1001 Spin Doctors 1

Lee Rotherham European Union

There are two problems with finding out interesting details from Brussels; the volume, and language, of the paperwork. Here’s a case which is no exception.

If you could navigate the stream of information about bovine stockbreeders, emissions from laser printers, and patenting broccoli, you had a chance of finding it. Only if you could speak English, Spanish and French did you have an opportunity to interpret its significance.

Spanish MEP Luis Herrero-Tejedor has found out that in 2007 there were a staggering 1001 officials work in communications policy in the Commission. 518 were full time Eurocrats and temps; the rest were hired in.

In terms of job descriptions, the Commission had 102 official spokesmen. The various overseas offices housed 568 press staff. The balance, 331, seemingly worked behind the scenes at DG COMM. Margot Wallstrom, the blogging Swedish Commissioner, is their boss.

The whole strategy is clearly well-coordinated, as there have been around thirty reviews of communications policy since 2002. No doubt one of the more recent ones covered how to spend the recently-announced millions that are now going on to butter up the Irish voters, in advance of their re-run referendum.

But is it really necessary or indeed appropriate to have such a regiment at work, selling the EU programme and project at such massive expense?

Lee Rotherham

Lee is a Research Fellow at the TPA. Co-author of the hit Bumper Books of Government Waste, he is an extensively published EU expert and front bench adviser.

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