What is a conflict of interest? Just because you can do something, should you do it? Can something be ‘lawful yet awful’ at the same time? Let’s consider the saga of former EU commissioner Jose Manuel Barroso and his recent employment as non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs’ London-based investment bank. This past week an ad hoc EU ethics panel cleared Barroso of violating EU conflict of interest rules when his appointment to Goldman Sachs was announced in July 2016.
