Thread by @chief_political

From my last post I saw there is some appetite to delve deeper in EU affairs so lets try and kick some more knowledge around. It might serve someone First up - the European Commission.
#Thread

#europeanunion #europeancommission #explainer

The EU's executive has a staff of around 32.000. This also included translators and chauffeurs. Most of them are in Brussels, but also some staff is in Luxembourgh and a significant portion is at the delegations around the world
#europeanunion #europeancommission #explainer

There are 27 Commissionairs. Each country can appoint a Commissionair which is a strange quirk. The EC has further made it more complex by appointing the Executive Vice Presidents and 5 Vice Presidents. Yeah, why make it simple?

Here is a overview of all the Commissionairs.

euobserver.com/institutional/…

The EC is organised through Directorate General, which look a bit like ministries. Except there are much more. Some irrelevant for us lobbyist, activists and nosy newbies.

A complete list of Directorate Generals can be find here.

ec.europa.eu/info/departmen…

Within such a Directorate General the Desktop Officer is the lowest in rank, but for many of us the go-to guy or girl when discussing files. He is managed y a Head of Unit. Units form part of a Directorate, and all Directorates together form,you guessed it > A Directorate General

Here is a example of the inner organisation of the DG. In general when looking for the inner workings of a DG, just Google the name of the DG + Organogram.

ec.europa.eu/info/sites/def…

There is of course the phone book of the EU

op.europa.eu/en/web/who-is-…

Another great resource is the Register of European Commission Documents. Its sounds boring, but I love snooping around here, as it gives unique insights into the agenda of the EC.

ec.europa.eu/transparency/d…

The EC sees itself as the Guardian of the Treaty. In my experience civil servants are very knowledgeable, very smart, and value driven. They very much believe in the European project. A lot of theme come from the @collegeofeurope or @Unimaas

The Berlaymont is for better or worse the symbol of the European Commission.

#berlaymont

Some years ago there was this writer -Robert Menasse- who wrote an excellent book on the intrinsics of the Commission.

theguardian.com/books/2019/feb…

The current president of the Commission @vonderleyen who got the job after the @Europarl_EN failed to rally behind a common candidate.

Another important person in the Commission is the SecGen, currently it is Ilze Juhansone. She doesn't have a twitter account. However her predessessor does; @MartinSelmayr

Not sure if it is insightful, but make sure you follow mock sites like @meme_ec and the @Berlaymonster. Rather follow a real person from the Commission, I recommend @katieowens

I know my network knows even more insights and fun facts about the @EU_Commission . Drop them bellow.

Wrong Katie Owens. It should have been this one > @ktowens