Uber considered its relationship with Kroes so sensitive that the company’s top European lobbyist repeatedly instructed colleagues to keep it under wraps, warning in 2015 that it was “highly confidential and should not be discussed outside of this group.” Kroes says she did nothing wrong, adding that her role as special envoy for tech companies meant it was her job to talk to politicians about emerging companies in the industry. But transparency experts said the covert help Kroes apparently provided to the taxi app – which was under criminal investigation in the Netherlands at the time – may have breached EU ethics rules. “This case should be investigated as a matter of urgency so that lessons can be learned,” said Vicky Kahn, at the Corporate Europe Observatory, a Brussels-based NGO that monitors lobbying. Q&A

What are Uber records?

projection The Uber Files is a global investigation based on a trove of 124,000 documents leaked to the Guardian. The data consists of emails, iMessages and WhatsApp exchanges between the top executives of the Silicon Valley giant, as well as memos, presentations, notebooks, briefing documents and invoices. The leaked records cover 40 countries and span from 2013 to 2017, the period when Uber was aggressively expanding around the world. They reveal how the company broke the law, deceived police and regulators, exploited violence against drivers and secretly lobbied governments around the world. To facilitate a global public interest investigation, the Guardian shared the data with 180 journalists in 29 countries through the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The investigation was managed and led by the Guardian with the ICIJ. In a statement, Uber said: “We have not and will not condone past behavior that is clearly inconsistent with our current values. Instead, we’re asking the public to judge us based on what we’ve done in the last five years and what we’ll do in the years to come.” Thanks for your response. Details of Kroes secretly helping the California tech group are contained in the Uber files, a trove of 124,000 files leaked to the Guardian and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and media partners in 30 countries. The evidence appears to show that Kroes, who was the EU’s top internet policy official, offered to arrange a series of meetings for Uber during her 18-month “waiting period” after leaving the commission. Neelie Kroes was a fan of the Uber service. Photo: dpa Picture Alliance/Alamy The cooling-off period aims to reduce conflicts of interest by limiting the jobs commissioners can take after they resign. In Kroes’ case, it lasted from November 2014 to May 2016, when it was announced that she would be joining Uber’s public policy advisory board. For that, he was paid $200,000 a year, the documents state. Despite being barred by the Commission from taking on that role before May 2016, Kroes spoke to Dutch government ministers about Uber and offered to open talks with senior EU officials, according to the leaked files. And when police raided Uber’s Amsterdam headquarters in spring 2015, Kroes called on Dutch government ministers to persuade regulators to “back off” as she was “harassing” a top civil servant, her internal emails claim Uber.

“Top-Confidential”

Uber’s desire to have Kroes on board was understandable. He was one of the EU’s most powerful policy makers and a fan of the taxi service. As acting commissioner in April 2014, Kroes put her name to a scathing blog post attacking a Brussels court decision to ban the app, describing the move as “insane” and designed to protect “a taxi cartel”. In email exchanges, Uber executives made it clear they did not want her 10-year term as European commissioner to end in October 2014 – with the company’s then-top European lobbyist, Mark MacGann, writing in September of that year: “I honestly don’t I can count on her successor for any help.” But the leaked correspondence also shows how Uber was already planning a future that included Kroes. “We propose Neelie Kroes to join our advisory board (mega confi[dential]),” MacGann wrote to another Uber executive on September 25, 2014. The plan would take some time to materialize and, separately, the Dutch politician took on a different role. In January 2015, the Dutch government unveiled her as its special envoy for start-up companies, after the commission granted Kroes special permission to take up the ambassador post. However, it remained bound by standard procurement commitments, such as acting with “integrity and discretion”. While there may be some potential overlap with the role of the startup and companies like Uber, it was clear at the time that Kroes’ new position would have to focus solely on general issues. The commission said it approved her appointment as “the activity did not specifically relate to individual companies, but consisted of promoting the public interest in the Netherlands with possible wider positive effects for Europe as a whole”. However, during 2015 the politician appears to have played a central role in helping Uber in the Netherlands, with the relationship kept strictly on the down-low. In March 2015, MacGann warned a consultant who put Kroes’ name on a document: “It was a mistake (submission),” he wrote. “Her name should never appear on a document either internal or external. We have a particular relationship with Neelie Kroes at the moment, which is sensitive and highly confidential.” Less than two weeks later, life at Uber was about to get even more delicate.

