Commission departments could face axe

Date: 03/06/1999

By Gareth Harding

The number of directorate-generals in the European Commission could be slashed by half under recommendations being drawn up by outgoing President Jacques Santer and his team.

The aim of the move is to streamline the Commission's services to avoid the overlap of functions and proliferation of departments which has characterised the institution in recent years.

As the EU's powers have grown, so have the number of directorates-general (DGs). The problem is that there are now more Commission departments than there are European Commissioners, leading to the creation of cobbled-together portfolios such as that of Emma Bonino. For the past five years, the Italian has been responsible for fisheries, consumer affairs and humanitarian aid, while turf battles amongst some of her colleagues have led to responsibility for the foreign affairs dossier being split between six individuals.

" Instead of building directorate-generals by chance or to invent something to do for Commissioners, a more logical approach would be to try to organise directorates-general so that they meet the tasks of the Commission of tomorrow," said one official.

Over the past two years, each of the institution's directorates has carried out an audit of how it functions and the results have now been channelled into a series of radical proposals for reforming the EU's administrative arm.

Under the draft recommendations, the number of directorates-general would be cut from 24 to 12. However, instead of simply abolishing departments or cutting staff numbers, the outgoing Commission will propose grouping related tasks together under 'super-DGs'.

This could lead to the fusing of the Commission's environment and consumer affairs directorates, the merging of its numerous economic and financial departments, and housing external relations under one roof.

The shake-up could also lead to the creation of new directorates-general to reflect the Commission's new powers and priorities. At present, for example, there is no department for justice and home affairs issues, whilst hundreds are employed in the single market directorate seven years after internal barriers were supposed to have come down.

The ideas are contained in a report entitled The Commission of Tomorrow which will be handed over to incoming President Romano Prodi in the next few weeks.

Whilst the former Italian premier is likely to welcome many of the paper's ideas, he is unlikely to feel bound by any advice given by the present College of Commissioners.

The mooted changes are also likely to be fiercely resisted within the Commission's services. "We face a very big problem: people will always defend their patch even when they are producing papers that are not used," said one official.

Outgoing Commission to hand report 'The Commission of Tomorrow' to incoming President Romano Prodi.