Civil Service
A Commissioner can come under a great deal of influence from the staff under their control. The European Civil Service is permanent whereas a Commissioner is in office usually for just five years. Hence it is the service which know the workings of the Commission and have longer term interests. Strong leadership from a Commissioner, who knows the workings of their portfolio, can overcome the power of the service. An example would be Pascal Lamy, however the best people are usually kept by their national governments leading to less solid candidates getting the job.
Read more about this topic: European Commissioner
Famous quotes containing the words civil and/or service:
“Colonel Shaw
and his bell-cheeked Negro infantry
on St. Gaudens shaking Civil War relief,
propped by a plank splint against the garages earthquake.”
—Robert Lowell (19171977)
“The ruin of the human heart is self-interest, which the American merchant calls self-service. We have become a self- service populace, and all our specious comfortsthe automatic elevator, the escalator, the cafeteriaare depriving us of volition and moral and physical energy.”
—Edward Dahlberg (19001977)