The Christian Democrats at the European Parliament have no problem with the procedure that led to the prompt appointment of President Juncker’s former chef de cabinet, Martin Selmayr, to the post of secretary general of the European Commission.
On the contrary, as closest adviser and trusted manager of the president and with a unique overview of all internal decision-making procedures of the European institution, Selmayr was a “natural choice” for the post of secretary general, say the Spanish members of the EPP Group – Estgeban Gonzalez Pons and José Ignacio Salafranca Sanchez-Neyra – in an amendment put to the draft resolution of the budgetary control committee (CONT) of Parliament, drafted after Commissioner Günther Oettinger’s hearing on this controversial appointment (see EUROPE 11991).
In their amendments, the EPP Group representatives seek to efface the failings or grey areas in the procedure leading to Selmayr’s appointment. The two Spanish MEPs underline that Juncker and Selmayr did everything possible to convince the previous secretary general of the Commission, Alexander Italianer, to remain at his post after March 2018. Ingeborg Grässle of Germany, who chairs the CONT committee, notes that, according to the Commission, the publication of a vacancy for secretary general must not be considered as a rule, due to the unique experience and affinity with the Commission president which the post in question demands.
No amendment by the other political groups aims to irremediably destabilise the College of Commissioners.
On the other hand, within the Social-Democrat group, Inés Ayala Sender of Spain, Arndt Kohn of Germany and Boguslaw Liberadzki of Poland call on the Commission to analyse Selmayr’s appointment again by the end of the Juncker Commission mandate at the very latest.
The French Socialists go further still by calling for the post of secretary general to be “immediately” reopened. Taking the same view are Luke Ming Flanagan (GUE/NGL, Ireland), Bart Staes (Greens/EFA, Belgium), Marco Valli and Laura Agea (EFDD, Italy), and Jean-François Jalkh (NA, France). Ryszard Czarnecki (ECR, Poland) considers the rules were applied in such a way that only Selmayr could obtain the position, thus being a very likely case of favouritism.
According to Staes, there is no reason for the situation to be deemed sufficiently urgent and serious to warrant the procedure used whereby the vacant post of secretary general was not brought to the knowledge of European officials potentially interested in applying, on condition that they were of sufficient rank.
Dennis de Jong (GUE/NGL, Netherlands) considers that the European Parliament should join any complaints filed with the EU Court of Justice by a trade union of the personnel of the European institutions.
It should be noted that the EPP and S&D Groups are on the same wavelength when it comes to the timeliness of convening a round table aimed at a thorough review of the rules set out in the status of European officials.
The draft resolution will be adopted initially in the parliamentary committee with a view to adoption by the plenary session mid-April. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)