Madelin gets top media and information society job

Robert Madelin has been appointed new head of the Commission’s information society and media department.

Robert Madelin has been appointed the European Commission’s director-general for the information society and media, after five years as director-general for health and consumers.

The 52-year-old UK national will take up his new role today (1 April), replacing Fabio Colasanti, an Italian national, who retired from the Commission yesterday.

Paola Testori Coggi, the deputy director-general for health and consumers since 2007, has been promoted to replace Madelin.

The decisions were formally approved yesterday (31 March) by the college of commissioners at their weekly meeting in Brussels.

The appointment of Testori Coggi will swell to five the tiny number of women that head Commission departments, but it will not upset the balance of nationalities that hold departmental headships: one Italian, Colasanti, has left the top rank, while another joins. Neelie Kroes, the new commissioner for the digital agenda, was rumoured to be pushing to appoint a woman to the post, Nadia Calvin˜o, but that would have increased the number of Spaniards holding top posts, while doing nothing for under-represented Italy.

At the same time, the move will satisfy British desires to secure the headship of a Commission department that is of growing economic importance.

Surprise timing

Madelin was scheduled for a move because he has been director-general for health and consumer policy since 2004. Commission rules now dictate that directors-general must change jobs every five to seven years. But the timing of the move came as a surprise even to him. Although there was some discussion about delaying Colasanti’s retirement, his departure forced the appointment of a replacement on the Commission, particularly given that preparations for a revamped digital agenda are under way.

That José Manuel Barroso, the president of the Commission, and Maroš Šefc?ovic?, the European commissioner for administration, did not opt to make other senior appointments suggests that there will be a more extensive reshuffle of senior managers in June or July.

Barroso announced in November, when he named Michel Barnier as the European commissioner for the internal market and services, that it was his intention to appoint Jonathan Faull, a Briton as the director-general for the internal market, but the declaration has not yet been consummated under the new Commission.

Faull, who is overdue for rotation from his current post as director-general for justice and home affairs, is still awaiting official confirmation of his new job.

Jörgen Holmquist, the Swede who is currently the director-general for the internal market, was not due for a move but is now awaiting news of his next job. Among those who are coming up for rotation are Koos Richelle, the Dutchman who has headed the EuropeAid department since 2004, and Stefano Manservisi, the director-general for development.

Robert Madelin joined the Commission in 1993 as a member of the cabinet of then European commissioner Leon Brittan. He was a director in the trade department before become director-general for health in 2004. He tried to make the most of the EU’s limited competence in health policy, by setting up voluntary initiatives to encourage the food and alcohol industries to promote healthier consumer behaviour, such as the platform on diet, physical health and activity. Supporters of this approach say these initiatives have led to real changes from industry, such as reformulation of foods to reduce salt and sugar, but public health campaigners say they are a poor substitute for regulation.

Testori Coggi will be a popular choice within the department to take over from Madelin, since she is a battle-scarred veteran of various food and animal health crises. The 56-year-old, who has a degree in biological sciences, joined the Commission in 1982, initially on secondment to the environment to work on pollution policy. She worked in the office of Italy’s European commissioners Filippo Pandolfi and Emma Bonino, as well as in the research department. She became a director in the health and consumer policy department in 2000.

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