Administratieve hervorming EU-ambtenarenapparaat van kracht (en) - Hoofdinhoud
Today, the Council definitively adopted the Commission proposals on the modernisation of the Staff Regulations of the EU Civil Service. The reform covers all aspects of careers and working conditions of EU officials and other staff, from recruitment to retirement. At the heart of the system is a career structure centred on two categories of staff, Administrators and Assistants, instead of the four traditional categories. The structure provides for career progress in which pay rises depend much more on sustained proven performance, and much less on length of service. The new career system is closely linked to objective annual individual performance assessments for all staff, including middle and senior managers, as well as procedures to deal firmly but fairly with any professional underperformance. The new Staff Regulations, among other things, modernise pension provisions by raising the pension age and pension contributions; rationalise various allowances; sustain merit based remuneration; and update the working environment of staff, for example through the improvement of maternity leave and the introduction of family related leave. Compared to arrangements without reform the implementation of the new Staff Regulations will generate cost savings building up to €100 million a year over the next decade.
Welcoming the adoption of the Staff Regulations by the Council, Vice-President for Administrative Reform Neil Kinnock said: "This Commission has fulfilled its pledge to comprehensively reform the EU administration and has done it widely, quickly and thoroughly whilst generating real terms cost savings. The Institution now has a modern integrated human resources policy with unprecedented emphasis on management quality and provisions that will help staff to sustain excellent performance. It is, of course, essential that the next and future Commissions maintain the advances so that the Institution continues to match changing demands as an organisation. That is in the interests of the Institution and its staff and, most of all, in the interests of the Union and the general public that we serve. Last but not least, the adoption of theses new Staff Regulations mean that the EU Institutions can face the challenges stemming from enlargement with a stable and modernised human resources policy".
New career system
The current career system, which is over 40 years old, places a premium on length of service "seniority" in determining pay increases. In some grades it has meant that automatic pay increases of up to 38% were possible over a 16 year period without any performance related promotion.
The new system will continue to take account of the professional experience which is necessary in any public service, but increases based on that will be less than 20% and career advances will be determined by sustained achievement.
The new career system will consequently cut the number of "seniority steps" and increase the number of promotion-earned pay grades. Progression from one grade to the next will be dependent on the results of an official's annual performance appraisals which will be assessed according to impartial criteria and agreed job objectives. Officials whose abilities and performance justify faster-than-average advancement will be promoted more quickly than is possible under the current system, and they will be rewarded accordingly. The new system will also remove the "glass ceilings" which mean that 25% of all Commission staff currently reach their highest grade (particularly A4, B1, C1) by their mid-forties or early fifties, and then see their progression blocked by the limits of the category system. By offering more opportunities for earned promotion, spread out over the whole career, the new system will increase incentives and motivation.
Updating Social Policy and Working Conditions
Modernisation of social policy and working conditions extends over a variety of changes including the introduction of parental leave which can be taken until a child reaches the age of 12, the right to work half-time to care for a child of up to the age of 9, and the extension of statutory benefits to all legally recognised stable partnerships, heterosexual or homosexual.
Reporting wrongdoing
Since 1999 all officials have had a statutory duty to report evidence of alleged serious wrong-doing either to their hierarchy, to the Secretary General of their Institution, or directly to OLAF and they have had the assurance that, when the duty is performed in good faith, they will be assured of protection from adverse consequences.
That duty and the safeguards have now been inserted in the Staff Regulations for the first time. In addition, provision has been made for officials to be able to report alleged wrongdoing to persons outside the Commission or OLAF provided that OLAF has been informed of the evidence of serious wrongdoing and been allowed a reasonable time to investigate, and provided that the official reasonably and honestly believes the evidence to be substantially true. Under the new provisions, the allegations and evidence may be reported to the President of the Court of Auditors, or the President of the European Parliament, or the President of the Council of Ministers, or to the European Ombudsman. Officials who meet these requirements will be protected from adverse consequences within the Commission. However, such protection obviously cannot remove the possible personal liability of officials to third parties under the relevant provisions of national laws.
To provide assistance to officials who feel unclear about their duty or about the conditions and means for reporting evidence of serious wrongdoing to persons other than their hierarchy or OLAF, the Commission is ensuring that all staff have access to confidential and impartial advice without making it compulsory for officials to seek or to take such advice.
