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My belated #thread about the new European Commission College Structure.
1. The Commission president-elect followed Juncker's example and organised her team commissioners in 'commissioners groups' (previously called project teams') which will work towards delivering her 6 priorities.
2. Her college, however, has extra layer: 3 executive vice-pres. This was in a way imposed by EUCO which, in my view, (though very few noticed) exceeded its competences when it instructed von der Leyen to give a prominent role to both Timmermans and Vestager.
3. Interviews I conducted before the summer break confirmed that decision not to grant vice presidents with access to resources was one of weaknesses of the current college. Von der Leyen has clearly taken some of these concerns on board and provided her executive VPs with DGs
4. The problem is that other VPs - who happen to come from smaller member-states - will still have to rely predominantly on SecGen. This could effectively mean that the power will remain largely in the SecGen (though balanced off somehow by stronger Executive team of VPs).
5. Thus, a question who becomes the next Commission Secretary General is one that many in this town are currently asking.
6. @CER_EU recommended before the summer break that von der Leyen continues Juncker's tradition of filtering out initiatives which don't correspond with her priorities. She seems to be going perhaps a step further and introduces the so called 'one in one out' principle.
@CER_EU 7. @vonderleyen Commission also seems to be keeping @JunckerEU model of communication (though perhaps she is might be willing to slightly democratise it- the time will show)
@CER_EU @vonderleyen @JunckerEU 8. Although journalists were not particularly happy about Juncker's idea to to put communication policy under his direct supervision my research showed that many in the college appreciated this innovation: it limited the competition among commissioners &race for headlines.
@CER_EU @vonderleyen @JunckerEU 9. The initial reading of the mission letters leaves me with no doubt that there will be some competence clashes in the new college. The question is how quickly they will be resolved.
@CER_EU @vonderleyen @JunckerEU 10. I won't comment in this thread on individual policy portfolios (a separate thread on Democracy will follow soon) but I will say this: treat the current allocation with the pinch of salt: the EP is sharpening its teeth and might want to shoot down more than one designate END
