EUmatrix regularly organises executive training sessions for professionals interacting with the European Commission. The next online session is scheduled on Monday, the 5th of June  (15.00 - 17.30 CET). Click here to participate.

NB: The participation fee is 120 EUR / person.

About the trainer: 

Sue Bird has over 30 years of experience of working inside the European Commission. She has managed policy development, funding programmes, communications campaigns, and many events during that time. She has had many interactions both inside and outside the Commission and regular inter-Institutional contacts. She is a European Institutions insider and ready to give something of the benefit of her experience in these areas.

Content to be delivered during the training: 

1. Introduction of the speaker: personal background and experience in the European Commission

2. Role of the Commission in the institutional triangle

  -What are the functions of the Commission?

  -How does the Commission interact with the Council and the EP: who influences whom, when, what are the limitations of the mandate of the Commission?

3. Current structure of the Commission

  -The College of Commissioners: (which Commissioners are in charge)?

  -The Directorates Generals: 

        -Which Commissioner commands what?

        -Which DG is in charge of what? 

4. How laws are made in the Commission

  -From the College of Commissioners to the Head of Unit. And back. 

  -Interactions between DGs

  -Coordination within / by the General Secretariat

5. Transparency requirements in meetings between Commission staff and external stakeholders. 

6. How should the PA professionals interact with Commission staff? 

7. How are the bureaucrats in the Commission different from diplomats in the Council and politicians in the Parliament?