The hinges fall off Hübner's cabinet

The so-called Lisbonisation of EU regional policy demands that regional aid is used to create jobs. Danuta Hübner, the European commissioner for regional policy, seems to be good at creating vacancies. The head of her private office, Dutchman Joost Korte, has quit to become an ‘adviser' in the Commission's secretariat-general. Another three members of her private office – ie, the ones that are not Polish – have informed her that they are leaving in the autumn: German Erik von Breska, Italian Marco Panigalli and Briton John Watson. Could it be that people don't like working for Hübner? Maybe the commissioner is already familiar with Oscar Wilde's play The Importance of Being Earnest, written while Wilde was staying at Worthing, just along the coast from Sussex University, which Hübner attended. If so, she should be reminded of the lines delivered to the orphan Jack Worthing: “To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.” So how to describe losing four members of your private office? A Commission spokesman did his best: “Cabinets do change in the lifetime of the Commission, particularly after the halfway stage. After working in the high-pressure environment of the cabinet for three years, people are looking for pastures new. People move on. That's what happens.” Perhaps. But it doesn't sound as if Hübner is well placed to lecture anyone on cohesion.