A General Directorate ( GD for short , also DG for English Directorate General / French Direction générale ) is an administrative unit of the European Commission that is responsible for a specific policy area. The directorates-general form the core of the executive structure of the European Union , and are therefore functionally comparable to ministries at national level. However, while a national ministry is always subordinate to a specific minister, the portfolios of commissioners and directorates-general are sometimes not exactly the same: although the directorates-general are each assigned to certain members of the commission, some commissioners have several directorates-general. In the past, it has also happened that individual Directorates-General assisted several Commissioners; however, when the Barroso II Commission took office , the departments and the Directorates-General were aligned with one another. Most of the Directorates-General are based in Brussels , where the European Commission is headquartered in the Berlaymont building . A subsidiary is located in Luxembourg .
At the head of each general management there is a general director ( Director-General / Directeur-Général ). As heads of authorities, they are the highest-ranking administrative officials in the European Union and can be compared with the heads of office of a national ministry ( State Secretary or Ministerial Director in Germany, Section Head / General Secretary in Austria). The directors-general are responsible for the day-to-day work in their respective departments and politically mostly remain in the shadow of the responsible commissioners. As a basic rule, the Commissioner and Director General never come from the same EU Member State to prevent national spheres of influence. It is also planned that general directors change their posts every two to five years.
The structure of the DGs similar to that of national ministries: You are in directorates divided, in turn in papers ( units ) to split. The directorates-general were numbered until 1999, and since a structural reform in the same year they have been named according to their responsibilities. The directorates are usually marked with letters, the sections with numbers. DG Agriculture, for example, consists of thirteen directorates, each with three to six units.
Some European offices (such as the Statistical Office ) and services of the European Commission (such as translation, interpreting and press services ) have the same rank as the Directorates-General . The temporary executive agencies of the European Union also have the rank of directorate-general. In total, the Commission's administration has around 24,000 employees (for comparison: the German federal administration employs around 316,500, the Swiss federal administration around 33,000).
The Directorates-General
1st column: The General Directorates are divided into four organizational areas
P: Policy fields ( Policies )
E: External Affairs ( External Relations )
G: General Services ( General services )
I: Internal Services ( Internal services )
The areas can be sorted in the table according to the first column.
3rd column: The abbreviations are mostly derived from the English or French names.
Directorate-General, Office, Service
Abbr.
General Director
Country of origin
In the area of responsibility of the Commissioner for
(1)The European External Action Service has formally the rank of Directorate General of the European Commission. However, it is also assigned to the Council of the European Union and is composed of members of the national diplomatic services in addition to commission staff . Its structure therefore differs from other DGs in many ways. Among other things, it is not headed by a general manager. The managing secretary general is the Frenchman Pierre Vimont , head of administration of the Irishman David O'Sullivan .