Raid

On March 26, 2015, Dutch police raided Uber’s office in Amsterdam as part of an investigation into whether the company was violating Dutch taxi law by offering the UberPop service, which essentially allowed anyone with a driver’s license to become a taxi driver for a few hours. An hour and 34 minutes after the raid began, MacGann emailed other Uber executives, including company co-founder Travis Kalanick, the leaked files show. He claimed to colleagues that Kroes made calls at his request. Neelie Kroes calls the finance minister [Henk Kamp] now and other members of the government to force the regulator and the police to back down,” the email said. “Now they are interrogating us.” MacGann also reported that Kroes spoke with Melanie Schultz, the minister of infrastructure and environment. There were more breathless exchanges days later when Uber’s Amsterdam base was raided again on April 2, 2015. This time, MacGann emailed his Uber colleagues to tell them that Kroes had contacted him again. Schultz and “subsequently harassed” the senior civil servant at the ministry for infrastructure and environment, Siebe Riedstra. “[Kroes] he explained Uber’s problem and asked me who is responsible,” Riedstra told the Guardian when he recalled that conversation this month, though he denied he had been harassed. “She was clear that she was connected to Uber,” he added. The documents continue to paint a picture of Kroes glowing for the California company in the weeks after the raids. It was, MacGann promised her colleagues on April 22, 2015, going “to explain [to Dutch officials] that we’re willing to negotiate a settlement, calm enforcement and incentivize the Department of Transportation to come into a room with us.” It is unclear whether Kroes raised these issues in her contacts with Dutch ministers. It also returned to a familiar theme. “Her reputation and our ability to negotiate solutions in the Netherlands and elsewhere will suffer from any occasional banter, in or out of the office,” he said.

“I will do my best”

All this was crucial for Uber as, despite being a geographically small country, the Netherlands was a symbolically important region in the company’s strategy. Like many American technology companies, it had located its international offices in Amsterdam, ostensibly to pay lower taxes. The company had to be seen as successful where its operations were based outside the US, which elevated the importance of Kroes and her contacts – even the apparently elite ones. Kroes helped Uber meet Rutte, a member of the liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, according to Uber records. The emails suggest the pair of Dutch politicians had a close working relationship, with MacGann writing to an Uber colleague in March 2015 to convey how Kroes was “giving some messages about me this weekend to the Dutch prime minister”. Mark Rutte, the Dutch Prime Minister. Photographer: Gian Ehrenzeller/AP Rutte also appeared to offer some encouragement. Notes taken at a subsequent meeting between the prime minister, Kalanick and Kroes in January 2016 suggest that Rutte told Kalanick: “I want you to grow.” The trio then appeared together in a publicity photo. Transparency experts say the help described in Uber’s files suggests Kroes may have breached EU ethics rules, which state how commissioners must “behave with integrity and discretion” when accepting jobs and benefits after leaving their tenure. Alberto Alemanno, a professor of EU law at HEC Paris business school, added that Kroes’ support for Uber appeared to represent a breach of the mandate she received as the Netherlands’ special envoy for start-ups. Meanwhile, the filings suggest Kroes appeared ready to set up meetings with two European commissioners for Uber, raising questions about whether she was complying with the spirit of EU rules banning lobbying during the withdrawal period. The 2011 code of conduct said former commissioners were barred from lobbying the EU executive during an 18-month period after leaving. However, in May…