Double act proposed for deputy’s job

Date: 15/05/1997

A SHAKE-UP is expected in the upper echelons of the European Commission following Secretary-General David Williamson's decision to retire within three months.

The institution formally fired the starting gun in the succession race this week by inviting aspiring internal candidates to apply, amid growing speculation that the next secretary-general may be flanked by two deputies.

If the top job goes to an insider, current Deputy Secretary-General Carlo Trojan is widely seen as the best placed and most experienced candidate after working with Williamson for the past decade. Only if a hitch occurred would the competition be widened to officials in other EU institutions and then to outsiders.

The appointment of Trojan would leave the deputy's slot vacant, with Bernhard Zepter, a senior foreign ministry official in Bonn and former external relations adviser to ex-Commission President Jacques Delors, seen as the most likely candidate.

But in a new twist, the possibility of having two deputy secretaries-general is being mooted. This would allow Zepter to continue to use his foreign policy expertise, while his colleague would be responsible for managing the Commission's internal administrative and personnel issues.

Political considerations are also playing a part. Appointing two deputies would enable one of the posts to be filled by a British official, in compensation for the UK relinquishing the top job and to mark the country's new attitude towards the Union, without having major knock-on effects on other senior positions.

If the Commission does opt for two deputies, the smart money is increasingly on Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock's chef de cabinet Philip Lowe to fill the second slot. Lowe has held several senior posts since moving to Brussels in the early Eighties as one of former Commission President Gaston Thorn's personal advisers.