EU Commissioner Guy’s cabinet list published yesterday: only two Maltese
The list of names of people and their responsibilities in EU Commissioner Karmenu ‘Guy Bocci Club’ Vella’s cabinet was published yesterday.
You can read it here: SEC_2014_114_EN_repartition_competence_cabinets_p_v1
Tonio Borg, his predecessor as Maltese Commissioner but not his predecessor in terms of portfolio, had nine Maltese in his office. Vella has just two: Gabriella Pace (deputy head of cabinet) and Andrew Bianco (assistant).
Guy Bocci Club Vella’s head of cabinet is British. While this might be taking our prime minister’s now famous crush on David Cameron a little too far, it is in a way a great relief. Anybody Maltese picked by this government for the role would have been on the lines of Cyrus Engerer had he not been disqualified by his criminal record.
Now for some background. The standard system is give-and-take: Commissioners create places in their cabinet for people from other EU member states on the understanding that other member states will do the same for people from theirs. It’s a sort of barter system, if you wish, and all the member states do it.
Over the past few months there has been a flurry of dealing among all member states to ensure that their nationals are well represented over as many cabinets as possible.
Except for Malta.
Our government did not push for places for Maltese people in the cabinets of other EU Commissioners, and then to rub salt into the wound, in our own Commissioner’s cabinet office the number of positions held by Maltese people is down from nine to two: his deputy head of cabinet and an assistant.
Vella’s head of cabinet is British, but there are no Maltese people in EU Commissioner Hill’s cabinet.
To make matters worse, most of the non-Maltese he has appointed to his office have little or no Commission experience, because they come from the European Parliament – which points to our prime minister’s hand in the choices made, given that Karmenu Vella knows nothing and landed in that context as a complete alien to anything outside Maltese regime politics.
EU Commissioner Karmenu Vella (right of pic) has just two Maltese people in his office
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I’m surprised Gabriella Pace sought the post. From what I know about her, she’ll probably do a good job of it.
And the two Maltese in the Cabinets of other Commissioners got their jobs on their own steam.
What a bastard. Severely limiting our opportunity for taking the piss.
Off topic, but:
This weekend Our Great Leader spoke about the next steps to be taken in His Great Leap Forward, namely the decriminalisation of soft drugs.
For those who have young children, or planning to have children, or have youngsters on the verge of teen age, here are the latest findings on the use of marijuana, that drug that Our Great Leader is telling us to smoke at our heart’s content without fear of anything.
This is a scientific report:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141110161123.htm
Marijuana’s long-term effects on the brain demonstrated
Date: November 10, 2014
Source: Center for Brain Health
Summary: The effects of chronic marijuana use on the brain may depend on age of first use and duration of use, according to new research. Researchers for the first time comprehensively describe existing abnormalities in brain function and structure of long-term marijuana users with multiple magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques.
Extracts from report:
>In a paper published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers for the first time comprehensively describe existing abnormalities in brain function and structure of long-term marijuana users with multiple magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques. Findings show chronic marijuana users have smaller brain volume in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), a part of the brain commonly associated with addiction, but also increased brain connectivity.
>Cognitive tests show that chronic marijuana users had lower IQ compared to age-and gender-matched controls but the differences do not seem to be related to the brain abnormalities as no direct correlation can be drawn between IQ deficits and OFC volume decrease.
Conclusion:
Muscat needs goons and morons with reduced brains and lower IQ that can be achieved with marijuana/cannabis.
Not to mention that this drug is the ‘O’ level of drug use. Then one can go to the ‘A’ level of drugs and may also later graduate to heroin and cocaine.
Can someone provide a one-way ticket to Mexico for this local marijuana drug salesman?
If I am not mistaken it seems that there are some persons who are suggesting that the P.N. should support this act.
I hope that the P.N. leadership will carry out an in depth study on this subject before taking their final decision.
And this also means that other people/nationalities/Member States will have front-row seats into the mindset of good old Karmenu Vella.
Not all the foreigners come from the European Parliament. Two of them worked for Commissioners in the previous mandate (Hedegaard and Damanaki).
However, a fair number of them have strong left-wing credentials due to personal political activism or affiliation with politicians.
The dearth of Maltese representation does not mean Maltese are not qualified enough to work in these positions.
DG Mare alone has some bright people who have been working on fisheries and maritime policy for a number of years. It might however have been the price to pay for first-day slot in Commissioner hearings.
Unless the performance of a Commissioner-designate is abysmal in one of the first hearings, the passage to a positive plenary vote should be smooth.
As seen last month, things got trickier for those in later hearings, and Commission President Juncker made last-minute adjustments that gave one Socialist Vice-President a wider mandate and added another Socialist Vice-President (both excellent politicians) instead of liberal Alenka Bratusek who resigned before the vote on the whole College of Commissioners.
As you probably know, not many people want to work in a Cabinet. It is a thankless post – a lot of work, late evenings and weekends, political issues to resolve.
Apart from the fact that not many Maltese staff members in the Commission will have wanted to work with a Commissioner whose past and experience in the portfolio is, to put it diplomatically, quite badly flawed.
It is quite clear that the Maltese government is doing everything it can to pick a fight with the EU as well as reduce influence or standing so that the great schmuck can later tell us that he told us the EU is not interested in us and our eggs cannot be in one basket.
This is a set up. Our EU membership will soon be at stake once again.
