The Commission administration

8 important questions on The Commission administration

As in the case in national executives, the political leadership of the Commission is served by what?

By an administrative staff.

What are the key components of the Commission's administration?

The Directorates-General, which are roughly equivalent to the administrative components of national government departments and which now cover almost all possible policy fields.

The Secretariat-General is the most important of these horizontal services. As the permanent office of the Commission President, it plays an important role in what?

In shaping a coherent policy profile for the Commission as a whole, and also has a crucial part to play in managing relationships between the Commission and other key institutions inside and outside the Union.
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The role of Secretary-General, the head of the secretariat, very much parallels that of a what?

A permanent secretary within national prime ministers' offices, so that he or she may be identified as the first among equals of the administrative heads.

The most prestigious posts belong to what?

The so-called 'AD' category, which consists of around 12500 officials mainly engaged in policy-making and policy management.

Recruitment of new AD-category candidates for a career in the Commission administration is based largely on what?

On the meritocratic principle. (What this means is that appointments should be made based on what a person has achieved in his or her educational and professional career so far, rather than on any other criteria, such as a candidate's social or geographical background, or the extent to which he or she has 'good contacts'.

In addition to concers about proportionality, a top official's immediate subordinate and superior should be of a different nationality. The argument goes that what?

That a multinational chain of command will prevent policy proposals from reflecting narrow national concerns.

There is little doubt that officials bring to the Commission administrative styles and general attitudes that can be linked to their country of origin. However, there is virtually no evidence of a clear link between officials' nationality, on the one hand, and their decision behaviour in the Commission, on the other hand, because what?

Because organizational roles and decision-making procedures tend to diminish this sort of variation in conduct. In fact, the attachment of officials to their DGs seems far more important that their national background as an explanation for the preferences and choices that they make in their daily work.

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