Off on the UK campaign trail

Date: 13/03/1997

Brussels is sending reinforcements to the UK to strengthen its campaign against the evils of Euroscepticsm.

That, at least, is how the departure of Alison Hook from Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan's cabinet is being seen. She will be joining the Commission's London office in the number two slot - a job which has been left vacant for almost two years. Could it be that the imminent UK general election has convinced someone that a deputy troubleshooter is required to assist the no-nonsense Geoff Martin, whose full-time role now is to counter curved-cucumber-bent-banana syndrome?

Hook's old job as Brittan's anti-dumping and economic affairs expert is being taken by Alisdair McIntosh, who is moving across from DGXIX (budgets).

But some UK nationals in the Commission who fancied the London office job want to know why Hook is going to London at all. They point out that she is not a fonctionnaire, having spent all her time in Brussels in a cabinet, and has never worked in the services.

Why should it matter? Because, say the complainers, her new job is to project the Commission as an institution and should therefore go to someone with a better knowledge of the ins and outs of the place.

Hook's ability is not in question, though, and at least she has worked within the Commission in Brussels - something her new boss Geoff Martin cannot claim to have done at any time during his lengthy career with the institution.