COMMUNICATION TO THE COMMISSION COMMUNICATION TO THE COMMISSION

Allocation of human resources and decentralised administrative appropriations for 2015

The present communication sets out the allocation for 2015 for Commission departments taking into account the agreed results of the budgetary procedure as regards human resources and decentralised administrative appropriations. It does not include additional staff that some services finance under possible incoming earmarked revenue.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1............ Results of the budgetary procedure and other developments since the 2015 Draft Budget 5

1.1......... 2015 Draft Budget 5

1.2......... Amending Budget 3/2014. 6

1.3......... Amending Letter 1/2015. 7

1.4......... Reorganisation of Commission services. 7

2............ Available resources and allocation for 2015 on the operating budget 7

2.1......... Establishment plan posts (operating budget – Commission and Offices) 7

2.1.1...... 2015 allocation. 7

2.1.2...... Further redeployment, levy on excessive overheads and staff reduction in 2015. 8

2.1.3...... Surcharge in 2015. 9

2.1.4...... Timing of the 2015 allocation. 9

2.2......... External personnel and other decentralised administrative appropriations under heading 5 of the MFF – the so-called "global envelope". 10

2.2.1...... External personnel of the global envelope. 10

2.2.2...... Other decentralised administrative appropriations of the global envelope. 11

2.2.3...... Management of global envelope appropriations. 11

2.3......... Other external personnel financed under Heading 5 of the MFF. 11

2.4......... Other external staff financed under operational budget lines (former BA lines) 11

3............ Resulting Available resources and allocation for 2015 on the Research budget 12

3.1......... Indirect Research. 12

3.1.1...... Posts (XX 01 05 01). 12

3.1.2...... External staff (XX 01 05 02) 12

3.2......... Direct Research (JRC) 12

3.2.1...... Posts (budget line 10 01 05 01) 12

3.2.2...... External personnel (budget line 10 01 05 02) 13

4............ All human resources available by service. 13

Technical annexes. 14

1. Results of the budgetary procedure and other developments since the 2015 Draft Budget

The new Commission took office on 1 November 2014. In his political guidelines, the President defined its priorities[1] and announced the need for the work of the new Commission to be refocused on the basis of this agenda and its 10 priorities, as well as for the Institution to be organised in a way that reflects them and ensures swift and effective delivery on all of them. A reorganisation of the Commission services reflecting the new repartition of Commissioners' portfolios has been decided on 5 November.

In a context where maintaining rigorous cost savings and maximum efficiency is demanded on all public administrations, the Commission's statement of estimates for 2015 (referred to hereafter as '2015 Draft Budget' or '2015 DB') translated the commitment to reduce staff by 5% over five years[2] into concrete budget terms. This is the third year in a row that the Commission reduces its staff level by 1%. The 2015 DB presented by the Commission incorporated a net reduction of 508 full time equivalent units (hereafter 'FTE') across all headings of the multiannual financial framework, of which 359 posts and 149 estimated FTE of 'external personnel'[3]. The 2015 DB shows an increase on decentralised administrative envelopes corresponding to the salary adjustments of 2012 (+0,8%) and of 2015 (+1,7% on a six months basis).

The delegation of certain 2014-2020 programmes to the executive agencies will continue in 2015. The resulting cut for 2015 of 77 posts in the Commission services (of which 17 on the operating budget and 60 on the research direct actions one) is highlighted in Table 1 of the present communication. The Directorates-General (DGs) which have to free these posts shall do so by 1 January 2015.

In the light of these constraints, implementing the Commission Work Programme and the other policy priorities more than ever requires careful prioritisation and redeployment efforts.

1.1. 2015 Draft Budget

The European Parliament and the Council failed to find an agreement on the 2015 budget at the expiry of the conciliation period. Although neither Council nor Parliament amended the number of posts in the Commission establishment plans, the implementation of some of the provisions in the present communication is subject to the adoption of the 2015 budget.

In particular, if no agreement on the 2015 budget is found by the end of the year, the provisional twelfths regime will apply. Accordingly, a twelfth of the decentralised administrative appropriations and appropriations in administrative support lines of spending programmes for 2014 or 2015 (whichever is lower) would be made available to DGs every month. Furthermore, all movements linked to modifications of the establishment plans would have to be put on hold until the approval of the 2015 budget. This means in particular: transformation of AST posts into AD or AST/SC, transformation of appropriations into posts (TCE) and of posts into appropriations (TEC), and transfers between establishment plans.

