One year after Solomon revealed that a senior official overseeing billions in European Union recovery funds had moved to a private company benefiting from the same program, Greece’s ethics watchdog concluded that conflict-of-interest safeguards had been breached.
Nearly one year after Solomon revealed that a senior official overseeing billions in European Union recovery funds had moved directly into a company benefiting from the same program, Greece’s ethics watchdog has concluded that mandatory safeguards against conflicts of interest were breached.
The inquiry found that Nikos Mantzoufas, the former head of Greece’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, failed to seek the legally required authorization before joining Sunlight Group — a battery manufacturer that had received major financing under the EU-backed fund while he was overseeing its operation.
Although the watchdog said it did not identify an actual conflict of interest, it concluded that the oversight process designed to prevent such risks had been bypassed altogether.
The case has renewed scrutiny over how effectively national authorities across the EU enforce “revolving-door” rules, as hundreds of billions of euros from the bloc’s post-pandemic recovery plan flow through member states.
Mantzoufas served for nearly three years as head of Greece’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, the national authority responsible for implementing the European Union’s flagship post-pandemic funding program.
The €723 billion EU program was created to help member states rebuild their economies after Covid-19, channeling grants and loans into public and private investment projects approved at the national level.
In Greece, the program operates under the national recovery plan known as Greece 2.0, through which €35.95 billion in EU grants and loans are directed to companies and infrastructure projects across the country.
As administrator of the fund from November 2020 until July 2023, Mantzoufas oversaw the framework governing how projects were assessed, approved and financed — a position that placed him at the center of one of the largest flows of European public money in modern Greek history.
During Mantzoufas’ tenure, Sunlight Group, a Greece-based battery manufacturer, secured €87.5 million in financing through the recovery program for an investment project involving new industrial facilities and equipment, according to official government announcements.
At the time, Mantzoufas publicly praised the investment, describing it as a flagship project for the recovery fund, while the government highlighted the favorable loan terms granted to the company amid rising interest rates.
The financing informed part of the company’s broader expansion strategy in northern Greece, at a moment when battery manufacturing was being promoted as a cornerstone of Europe’s green-transition agenda.
Mantzoufas left his post as head of Greece’s recovery fund in July 2023.
Six months later, in January 2024, he joined Sunlight Group — the same company that had received recovery-fund financing while he was overseeing the program.
According to the company, Mantzoufas was appointed Chief Funding and Institutional Affairs Officer, a role linked to Sunlight’s plans to expand battery production in northern Greece through a large-scale industrial investment.
At the time of his appointment, Sunlight was advancing plans for a lithium battery gigafactory in Western Macedonia, a project the company said would exceed €1.2 billion. In announcing the appointment, Sunlight said Mantzoufas’ arrival would help accelerate the development of the project.
In October 2024, while Mantzoufas was working at Sunlight, the company secured €245 million in European funding through the EU’s Innovation Fund, one of the bloc’s main instruments for supporting low-carbon technologies.
The grant placed Sunlight among a small number of companies selected during that funding round, following an evaluation process focused on technological innovation and climate impact.
The project was later abandoned, and Mantzoufas left the company roughly a year after taking up the role.
In January 2025, Solomon formally alerted Greece’s Ethics Committee to Mantzoufas’ move from public office into the private sector.
The committee operates within the National Transparency Authority, the independent body responsible for reviewing, among other things, whether senior public officials may take up private-sector roles when potential conflicts of interest are involved.
In its initial response, the authority told Solomon that it had not been aware the former head of the recovery fund had joined a company that had received financing under the program.
After confirming that the case fell within its jurisdiction, the committee decided in February 2025 to open an inquiry into whether Mantzoufas should have sought prior authorization before accepting the position at Sunlight Group.
What followed was a prolonged review marked by repeated delays.
Throughout 2025, Solomon repeatedly contacted the authority seeking updates on the progress of the review. The committee repeatedly informed Solomon that its findings were imminent, only for announced deadlines to be postponed.
In July 2025, the committee’s chair said that the review had been completed and forwarded internally for issuance of a formal administrative decision. Subsequent timelines, including a commitment to publish the decision by the end of October, were not met.
Nearly a year after the inquiry was opened, the findings remained unpublished at the time of this publication.
While the ethics review remained unresolved, Mantzoufas went on to take up additional roles linked to European public-sector financing.
In February 2025, he established a consulting firm, Navitas Mandate European Partners, which later secured an assignment from the European Commission related to the promotion of public-private partnerships in Ukraine, Moldova, and Armenia.
In December 2025, he joined EY-Parthenon, the strategy consulting arm of the global accounting firm EY.
According to a company press release, Mantzoufas was appointed to lead work on European policy and access to EU funding instruments, advising organizations on investment planning, project implementation, and the use of European financing programs.
