Brussels, 24/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday evening, the European Commission adopted its strategy for the implementation of the principle of mobility for Directors-General, finalised in September 1999 when the Romano Prodi Commission took over. According to this strategy, A1 and A2 officials will be subject to mobility after 5 years and will not stay longer than 7 years in the same post. The aim of this strategy is to prevent the institution from becoming ossified. The Commission has thus announced that competitions will be opened on 3 May this year for the replacement of seven Directors-General out of a total of 31, including 4 French nationals. Three French nationals, Yves Franchet (head of Eurostat), Jean-Paul Mingasson (Director General at the DG Budget), Robert Verrue (responsible for the information society), and Belgian national Michel Vanden Abeele (taxation), German Alexander Schaub (competition) and British John Mogg, should be attributed to other posts, while the fourth French national, Guy Legras (Direcotr General for External Relations), who will be retiring in 2003, should also be replaced.
In all, 15 Directors General (DG) and Deputy Directors General (DDG) will be concerned.
The other elements of the decision are:
We would point out that Maria Filippone (DDG at the Secretariat General) and Bernhard Zepter DDG at the Secretariat General) are also to leave the Commission. As this vast movement is likely to considerably affect the geographical balance of senior staff, the Commission has preferred to leave some time for integrating other elements in its reflection. In addition to the principle of mobility and geographical balance, Commissioner Neil Kinnock suggested to members of the College that the wishes of the Directors General and Directors concerned should be taken into account, including the prospects opened by the use of Article 50 of the Statute of the European Public Service on early retirement. Commissioners are also invited to confirm their availability to change the officials of administrations attached to their portfolio. In this context, the criteria of merit and gender equality (positive discrimination measures in favour of women) will be applied.
According to Romano Prodi, these decisions "are a further clear indication that we are fulfilling the mandate [Ed.: to reform the Commission]. Not only do we want senior managers to change jobs with reasonable regularity so that know-how and experience circulate in the Institution, we also want our senior staff to have the widest possible experience. Finally, we want to confirm the primacy of the political dimension of this Commission. The portfolios and the conduct of the policy are the responsibility of the Commission".
Neil Kinnock felt the decisions taken "contribute further to the renewal of the Commission and the development of career opportunities for our high quality officials (…). Those who analyse our decisions will notice that they correspond to our published objectives: merit must have primacy, whilst we strive to have senior managers of all EU nationalities in this multinational institution. We are not prepared to run a sort of Eurovision contest for which nationality holds the greatest number of posts - and we do not think that the European public would want us to".