Backroom deals & rushed process wholly inadequate - quote from Heidi Hautala MEP
Quote from Heidi Hautala MEP on European Parliament Secretary General appointment
On the outcome of tonight's decision to appoint Mr Chiocchetti as new Secretary General of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA MEP and Vice President of the European Parliament, Heidi Hautala, comments:
"The sordid saga to install Mr Chiocchetti as the new Secretary-General of the European Parliament is bound to damage the Parliament's reputation in the eyes of European citizens and representatives of other EU institutions. It bears a striking resemblance to the Selmayr case that the European Parliament and Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly both heavily criticised at the time.
"The head of the Parliament's administration, with a staff of over 8 000 and a budget of nearly two billion euros, was selected from a pool of four candidates after a 10 minute presentation of each candidate – with only the President asking questions. This is wholly inadequate and does not even begin to meet the requirements for recruitments to senior management positions at the Parliament. It is a slap in the face of the other three candidates who all hold Director-General level positions at the Parliament.
"It is clear that President Metsola, with the support of a majority in the European Parliament’s Bureau, was keen to rush through the appointment of Mr Chiocchetti before the Italian elections to fulfil a political deal. The deal also led to the establishment of a new Directorate-General for Parliamentary Democracy Partnerships and the appointment of the Left's Sanna Lepola to lead the new DG.
"Backroom deals involving the highest positions at the Parliament shows that the Parliament has clearly not learned from its own 2018 resolution calling for appointments to high-level posts such as that of Secretary-General to be made independently of other appointments to avoid any suspicion of non-transparent package deals.
"It is now incumbent on the newly appointed Secretary-General to start a reform of the rules and procedures guiding recruitments at the European Parliament to ensure that future recruitments to high-level posts are done through an open, competitive and transparent process."