The Ethics Committee delivered its findings to Solomon on 16 January 2026, following its review of Mantzoufas’ move from public office to the private sector.
In its report, the committee concluded that under Greek law, Mantzoufas was required to seek prior authorization before accepting a position, given the potential for a conflict of interest stemming from his former role.
The committee said that because this mandatory procedure was not followed, the authority was deprived of the opportunity to assess the move before it took place.
While the committee said it did not identify an actual conflict arising from Mantzoufas’ employment at Sunlight, it found that the safeguards designed to prevent such risks had not been applied.
As a result, the committee recommended that the sanctions provided under the law be imposed.
The report provided to Solomon did not specify the penalties applied. Under relevant legislation, violations of the post-employment rules may result in a financial fine and a prohibition on holding public office for up to five years from the date the breach is formally established.
In a written submission to the Ethics Committee, Mantzoufas argued that his move to Sunlight Group did not constitute a conflict of interest.
He said that neither he nor his subordinates had been responsible for monitoring or supervising Sunlight’s financing, and that the institutional framework governing the recovery fund did not grant him authority over the implementation of individual projects.
In a statement to Solomon, Mantzoufas rejected the committee’s conclusions, describing them as “entirely incorrect.”
He said he had already filed an appeal before Greece’s highest administrative court, seeking the annulment of the fine imposed.
The case is a testament to the constraints of Greece’s Ethics Committee, which was created in part to address so-called “revolving door” risks, where officials may use insider knowledge or institutional access for private advantage after leaving public office.
In practice, however, its reach has been limited.
Between 2021 and 2025, the committee examined cases involving 17 individuals, according to figures previously reported by Solomon. By January 2026, it had reviewed four additional complaints, including the one concerning Mantzoufas.
Even when potential conflicts were identified, approvals were frequently granted with conditions that are difficult to monitor in practice, such as requiring officials to abstain from specific meetings or negotiations.
As a result, senior public officials have in several instances moved directly into companies they had previously overseen.
In written responses to Solomon, the Ethics Committee rejected claims that the handling of the Mantzoufas case had been delayed.
The committee said it had completed its findings in June 2025 and forwarded the report the following month to the head of the authority to issue a formal administrative decision.
According to the committee, the five months required to conduct its review were justified by the volume of material examined, procedural requirements, and the workload of its members, all of whom do not serve on the committee on a full-time basis.
The committee acknowledged structural limitations in its operation, noting that its members hold other professional responsibilities that affect the frequency of meetings.
It added that it had submitted proposals aimed at strengthening its capacity and improving institutional support for its work.
Alexandros Kaskanis, executive director of Transparency International Greece, a local chapter of the global anti-corruption organization, said the case reflects longstanding weaknesses in the country’s oversight framework.
Independent authorities, he said, often operate with limited staffing and resources, conditions that undermine their ability to carry out their mandate effectively
“Independent authorities in general, not only the National Transportation Authority, could benefit from stronger institutional safeguards and more substantial financial support from the state,” Kaskanis said.
Under adequate staffing conditions, he added, decisions in cases involving post-employment restrictions should be issued far more rapidly — ideally within weeks — so that potential conflicts can be assessed before officials take up new roles.
A 2024 European Parliamentary Research Service report found that many EU member states lack robust or consistently enforced “cooling-off” periods for senior officials leaving public office.
Investigations by transparency advocates have documented recurring patterns in which former EU Commissioners and members of the European Parliament move into private-sector roles closely aligned with their previous responsibilities, raising concerns about access and influence.
Under EU law, national authorities managing shared funds are required to prevent, detect and correct conflicts of interest, with oversight mechanisms involving the European Commission and the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), the body mandated to protect the Union’s financial interests.
In practice, however, enforcement depends largely on national systems and the effectiveness of oversight bodies, meaning that when domestic safeguards act slowly or only after external pressure, potential conflicts of interest may be assessed only after key decisions have been taken.
In response to questions from Solomon regarding the findings of this investigation, a Commission spokesperson said that while the Commission conducts system audits and assesses whether national control frameworks meet EU requirements, responsibility for preventing and addressing conflicts of interest under the Recovery and Resilience Facility rests primarily with member states.
Under the law that established Greece’s Ethics Committee in 2019, a presidential decree was meant to further define procedures and strengthen its operation.
Seven years later, that decree has yet to be issued.
The absence of the framework has raised questions about whether the oversight system was designed to function as an effective safeguard — or merely to satisfy formal transparency requirements tied to EU standards.
Kaskanis, with Transparency International Greece, said that beyond institutional gaps, responsibility also lies with public officials themselves.
“They must understand not only their legal obligations,” he said, “but also the broader social institutional impact of their decisions.”
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