Roelie Post to President-elect Von der Leyen

Tue, 30 Jul 2019

to Bjoern.SEIBERT

Dear Mr. Seibert,

Please find attached my plea to President-elect Von der Leyen.

I would welcome confirmation of receipt and transmission to the President-elect.

Yours sincerely,

Roelie Post

Dear President-elect,

Dear Mrs. Von der Leyen,
 

Congratulations with your nomination.

I turn to you in utter desperation.

Since 1983 I was a dedicated civil servant of the European Commission.

At the advice of then Secretary-General Catherine Day, I blew the whistle on child trafficking in 2007.

Since then Catherine Day 'protected' me. Long story.
 

Now, the Commission's Services are playing a nasty game with me.

My life is in danger. Especially since the child trafficking story is full-blown back in the news (see below mail to Catherine Day).

I respectfully request you to provide me full whistle-blower protection.
 

That would mean that the Commission would:

- formally recognise me as a whistle-blower

- does not force me into early retirement, after forced invalidity failed

- does pay me my full salary (backward) and compensate losses

- provides me with protection (Commission to inform the Belgian and Dutch Police)

I add two documents from 2004 and 2015. One is from a colleague. I am worried about her too.

It simply cannot be that we both live in fear and uncertainty since so long.

We both spoke out May last year during a Dutch investigative radio show. Transcript in English attached.

Further information can be provided.

Yours sincerely,

Roelie Post

www.roeliepost.com

3 Attachments

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: Roelie Post

Date: Tue, 30 Jul 2019 at 00:04

Subject: Re: Your email to Ms Day and Mr Mordue on last 17/02

To: Catherine.Day@ec.europa.eu

Dear Catherine,

Almost five months later the mess is complete (see mail below).

My situation has not been improved. I went on forced early retirement. Forced by fake promises. The promise to get a year retro-active back-payment and spreading the debts over 10, possibly 20 years.

That was not a great arrangement since those debts should not be anyway. But I was ready to accept some kind of solution. My life has never been about money - otherwise, I would not have accepted the blockage of my career and remained an AST all these years. And I would not have agreed to the secondment - by discretionary measures. It cost me an incredible lot of money and gave no protection. But as you said: it is not important. You are doing good work.

So I agreed to forced early retirement, back to the wall.

But, the Commission did not stick to their commitment. Lacking 'political instructions' from Selmayer, Timmermans and Oettinger.

Now my predictions have come true. I told you during dinner on January 2013 that the SERA contract would undo the previous COM work, and re-open adoptions. It did. In short, some weeks ago the Sorina adoption scandal started. A 7-year-old child violently removed from a foster family to be sent to the US.

http://www.againstchildtrafficking.org/2019/07/the-eu-unitedforsorina/

The violent removal, by special police forces, was in the meantime removed.

This is still there. Please watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=19&v=lCxLwbx5AhU

Since then the Romanian adoption saga restarted in full force. Romanian TV took up my story, connecting it to what's happening now. The story is on Romanian TV every day.

This was four days ago. Your name is mentioned too. As being in the good side, with MEP Nicholson and me. Please watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV527KT0tco

This is the result of the SERA contract. And not only, it is also the result of the 2009 Strasbourg conference and the fact that Margaret Tuite put the Hague Convention on the acquis list. Btw, Margaret also no longer works. Don't know how that happened.

Since a few days, another drama added to the story. Two young girls got murdered. It seems to be a sort of Dutroux 2.0. Perhaps even worse. More details will come out in the next days. From what I hear from my network it is not going to be nice.

And the Romanian people are connecting the dots. And journalists.

Recently I found out that Commissioner Moscovici has somehow his hands in my file. He is De Combret's protégé. And Commissioner Oettinger is best friends with MP Krichbaum, married to a former Romanian child trafficker.

Why Timmermans shuts up? No idea. He was informed about it since 2015, but pretends he does not know, and/or pretends he is not competent.

In the meantime, I just hang up the phone with my daughter. Surely you remember her. She cried. Again. About it all.

I sincerely hope that you can somehow get this all repaired. After all, you are still an advisor to President Juncker.

Needless to say, since the outbreak of news about me in Romania, I feel quite insecure. Scared is the word. As you know I live in hiding since long. It is not only physical scare, but it is also about the adoption tentacles in the COM. Reason for which you decided to second met. Awaiting the lie of the land of the next Commission. Should I wait, 10 years later, the lie of the land of the next Commission? Or solve it now. Once and for all.

Best wishes,

Roelie

+31 615864482

On Sun, 10 Mar 2019 at 19:57, Roelie Post wrote:

Dear Mr. Roques,

Thank you for your mail in which DG HR, it seems, creates an opening for finding some solution. I very much appreciate that.

My emails to Secretary-General Catherine Day and Simon Mordue (as former Cabinet Member of Commissioner Verheugen) have a long history. We all worked on the Romanian Children File. Catherine was Director in DG ELARG in 1999 and Simon worked at the EC Delegation in Bucharest. I attach some of my correspondence with Catherine Day and Simon Mordue, and, of course, I stand ready to send you further documentation, if that is helpful.

