How political parties took control of the EU Parliament’s bureaucracy — and sparked a staff rebellion

The Parliament’s administrative staff are supposed to be non-political, but unions say that’s not the case.

By MAX GRIERA
in STRASBOURG

Illustration by Natália Delgado/POLITICO

The thousands of people who work in the European Parliament’s administration are supposed to be non-political, per EU law. But staffers complain that many of the Parliament’s plum jobs are instead going to people with political connections.

Of the 11,200 people who work in the Parliament — the majority based in Brussels — only 3,900 work in politics, either as lawmakers, assistants or political group staff. The rest are admin staff doing jobs such as communications, handling payslips or conducting research to support the work of lawmakers.

This week, Parliament staffers head to the ballot box to elect members of the Staff Committee, which represents the non-political workforce in negotiations with management figures such as President Roberta Metsola. Every trade union pushing to get roles on that committee has highlighted the same issue: ending the grip of political parties on top staff appointments.

“Political affiliation has taken precedence over competence and merit,” says the election program of the Ethos union, echoing similar statements from unions such as SPF Europa, R&D and USPE.

The unions argue that new jobs often go to people with connections to political parties rather than being awarded strictly on merit, with many vacancies either never advertised or designed for preselected candidates.

“As a result, ordinary staff members — who have devoted their entire careers to the administration without passing through a cabinet post and without political experience — have virtually no career prospects,” the Ethos program says.

All those mentioned in this piece were selected for their posts after following the recruitment procedures established by the Parliament’s staff regulations.

Controversy at the top

The Parliament’s extensive bureaucracy is run by its secretary-general. Under Klaus Welle, who had the job from 2009 to 2022, the secretary-general role became far more powerful, holding sway over everything from the Parliament’s agenda to its massive real estate portfolio and key personnel decisions.

The appointment of Welle’s successor, Alessandro Chiocchetti, was controversial because the Italian was the chief of staff for EP President Metsola and was seen as close to the European People’s Party, the largest political group in the Parliament. Welle helped secure Chiocchetti’s appointment by doling out top positions in the administration to political groups; he did not respond to a request for comment.

While Metsola was adamant that the appointment was above board, saying at the time that it had been “the most open process in the history of this institution,” others weren’t convinced. Green MEP Heidi Hautala described it as a “sordid saga.”

However controversial his appointment, Chiochetti has been praised for his work on this issue.

“We have seen some improvement recently” when it comes to political appointments to top positions, the Ethos union says in its program. Two staff union members that POLITICO talked to (and who were granted anonymity to speak freely, as were others quoted in this piece) all said Chiochetti had changed the Parliament for the better on this matter.

The Parliament’s press services said the administration “has taken a number of steps in recent years to further strengthen transparency, documentation and consistency in senior management selection procedures.”

None of your business

High-level jobs such as directors-general and directors are shortlisted by a selection committee composed of HR representatives and other directors-general or directors before appointments are approved by the Parliament’s Bureau — the top decision-making body, composed of the president and her 14 deputies, and which is dominated by the mainstream political groups.

Following pressure from staff unions, the Parliament’s plenary in 2019 called for a resolution allowing Staff Committee members to sit on selection panels for senior management roles, but the proposal was blocked by the Parliament’s leadership.

“Former President [David] Sassoli [who died in January 2022] told us it was none of our business,” said Staff Committee member Tom Morgan, adding that Welle had also strongly opposed the idea. Morgan reported that Chiocchetti appears “less hostile” to the proposal, but noted “nothing has changed — yet.”

The Parliament’s press service said the staff regulations “do not foresee the participation of staff representatives in any recruitment procedure, including those for senior managers.”

But Morgan said the tendency of top managers to curry favor with political parties is frustrating and demotivating staff.

“The Parliament needs independent civil servants who can give impartial advice and are not afraid to call out their political masters and managers [and] who can tell them when they are wrong. This is less likely to happen when bosses owe their jobs to one or more of the political groups.”

