political officials v. administrative officials

There are different levels in the European Commission in terms of officials.
As far as policy making is concerned we need to differentiate between a political level and a administrative level. On the political level an official’s objective is the political performance of the EC or a particular Commissioner/DG. On the administrative level officials are concerned with the factual relevance and problem solving capabilities of concrete proposals. Those differences need to be taken into account when opinions and statements of COM officials are referred to.