Senior official criticised over recruitment

Date: 20/03/1997

By Mark Turner and Rory Watson

THE Council of Ministers' most senior official is facing an unprecedented revolt by his own staff amid claims that a top-level post is being earmarked for one of his closest personal advisers.

The uncharacteristically outspoken opposition has been triggered by Council Secretary-General Jürgen Trumpf's decision to move one of the secretariat's permanent 'A2' director posts into his private office to handle EU foreign policy.

Critics claim that the move runs counter to pledges Trumpf made when appointed to the post less than three years ago. They also fear that it is part of a wider attempt to parachute outside diplomats into top Council jobs.

“There is a new trend since the Maastricht Treaty for several, if not most, of the posts of director to be filled from national administrations. This is a way for politicians to keep us under national control,” claimed one senior official.

Parachuting national officials into senior posts is not new - only one of the institution's 15 current directors-general was promoted from within the institution. But EU fonctionnaires believe the tendency is now spreading to lower ranks and will eventually set a ceiling on internal career development.

The practice has been thrust back into the limelight by Trumpf's decision to move the post into his private office and by the unusual procedures initially used to try to fill it.

In Trumpf's defence, it is said that as the Union takes over more responsibility for foreign policy and its internal policy burdens become less onerous, some shifts of personnel are inevitable.

But critics reply that the new private office post is superfluous and could have been better deployed within the understaffed departments handling common foreign and security policy (CFSP) and justice and home affairs issues.

More specifically, they have challenged the way applications for the new post were immediately invited from within the Council, other EU institutions and member states' Union embassies.

“Normally, jobs are advertised in a certain order. You try to fill them internally first and if that does not work, then you look further afield,” explained one official.

Staff have held two general assemblies to condemn the initiative and normally self-effacing officials are considering tabling a petition of protest to the secretary-general.

In a further twist, candidates who replied to the job advert were told earlier this month that the original recruitment notice had been cancelled and that a new one would be issued with technical clarifications.

The specific job description - demanding a good understanding of CFSP issues and fluency in French, English and German - also raised eyebrows.

“The languages of the Intergovernmental Conference handling these subjects and of international diplomacy are English and French, so why ask for German as well?” asked one disgruntled Council official.

This combination of factors has led some to suspect that the post is being created for Sabine Ehmke, one of Trumpf's personal advisers, who worked for the German foreign ministry before moving on a temporary contract to work with him in the Council.

“If this is the case and a temporary official is being promoted and given a permanent contract, then it would

run counter to what Trumpf promised when he was appointed. It would also weaken his standing in the institution,” claimed one critic.

When he came to the Council in July 1994, it was agreed that Trumpf could take on a certain number of temporary staff for the duration of his mandate.

“The understanding was that people who came with him on a temporary basis would go with him when he leaves in two years' time,” explained one official.

In recent weeks, the Council's personnel committee has overwhelmingly adopted two resolutions publicly criticising the latest manoeuvres.

One described the appointment as “a further attempt to fill a grade A2 official's post with an external candidate or a temporary member of staff who is already on the spot, which is tantamount to further back-door recruitment”.