European Commissioner for Budget and Public Administration Piotr Serafin presented European Commission staff on Monday 13 July with possible reforms of the European Union institution drawn up by around 15 internal working groups.
Speaking 25 years after the ‘Kinnock’ reform of March 2001 (see EUROPE 7913/14), this reflection exercise differs from the previous reform in that it involves staff “from the outset” and is intended to be a “bottom-up” approach of ideas to the political level, a senior European official told a few journalists on Friday 10 July.
According to that official, the objective set for these working groups was to make proposals capable of meeting several objectives: - strengthening horizontal collaboration between staff members in different Directorates-General; - “strengthening collaboration with Member States”, notably by involving the Commission’s representation offices more closely; - “making the Commission more attractive as an employer” by speeding up recruitment procedures and making career progression more agile; - “optimising resource allocation by aligning it with political priorities”; - finding a better balance between what is done internally and externally; - passing on a leadership culture, at a time when “a wave of retirements among senior managers” is approaching; - putting in place the appropriate internal processes for the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
However, this reform does not aim to make specific proposals concerning the reorganisation of the Commission’s internal departments, notably to adapt to the operation of the future Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2028-2034, which provides for Member States to take back control of the management of European programmes. Nor does it seek to redraw the contours of the European External Action Service (EEAS), whose functioning is criticised by some Member States and is the subject of competing ambitions within the Commission, which increasingly sees itself as geopolitical.
Nor will there be any question of looking again at the status of European officials.
In its initial proposal for the post-2027 MFF, the Commission is asking Member States to give it the means to recruit 2,500 additional European officials so that it can carry out the new tasks already assigned to it. If the future agreement on the 2028-2034 MFF is “not favourable to us, this internal reform is even more important”, the same senior European official said.
Mr Serafin is expected to present the results of this internal reflection to President Ursula von der Leyen by the end of 2026. In the meantime, Catherine Day, the Irish former Secretary-General of the Commission, will present the results of the work of the high-level reflection group on the future of the civil service in the European Union institution (see EUROPE 13676/31). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)