The committee on budgetary control (CONT) of the European Parliament has slammed the opacity and speed of the procedure leading to the express appointment of Martin Selmayr to the post of Secretary General of the European Commission (see EUROPE 11996).
However, the MEPs are not explicitly calling for the former head of cabinet of President Juncker to step down and still less for sanctions against the Commission, in a draft resolution adopted in Strasbourg on Monday 16 April by a considerable majority (22 votes to 3 with 4 abstentions).
In one compromise amendment adopted, the committee invites the Commission to reassess the procedure for the appointment of its Secretary General, who has been in position since March, to give other European officials of the required grade the opportunity to apply, whilst being aware that a “revocation of a favourable administrative act is generally not possible due to legal constraints”.
“The initial text was softer, but was more clear. Now, it's kind of ambivalent and subject to interpretation” so as to get almost all the political groups on board, a parliamentary source commented on Tuesday 17 April. “We cannot force Selmayr to step down. We do not have powers to do this” another parliamentary source said, adding that the most Parliament can do is ask the Commission to reconsider its decision.
The MEPs may still table new amendments between now and this Wednesday's plenary session vote, which Sven Giegold (Greens/EFA, Germany) feels is “very likely”. The EPP and S&D groups will not be doing so.
The MEPs take the view that the two-stage procedure used - firstly, Selmayr's appointment as deputy Secretary General with the publication of this post, followed, at the same meeting of the College, by Selmayr's appointment to the position of Secretary General without the position being published - “could be seen as a coup-like action which stretched and possibly even overstretched the limits of the law”. In particular, they observe that unlike the three previous Secretaries General of the Commission, Selmayr had not previously held a managerial position.
The Commission must review its appointment procedures by the end of 2018 to ensure that they are open and transparent and bring senior positions that fall empty to the knowledge of its staff, the Parliamentary committee considers. Criticising the practice of parachuting a candidate into place, it calls for maximum transparency of all situations vacant in all European institutions, with the absence of publication to be limited to cases specified by European case-law.
It is worth noting that the references to a reform of the staff regulations ended up being taken out of the text.
The draft resolution is available at: https://bit.ly/2JThI4j . (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)