Margaritis Schinas, Chief Spokesperson of the EC during the midday press briefing | Lieven Creemer/EC — Audiovisual Service Brussels bureaucrat: ‘We’re not bureaucrats!’ Juncker’s chief spokesperson takes exception at journalist’s description of his work.

A journalist who used the term "euro bureaucrats" received an ear-bashing from Jean-Claude Juncker's chief spokesman Tuesday who said it was not an acceptable way to refer to "European civil servants."

Margaritis Schinas, who heads the European Commission’s spokesperson's service, took offense at a question from an Italian journalist during the daily midday briefing. The journalist asked Schinas about the behavior of Martin Selmayr, Juncker’s powerful chief of staff, who has been accused by officials in Rome of briefing against them.

The journalist asked if Selmayr’s alleged conduct was "in line with the duties of 'euro bureaucrats,' whose salaries are paid by European taxpayers."

Schinas responded: "Thank you for repeating that we are bureaucrats in our faces. I have told you repeatedly that we do not like that term for the European civil service, for the many thousands of colleagues who work for the institutions. We do not think bureaucrat is the way to describe our job."

"Each time you will use the term bureaucrat, I will answer back that we are civil servants working for the interests of all 28 member states."

Authors: