Kallas tells Verheugen to put up or shut up

The Commissioner for Personnel and Administration Siim Kallas has hit back at claims by Günter Verheugen that commissioners are locked in a power struggle with their senior officials, saying that the German should name those blocking his reform plans.

Commenting on declarations by Verheugen that top officials have obstructed ­efforts to cut red tape under the better regulation drive, Kallas said: "If he says he has serious problems in proposing ideas on better regulation, I would like to know where the resistance is."

The Estonian commissioner added that he did not like "unjustified allegations".

He rejected Verheugen’s suggestions that commissioners should have more power to pick their ­directors-general (DGs) to ensure they do their political masters’ bidding. The whole point of Commission staff reforms had been to "oppose political appointments based on criteria other than merit", Kallas said. If individuals were promoted on the basis of "personal friendship" there would be problems, he said.

Asked if he was referring to allegations that Verheugen had let personal ­relationships influence his own promotion decisions, Kallas said that commissioners had "full discretion" over cabinet posts. Provided commissioners respected the principles of gender and geographical balance there should not be any problems, he said.

He added that under the current system commissioners had a "free choice to select DGs" and that he had had "100% co-operation" with Verheugen in the ­major reshuffle of senior ­officials last November when 37 people moved jobs. At that time, Austrian Heinz Zourek was pro­moted to be the new director-­general at DG Enterprise.

Kallas stressed that the current Commission was working well and had never needed to take a formal vote because decisions were taken on the basis of consensus.

Verheugen stirred up a political storm after he claimed in the Süddeutsche Zeitung that senior officials had too much power in the Commission and that there was a "constant power struggle" between commissioners and officials. He said the biggest task of commissioner was "control­ling the [bureaucratic] apparatus" because it had become so powerful. Verheugen said that officials were taking decisions which should be left to commissioners themselves.

His comments have provoked strong reactions. Staff unions attacked him for treating officials as "scapegoats" and asking what he had done to tackle the ­problem, having been in the Commission since 1999. Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding said she was "astonished" by Verheugen’s claims, adding that her officials were "excellent".

But Verheugen’s comments echoed recent criticism of the Commission by German Chancellor Angela Merkel who said in a speech in Berlin that commissioners’ lack of control over their directors-general was "unthinkable" for a German minister.

Merkel said following a meeting with Commission President José Manuel ­Barroso in Berlin that the German government wanted to "resolve any issues in a ­spirit of good fellowship", which also applied to ­commissioner Verheugen.

Barroso has so far not publicly distanced himself from Verheugen’s remarks. A spokesman for Barroso said: "In a complex organisation like the Commission when there is change there is resistance. The president is squarely behind the goal of making a profound role of better regulation."

He added that the Commission administration was "loyal" and was responding to the challenge.

Verheugen is due to present a paper to restart the better regulation drive on 14 November. The document will set out ways to reduce the burden of red tape on EU businesses by 25% and cut costs by €150 billion over a number of years.

The Commissioner for Personnel and Administration Siim Kallas has hit back at claims by Günter Verheugen that commissioners are locked in a power struggle with their senior officials, saying that the German should name those blocking his reform plans.

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