Parliament faces nepotism row over top job appointee
The European Parliament will face its own charges of nepotism after Alessandro Chiocchetti, currently the Head of Cabinet for Parliament President Roberta Metsola, was appointed as its next Secretary General, making him the top civil servant in the Parliament.
Chiocchetti will take over in January from Klaus Welle, who retires at the end of 2022.
However, the manner in which he has obtained the Parliament’s top administrative job has raised eyebrows.
A former official with the Italian EPP delegation, Chiochetti had the support of the EPP group, the liberal Renew Europe, and the Left group, as part of a complicated compromise that keeps the top job with the centre-right group in exchange for the Left getting the leadership role in a newly created Directorate General.
The centre-left Socialist and Democrat group and the Greens both opposed the appointment.
The Parliament issued a six-line vacancy notice, which did not include any formal requirements for the job, with an application deadline of 1 August, the first official day of the summer recess.
The assembly’s bureau, which includes Metsola and the Parliament’s 14 vice-presidents, also agreed to drop the seniority threshold required to apply to the EU’s managerial grade AD 15, a level which Chiocchetti had recently obtained.
Critics say that Chiocchetti’s assent is reminiscent of the nepotism that saw Martin Selmayr, former Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker’s chief aide, being parachuted into the post of secretary-general of the Commission.
In a resolution in May, MEPs voted to call on its secretary-general “to ensure transparency and fairness during senior management appointment procedures”.
