Von der Leyen sets new rules for Commission cabinet hires

BRUSSELS — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen set new hiring rules for incoming commissioners as they form their top teams.
The rules aim to ensure diversity in nationality, gender and seniority in the cabinets of all 27 commissioners — one for each EU country — including her own, a document from her office states.
As in 2019, every cabinet must have an equal number of men and women.
The redrafted rules were closely overseen by Björn Seibert, von der Leyen’s chief of staff. Rumors were flying in Brussels that cabinet rules were set for a radical shake-up; that did not transpire — bar a few small changes.
The document, seen by POLITICO and dated October, has been long awaited in Brussels, where governments have been jockeying for months to position their own nationals in influential roles.
Von der Leyen will continue to have 12 senior cabinet members, EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas and the five next most senior commissioners known as executive vice presidents will have nine (one fewer than in 2019) and the remaining 20 commissioners will have six senior cabinet members as before.
For the first time, all heads of cabinet must also undergo a security clearance process conducted by an EU country.
Like 2019, there must be at least five different nationalities in the cabinets of von der Leyen, Kallas and the five EVPs, and three different nationalities within the rank-and-file commissioners’ cabinets.
There is also a new rule stipulating that no more than two cabinet members can hail from the same country as the commissioner. Von der Leyen would like to avoid commissioners only hiring staff from their own countries.
Commissioners rely on cabinets to push their agenda in Brussels. Cabinets can be hugely influential in writing and overseeing the policy ambitions of their respective commissioners. This is the first update to hiring terms since von der Leyen took over as the head of the EU’s executive arm in 2019.
The future commissioners have spent weeks anticipating these rules as they plan their five-year terms in Brussels, which will begin pending approval by the European Parliament after grueling hearings set for November.