The Commission will therefore present a new DB reflecting the initial 2015 DB of June 2014[4] as far as administrative appropriations and establishment plan posts requested are concerned, the adjustment of function groups (the transformation of 18 AST posts into AD and of 150 AST into AST/SC across all establishment plans), the requested mix between temporary and permanent posts as well as the requested posts/external staff composition (conversions of former D and administrative offices posts into appropriations for external personnel and conversion of appropriations for external personnel into establishment plan posts).

The present communication concerns the human resources (posts and estimates of external staff financed under all headings of the MFF) as well as decentralised administrative appropriations that will ultimately be made available to the services.

1.2. Amending Budget 3/2014

Further to the review of the Staff Regulations of Officials and the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Union (hereinafter ‘Staff Regulations’)[5], which entered into force on 1 January 2014, a new function group for Secretaries and Clerks (AST/SC) was created and reflected in the establishment plans in the 2014 budget, in addition to the existing function groups for Administrators (AD) and Assistants (AST).

At the time of its creation in amending letter 2/2014[6], the Commission indicated that the new structure would be filled progressively as from 2014, awaiting a reliable estimate of the number of AST/SC posts required.

In its Draft Amending Budget 3/2014[7], the Commission proposed to adjust the establishment plans of the Commission and the Offices, in order to allow for the transformation of a total of 91 AST posts into AST/SC posts.

Subject to the adoption of this amending budget by the budgetary authority, 80 AST posts will be transformed into 80 AST/SC in the operating establishment plan, 4 in the indirect research one, 3 in OIL, 2 in OP and 2 in OLAF.

1.3. Amending Letter 1/2015

On 15 October 2014, the Commission adopted the amending letter No 1 to the 2015 DB (AL1/2015)[8]. It adjusts the proposed establishment plan of the Consumers, Health and Food Executive Agency (CHAFEA). Due to the late adoption of the legal basis for the delegation as from 2015 of the Agricultural promotion measures, the budgetary impact could not be initially included in the DB 2015. This results in 1 additional establishment plan post (AD 11) for a seconded Commission official to CHAFEA's establishment plan, which is offset from a budgetary point of view by 1 frozen post in the Commission’s establishment plan.

In addition, the Commission modified its establishment plan for the year 2014, in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 50 of the Financial Regulation[9], in order to allow for the creation of the new Commission's Cabinets, starting from November 2014 (transformation of 90 AST posts into AST/SC in its operating establishment plan). Subsequently, through AL1/2015, the Commission requested to factor this modification into its 2015 establishment plan. All these changes will be integrated in the new 2015 DB.

1.4. Reorganisation of Commission services

The Commission decided on 5 November 2014 to transfer a certain number of responsibilities and organisational entities and management functions between Directorates-General, implementing the President's decision of 1 November 2014 and subsequent decisions on the functioning of the new Commission. The reorganisation implies the transfer of 947 posts spread across 18 DGs, as well as of some 750 external personnel at headquarters and in delegations. Furthermore the Commission has decided the gradual centralisation of the internal audit function within the IAS.

These changes will have an impact on the allocation of human resources among DGs and services with effect of 01/01/2015 as detailed in the annexed table 1.

2. Available resources and allocation for 2015 on the operating budget

2.1. Establishment plan posts (operating budget – Commission and Offices)

2.1.1. 2015 allocation

The central pool of redeployment will count 273 posts available for reallocation as of 1 January 2015. The new Commission's working methods will imply entrusting a number of well-defined priority projects to the Vice-Presidents, who will steer and coordinate work across the Commission in the key areas of the President's Political Guidelines.

The first priority for the allocation of posts from the pool is to serve the most pressing justified needs linked to the new Commission's priorities, taking account of new working methods and organisational structures which cannot be addressed through internal redeployment. It is therefore proposed to:

- reinforce the DGs in frontline towards the priorities of the new Commission (financial markets, infrastructure investments, energy union and climate, environment, digital single market, EU-US trade agreement, irregular migration, Ebola crisis response),

- strengthen DGs whose work is particularly impacted by the modified working methods of the new Commission[10] (Vice presidents' coordinating role and lead of horizontal priority projects, impact assessment, fostering a performance and value added based approach in Commission's activities, reinforcing effectiveness and efficiency of control strategies, steering active management of scarce payment appropriations)

- allow for the gradual centralisation of the internal audit function within the IAS.

