Some Commission staff in European Commission (EC) Representations to EU Member States are subject to rotation. Under normal circumstances the exercise is already complex to manage. If you have any doubts about that, then think about the last time you moved house and then add to it:

• changing country and going through all the administrative procedures required,
• finding new schools for any children you may have, while keeping in mind that the schools must be providing classes in your children’s language,
• resolving the professional situation of your partner (if you have one) who, in most cases, does not work for the EU institutions and has to somehow re-establish his/her professional career.

Now, take a deep breath, close your eyes and try to imagine being pushed to go through all of that during the current, unprecedented and extreme COVID-19 crisis with a backdrop of extensive lockdowns across the world. This is what is happening in the DG COMM representations to Member States. As recently as Monday 14 April 2020, a vacant post was announced in the Berlin representation. Since the start of the lockout in mid-March, a few more vacancies have also been announced across several Representations around Europe, and 17 rotation exercises are planned for 2020. We have also had reports of colleagues affected by these rotation exercises saying they would prefer to remain at their posts at least until the current situation stabilizes.

In this context, Generation 2004 sent a note to MS PIA AHRENKILDE HANSEN Director-General of DG COMM requesting the suspension of the rotation exercise until the situation is back to normal.

We also took the chance to introduce the report on the results of a survey Generation 2004 conducted in cooperation with colleagues from Representations in 2019 and raised the need to rethink the Commission Representation rules altogether.

In the note, there are points that are surely clear to the note’s recipient but require clarification to anyone else reading it. We refer to the ‘change in the role of Representations to Member States in the last 12 years’: this is the period of time the current rotation rules have been in place. The rules, which state that officials in representations have to move to a different representation every 5+2 years (except the Head of Representation who is limited to 5 years), are today considered by staff to be inadequate due to the ‘Plan D’  changes to the scope of operation of Representations (see further details below). As shown in our survey, staff would rather see the service in each representation lengthened (14% of respondents) or replaced by a more flexible system (45% of respondents).

Here is a short overview of the history of these changes.

Representations were originally created as simple European Commission information points in Member States, charged with answering queries from the local population, and with a very limited number of staff. On the fallout from the French and Dutch ‘no’ votes on the European Constitution in 2005, the Commission acknowledged there was a great communication gap between  Brussels and the reality on the ground. This led former Commission’s Vice-President responsible for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy, Margot Wallström to launch the PLAN D for Europe initiative, which changed the role and mandate of the Representations, giving them much more focus on communication and political reporting.

Furthermore, as a follow-up to the 2008 financial crises, it again became clear that Brussels was not strong enough in monitoring the macroeconomic policies in Member States. This led then Secretary General, Catherine Day, to establish the role of economic advisers posts in 2013. They now have a crucial role in providing the contextually relevant macroeconomic analysis for each Member State, which is ultimately adopted by the College of the Commission.

Understanding the importance of closely following the situation in the Member States, the status of the Representations was again upgraded by the decision of the former Commission President, Juncker and continues in the current von der Leyen mandate. The Representations are now the President’s service, thus under the direct political guidelines of the President. The Heads of the Representations are now considered de facto the European Commission President’s ambassadors.

Therefore, in the last 12 years, the role of the Representation has changed from being the information/communication points to a service under the direct responsibility of the President to whom Representations deliver, on a daily basis, key political, economic and communication analyses and advice on each Member State. Furthermore, posts at the Representations are of a very specific nature, demanding a lot of analytical and communication skills as well as horizontal knowledge and readiness to represent the European Commission to national and local authorities as well as the public in general. This demands a steep learning curve. However, the diplomatic work of establishing trust, credibility and good contacts takes time and a hasty departure mandated by inadequate rules is counterproductive to the interests of the Representations’ ever-growing role.