Confirmation of Keit Kasemets as head of EC representation: Doubts about selection process
Keit Kasemets was confirmed head of the European Commission’s representation in Estonia on Friday. According to officials involved in the hiring process, Kasemets’ appointment was agreed on previously, and an open competition never took place.
As daily Eesti Päevaleht wrote on Monday, rumors that the competition for the position had been fixed long before it finished circulated already in late 2016. Kasemets himself has said that the process had been honest and fair, with three very thorough vetting rounds, including two rounds of interviews, and an independent assessment that took every candidate seven hours to complete.
After a replacement couldn’t be found internally, the EC’s Estonian representation started looking for candidates publicly and made it possible for people outside the circle of Estonian European Union officials to apply for the position as well.
According to Päevaleht, the question isn’t so much why Kasemets was chosen—his qualification could hardly be questioned after his time as deputy secretary general at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications. But a public competition was arranged to replace Hannes Rumm as head of the EC’s Estonian representation despite there being a suitable candidate, and the public told that they were still looking.
Kasemets had been given preference throughout the process. According to an official involved in the process known to the paper, the head of the EU’s IT agency’s local coordination unit, Mailis Pukonen, should have taken Kasemets’ place in the final round of the selection process.
“Following the wishes of individuals influencing the selection process, things went differently,” the paper quoted an unnamed official. Kasemets had been the preference of the highest level of EC officials, and was granted meetings with Head of Cabinet Martin Selmayr, who runs EC president Jean-Claude Juncker’s office, already before the selection process.
Kasemets has categorically denied the rumors, saying that he didn’t meet with Selmayr before or during the selection process, but only after the interviews of the last round.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn