Exclusive: Martin Selmayr to leave powerful Commission post `next week' - Politico.eu

His departure is a concession to critics worried about too many German officials at the highest echelons of the European Commission and also a reflection of criticism from MEPs and others about his promotion to secretary-general last year.

Selmayr's elevation from the post of President Jean-Claude Juncker's chief of staff to the Commission's top civil servant angered many in Parliament, which adopted a resolution calling on him to resign. Following a five-month investigation, European Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly found the Commission had "stretched and possibly even overstretched the limits of the law" by handing Selmayr a swift two-step promotion. The Commission rejected the criticism.

Asked whom he expects to replace him, Selmayr said the next secretary-general is likely to be a Frenchman. "This Commission is a Franco-German project, and that's a good thing," he said, and nodded at the suggestion that Olivier Guersent, the Commission's director general for financial services, might be a front-runner to succeed him.

next secretary-general is likely to be a Frenchman: De Rugy is available </snark>