Danish parliamentary raids

Javier Solana, the secretary-general of the Council of Ministers and the EU's foreign policy chief, has just appointed an Estonian, Riina Kionka, as his personal representative on human rights. At the same time Solana has moved his previous human rights representative, Michael Matthiessen, a Dane, to become his personal representative for parliamentary affairs.
So what is it about the Danes and parliaments? Attentive students of inter-institutional comings and goings will recall that Commission President José Manuel Barroso recruited another Dane, Bo Manderup Jensen, to his cabinet, to look after relations with national parliaments and the European Parliament where he used to work in the secretariat. Nor will it have escaped their attention that, as of next month, the most senior official in the Parliament, the secretary-general, will be another Dane, Harald Rømer, who steps up from deputy secretary-general. It is as if the Danes have market dominance in parliamentary relations – a case for the competition authorities perhaps?

Rømer's elevation to secretary-general of the Parliament created gaps further down the pecking order. David Harley is moving from secretary-general of the Socialist group to become deputy secretary-general. In turn, the Socialist group announced last week that Anna Colombo, a 44-year-old Italian, is moving from deputy secretary-general to secretary-general.