The College of Commissioners formally decided on Tuesday 17 December to create two new Directorates-General within the Commission: DG ‘Structural Reform Support’ (REFORM) and DG ‘Defence Industry and Space’ (DEFIS), as from 1 January 2020.
The Commission will transform the Structural Reform Support Service (SRSS), which was part of the Secretariat-General, into the Structural Reform Support Directorate General (REFORM).
This DG is expected to be composed of a Directorate, eight units and two advisory functions. The Dutchman Martinus Verwey, currently Director General of the Structural Reform Support Service, is expected to take over as Head of REFORM, and the current Director of the Service, Mary McCarthy of Ireland, is expected to be transferred to the position of Director of the ‘Resources and Aid Programme’ Directorate of DG REFORM.
The College also validated the creation of the new Directorate General for Defence Industry and Space (DEFIS) with a new ‘Space’ Directorate.
Two existing Directorates of DG GROW - ‘Space Policy, Copernicus and Defence' and ‘EU Satellite Navigation Programmes’ - will be transferred to this new DG and renamed ‘Defence Industry’ and ‘Development and Innovation’ respectively. A sectoral working party on ‘Information Security’ will also be created, as well as two units.
The current Deputy Director General for Defence and Space at DG GROW, the Belgian Pierre Delsaux, is expected to be temporarily transferred to the post of Deputy Director General for ‘Development and Innovation’ and ‘Space’, pending his permanent assignment.
For his part, the current Director of the ‘EU Satellite Navigation Programme Directorate’ in DG GROW, Matthias Petschke of Germany, is expected to be temporarily transferred to the post of Director of the ‘Space’ Directorate.
All these decisions will take effect on 1 January 2020.
See the minutes of the college meeting: http://bit.ly/36LAiWJ (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant and Spj)