Post of Chief Scientific Advisor will be kept in new Commission, says Jean-Claude Juncker

Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission's President-designate, has told members of the European Parliament (MEPs) that he would keep the role of Chief Scientific Advisor (CSA) were he elected next week.

Julie Girling, an MEP from the UK who sits with the centre-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, announced on Twitter that Juncker made the commitment in response to a question she posed to him.  

Juncker toured the EU Parliament over the past week, holding meetings with all parliamentary groups to build a majority for his own election vote next week, and discuss his programme for the new Commission.

 

The incumbent CSA, Anne Glover, was appointed in 2011 when the outgoing President José Manuel Barroso introduced the post in the European Commission for the first time.

Answering my question in ECR Group J-C Juncker has confirmed that the post of Chief Scientific Advisor will be continued in his presidency.

— Julie Girling (@juliegirling) July 8, 2014

Juncker, the former Luxembourg prime minister, was nominated by EU heads of state on 27 June to become the next President of the European Commission, despite staunch opposition from Britain.

Next week (15 July), the European Parliament will meet in Strasbourg to vote on whether to elect him as EU Commission president. He will then begin negotiations with governments on the distribution of new Commission portfolios – one of which will be the CSA role.

Timeline:
•    15 July: Parliament votes to elect Juncker as EU Commission president
•    16 July: EU leaders gather in Brussels for first discussions on the Commission team
•    September: Each commissioner is vetted in individual hearings before Parliament committees
•    October: European Parliament votes to approve or reject new Commission College as a whole