Irish moves open the field

Date: 24/10/1996

Two long-serving Irish fonctionnaires are climbing the Commission's promotion ladder, creating vacancies for a brace of deputy chefs.

David O'Sullivan, Social Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn's number two, will be moving to an A2 post in DGV (employment, industrial relations and social affairs) at the end of the year, handling aspects of EU social policy. He had previously worked in former Irish Commissioner Peter Sutherland's cabinet, various Commission departments and in its delegation in Tokyo.

Catherine Day, Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan's deputy chef, is moving to an A2 post in Van Den Broek's DGIA, handling the 'other Europe' desk which deals with countries such as Turkey, Cyprus, Malta, Slovenia, EFTA and most of former Yugoslavia. Day, like O'Sullivan, joined the Commission in 1979. She also had previously worked with Sutherland and with another Irish Commissioner Richard Burke.

The promotion makes her the institution's 15th female director. In January 1995 there were just five, underlining the Santer Commission's record of appointing more women A2s in less than two years than previous Commissions had in more than 35 years.

But who will take over? Flynn's field seems wide open although he may be tempted to underline his responsibilities for equal opportunities by replacing O'Sullivan with a woman. That would be counter-balanced by the almost certain replacement of Day by a man - probably Robert Madelin.

Other senior appointments include the promotion of German Joachim Heine from director in DGVI (agriculture) to deputy director-general in the same directorate, German Christian Patermann from the Statistical Office to a director's post in DGXII (research, science and development) and Austrian Manfred Grasserbauer to a director's post in the research centre at Geel.