Barroso's house shaken by battlees

The inter-institutional battles between the European Parliament and the Commission appear to have had their effect on Commission recruitment. The spin-doctors of the Parliament have been talking their way into jobs in the House of Barroso. When the Cypriot Commissioner Markos Kyprianou recruited Philip Tod, spokesman for the Liberal Democrat group, to be his spokesperson, he set a trend. Tod's replacement, Mikolaj Dowgielewicz, has now been recruited by Margot Wallström to be her spokesman. (Her remit, it should be remembered, includes relations with the European Parliament.) And Helen Kearns, who used to work for the UK Labour Party and then in the office of David Harley, when he was spokesman for the president of the Parliament, has now been recruited to the office of Françoise Le Bail, Barroso's spokeswoman.