The right presidential team?

An assumption has spread that if Jean-Claude Juncker does become president of the European Commission, then Martin Selmayr, who was briefly his campaign manager and whose current job is head of the private office of Viviane Reding, will be chosen as his chef de cabinet.

Without casting any doubt on this development, Entre Nous observes that an intriguing aspect of Selmayr’s time in the Commission (ten years) is that he has very limited experience in the Commission services. He was a spokesman for Reding and then joined her cabinet. A retrospective glance at the sequence of heads of the office of presidents offers different models: Johannes Laitenberger joined the Commission from the secretariat of the Council, but was briefly in the Commission’s competition department. João Vale de Almeida, Stefano Manservisi and David O’Sullivan were all career Commission officials and had worked outside cabinets as well as in them. Jim Cloos, who headed Jacques Santer’s private office, had worked in commissioners’ cabinets and been Luxembourg’s deputy permanent representative.

You have to go back to Pascal Lamy, head of Jacques Delors’ office, to find someone with less experience in Commission departments. So is Selmayr comparable?

If Jean-Claude Juncker is anointed the next president of the Commission, then who fills in as Luxembourg’s European commissioner once Viviane Reding has gone to the European Parliament? Nicolas Schmit is unlikely to want to give up his position as employment minister just to be made jobless in four months’ time.

Entre Nous has a creative suggestion that might appeal to the liberal-socialist coalition government for its minimalism: how about sending Juncker? He is not currently employed. He would need to be in Brussels to prepare for his new job. He could help with the handover from Barroso II to the new administration.