EU parliament wants explanation about promotion Selmayr

brussels - The pressure on the European Commission to clarify the promotion of Chief of Staff Martin Selmayr from President Jean-Claude Juncker to Secretary General of the daily EU administration is increasing. The European Parliament wants to explain in a plenary debate in Strasbourg next week how exactly the appointment has taken place.

According to critics, the promotion was very shadowy, but the committee insists that everything went strictly according to the book. Commission spokespersons have reacted cautiously during the past two weeks and sometimes irritated during the daily press questions about the case. Whether Juncker himself, his second husband Frans Timmermans or another EU Commissioner is going to conduct the debate with the parliament is still unknown.

Selmayr (47) had applied for the post of deputy secretary general. But Juncker pushed the German almost directly to the highest official post, when he announced on 21 February that the Dutchman Alexander Italianer leaves that place on March 1 because he is retiring.

Other members of the European Commission would have been surprised by the procedure, but agreed with the appointment. The German lawyer is de facto in charge of about 33,000 commission officials. There is unrest about the lack of transparency among staff unions.

The House of Representatives wants the cabinet to ask for clarification. If it is up to Dutch MEPs from VVD, GroenLinks, D66, PvdA and SP, the appointment will be reversed, it turned out during a debate in Brussels on Tuesday evening. SP'er Dennis de Jong spoke of a disgrace and his VVD colleague Hans van Baalen said that if something similar happened in Burkina Faso, the EU would withdraw its support.

According to CDA MEP Esther de Lange, who belongs to the same political family as Juncker, the matter 'stinks', but she wants to have all the information first. If media reports are true that Selmayr has proposed that EU Commissioners should receive more redundancy pay, an office, assistants and a car with a driver after their departure, then his position is not tenable.