Sylvie Goulard
Sylvie Goulard is a senior French civil servant and politician, who her entire career has been handsomely paid to promote the European Union. She was advisor to the President of the European Commission Romano Prodi working on the Convention on the Future of Europe, sits in a number of think tanks, like the Centre for European Reform, Council on the Future of Europe, Euro 50 Group, European Council on Foreign Relations, and - exposed for - the Berggruen Institute. She was tagged as a "reliable ally" by the Open Society Foundations.
After corruption accusations, she was placed in the French central bank to promote "green finance". She attended the 2016 Bilderberg meeting, and sat on the WHO Pan-European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development which proposed a global One Health strategy, a pandemic treaty and a global pandemic vaccine policy.
Contents
Education
Goulard graduated with a law degree from the Université Paul Cézanne Aix-Marseille III and studied at both Sciences Po in Paris and the École nationale d'administration (ÉNA). Between 2005 and 2009 she taught at the College of Europe in Bruges.
Career
European politics
She worked in the Legal Affairs Directorate of the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs from 1989 until 1999. She worked in particular on the French team responsible for negotiating German reunification. From 1993 to 1996, she worked at the Conseil d’État (State Council), after which she returned to the Policy Planning Department of the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs, where she was responsible for European issues in conjunction with the equivalent department of the German government.
From 1999 to 2001, she was an associate researcher at the French Centre de Recherches Internationales.[1]
She became political advisor to Romano Prodi when he was president of the European Commission. From 2001 to 2004, Goulard followed the work of the Convention on the Future of Europe which was selected by the European Council to draft a European constitution.
At the end of 2006 Goulard was selected president of the European Movement -France (ME-F), a lobby group for the EU, succeeding Pierre Moscovici. She was re-elected as president in December 2008.
Elected from the Democratic Movement (MoDem) in 2009, then under the label (MoDem-UDI) in 2014, she joined the Republic on the Move (LREM) in 2017.
French politics
She supported Emmanuel Macron for the 2017 presidential election[2]. She contributed to the drafting of Macron's European program[3] and to organizing his meeting with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.[4]
On May 17, 2017, she was appointed Minister of the Armed Forces in the first Philippe government. She stepped down after an inquiry over misuse of payments for assistants in the European Parliament[5] was opened on 20 June 2017.[6]
Bank of France
Sylvie Goulard was given the job of second deputy governor of the Bank of France in January 2018. She was in charge of European and international issues, in particular with the preparations for the G7 and G20. Her field of responsibilities covered in particular green finance at the level of the Bank of France but also the European Central Bank.[7]
Berggruen Institute and Embezzlement charges
In 2019, she was proposed by the French government to become European commissioner within the von der Leyen commission, but the European Parliament rejected her candidacy, in the context of controversy around the misuse of funds.
Sylvie Goulard worked in parallel with her position as a member of the European Parliament and for twenty-seven months (from October 2013 to January 2016), as a special advisor within the Council for the Future of Europe of the Berggruen Institute, an American think tank founded in 2010 by the billionaire Nicolas Berggruen.[8] She indicated income of above 10,000 euros gross monthly[9] (and probably between 12,000 and 13,000 euros per month[10]) from this advisory "job". Her contribution was limited to co-editing two notes of about fifteen pages each, coordinating collective reports, and participating in the organization of conferences in Madrid and Brussels and some other meetings.[11]
During her hearing on October 2, 2019, Sylvie Goulard indicated that she had no knowledge of Nicolas Berggruen's business activities, nor the origin of the foundation's funding and remained evasive about her consulting activities[12]. A MEP considered it "curious that Nicolas Berggruen's brother [has] financed Macron's campaign"[13].
