European Commission wants to get staffers out of silos

Plan would require heads of unit to change policy teams every ten years.

The European Commission is planning to shake up its internal rules by forcing mid-level staffers to change policy fields at least once every ten years.

Under the reform, Commission “heads of unit,” who manage teams of specialists on particular issues, would be required to rotate among different departments.

“Many middle managers have told us that they want to move across the Commission more easily — and we’ve been listening,” said Alexander Winterstein, a spokesman for the Commission. “Mobile managers are good for our staff and for the whole organization.”

The reform fits in with Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s avowed aim of breaking down “silos” between the EU executive’s departments and teams — a goal he stated when taking office in 2014. The first rotation is expected to take place on January 1, 2017 and, according to Commission sources, is expected to affect some 180 heads of unit.

But it is also the latest step in the Commission’s trajectory towards operating more as a modern international organization ordered by corporate management techniques, and less as a large bureaucracy.

The changes will encourage the promotion of able manager-types over sector specialists, said one official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the changes.

The plans have not been welcomed with open arms in some corners of the Commission. The directorates-general for trade and competition have expressed reservations, arguing that heads of unit leading complex antitrust or anti-dumping cases need prosecutorial experience from within the directorate-general.

The Commission plan envisages allowing heads of unit to postpone their rotation by up to two years in certain circumstances, such as when their unit is drafting legislation. Some positions will be exempted. That explains why out of around 250 heads of unit who have been in their position for close to 10 years, only 180 are down to be transferred under the first batch.

This story was updated to reflect that the first rotation will take place on January 1, 2017, not 2018 as previously indicated by official sources to POLITICO.