Oettinger flight was not a meeting, commission says

The European Commission stood by German commissioner Guenther Oettinger on Thursday (17 November), saying that his flight with a lobbyist in May was not a meeting that fell under EU ethics and transparency rules.

Oettinger has come under pressure for flying from Brussels to Budapest on 18 May to a conference the next day on the private jet of Klaus Mangold, a German businessman and lobbyist advocating for lifting EU sanctions on Russia.

Oettinger says he made the flight on the in...