All eyes on top jobs

Date: 12/12/1996

You can spot the man poised for the European Parliament presidency a mile off - he is the one surrounded by worthy souls bidding for one of the 30-odd jobs now within the gift of Spanish Christian Democrat MEP José María Gil-Robles.

The president-in-waiting's plans for the mid-January take-over are well advanced and the bees are swarming around the honeypot. But there are already a few ruffled feathers inside the Parliament at rumours that the two top posts, those of the president's chef and deputy chef, will be filled from outside the institution.

Word has it that both jobs may go to Commission officials, with heavy betting that the chef is likely to be Enrique Lopez, a senior Spanish official in the Directorate-General for competition (DGIV) and the deputy chef French lawyer Denise Sorasio.

The fact that both know the EU institutions will be a plus point - the last Spanish president of the Parliament, Enrique Baron, chose his top two cabinet members from Madrid, resulting in much confusion as they tried to master the complexities of life in the corridors of Euro-power.