Buttiglione stalls on cabinet members

By Martin Banks

Date: 30/09/04

ITALIAN commissioner designate Rocco Buttiglione has still not chosen the officials for his cabinet.

The incoming commissioner for justice and home affairs is the only member of the Barroso Commission, which takes office on 1 November, yet to announce a chef de cabinet.

It was thought that two high-ranking officials in the foreign affairs ministry in Rome were the candidates for the post but they have now been discounted, according to a Commission source.

It is now believed that he hopes to appoint a diplomat serving in Italy's permanent representation in Brussels.

However, the same source said last night (29 September) that 56-year-old Buttiglione is unlikely to choose any members of his cabinet until after his confirmation hearing at the European Parliament, scheduled for next Tuesday (5 October).

Irishman Charlie McCreevy, the commissioner-designate for internal market and services, has chosen a Briton, Claire Bury, as his deputy chef de cabinet. He had already selected his compatriot, Martin Power, to head his team.

Bury has previously served in the Commission's legal services directorate and in the cabinet of João de Deus Pinheiro, a former Portuguese commissioner.

Since April, Bury, who is fluent in Portuguese, Italian, French and Dutch, has been deputy chef de cabinet for outgoing Internal Market Commissioner, Frits Bolkestein.

A Commission insider said: "She is a very gifted linguist and is widely respected."

Oliver Drewes is strongly tipped to become McCreevy's spokesman. The Dutch-German currently works in Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler's cabinet where he is in charge of rural development, food policy and biotechnology.

Under a code of conduct, which will apply to all commissioners, each six-strong cabinet must contain at least three different nationalities and either the head or the deputy head must be a different nationality from the commissioner. The spokesman cannot be of the same nationality as the commissioner.

Article reports on the last appointments to be made for high-ranking jobs in the Barroso Commission, one month before taking office on 1 November 2004.