The two-step nomination of Martin Selmayr, the former head of cabinet of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, to the post of secretary general constitutes "a coup-like action which stretched and possibly overstretched the limits of the law", a draft resolution from the European Parliament's budgetary control committee states on Wednesday 28 March. EUROPE has seen a copy of this draft.
But the draft text steered by Ingeborg Grässle (EPP, Germany), which is expected to be adopted in parliamentary committee after Easter, does not call for Selmayr's resignation, nor does it tackle Juncker directly. While the deadline for tabling amendments is 5 April, the French socialists have nevertheless already lodged an amendment that calls on the Commission to reopen the post of secretary general "immediately".
The MEPs ask for an end to the practice of parachuting in all the European institutions and entities so that political influence does not undermine application of the staff regulation for European officials.
"We call on all political groups in the Parliament to apply the same high standards also in their parliamentary appointments as we demand them from the Commission", Sven Giegold (Greens/EFA, Germany) states in a press release.
The current secretary general of the European Parliament, German national Klaus Welle, was the head of cabinet of Hans-Gert Pöttering, the president of the Parliament between 2007 and 2009. His deputy, German national Markus Winkler, is the former head of cabinet of the previous president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz.
The Commission is also asked to amend its internal procedures by the end of 2018 on the nomination of senior officials, with the objective of fully ensuring that the best candidates are selected in a framework of maximum transparency and equal opportunities.
For this type of post, a notice of vacancy should be published and the nomination of the candidate selected should be put on the agenda of the college of commissioners beforehand so as no longer to take the European commissioners by surprise.
The college is furthermore harshly criticised for not having challenged the rapid nomination of Selmayr which was wanted by Juncker, nor asking for a period for reflection.
The previous day, European Commissioner for Human Resources Günther Oettinger tried to convince the MEPs that the procedure used to nominate Selmayr had scrupulously respected the rules (see EUROPE 11990).
See the draft resolution: https://bit.ly/2IYFg7D (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)