One’s loss is another’s gain

Date: 09/11/1995

If Verrue's vacant job has indeed got a French flag on it, then the UK flag is surely fluttering above the empty chair of director-general in DGXXI, responsible for customs and indirect taxation.

Peter Wilmott's hasty departure from the post, sacked by Commissioner Mario Monti after months in which the two were unable to see eye to eye, has led to enormous speculation about which Briton is best placed to take over. Many point to long-serving Adrian Fortescue, self-effacing head of the Commission Secretariat-General's unit for cooperation in justice and home affairs.

But watch out for Jim Currie, the twinkly-eyed Scot whose twinkle deserted him earlier this year when he failed to make the transition from number two in the Commission's Washington office to number one. Currie, a highly-popular deputy in Washington, was furious to be passed over in favour of former Commission chief spokesman Hugo Paemen, and was mollified not one jot when offered the number one job in Moscow as a consolation prize. However, a deal has yet to be sewn up and Wilmott's job could be the passport Currie needs to bring him home with dignity to his house with a swimming pool in Overijse.