At the second Cosmetics Europe International Conference held last June 16-17, 2015, in Brussels, Gerald Renner, the association’s Technical Regulatory Affairs Director, presented the spirit and objectives of the European Commission that took office in late 2014. He also introduced its new regulatory approach, which will have a few implications for the cosmetics industry.
To present the new European Commission presided over by Jean-Claude Juncker, Gerald Renner starts by evoking the previous ones. He reminds they naturally gained in size as Europe grew bigger and went from 6 to 9, and then 10, 12, 15, 25, 27, and finally 28 Member States today. The principle has always remained the same: a Commissioner for each country, and a portfolio for each Commissioner.
'But structures made for six do not necessarily work for 28' says Gerald Renner. 'Think of decision-making in a big working group with 28 people with different interests coming from different countries! And how many portfolios can you create?'
Another characteristic of the ‘old Commissions’: their flat hierarchy, with a College of equal Commissioners. As a consequence, the decision-making power went to the Commission services, which were extremely strong, along with a culture of bottom-up initiatives.
Gerald Renner comments: 'The Secretary General and the President were basically there to make sure all things were coordinated, although they were not discussed so much between the services, and the Secretary General tried to make them more or less coherent, so they did not contradict each other, with more or less success. They just coordinated a …
