Rotating Presidencies, Rotating Sponsors? Corporate Sponsorship of the Presidencies of the Council of the EU under Scrutiny

Private sponsorships of the rotating Presidencies of the Council of the European Union is a relatively recent phenomenon. Yet over the last decade it has quickly become the norm, rather than the exception. Historically, the declared rationale underlying the acceptance of sponsorships is to meet some of the costs associated with the burden of holding the rotating Presidency and hosting related events. Moreover, Member States typically justify their practice of being opened to – or actively seeking – private sponsorship by hinting to the precedents set by previous Presidencies. Yet such a practice has increasingly become contested. What risks – if any – does private sponsorship entail in terms of interference in the decision-making process? To what extent does it diminish public trust towards the EU? Can these risks be prevented – or at least mitigated – and what type of regulation could one envision? To what extent the existing Council’s policy is adequate to prevent those risks? This chapter intends to address these questions by providing an historical and legal examination of the genesis, evolution, and contested nature of private sponsorships of rotating Presidencies of the Council of the EU in the last years. It does so by contextualising it within the broader debate about whether and how to subject the Council to a dedicated public ethics and integrity regime, analogous to those existing respectively within the European Commission and the European Parliament.