Brussels or the Last French Colony: French Colonial Officials’ Leadership in Designing DG8

Abstract

The influence of French ex-colonial officials on DG8 was clearly recognized by those who joined the DG from other services. As Claude Cheysson, Commissioner for Development between 1973 and 1981, put it: ‘when I arrived at the European Commission, the style was very colonial. If French colonial officials had not implemented indirect rule in colonial times, they certainly did so while at DG8’ (Interview Cheysson). Indeed, they played a crucial role in building the identity of the directorate general. A key figure in this process was Ferrandi. As a ‘leader’ in the institutionalization of DG8 (Selznick, 1957; Hargrove, 1994; Boin and Christensen, 2008), he had the difficult task ‘of interpreting and articulating the organization’s purposes to its own people and to constituencies in its environment’ (Hargrove, 1994, p. 3). He had to define DG8’s mission and methods and orient DG8’s social structure in such a way as to provide the institution with a strong social base capable of sustaining this mission and his own authority, both internally and externally. Following Liesbet Hooghe’s hypothesis about the socialization of Commission officials, I will assume that his former socialization at the French colonial school and his prior experience (in the Directorate General of the Economic Services of the West African Federation) had an influence in shaping his preferences, interests and norms regarding DG8’s mission and methods (Hooghe, 2001, 2005).KeywordsDirector GeneralDistrict OfficerEconomic ServiceInternational Development AssociationFrench ColonialThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.