Kinnock and Prodi aces compete for DG job

Date: 12/04/01

One of the aims proposed by staff reform chief Neil Kinnock is to make it easier for talented staff to secure the high-level jobs they deserve.

He may have found a way to help one of his own staff get the much sought-after post of director-general of competition policy.

The job is being keenly eyed by no fewer than three former anti-trust high flyers including Kinnock's chief of staff Philip Lowe, Romano Prodi's spokesman Jonathan Faull, and Prodi's chief of staff Michel Petite.

Obviously not all of them can get the post. But we hear Faull is being mentioned as a possible replacement for Jean-Louis Dewost as head of the Commission's legal service. Unlike Lowe, Faull is a lawyer; also, the move would narrow the competition for the top anti-trust job.