Brussels, 24/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission decided on Wednesday 24 June to appoint Alexander Italianer (of the Netherlands) as new Secretary General following Catherine Day's decision to retire from active service as of 1 September 2015.
Along with the decision on the secretary general come changes of post of the senior management team (comprising 33 directors general, 36 deputy directors general and 4 hors classe advisers: 11 current directors general will change department or take on other important assignments (these include Joao Aguiar Machado, DG MOVE, who will become the director general at DG MARE, Daniel Calleja Crespo, who will move from DG GROW to DG ENV, and Lowri Evans, who will leave DG MARE for DG GROW); 8 deputy directors general, including two women, will become directors general.
'Brexit' taskforce. Jonathan Faull will take up a new post of director general in charge of the task force for strategic issues related to the UK referendum. A call for applications will shortly be opened for one post of director general and 10 posts of deputy director general. Publication of further deputy director general posts will follow. Finally, two deputy director general posts and three of hors classe adviser will be created (and three current hors classe adviser posts will be ended). The situation with regard to gender balance remains unsatisfactory. (Lionel Changeur)