75,000 sign EU petition against Barroso's Goldman Sachs appointment

Former European Commission president and prime minister of Portugal Jose Manuel Barroso faces calls to forfeit his pension as a petition protesting against his appointment at Goldman Sachs gathered 75,000 signatures.

Barroso was hired by the USA investment bank in July as a non-executive chairman, to the dismay of the small group of EU officials who started the petition.

They called his actions "irresponsible and morally reprehensible behaviour", citing Goldman's role in selling sub-prime mortgages and lending money to Greece before its financial crisis.

“It is a further example of the irresponsible revolving-door practices, which are highly damaging to the EU institutions and, even if not illegal, morally reprehensible," the officials said.

The document will be presented to the leaders of EU bodies next month in an attempt to encourage action.

Barroso served as the prime minister of Portugal before a decade at the helm of the EC, in which he oversaw various economic crises. 20 months after leaving his post he took the job with Goldman, which the bank claim was an attempt to reassure its clients following the Brexit vote.

One of the organisers told the Guardian that it is up to current president Jean-Claude Juncker to not let the issue go unnoticed.

“We had this gut feeling that what Barroso did was wrong and that it was the job of President Juncker to condemn him forcefully,” he said. “But there was a clear attempt to make this a non-issue.”

A spokesperson for the big US bank said that neither it or Barroso had done anything wrong.

“We follow strict rules set by our global regulators in the hiring of ex-governmental officials," the spokesperson said.

"José Manuel took the role after an 18-month restriction period following the end of his term at the European commission, a longer period than that imposed by most European institutions.”