Prodi clears out Santer-era spokesmen

Date: 15/07/1999

By Tim Jones

ALL 20 European Commission spokesmen have been ditched and a new Media and Communications Service established, reporting directly to Romano Prodi.

The clean sweep, designed to give the institution a new public face after the Spokesman's Service mishandled the spring crisis, has angered some press officers who consider themselves blameless.

But Prodi's spokesman Ricardo Levi insisted the move should not be seen as an attack on the outgoing team.

"Some people may wonder why we have allowed four Commissioners to stay on but are asking for all new faces in the Spokesman's Service," he said. "The fact is that we are not reforming the service but creating an entirely new one from scratch. This is not a judgement on the personal style or performance of any spokesmen."

The new service will include Levi as spokesman, "with full political authority to communicate for the whole Commission", but will be headed by an in-house official who will take over parts of the Directorate-General for information (DGX) and coordinate the work of the institution's national offices.

The service is likely to be given only 12 official spokesmen, although the number of assistants will be beefed up, particularly in areas of high demand such as competition, agriculture and trade.

Most of the new team is expected to come from within the institution and will report directly to the president in a bid to stop members becoming spin doctors for individual Commissioners. But sceptics claim that this will simply lead Commissioners to assign personal public relations to a member of their private offices (cabinets).