Special chefs are a meeting of a member of each cabinet (for a certain area), the legal service and the secretariat general. They perform last minute preparations to proposed laws before they go before the College of Commissioners, but they are a "political equivalent of a College of Cardinals" with a great degree of cloak and dagger work.
The most "special" of these is the group for inter-institutional relations (formerly Parliamentary affairs) as it provides the Commission with an early warning on what the European Parliament is thinking - before it rejects the Commission's proposals. The most astute civil servants get sent to these meetings.
The heads of cabinets meet weekly in the "Hebdo" - the most important meeting of European Civil Servants who direct the work of the Commission and the Commissioners.
Read more about this topic: Cabinet (European Commission)
Famous quotes containing the word special:
“Friendship is learned by watching and listening to you. If she sees that your friends are people you like and trust and don’t pretend with—people who suit you—she probably won’t pick friends who just pass by, or people who can help her or improve her status. If you treat friends in a special way, if you are kinder, more generous, more sympathetic, more forgiving with friends, she probably will be, too.”
—Stella Chess (20th century)