Oh how I agree. This is also the reason why there seems to be a huge delay in its proposals for the use of EU funds.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-11-08/local-news/PN-MPs-say-government-has-not-yet-presented-proposals-on-use-of-1-2-billion-in-EU-funds-6736125252
Actually, the standard system is not the horse-trading most (but not all) cabinets resorted to. Horse-trading inevitably favours the larger member states.
The standard system usually involves a Commissioner coming along with his/her own people (up to three posts of the same nationality for policy staff) and the remaining policy posts being open for other staff, usually competent people from the DGs or people with experience of Cabinet work, or from another institution.
The Barroso I Commission had one Maltese cabinet member outside the Joe Borg cabinet. CV-based achievement.
The Barroso II Commission had two Maltese cabinet members outside the John Dalli/Tonio Borg cabinet. CV-based achievement too.
For those Maltese who made it this time despite the horse-trading (see Nik’s post) or lack of national pride in fielding good Maltese candidates elsewhere – congratulations! Well deserved.
Andrew Bianco is not Maltese. He speaks Spanish, Portughuese, Latvian and Greek.
The abbreviations in brackets at the bottom of the individuals sub portfolio refer to the languages he speaks.
[Daphne – I’m afraid you’re wrong. Andrew Bianco is most certainly Maltese; I’ve known his extended family for some 30 years: https://www.facebook.com/andrew.bianco.3%5D
The acronyms refer to the EU Member States he has to follow from a portfolio perspective:-)
@Tinnat – hard work wherever it is performed comes with rewards.
According to Article 15 of the Treaty on European Union, a Commissioner has to act with independence, integrity and impartiality.
By extension, a cabinet member has to help fulfil this obligation.
It can be rewarding to be given a chance, irrespective of passport or political inclinations (perceived or confirmed), to serve a Commissioner and help deliver the best in that person.
Without a cabinet, other support staff and a directorate-general, even a top-rate politician would under-deliver.
Not quite, that’s a very idealistic picture you painted there. Sure, a cabinet is essential to the work of the Commissioner.
But that does not make me want to be a member of Vella’s cabinet.
The truth is that as member of the Cabinet of that Commissioner, you should first firmly believe in his ability to deliver, and secondly abide by whatever policy or line he instructs you to take, and thirdly that he will act in line with Article 15 TEU.
Now, couple Vella’s colourful history with his lacklustre performance during the EP hearings, and I dare say one would be mad to want to form part of his Cabinet.
Is Gabby Pace paying the PN back for removing her from MEUSEC? This country is all about me, me and me!
Sue, and is Andrew Bianco paying the PN back for not extending his contract at the Perm Rep like they did with Roberta Metsola and everyone who came after her since they created a precedent?
[Daphne – I think you will find that Andrew Bianco was handpicked for his political sympathies, just as his mother Ruth Bianco was for one of this government’s first culture councils or whatever. Nobody is paying anybody back: they are persons of trust to the Labour government, for reasons that should be obvious. When Andrew Bianco worked for the perm rep, however, that would have been a meritocratic appointment – but Labour doesn’t operate like that. The merit is incidental and not the main thing.]
No, Daphne, you are jumping to conclusions.
[Daphne – I am not, for the simple reason that I have no reason to or interest in doing so. I am simply stating a fact. Posh person = PN supporter is a very stupid mistake too many people make, along with taking things at face value and not being alert to telling information. Andrew’s mother comes from a Labour background and has simply migrated back to Labour. She was among the incoming government’s first rash of appointees, and that alone should have told you something. Karmenu Vella has just two Maltese people in his cabinet when he should have had around nine. That means beyond doubt that the two were specifically handpicked from among very many Maltese who could have done the job. The reasons for the handpicking, it follows, are other than mere merit. I do not wish to go into this at all; it is just that people’s wilfil blindness irritates me immensely.]
Was Paula Calamatta’s appointment at the Perm Rep also meritocratic?
[Daphne – I don’t know her from Adam. All I know is that she’s Narcy Calamatta’s daughter, so we’re talking big-time Labour here and she was promoted under a Nationalist government.]
It would be interesting to look at the pictures of male staff selected to work in Karmenu Vella’s office. We can conclude whether Joseph Muscat had a crush on each one of them when we was a MEP.
Just because you have no reason or interest in being wrong doesn’t mean you cannot be wrong. Where is the logic I so admire? I never have an interest or reason for making mistakes in my exams and yet I still never get full marks. Sigh.
[Daphne – The logic is right there. If a person is handpicked for a job like that, and by a government that hasn’t made a single appointment which isn’t the result of cronyism, the obvious follows. Please rest assured that in no way am I saying here that Andrew Bianco is not fit for the job. There is every indication that he is. I am saying something else entirely, that he is politically a person of trust to Karmenu Vella and the Labour government at home in Malta.]
The latter before the former. All decisions were clearly signed off at Castille not Zurrieq.
Dear Tinnat, a Commissioner and his cabinet operate within the framework of the College. Lone rangers have never gone very far. And there are ample precedents of weak commissioners whose performance improved thanks to good support.
Or of Commissioners who picked people outside their party and did well. There must be plenty of disappointed people (not necessarily Maltese) who are passionate about Commissioner Vella’s portfolio and applied because they considered that the opportunities outweighed the disadvantages. Politics and idealism work together.
And pigs will fly, Not quite. I admire your idealism, but I have a very vivid memory of John Dalli’s performance as EU Commissioner.
And the ample precedents of weak Commissioners whose performance never improved and whose staff were tainted by the same brush.