After the rejection of her candidacy, the Anticor association filed a complaint against Sylvie Goulard in December 2019 on suspicions of passive corruption, passive influence peddling and abuse of confidence. The association indicated suspecting the existence of another counter-obligation in exchange for her remuneration of more than 324,000 euros.[14]
She was suspected of having paid from European funds for a fictitious job for one of her assistants when she was an MEP (2009-2017), and unable to prove that the latter had worked for her between July 2014 and January 2015, She was indicted for embezzlement of public funds (the fictitious jobs) in December 2019 but was cleared after the declaration of a mistrial in March 2023.[15] The European Parliament, after an administrative investigation, concluded that there were "minor irregularities noted, unsystematic and unintentional".[16] Sylvie Goulard agreed to reimburse 45,000 euros to the European Parliament.[17]
Later career
In December 2022, she left the Bank of France and rejoined the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In June 2023, during the summit for a New Global Financial Pact, Sylvie Goulard was appointed co-president of the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity credits ( IAPB).[18]
Since 2023, she has also been teaching at Bocconi University as professor of Practice in Global affairs (sustainability, green finance and geopolitics).[19]
She sat on the WHO/Pan-European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development, which proposed a global One Health strategy, a pandemic treaty and a global pandemic vaccine policy.
In December 2024, Sylvie Goulard joined the board of the Munich Security Conference.[20]
Events Participated in
| Event | Start | End | Location(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilderberg/2016 | 9 June 2016 | 12 June 2016 | Germany Dresden | The 2016 Bilderberg meeting took place in Dresden, Germany. |
| Munich Security Conference/2025 | 14 February 2025 | 16 February 2025 | Germany Munich Bavaria | Annual conference of mid-level functionaries from the military-industrial complex - politicians, propagandists and lobbyists - in their own bubble, far from the concerns of their subjects |
References
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20201229062043/https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/97137/SYLVIE_GOULARD/history/8
- ↑ https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/280819/commission-europeenne-sylvie-goulard-choisie-malgre-ses-deboires-judiciaires
- ↑ https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2019/08/28/sylvie-goulard-designee-par-la-france-pour-etre-commissaire-europeenne_5503711_3210.html
- ↑ https://www.linternaute.com/actualite/politique/1373759-gouvernement-macron-quels-ministres-quel-premier-ministre-en-cas-de-victoire/
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20180121071213/https://www.ft.com/content/defca2fc-faff-11e7-9b32-d7d59aace167
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20170620165445/http://www.france24.com/en/20170620-france-defence-minister-goulard-quits-eu-fake-jobs-inquiry
- ↑ https://www.lesechos.fr/idees-debats/cercle/comment-les-banques-centrales-veulent-verdir-la-finance-1036445
- ↑ http://0.0.7.217/03/19/billionaires-vultures-investors-business-billionaires-vultures
- ↑ http://www.lejdd.fr/politique/mais-pourquoi-sylvie-goulard-a-t-elle-quitte-le-gouvernement-3371234
- ↑ https://www.liberation.fr/amphtml/checknews/2019/09/03/que-faisait-sylvie-goulard-pour-etre-payee-12-000-euros-par-mois-par-un-think-tank-americain_1748083
- ↑ https://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2014/10/14/les-petits-a-cotes-des-eurodeputes-francais_4506093_3214.html
- ↑ https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/entry/sylvie-goulard-a-rate-son-audition-a-la-commission-europeenne_fr_5d95b11ce4b0da7f6621be6e
- ↑ https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/021019/la-candidate-sylvie-goulard-accrochee-par-les-eurodeputes-sur-les-affaires
- ↑ https://www.anticor.org/2019/12/18/anticor-porte-plainte-apres-la-revelation-des-liens-entre-sylvie-goulard-et-linstitut-berggruen/
- ↑ https://www.politico.eu/article/sylvie-goulard-cleared-from-charges-that-could-have-costed-her-commissioner-job-commission-candidate-sylvie-goulard-cleared-from-embezzlement-charges-emmanuel-macron-european-commission-presidency-thi/
- ↑ https://www.publicsenat.fr/actualites/non-classe/emplois-fictifs-sylvie-goulard-a-rembourse-45000-euros-au-parlement-europeen
- ↑ https://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/justice/affaire-des-emplois-fictifs-au-modem-sylvie-goulard-entendue-par-la-police_2096709.html
- ↑ https://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/presse/lancement-feuille-route-mondiale-credits-biodiversite-lors-du-sommet-nouveau-pacte-financier
- ↑ https://www.sdabocconi.it/en/faculty/sylvie-goulard
- ↑ https://securityconference.org/en/news/full/sylvie-goulard-and-florian-herrmann-join-the-munich-security-conference-foundation-council/
