The High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP) has rejected a retraining project of the former Minister Delegate for Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari at the shipowner CMA-CGM, pointing to "substantial ethical risks", according to a notice published on Tuesday.

The former minister, who had already obtained the green light from the HATVP to sit on the board of directors of a start-up specializing in the construction of hydrogen vehicles, wanted this time to become executive vice-president in charge of the space hub that the CMA-CGM plans to create.

Jean-Baptiste Djebbari would have been in this capacity a member of the executive committee of the shipping giant.

Contacted, the CMA-CGM did not wish to comment on the information.

A post deemed “incompatible” with his former functions

Member of the government from September 2019 to May 2022, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari's project was deemed "incompatible" with his former functions due to "substantial ethical risks", according to the High Authority.

Given the files that the former minister had to manage – intermodality, civil aviation, satellite applications, ports or maritime transport – the HATVP considers that this position at the CMA-CGM would cause a risk of "substantial" questioning of the "independent and impartial functioning of the administration".

The HATVP also notes that Jean-Baptiste Djebbari met eight times with the senior executives of the shipping company.

What create “a legitimate doubt as to the conditions under which the minister exercised his governmental functions, with regard to the ethical principles and the obligation to prevent conflicts of interest which are imposed on him”, advances the HATVP.

He will create his consulting company

It also gave the green light, but under very strict conditions, to the creation by the former minister of a consulting company.

The HATVP warns the former LREM deputy for Haute-Vienne against the criminal risk of "illegal taking of interests" in cases where his future consulting company has a transport sector company as a client.

For a period of three years, he must also refrain from any approach, including the representation of interests, with members of the government or the administrations in charge of transport.

Jean-Baptiste Djebbari said he was "perfectly serene" on May 17 and assured that he had "no state of mind" to leave in the private sector after a stint in government which he had long announced that he did not want to continue. .

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