The faceless bureaucrats slaving away on EU legislative proposals are now nameless, too.
Under a new policy, the European Commission has removed the names of lower-level staff from the EU WhoisWho directory. The online database used to have email addresses and phone numbers for officials up and down the ranks of the EU executive.
But that apparently made them too easy prey for those seeking to influence EU policy. So now only their bosses — heads of unit and above — will be included in the public-facing directory.
Lobbyists are not pleased.
Removing contact information for the Commission’s worker bees “will make the work of those in public affairs more difficult, represent a setback for transparency and lead to a more opaque EU decision-making process,” said Emma Brown, vice president of the Society of European Affairs Professionals, a Brussels lobby for Brussels lobbyists.
The Qatargate bribery scandal in the European Parliament and revelations about a top Commission official’s free flights from Qatar Airways have prompted fresh alarm about EU institutions’ susceptibility to nefarious external manipulation.
The European Parliament is instituting reforms to require MEPs to disclose meetings with interest groups, and the Commission is cutting back on authorization for travel paid for by third parties.
Yet while as part of Qatargate, a former Parliament vice president was allegedly wooed by bags of foreign cash and a top-level Commission official helped himself to free business-class flights, in this case the Commission is taking steps to protect the rank-and-file from being enticed by … phone calls.
“Alongside its obligations linked to transparency and accountability, the Commission has the duty to protect its staff, especially those dealing with sensitive files,” said a statement from the Commission. “To avoid that these colleagues are subject to undue pressure from external sources, the access to the names and contact details of non-management staff has been limited.”
The statement added that “a number of colleagues” had requested their details not be shared out of data security concerns, and that the policy to limit information for nonmanagerial posts was in line with the Parliament and the General Secretariat of the Council.
Clothilde Goujard, Jakob Hanke Vela and Samuel Stolton contributed reporting.
