Brussels downgrades Malta office

The European Commission has downgraded the post of Head of Representation to Malta by offering a middle-management post to the person that will succeed Joanna Drake.

Until a few months ago, the post carried a much higher grade in the EU’s hierarchy.

After manning the office in St Paul Street, Valletta, with a temporary official from Brussels for the past eight months, the Commission has now issued a call to recruit a Head of Representation for its Malta office.

The new call, which closes next month, offers a temporary job for five years at level AD 9, a middle-management post, in­stead of AD 12, a senior-management post and the norm for such posts.

In 2004, when Malta’s Head of Representation was recruited for the first time just after the country became an EU member, the post had a rank of AD 12, which means the occupant is better off by €40,000 per year.

The post of Head of Representation is normally held by a citizen of the member state involved, and in Malta’s case the call makes it clear that the vacancy should be filled by someone who can communicate effectively in the Maltese language.

According to EU sources, the latest call by the Commission directly “snubs” the Malta post and its status in the hierarchy.

“This is a clear signal that the Commission does not feel that its representation in Malta is important,” the sources said.

“All the Commission’s representation offices in the other EU member states are manned by much higher grades, sometimes even by directors and deputy director generals. It seems that Malta is being treated as a second class member state,” the sources said.

The office in Cyprus, which is often compared to Malta in terms of size and population, is headed by a former Commission director, a post five grades higher than the one being offered for Malta.

Heads of representative offices in the other member states also include Commission officials who have occupied the posts of deputy director general, the second most important job in the Commission hierarchy.

It is not yet known whether the Maltese government will protest to the Commission about the downgrade although this newspaper is informed that government officials have already complained informally.

A spokesman for the Commission said he was not yet able to provide an answer since many of the Commission’s services are currently on shutdown due to the August holidays.

The call for Malta’s Head of Representation was first made internally by the Commission earlier this year in an attempt to find a candidate from existing EU staff to fill the post.

Only five candidates, mostly Maltese, had applied but none were found to be fit for the job despite the fact that some of them were involved with the Malta-EU information campaign before the 2003 referendum on membership.