Commission must address 'rigid' recruitment system[fr][de] 

Kallas, who has held the administration, audit and anti-fraud portfolio since his appointment to the Commission in 2004, wants to open the "very rigid system" to more outsiders and "find the right jobs for the right people". 

"It's a closed community. People come and stay here until retirement, and that's the problem," he said, announcing that modernising personnel policy will have to be among the priorities of the incoming EU executive. 

Kallas explained that while the EU institutions employ around 30,000 people, only "a few hundred" leave the system each year to retire or take on new challenges, raising "real questions" regarding recruitment policy. 

"The situation today is absurd. We take in people aged around 25-30 – people with at least some serious work experience already – and then if they have taken all the necessary steps, they are available for the highest posts when they are over 50 or even older," he said, calling for more flexibility in the way the Commission recruits its best people. 

The former Estonian prime minister revealed that he had just received a "last-century" demand from "very high-level" person, citing this as evidence that "rigid rules" are still required because the days of favouritism are "not dead". 

'One commissioner per country' 

Asked how he saw the future of the European Commission given the likely ratification of the Lisbon Treaty and the possible accession of countries like Croatia and Iceland to the EU, Kallas declared his "clear preference for having one commissioner per country". 

Having fewer commissioners than member states, he warned, could lead to a "crazy system" whereby the posts of director-generals come into play. 

"Imagine if France and Germany did not have a commissioner," Kallas said, warning that "there would be a politicising of director-generals". This could even produce a political leadership at the head of the Commission with "less power and less political impact than the director-generals," he cautioned. 

The Estonian did admit, however, that "a bigger and bigger Commission is definitely more difficult to manage". 

Kallas said that under a one-commissioner-per member state, there would be no other option than to create "a hierarchy inside the Commission". "I think that some kind of hierarchy where vice-presidents really have a coordinating role over certain sectors is a necessity […] Otherwise it's really difficult." 

Creating a 'European school brand' 

Kallas cited among the greatest achievements of his first term the creation of "a 'European school' brand which can emerge everywhere […] to accompany the free movement of specialist skills and highly-sophisticated labour". 

EU governments and MEPs adopted comprehensive reform of the European school system, launched in 2005 at Kallas' instigation – to allow national schools to offer the European curriculum, with a secondary school in The Hague (Netherlands) set to become the first to do so in September 2010 (EurActiv 13/05/09). 

Kallas eyes economics post 

Asked which portfolio he would like to be in charge of in the new EU executive, Vice-President Kallas said he would like to return to his "economic blood circulation" and had received "signals" that "there may be some return to my economic soul". 

"I'm an economist, and if I think 'where have the most creative periods in my life been?' these have been in economics," he explained. 

"I don't underestimate what I’ve done [in the last Commission], but of course I'm an economist and that's my answer," the Estonian said, pointing out that his experience of domestic politics "is mostly linked to economic and monetary affairs". 

Kallas, formerly his country's finance minister and central bank governor, nevertheless conceded that Estonia's position outside the euro zone "is probably a certain disadvantage in applying for [Joaquín Almunia's economic and monetary affairs] portfolio" and expressed willingness to carry on in his current role "if the job is clear". 

Siim Kallas was speaking to Andrew Williams and Daniela Vincenti-Mitchener. 

To read the first half of the interview in full, please click here. 

The second half will be published along with a second story next week.