Discipline
Written rules and procedures for the conduct of administrative enquiries greatly improve the preparation of disciplinary cases by clarifying all relevant facts and circumstances before any decision on the launching of disciplinary proceedings. This, together with the creation of the Investigation and Disciplinary Office (IDOC) within DG Administration and of a Disciplinary Board with a more stable composition and a chairperson from outside the Institution (currently a former President of the European Court of First Instance) will help to ensure treatment of cases which is fair, thorough and more consistent. The possible duration of suspension with reduction in salary is extended from 4 to 6 months, or longer in the case of officials who are subject to legal proceedings in Member State judicial systems. The rights of defence have been extended and clarified in relation to both administrative enquiries and disciplinary proceedings, particularly in terms of access to the documents relating to the case.
Maintaining Professional Standards
In addition to facilitating objective assessment and career progression, the introduction of an improved annual appraisal system provides new means of early detection of cases where performance is not meeting expected standards. All reasonable efforts will then be made to achieve and maintain an adequate level of performance within specified periods of time. In cases where performance is inadequate and remedial measures have been unsuccessful, a formal procedure can be launched which may result in downgrading or dismissal. The entire career of the official will, in such circumstances, be taken into account and final decisions will be subject to consultation between senior management and a joint advisory body.
Recruitment
Recruitment will continue to be organised on the basis of open competitions, organised, since 2003, by the specialist European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) which was created through Reform and is responsible for the organisation of competitions for all the European Institutions. Because of the increasingly multi-lingual environment in which the EU Institutions have to operate, the new Staff Regulations introduce a requirement for personnel recruited after 1st May 2004 to demonstrate their proficiency in a second foreign language before they can achieve their first promotion.
Middle Management
Using the new system of appraisals, the Commission will identify potential managers early in their career. The new Staff Regulations lower the career threshold at which application can be made for a Head of Unit post which means that junior officials will have the opportunity to become managers. The new Staff Regulations introduce probation periods of nine months. [The deleted passages are not part of the Staff Regulations, but of internal COM-decisions.]
Pay and Pensions
The agreement reached with the Council balances the need to ensure that the Commission remains an attractive employer for qualified multilingual international expatriate staff with the need to rationalise allowances, ensure long term stability of the pensions system, and finance the social policy measures needed to provide staff with a modern working environment. In general, the package maintains remuneration levels over the length of an official's career. Pension contributions will be adapted annually on the basis of an actuarial assessment with a maximum range of +/- 1 %. The adjustment taking effect on 1 July 2004 shall not lead to a contribution rate higher than 9.75 %, that on 1 July 2005 to a maximum rate of 10.25 %. The official retirement age will rise from 60 to 63. A special levy, rising over eight years from 2.5% to 5.5% of the taxable salary, is introduced to finance the cost of improved social policy measures. The method of annual salary adjustments (which links European Civil Service pay movements to those of Member State Civil Services) is, for the first time, integrated into the Staff Regulations, and those arrangements will continue until 2012.
Non-permanent staff
The Commission has always worked with non-permanent staff, and must be able to do so in future. Current arrangements are, however, unsatisfactory because they are too rigid and they do not provide staff with sufficiently attractive working conditions. In future, the Commission will be able to recruit "Contract Agents" (CA's) who will be able to carry out essential but non-core tasks in the executive agencies, in Representations and Delegations, and in the Commission. Contract Agent employment will replace technical grade (D-grade officials) and auxiliary staff employment. Contract Agents will only be employed on non-core tasks and will always work under the guidance of permanent staff. There will essentially be two types of Contract Agent: CA's will either have contracts for an initial maximum of five years, renewable once for a further maximum of five years, and capable at the time of second renewal (and subject to good performance) of being converted into open-ended contracts, or have contracts for up to 3 years in the case of personnel who currently perform Auxiliary staff roles.
Note for editors the Reform process
The Administrative Reform of the Commission is based on the March 2000 Reform Strategy White Paper, which set out 98 measures for the modernisation of the EU administration relating to service culture; strategic planning and programming; financial management and control; and human resources policy. The most recent comprehensive progress report on Reform was published on 9 February 2004 (see IP/04/177).
The Commission put forward its specific and detailed proposals for the modernisation of human resources policy between October 2000 and February 2001. Intensive consultations with EU Institutions' staff representatives then took place until March 2002. In April 2002, the Commission submitted its proposals to the Council and Parliament. On 19 May 2003, a political agreement was reached with the Council on all the major points of the Reform, which led to the submission of a modified proposal by the Commission on 18 November 2003. Statutorily required examination of all provisions in the inter-Institutional Consultative Committee (CoCo) then took place, and final enactment of the revised Staff Regulations has now been achieved in the Council.