New faces: the Commission cabinets

By Martin Banks

Date: 28/10/04

Most of the designated members of José Manuel Barroso's Commission had completed recruitment to their private offices ahead of Wednesday's events in the European Parliament.

The notable exceptions were Rocco Buttiglione, whose appointment was so fiercely criticized, and the new president himself.

Commissioners can appoint six or seven administrator-grade officials to their cabinets. Each cabinet must contain at least three different nationalities and either the head or deputy head must be a different nationality from the commissioner. The chef de cabinet, usually an experienced Commission civil servant or diplomat, will be an A-13 grade official (A2 under the old rules), while the deputy chef is grade A-12 (formerly A3).

Each commissioner has a spokesperson, who must be of a different nationality. The spokespersons are not members of the cabinets, but are answerable to the Commission spokeswoman, Françoise Le Bail.

José Manuel Barroso (Portugal, president)

Head of cabinet: João Vale de Almeida

Deputy: Alexander Italianer

Spokesperson: Françoise le Bail

Günter Verheugen (Germany, enterprise and industry)

Head of cabinet: Peter Tempel

Deputy: Christian Danielsson

Members: Petra Erler, Simon Mordue, Matthias Oel, Anne-Laure De Coincy

Siim Kallas (Estonia, administrative affairs and fight against fraud)

Head of cabinet: Henrik Hololei

Deputy: Kristian Schmidt

Members: Derk-Jan Eppink, Keir Fitch, Veronica Manfredi, Margus Rahuoja, Elisabeth Werner

Rocco Buttiglione (Italy, justice, freedom and security)

All cabinet members TBA

Jacques Barrot (France, transport)

Head of cabinet: Benoit le Bret

Deputy: Kerstin Jorna

Members: Miguel Sagredo, Armelle Lidou, Francis Morgan, Thomas Chenevier Spokesman: Stefaan De Rynck

Margot Wallström (Sweden, institutional relations and communications)

Head of cabinet: Rolf Annerberg

Deputy: Antonia Carparelli

Members: Anne Bergenfelt, Beate Gminder, Lena Ag, Mark Gray

Joe Borg (Malta, fisheries and maritime affairs)

Head of cabinet: Patrick Tabone

Deputy: Michael Köhler

Members: Joanna Darmanin, Maja Kirchner, Tiago Pitta e Cunha, Waddah Saab, Ella Strickland

Stavros Dimas (Greece, environment)

Head of cabinet: Nancy Kontou

Deputy: Pierre Schellekens

Members: Dimitris Giotakos, Kostas Kostopolous, Martijn Quinn, Claudia Canevari

Joaquín Almunia (Spain, economic and monetary affairs)

Head of cabinet: Maria Luisa Lamela

Deputy: Peter Bekx

Members: Benjamin Angel, Gabriele Giudice, Maria Martin Prat, Antoine Quero, Ursula Castro

Spokesperson: Amelia Torres

Ingrida Udre (Latvia, taxation and customs union)

Head of cabinet: Andris Piebalgs

Deputy: Pim van Ballekom

Members: Oskars Kastens, Angela Bardenhywer

(remainder TBA)

Benita Ferrero-Waldner (Austria, external affairs)

Head of cabinet: Patrick Child

Deputy: Peter Schwaiger

Members: Judith Gebetstroithner, Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, Hubert Gambs, Richard Kuehnel, Vincent Guerend

Spokesperson: Emma Udwin

Ján Figel (Slovakia, education and culture)

Head of cabinet: Miroslav Adamis

Deputy: Margarida Gameiro

Members: Peter Javorcik, Eva Wenigová, David Hughes, Bern Biervert, Giuseppa Contino

Spokesperson: Frédéric Vincent

Mariann Fischer Boel (Denmark, agriculture and rural devt.)

Head of cabinet: Claus Sørensen

Deputy: Klaus-Dieter Borchardt

Members: Jean-Charles Ellermann-Kingombe, Christina Borckman, Linda Mauperon, Rosario Bento Pais

Spokesperson: Michael Mann

Dalia Grybauskaite (Lithuania, budget, financial programming)

Head of cabinet: Stephen Quest

Deputy: Leina Adakauskiene

Members: Rima Kaziliuniene, Denis Genton, Arunas Ribokas, Vasco Cal, Baudouin Baudru

Spokesperson: Ewa Hudlund

Danuta Hübner (Poland, regional policy)

Head of cabinet: Joost Korte

Deputy: Marta Cygan

Members: Marco Panigalli, Joanna Szychowska, Slawomir Tokarski, Eric von Breska, David Young

Spokesperson: TBA

László Kovács (Hungary, energy)

Head of cabinet: Tamàs Szücs

Deputy: Christopher Jones

Members: Bonifacio García Porras, László Varró, Alexandra Jour-Schröder, Anabela Gago-Filori, Attila Marján

Neelie Kroes (The Netherlands, competition)

Head of cabinet: Ben Smulders

Deputy: Olivier Guersent

Members: Carlos Tenreiro, Barbara Brandtner, Lorena Boix-Alonso, Michelle Sutton

Spokesperson: Jonathan Todd

Markos Kyprianou (Cyprus, health and consumer protection)

Head of cabinet: Margaritis Schinas

Deputy: Philippe Brunet

Members: Paula Pinho, Alessandro Giordani, Despina Spanou, Erdem Erginel, Georgina Georgiou

Spokesperson: Philip Tod

Peter Mandelson (UK, trade)

Head of cabinet: Simon Fraser

Deputy: Denis Redonnet

Members: Roger Liddle, Hiddo Houben, Renate Nikolay, Per Haugaard, Catherine Wendt

Spokesperson: Claude Veron-Reville

Charlie McCreevy (Ireland, internal market and services)

Head of cabinet: Martin Power

Deputy: Claire Bury

Members: Michael Murray, Martin Merlin, Peter Kerstens, Helen Blake, Shane Sutherland

Spokesperson: Oliver Drewes

Louis Michel (Belgium, development)

Head of cabinet: Sabine Weyand

Deputy: Koen Doens

Members: Hervé Delphin, Valérie Glatigny, Jean-François Brakeland, Karin Gardes

Janez Potocnik (Slovenia, research)

Head of cabinet: Peter Dröll

Deputy: Kurt Vandenberghe

Members: Boftjan Sporar, Sian Prout, Benedicte Caremier, Charlotte Haentzel, Matjaz Malgaj

Spokesperson: Antonia Mochan

Viviane Reding (Luxembourg, information society and media)

Head of cabinet: Johannes Laitenber

Deputy: Viviane Hoffman

Members: Christophe Forax, Nathalie Davies, Miguel Faranca, Raf Chanterie, Ken Duchtel

Spokesperson: Martin Selmayr

Olli Rehn (Finland, enlargement)

Head of cabinet: Timo Pesonen

Deputy: Fernando Frutuoso De Melo

Members: Jean-Christophe Filori, Maria Asenius, Kristian Hedberg, Heather Grabbe, Mikko Alkio

Spokesperson: Krisztina Nagy

Vladimir Spidla (Czech Republic, employment and social affairs)

Head of cabinet: Ramiro Cibrian

Deputy: Kristin Schreiber

Members: Daniela Bankier, Michael Ralph, Stephan Ouaki, Jan Jarab, Iva Lanova

Spokesperson: Katherina von Schnurbein