New Member States yet to claw top Union posts

Date: 02/12/04

By Martin Banks

THE European Commission has pledged to step up its efforts to ensure that senior civil servants from new member states are fairly represented in top posts in the institution.

So far, less than a handful of the Commission's 265 most senior jobs are occupied by officials from the ten new members that joined the EU on 1 May.

The Commission has reserved eight posts at A1 level (director-general and deputy DG) and 29 at A2, or director, level for officials from new member states.

But, so far, only three of its 34 deputy DGs - and none of its 32 DGs - are from the EU's newest members.

From 869 heads of unit so far only a Pole, in DG Regional Policy, is from a new member state.

Marie Bohata, from the Czech Republic, started her new job as deputy DG at Eurostat, the EU's statistical agency in Luxembourg, yesterday (1 December).

Bohata is a former head of the Czech statistical office and president of the Czech Association of Business Ethics.

Hungarian Zoltan Kazatsay has been appointed deputy DG in transport and energy, and Slovenian Zoran Stancic, is the new deputy DG in the research directorate. Both will take up their posts on 16 December.

Budapest-born Kazatsay, aged 52, is a former deputy state secretary of the Hungarian transport ministry where he was also responsible for preparation of the country's EU membership.

Stancic, 42, has been secretary for science in the ministry of education, science and sport in Slovenia since 2000.

To date, Slovak Katerina Mathernova is the only one of the Commission's 199 directors who comes from a new member state. Mathernova takes up her post as director in the regional policy DG on 1 March.

While no appointments have yet been made, deputy DG posts have also been reserved for new member state officials in the employment, trade, external relations and informatics departments.

An official from the new member states is expected to get a DG post before the end of the year and three other senior jobs - a director in the security DG, a director in the Joint Research Council and a head of unit for land transport policy - are to be filled shortly by accession state candidates.

Poland, Estonia, Cyprus, Lithuania, Latvia and Malta are without any representation in top posts.

Representation of new members falls a long way behind that of the old.

Top of the league table is France, with 184 senior officials, including six DGs, three deputy DGs, 31 directors and 144 heads of unit.

Close behind is Germany, occupying 157 top jobs, including six DGs, seven deputy DGs, 22 directors and 122 heads of unit.

The UK has 137 senior officials, including four DGs and three deputy DGs, while Italy has 121 (three DGs and five deputy DGs).

The Commission says it aims to ensure that each country is eventually represented at A1 level.

But UK Democrat MEP Chris Huhne says that the European Parliament should “closely monitor” the situation “so that, over time, the Commission is seen to be making every effort to replace director-generals and other senior officials from 'old' member states with people from new members”.

“This is particularly important now because the policy problems in many of the new members are very different from the old EU-15,” he added.

Article says that the European Commission plans to increase its efforts to ensure that senior civil servants from new member states were fairly represented in top posts in the institution.