Commissioners may face axe for gaffes

Date: 10/06/1999

By Tim Jones

EUROPEAN Commissioners could be sacked by Romano Prodi for political misjudgements which damage the institution's reputation under tough new rules drawn up by the incoming president.

When Prodi announced at last week's Cologne summit that he would ask members of his team to give an undertaking to resign if he asked them to, it was widely assumed that this would apply only in cases of outright corruption or incompetence.

But it is now clear that he would also be prepared to wield the axe if a Commissioner made unguarded remarks or serious political misjudgements which undermined their work or that of the Commission.

This could cover some of the behaviour of outgoing Commissioners, such as Padraig Flynn's (social affairs) remark that it was difficult to live on his annual basic salary of €187,260 or Ritt Bjerregaard's (environment) publication of her diaries criticising colleagues.

" There is a growing trend in Europe for ministers to resign over matters of honour or if they harm the reputation of the government and it is only right that this practice should finally come into the Commission," said a senior official in the caretaker Commission.

Observers say the recent resignation of the Belgian agriculture and health ministers over the tracing of carcinogens in poultry feed, the British trade minister over failure to declare an advantageous home loan, and growing pressure on a German chancellery minister over a similar indiscretion, contrast sharply with the practice in the Commission.

The new regime will give Prodi unprecedented prime ministerial powers over his 19 colleagues, and is designed to avoid a repetition of the crisis in March this year when Jacques Santer's team had to resign en masse because Research Commissioner Edith Cresson refused to quit alone.

Prodi will seek an "honourable commitment" from the Commissioners he chooses that they will step down if he decides that they should go. "Given that, unlike previous Commission presidents, he will be choosing his own team, he does not expect to have to sack anybody," said an aide close to the new president. "However, the option will be there."

With the Commission itself, Prodi has served notice that he will extend the influence of the directorates-general at the expense of the Commissioners' private offices (cabinets) and boost the policy-coordinating role of the secretariat-general, which reports directly to him.

Cabinets, which were severely criticised in the report from the committee of 'wise men' which led to the demise of the Santer team, will be shrunk to a maximum of six policy advisers, with at least three coming from a member state other than that of the Commissioner. The average cabinet under Santer totalled 8-9 staff.

With the exception of Santer's private office, most Commissioners' cabinets were packed with their own nationals and chiefs of staff were often appointed in consultation with party leaders back home.

Since cabinets will be restricted to advising Commissioners on policy, the directorates-general will regain ground lost in arbitrating inter-departmental disputes when legislation is drafted.

Prodi aides believe cabinet policy experts have spent too much time refining legislative texts when their role should be confined to negotiating over political aspects of law-making.

Under Romano Prodi, Commissioners may be asked to resign if they make political misjudgments as well as in cases of corruption or incompetence.