The Decline of Meritocracy in European Public Life
May 31, 2026 · Frisian News
European institutions increasingly fill leadership roles through networks and ideology rather than ability. Competence has become secondary to the right connections and approved opinions.
An official with no background in energy policy became energy commissioner for the EU. His main qualification was loyalty to the ruling party back home and the right votes on Brussels power plays. An official with no scientific training headed a major health agency during a crisis. These are not exceptions. They are the pattern.
Meritocracy in European public life has corroded so far that many people no longer expect the best person to get the job. Instead, people watch to see which faction wins, which network gets rewarded, which ideology gets installed in the chair. The Brussels machinery, national governments, and the sprawl of European agencies now operate less like organizations built on skill and more like patronage clubs built on loyalty. You see this in how quickly incompetent people fail sideways into promotion rather than out of jobs.
The cause is not mysterious. As government power expanded, so did the incentive to capture it through connections rather than excellence. When a position controls billions in spending or regulatory power, the stakes get too high for those who hold power to fill it with the best person available. They fill it with someone they can trust, someone from their faction, someone who knows the unwritten rules. Merit becomes a checkbox you cross before hiring your preferred candidate.
This hollows out the institutions from inside. The competent people leave or never apply. They see the game is rigged and find better uses for their talent. What remains is a bureaucracy full of people who got where they are through networks, not work. These people protect each other and resist any real accountability. They defend bad decisions, bury mistakes, and slow down any challenge to the system that feeds them.
Small countries and smaller cities still have some version of real meritocracy because everyone knows each other and performance is visible. But the bigger the institution, the more room for rot. That should tell Brussels something. Instead, Brussels keeps getting bigger.
Published May 31, 2026 · Frisian News