EUROPEAN UNION
Members of the European Parliament have accused European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker (pictured) of breaking the law by “parachuting” an aide into a job as head of the EU’s Public Service.
A draft resolution of the Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee (BCC), which oversees the Brussels administration, condemned the appointment of Martin Selmayr as Secretary-General of the European Commission.
Mr Selmayr was previously Chief-of-Staff to Mr Juncker.
The BCC said the appointment “constitutes a coup-like action which stretched and possibly even overstretched the limits of the law”.
Mr Selmayr was first appointed as a deputy to Alexander Italianer, the Dutch Secretary-General who was then head of the EU’s 33,000 PS employees.
Only nine minutes after Mr Italianer’s apparently unexpected resignation, Mr Selmayr was appointed to replace him on the personal recommendation of Mr Juncker.
It later came to light that both had known since autumn 2015 that Mr Italianer would resign this year.
“The Parliament … is disappointed by the fact that not a single Commissioner seems to have questioned this surprise appointment, asked for a postponement of this decision or requested discussion,” the BCC said.
Even more worrying for Mr Selmayr (47) — nicknamed the “monster” because of his ruthless and abrasive operating style — is that the statement was drafted by Chair of the BCC, Inge Grässle.
Mrs Grässle is, like Mr Selmayr, a senior German Christian Democrat and, according to one Parliamentary source from Germany, “her criticism is a shift in position and a real blow”.
“The European Parliament notes that the result of this procedure constitutes a reputational risk not only for the European Commission but for all the EU institutions,” the BCC said.
Brussels, 29 March 2018
