A senior civil servant in troubled waters. As franceinfo revealed on Monday, November 14, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office was seized by the anti-corruption association Anticor, itself alerted by the ocean defense NGO Bloom, about the arrival last April of a senior French civil servant, Anne-France Mattlet, at the head of the Europêche tuna group, a European fishing lobby. Anticor suspects illegal taking of interest.
>> INFO FRANCEINFO. Senior official suspected of conflict of interest with tuna fishing lobby
BLOOM and ANTICOR alert on a case of defector between the public and the private sector which causes a clear conflict of interests in the tuna fishing sector. https://t.co/wwlGNiQG5x
—Anticor (@anticor_org) November 14, 2022
Europêche, the European fishing lobby, denounced in a statement “a slanderous cabal”, explaining that Anne-France Mattlet has “asked to be placed with Europeche in January 2022 for a period of one year, and thus wished to complete his expertise in fishing to act in a more global way and thus contribute to the definition and implementation of policies which always correspond better to the realities on the ground”. The Orthongel/Europeche group specifies that “the transparency between his activities as Director of Europêche Tuna Group and his original body is the most total: his attributions, his objectives and their achievement are monitored in real time by his referring administration – as is the case for any detachment“Before that, Europêche had reacted with astonishment”the controversy caused by the appointment of Anne-France Mattlet as Director of Europêche Tuna Group in March 2022“.”In March 2022, the Military Ethics Commission, seized by the Ministry responsible for the Sea at the request of Ms. Mattlet, issued a compatibility opinion and the placement was formalized.é,” the lobby added.
Administrator of maritime affairs, Anne-France Mattlet was between 2016 and 2020 deputy head of the office of the management of the Directorate of Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture (DPMA). She was also elected Vice-Chair in 2019 and then Chair in 2020 of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) Compliance Committee. Until last March, she exercised important responsibilities as the representative of France within this intergovernmental organization. As such, she was responsible for fishing agreements between France and Africa, had to resolve their “application issues“, participated in the “writing instructions” and to “interministerial coordination“to define France’s negotiating positions. However, in her new role, Anne-France Mattlet is in charge of the tuna strategy of Europêche, the main lobby for fishing companies in Europe, with the main topics being the question of revision of the European fisheries control system.
>> Senior civil servant turned fishing lobbyist: an association of small-scale fishermen denounces “the government’s proximity to the interests of industrial fishing”
However, the law imposes on a civil servant a period of at least three years before joining an entity in the sector for which he was in charge in his administration. She held this position until the end of February 2020, less than three years before her move to the private sector at Europêche, at the same time requiring an opinion from the military ethics commission. His defector in the private sector was validated by the ethics commission of the Ministry of the Armed Forces. A decree recorded his departure from April 1, 2022. “The procedure was followed and respected and the commission issued a favorable opinion.“, indicates the Ministry of the Sea. The ethics commission considers that Europêche “carries out missions of general interest“.