Andarsene all'Inglese

'... As Trade Commissioner Lord Mandelson cut tariffs on imports of aluminium into the EU which benefited Mr Deripaska's company Rusal – one of the world's largest manufacturers of aluminium – to the tune of tens of millions of pounds.
Under the European Union's "access to documents" regulations, upheld in the EU courts last year, the Commission should make public details of meetings between Commissioners, their officials and lobbyists.
Repeated requests by The Sunday Telegraph for details of meetings between Lord Mandelson and Mr Deripaska, under the EU's transparency "1049 rule", have been flatly refused.' (Telegraph).

Why would the European Commission have any interest in not being wholly open about Mandelson's conduct of his office of Trade Commissioner, when every aspect of his work there has been beyond reproach?

He did leave office almost overnight - from the announcement he would be rejoining New Labour's regime, to being in London full time and taking up his new job. That was unusual. There was a lot of remarking that he and Brown had been discussing it for much longer, but poor President Barroso got told late one evening, reportedly, and then Mandelson was gone. Senior civil servants don't usually up and off like that; they serve out their contract, their term, and are decorously replaced.

In such circumstances it might be expected that all requests for information and for transparency might be welcomed and expedited.