Moving up in the world

Michel Barnier, the European commissioner for the internal market and services, moves up to the 12th floor of the Berlaymont building.

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There have been some significant changes in the higher echelons of the European Commission. José Manuel Barroso, the Commission president, has his office on the 13th floor of the Berlaymont, the Commission’s headquarters. Just one floor below, on the 12th floor, there is a new arrival: Michel Barnier, the European commissioner for the internal market and services. Barnier used to have his office on the tenth floor, but persuaded Barroso to elevate him.

These things matter for the protocol-conscious, status-obsessed staff of European commissioners, who will be well aware that Barnier is not one of the Commission’s eight vice-presidents. The Frenchman has left behind on the tenth floor Neelie Kroes, the commissioner for the digital agenda, who is one of the eight, and Olli Rehn, who was raised to a vice-presidency in 2011 (albeit more in recognition of the severity of the euro-crisis than of his performance), and has leap-frogged over vice-presidents Joaquín Almunia (competition) and Maroš Šefcovic (inter-institutional relations and administration), whose offices are on the 11th floor.

At least some of the space that Barnier is now occupying used to be part of the offices of Catherine Ashton, who is both a Commission vice-president and the high representative for foreign and security policy. She retains a reduced office on the Berlaymont’s 12th floor, but also has an office in the Capital building, home of the European External Action Service, where most of her team are based.

The drawback for Barnier is that he now has as neighbours on the same floor vice-presidents Viviane Reding (justice, fundamental rights and citizenship), Siim Kallas (transport) and Antonio Tajani (industry). Maybe his calculation is that the hyperactive ambition of Reding and her team will be offset by Tajani, whose presence in the Berlaymont is harder to detect.