ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the EU Commission and its civil service. The Commission is the most “European” of the European institutions. It is set up as a supranational organization that represents the European interests. Consequently, its staff is required to relinquish any loyalty to the national governments. To support this supranational role, the Commission is not organized along national lines but along policy areas and functions. This chapter gives a brief overview of the Commission’s history, its multinational staffing procedures and how the different nationalities are distributed within the organization. Advancement within the Commission is mainly based on merit but reflects requirements of “geographic balance” and national interests as well. Finally, this chapter also provides a brief description of the so-called “Brussels bubble,” the highly international social environment of which Commission officials form part. Overall, this chapter argues that the Commission is set up to blur national and regional boundaries among its staff, but not to the point of rendering them irrelevant.
