Top EU jobs gone, but rush on to fill other posts

ALL the top jobs in the EU have been allocated following the announcement of the new commissioners on Friday in Brussels, but for many that is just the start of a job hunt.

There was not even standing room in the pressroom when Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso was revealing his new college last Friday.

While many of those present were journalists, many more were people who have been working in the Commission for the last five years and, with the change of commissioners, their temporary contracts end and they hope for a new one.

Some are not out of work as they are full-time functionaries with the Commission, or on loan from their national governments.

The politics involved at this slightly lower level than Commissioner is just as fraught and unpredictable as what has been played out at national level over the past few months.

At the top tier are the director generals (DG) of each department in the Commission. They get moved around regularly to ensure they stay on top of their game. And their jobs are politically linked.

As a result, for instance, the new commissioner to takes over the Internal Market from Charlie McCreevy is a French man. The British do not trust the French in an area that can affect their world leadingfinancial centre, the City of London. So the new DG is a British person, well respected by both countries.

The position of chef de cabinet, the person who heads up the small office of seven people who directly assist each Commissioner in his or her job of managing policy, is hard fought for.

In the outgoing Commission, Irish men have been chef in three cabinets. Máire Geoghegan Quinn will choose an Irish person to head up her cabinet and there will be at least one other commissioner with an Irish chef also.

Each cabinet can have only three people from the same country and the competition for these posts is fierce. Lobbying, jockeying and discussions have been going on for months for these jobs and over the next few weeks applicants will learn their fate.

Many of those in the newsroom for the announcement on Friday were spokespersons hoping they will get a similar post with a new commissioner, though they have to be of a different nationality.

Several more are people who desperately want to get into a cabinet, as the experience usually means a fast track to promotion inside the Commission afterwards.

Member states take a very keen interest in the new commissioners, as they often want to have a representative in the cabinet of department’s of particular interest to them.

For instance the British will want a good post in Trade, the French in Agriculture, the Spanish in Fish and the German’s in most. It’s important too for each commissioner to have a good spread of nationalities in cabinet, as they need to be assured of support from various countries.

The Lisbon Treaty comes into force tomorrow and with it an even greater need for good relations with the European Parliament as it has a say equal to member states in almost all areas of legislation.