Controversial appointments

While Chiocchetti is widely regarded as close to the EPP, one of his deputies, Markus Winkler, comes from the Socialists and Democrats group. His other deputy, Anders Rasmussen, is a former top official in the liberal Renew.

“They manage the distribution of who is Socialist, Renew, EPP, and where vacancies are opening up and what political color they belong to,” said a senior Parliament official. “All of this is coordinated with the secretaries-general of the political groups.”

The official explained they had been informally branded as belonging to a political camp and had accepted the label because it was the only way to advance. “Either you have the backing of a political party, or you can’t get to the top,” they said.

The Parliament’s press department denied this was the case, saying the secretary-general and deputy secretaries-general “do not represent any political group” and act solely “in the interests of the institution.”

Chiocchetti, Winkler and Rasmussen did not reply to requests for comment.

Three appointments last year raised eyebrows across the Parliament.

In December, Udo Zolleis, a close aide of EPP chief Manfred Weber, came out on top after a selection process to become the Parliament’s director for academia and foresight, a newly created post that critics said appeared tailor-made for his profile.

Six months earlier, Annalisa Gliubizzi, a former deputy secretary-general of the S&D and ex-deputy head of cabinet for Gianni Pittella — who used to chair the S&D, and whose career had focused on budgets and cohesion policy — was selected as director in the Parliament’s external policies department, overseeing ties with Latin America and South Asia.

In October, Simon Busuttil, a former EPP secretary-general (and Maltese opposition leader), was selected as director of planning in the Parliament’s interpretation and conference services department.

Zolleis, Gliubizzi and Busuttil did not reply to requests for comment.

Defenders of the administration argue that senior political group staff are often the strongest candidates for top jobs because of their managerial experience and deep knowledge of the Parliament’s inner workings, with the largest groups having the biggest talent pools. They also say it’s common for Parliament officials to switch to political groups and later return to the administration.

“You cannot get through someone who does not have the required experience or put someone in the role who is incapable,” said a member of the team that decides on top jobs, categorically denying that there are political appointees. However, they added, “in an environment in which very few people qualify for the job … unspoken political support can help one candidate over another.”

‘We don’t have enough of our own people’

Inside the political groups there is acknowledgment, albeit privately, that political appointees are getting administration jobs.

One MEP, sitting in their office late at night during a Strasbourg session, looked at org charts of European Parliament admin staff and noted the political affiliation of each person in a leadership position.

“We don’t have enough of our own people,” the MEP said as POLITICO sat on the other side of the desk.

A Socialist lawmaker, who admitted to being furious at how Zolleis secured his post, said “Metsola and Chiocchetti are turning Parliament blue,” referring to the color of the EPP.

Many directors-general and directors have EPP credentials, although political groups often place their people via so-called package deals in which all major groups get their share of top jobs.

Revolving doors

Moves between political and administrative roles aren’t uncommon.

“Everyone is placing their own people in key positions, first in their cabinets and then in the administration,” said an official with experience in both the administration and a political group.

One example mentioned by people in the Parliament is that of Ouarda Bensouag, the EPP secretary-general and head of Weber’s cabinet, who was selected for a departmental director post that she ultimately didn’t take after being given the secretary-general job in November 2024.

“She applied for a published position open to all and went through a selection procedure with several other candidates,” said EPP spokesperson Pablo López de Pablo.

“The selection board was composed of S&D, Renew and The Left former staff, and she came, by far, the first laureate of the competition. In addition, she declined freely that post in the EP administration,” he said.

Another example mentioned by two people that POLITICO spoke to for this article was Lorenzo Mannelli, head of the Parliament’s IT department. After starting his career in the Parliament’s finance administration, he moved to a series of political positions, working for former Parliament presidents Martin Schulz and David Sassoli (both Socialists) and briefly serving as deputy head of cabinet to the secretary-general before moving to his current role, despite not having an IT background.

Manelli didn’t reply to a request for comment.

Elections to the Staff Committee end on Wednesday, with a second round of voting set for June if there are no clear winners.