European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is embroiled in a row over favouritism, after appointing German MEP Markus Pieper as Envoy for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, a five-year post with a salary of nearly 17,000 euros a month.
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00:00 The decision to appoint German MEP Marcus Pieper as envoy for small and medium-sized
00:07 enterprises has been challenged by four commissioners.
00:13 The four wrote a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen asking to discuss
00:18 the recruitment process.
00:20 MEPs from the Socialists, Liberals and Greens also criticized the decision.
00:29 I think the selection process should be repeated and this time they should stick to the criteria
00:35 that they themselves defined. They said it's going to be decided on merit, on gender balance
00:40 and if two candidates have the same qualification it goes to one of those member states where
00:46 there's less representation inside the EU institutions. And on all three criteria it
00:50 seems that the candidate was way worse than the two other candidates. So I want a procedure
00:57 where the best candidate actually gets the job. I would think that that is quite normal.
01:04 Pieper is a member of the same party as von der Leyen. He was chosen over other candidates
01:09 despite receiving worse scores in the selection process. The European Commission has defended
01:15 his appointment and claims that no favouritism was involved.
01:22 The process is very simple. It's a proposal by the commissioner in charge of personnel,
01:29 so Commissioner Hahn, in agreement with the President and after consultation of the portfolio
01:36 commissioner, in this case Thierry Botton.
01:39 The newly created SME envoy post lasts five years and its salary starts from a base of
01:45 almost 17,000 a month.
01:47 [WHOOSH]