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The Case of the Failed Selection of the New Director of the European Research Council Executive Agency

On how I was pre-selected (by a panel of the European Commission and the Scientific Council of the ERC) as one of the three final candidates for the final selection process to fill the new post of Director of the ERC Executive Agency; on how this final selection never took place and the process was closed without an appointment; on my correspondance with DGResearch; on my formal complaint against the European Commission to The European Ombudsman; on the positive reply from The European Ombudsman and his reply of March 25 with the opinion of the European Commission. and my last letter to the Ombudsman with my opinion on the European Commission’s Opinion, and some press coverage.

You may want to read first my letter to The European Ombudsman or, for a small pre-detour, my letter to the Scientific Council of the ERC. From there, you will be referred to the first documents, which are either here or on the web-page of the ERC (under About us/ Review and Development of the ERC).

Documents and correspondence related to the Selection Process:

Letter to The European Ombudsman. 5 November 2010 
Letter to The Scientific Council of the ERC, 5 November 2010

1. Invitation to be interviewed for the post of Director Designate of the European Research Council Executive Agency, 27 April 2010
2. Invitation to be interviewed by the Consultive Committee on Appointments of the EC, July 9, 2010
3. Confirmation of Invitation to CCA Interview, September 3, 2010
4. Cancellation of CCA Meeting scheduled for 16 September 2010, e-mail 15 September 2010
5. Letter to Robert-Jan Smits, 20 September 2010
6. Letter to Maire Geoghegan-Quinn 19 October 2010
7. Letter announcing the closure of the process, 29 October 2010
8. Formal Complaint to The European Ombudsman, 5 November 2010
9. Reply from Robert-Jan Smits, 12 November 2010
10. My reply to the reply, 15 November 2010
11. The ERC Scientific Council Statement, 16 November 2010
12. The letter from The European Ombudsman, 14 December 2010
13. An end of year letter from Robert-Jan Smits, 22 Decewmber 2010.
14. The reply of The European Ombudsman, with the Opinion of the European Commission, 25 March 2011
15. My letter to The European Ombudsman with my opinion regarding the Europan Commission’s Opinion, 27 April 2011

and some press coverage:

1. A front cover article in Research Europe, 9 December 2010
2. An article in University World News, 22 December 2010

What do you think?