The exceptional secondment, decided by the use of discretionary powers, to the NGO Against Child Trafficking (ACT), which was set up at the behest of the European Commission for this secondment, was a success that keeps being reported on by the international media. Another documentary movie has just come out and will be presented at the international film festival in Copenhagen on 21 March (A Girl in Return). This NGO has played an important role in bringing child trafficking for adoption on the political agenda. It also has had life-changing positive effects for many victims. I am quite proud of that.

This successfully running an NGO, however, came at a cost.

I had to self-finance the work of the NGO. This means I was not able to pay off my mortgage, and have not been able to build any reserves.

Also, the severe security issues have made me leave Brussels in 2015. The so-called 'unjustified' absence has been explained to the Commission - Catherine Day - in writing at the time. Letter attached.

Both Catherine Day and Simon Mordue have guided me over many years. During the secondment I reported directly to Catherine Day. My plea for help was about my daughter, who is increasingly desperate about our situation. Distress is an understatement. It is about the total destruction of our lives, the loss of dignity, the loss of our Brussels' life, and more in particular about the financial burden which is hanging over her (and me) as a sword of Damocles. I am worried about her. She has lived, witnessed, and suffered all that happened for twenty years now. It's too much for anyone to handle. I am glad she made it through University and into a job, but now somehow our lives need to be restored.

In order to restore some of our dignity it would be needed, at the very least, to get rid of that sword of Damocles and to get financial stability:

- Cancel the debt recovery

- Provide me with ‘paid leave’ until retirement

For the first matter, you write that there are some legal provisions for exceptional situations. I am of the opinion that my situation is quite exceptional. The circumstances of the Romanian Children File were such that already in 2002 Commissioner Verheugen decided to make me report to him directly, outside normal procedures. He confirmed this during the Dutch investigative radio program Argos, 5 May 2018 (English translation attached).

Vice-President Kallas then, through the mediation of Secretary-General Catherine Day and DG HR Claude Chêne, in 2008, decided to second me to the NGO, because of the lie of the land in the Barroso I Commission. The initially 3-years secondment got extended because the lie of the land had not changed in the Barroso II Commission.

I have found out much later, around the time I had to reintegrate the Commission (end 2013), that I was the only person being seconded to an NGO, as well as the exceptionally long period of secondment.

This exceptional situation of having to work outside the European Commission’s walls was quite painful because my job as Task Manager for the Romanian Children File had been a rewarding, although intense and tough job. To be pushed out was hard to swallow. Also, the secondment was not an easy task. To build up an NGO and stand up against powerful lobbies needed a lot of perseverance, as well as my private funding of the work. In a normal world, such private funding should also be reimbursed since the secondment was in the interest of the service.

Largely due to the way this all has been dealt with at the highest level, combined with a lack of security - reason for which I am still living in hiding - and a general lack of open dialogue, I found myself in an almost inconceivable situation: being both a civil servant and 'civil society'. Up to today, I am left with many unresolved questions about how this all could happen. Why there could not be the beginning of another solution. And why in 2014 I could not be reintegrated in compliance with the Guidelines on External Mobility. It may be because all decisions related to me were exceptional and taken by the use of discretionary powers, which made a dignified reintegration under normal procedures impossible.

For the second matter, there has been a proposal from DG NEAR, end 2016, to have me qualify for paid leave until retirement. See the attached letter of DG Danielsson. This proposal was made because of the complexity of the situation, and the extensive correspondence that was addressed to various quarters of the Commission on my behalf.

I would be grateful if this paid leave procedure could, retroactively, be materialised.

The last years I live off loans, which is unsustainable.

I truly hope that your mail will be the beginning of a dialogue in which not only the exceptional situation can become acknowledged, but also where eventual misunderstandings on both sides can be cleared.

In the hope of a positive, humane, ending,

with kind regards,

Roelie Post

On Fri, 8 Mar 2019 at 21:08, wrote:

Dear Ms Post,

I am replying on behalf of DG HR, in reference to the message you recently sent to Ms Catherine Day and Mr Simon Mordue.

In your e-mail, you expressed your distress concerning your personal situation in relation with your daughter. You also ask for support, although you do not specify the nature of your requests. In line with the Commission’s duty of care for former colleagues, DG HR is of course willing to assist you insofar as possible according to the applicable legal framework.

In order to better analyse your situation, we kindly ask you to specify the nature of your requests. On the basis of these clarifications, DG HR will carefully consider your requests and evaluate what could be provided under the applicable rules.

In this context, it would be useful to know whether you are referring to difficulties linked to the launch, by the Commission, of the recovery of the debt related to your unjustified absences. Please note that recovery of undue payments is regulated by the Financial Regulation[1], which provide possibilities to consider adequate modalities to recover an established amount receivable – although only in very specific cases.

With kind regards,

Christian Roques

Head of Unit DG HR E.1 - Legal affairs and social dialogue/PMO governance, Data Protection Coordinator DG HR/PMO/EPSO/OIL/OIB

Direction générale "Ressources humaines et sécurité" (HR)

Commission européenne

11 Rue de la Science, 05/05

Tel. +32-2-299 50 79

[1] Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union, repealing Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012

3 Attachments