Lowe to move into the highest echelons

Date: 05/06/1997

Entre Nous has learnt that British Commissioner Neil Kinnock's chef de cabinet in the Directorate-General for transport, Philip Lowe, will shortly be named the new director-general for environment.

This is just one of a number of new moves around the Commission chessboard triggered by the retirement of Secretary-General David Williamson.

Lowe's elevation will be seen as the compensation the UK has been demanding for the loss of the top job, and although such a crude exchange system is officially denied, there is a precedent: in 1987, France was given the director-generalship of the legal service after the retirement of Williamson's predecessor, Emile Noël.

Lowe's appointment will go down well in the Directorate-General for the environment (DGXI). It will also fit in with the new UK government's determination to give environment a higher profile.

That leaves the question of a new chef for Kinnock and a job for the current director-general of DGXI - both changes which could trigger a far-reaching shuffle near the very top in the coming weeks.

Lowe's appointment will leave the way clear for German foreign ministry official Bernhard Zepter to take over the deputy secretary-general slot from Carlo Trojan, who has been nominated to Williamson's post.

Lowe had been tipped as a possible second 'number two' to Trojan and his move to DGXI suggests the Commission will not, in the end, revert to its earlier policy of having two deputies.