Transport shake-up

Date: 06/03/1997

Chris Boyd, Neil Kinnock's adviser on economic policy and Trans-European Networks, has upped sticks and moved to the Directorate-General for indirect taxation (DGXXI).

Boyd's experience as former Commission President Jacques Delors' right-hand man on economic and monetary affairs was invaluable in the Kinnock camp, but his other talent as bodyguard and minder was never put to good use.

In fact, it has only been deployed once, back in the days when Delors was headline news in the UK and went to make a speech at the London School of Economics, without police back-up.

Boyd was with him and was very concerned by the huge throng of journalists and cameramen in a very cramped lobby. Looking remarkably like a plain-clothed policeman, Boyd rammed his body through the crowd and forced a space for Delors, who was in danger of getting squashed.

The musical chairs triggered by Boyd's move involves Mike Neilson, a former official in the Directorate-General for economic affairs (DGII) responsible for G7 and international affairs, who has replaced Boyd in the Kinnock cabinet.

Meanwhile, Frenchman Claude Chêne, the former head of air transport at DGVII, has moved into Michel Vanden Abeele's old slot as chef de cabinet to Competition Commissioner Karel van Miert.

No agreement has yet been reached on who should replace Chêne in the key job of chief 'open skies' negotiator with the Americans, but the French are very keen to hold on to the post.

Temporarily, it is in the hands of Frederik Sørensen, the Dane who dealt with air transport under Chêne.

It will be just like old times for Chêne and Van Miert. Chêne was the Dutchman's chef once before and the two men soon discovered they shared a love of pottering about in the garden.

Van Miert's passion for gardening is undiminished despite last summer's fall from a plum tree which left him with a broken arm, and we can expect a close working relationship. More than once in the past, officials have approached the pair fearful of interrupting what looked like crucial mutterings on policy, only to discover them in intense debate about the latest treatment for greenfly or something of the sort.