Chene flies off after brief stop-over in personnel

Date: 19/10/1995

Neil Kinnock is quickly learning the art of wooing able officials from other departments into his ranks.

The latest recruit is Claude Chene, who hardly had time to settle in as a director in DGIX, the Directorate-General responsible for personnel, before packing his bags again.

Chene moves to his new post as head of the Commission's aviation policy - a politically-sensitive post covering transport and competition aspects of the industry - on 1 November.

Aviation is not a new beat for Chene. He covered it before he became Competition Commission Karel Van Miert's Chef de Cabinet, a post he left earlier this year when he could no longer escape the long hand of Belgian politics.

Traditionally, Dutch-speaking Belgian Commissioners have Walloon French-speaking Chefs de Cabinet and vice-versa. Chene is a native French-speaker, but not French Walloon and Van Miert was eventually persuaded to take on one of his own countrymen instead.

Chene's imminent departure after such a short spell in his current post has caused headaches for Commissioner Erkki Liikanen as he looks for able people to help him shake up the Commission's staffing policy.

But he should be able to fill the gap. He is, after all, in charge of personnel.