Moving with the times

Date: 20/02/1997

Keep your eyes peeled for a rash of comings and goings involving members of the European Commissioners' cabinets.

As one experienced Commission survivor puts it: “With the Commission now almost halfway through its five-year term, people are beginning to look for a safe berth. We can expect a lot more movement in the months ahead.”

One round of musical chairs has already begun, prompted not by this seasonal jockeying for position, but by the internal shake-up in response to the European Parliament's report on the BSE affair.

Hot favourite to take over from Horst Reichenbach as chef de cabinet to Regional Affairs Commissioner Monika Wulf-Mathies is Walter Deffaa, a senior German official currently serving in DGXIX (budgets). Reichenbach has been appointed director-general of the newly-named DGXXIV (consumer policy and health protection), and his likely successor in DGXIX is a respected number-cruncher with previous cabinet experience.

It should prove to be a useful combination as the calculators come out with reform of the structural funds looming.