however, is usually skipped, which is why a news item entitled “My commissioner is a consultant,” which has also been published in Politico in Brussels, did not find its way to Slovenia. Why not? You probably already know the answer. The publication of such a news item would have further exposed, as the “Young Doctors” say, the naked (or even insane) emperor – none other than Prime Minister Robert Golob.
As per usual, Golob has once again approached high politics with a careless attitude – just like healthcare and many other issues. He handily replaced candidate Tomaž Vesel with Marta Kos when he received a letter from the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. He probably thought that this would buy him the sympathy of the European Commission and of the media outlet 24ur, where the news programme is edited by the wife of Drago Kos, the brother of the Commissioner-designate. He was probably also trying to redeem himself for the fiasco that accompanied the candidacy of Marta Kos for President of the country. His domestic calculations are, of course, not Brussels’ calculations, and the Brussels media, despite their bias, are still more like the real media than anything that has ever emerged on the left side of Slovenia.
Headaches coming
What did Politico write about Marta Kos? Her candidacy could also prove to be problematic because of her employment in a lobbying firm. They wrote: “Headaches coming. There’s no better way to make sure a future European commissioner understands public and private dialogue than by appointing a politician-turned-consultant for the private sector, right? The only problem is that doing this makes it very difficult to avoid conflicts of interest (or the appearance of conflicts of interest). Such potential conflicts are going to be searched for when the European Parliament grills candidates for the commissioner roles.”
Politico noted that Marta Kos is listed on the website of the Kreab company – a consultancy and lobbying firm – as a senior consultant who “supports Kreab’s clients and activities with her in-depth knowledge of leadership, communication, gender issues, political affairs and foreign relations, especially in German-speaking countries and South-East Europe” (source: https://kreab.com/brussels/management/marta-kos/).
The Kreab company declined to answer which clients Marta Kos has advised so far. And while she works for a lobbying firm, she claims that she does not see herself as a lobbyist, nor is she registered as one. “I advised Kreab people and their clients on women’s healthcare policy and in the field of international trade issues. Currently, there are no projects in which I am involved,” she added.
Politico reported that Marta Kos also works as a coaching consultant through her Swiss-based consulting company and that she has a personal connection to Switzerland, as she is married to the so-called “Mr Europe,” Henri Getaz, a Swiss diplomat. Politico erroneously stated at this point that her husband is the Secretary-General of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), which is not true. It also stated that Kos was the CEO of Gustav Käser Training International, which she described as a “soft skills training company”.
How did Marta Kos answer the question of how she would manage all these roles at the same time? She answered in a completely “Slovenian” way: “I will resign from Kreab as soon as the president of the European Commission will announce her list of commissioner candidates and I’m on it.”
This will apparently also solve the problem of potential conflicts of interest… These answers may be enough for the domestic media, but certainly not for the foreign media.
Euronews on her links to the Directorate for State Security
If you want further proof of the distortion of the Slovenian media space, we recommend reading Euronews, where they have no problem whatsoever reporting on the connection of the Slovenian Commissioner-designate with the Directorate for State Security. Namely, Euronews (the article is available here: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/09/13/new-slovene-eu-commissioner-pick-unacceptable-due-to-yugoslav-secret-police-links-epp) published MEP Romana Tomc‘s opinion on the matter: “Can you imagine that somebody, for example, in Germany would nominate a candidate with the burden of being a STASI associate in the past?” The article also mentions that many members of the European People’s Party (EPP) are “really nervous” hearing that “there are USBA associates among us or even as a candidate for the Commission.”
Ž. K.