Details of allocated posts can be found in the annexed table 1-bis.

The resulting allocation with effect from 1 January 2015 is presented in Table 1 in annex. For the sake of clarity, this table recalls the starting situation of the 2014 basic job quotas including the transfers between services which have occurred since the 2014 final allocation, and specifies the net 2015 final allocation and resulting job quotas as of 1 January 2015.

Table 2 in annex provides a detailed list of posts to be returned to the central pool by 1 January 2015, i.e. at the end of temporary allocations and as a result of delegation of tasks to agencies. Table 1 shows the posts to be returned.

Table 3 lists the outstanding temporary allocations due to return to the pool in future years, account taken of the reorganisation of the Commission Services.

2.1.2. Further redeployment, levy on excessive overheads and staff reduction in 2015

1% redeployment tax

Within the context of decreasing human resources, the redeployment pool guarantees a certain flexibility by allowing the Commission to adapt swiftly to new and evolving needs. Therefore, posts will continue to be redeployed between the departments in the course of 2015 according to the evolution of the Commission political priorities. To this end, a linear 1% redeployment tax will be levied on the basic job quota of all services.

Table 1 in annex spells out, in its last column, the number of posts to be returned by each service as a result of the 2015 redeployment tax.

Levy on excessive overheads

In order to offset the cost of staff increase in the executive agencies, a special levy was applied to the delegating DGs whose share of local overheads (administrative support and coordination functions) was higher than the average of their "family" of DGs. A similar levy on excessive overheads was applied in 2014 to all other DGs. Namely, a half of the share of overheads posts exceeding the average of the "family" of DGs will have to be returned to the central pool in the over 3 years, for a total of 34 posts: 15 in 2014, 11 in 2015, 8 in 2016. Table 1 provides details of the 2015 levy.

1% reduction in the Commission establishment plans

The third instalment of staff reduction initiated by the Commission as part of the economies sought for the new financial programming period has been mirrored in the 2015 budget. Therefore, all services are requested to return their share of the 1% net reduction in the Commission establishment plans (including the research budget) in 2015. The corresponding (vacant) posts will have to be made available by 1 July 2015. Services wishing to return these posts in advance of this date can do so as of 1 January 2015.

Since AST 'ex-D' posts will continue to be progressively transformed into appropriations as they become vacant, they cannot be returned as contribution to the above taxes.

2.1.3. Surcharge in 2015

The structural 'surcharge' for the Commission operating establishment plan (i.e. posts allocated to departments in excess of the total number of authorised posts) currently remains at 467 posts as of 1 January 2015. The structural surcharge may increase by up to 50 posts during 2015 to mitigate the possible increase in the vacancy rate following the application of the linear redeployment tax. The inter-departmental standing group set up by Commission decision C(2003)5267 on the establishment and management of job quotas will monitor closely and regularly the rate of occupancy of the establishment plans and the availability of relevant appropriations. Where parameters indicate a potential financial shortfall, appropriate measures could be introduced in accordance with the above Commission decision, ranging from selective recruitment targets or specific timing to blocking recruitments.

2.1.4. Timing of the 2015 allocation

Unless mentioned otherwise in Table 1 in annex, all movements shall take effect as of 1 January 2015.

DGs/services expected to return posts following ending temporary allocations (see Table 2 in annex for further reminder of the source of returning posts) or to transfer posts to other DGs and DGs which benefit from transformations of AST posts into AD or AST/SC should make the due number of AD and AST vacant posts available by 1 January 2015.

If DGs/services expected to return posts fail to liberate them by these dates, DG HR will automatically seize the corresponding number of vacant posts as soon as available.

Similarly, upgradings will only occur when the DGs concerned have returned the corresponding vacant AST posts. For 2015, the upgradings requested by the DGs on the operating establishment plan are not indicated in the attached Table 1 due to the foreseen shortage of free posts in the AST establishment plan. However, depending on the real availability of vacant AST posts during 2015, upgradings might be granted in the course of the year.

2.2. External personnel and other decentralised administrative appropriations under heading 5 of the MFF – the so-called "global envelope"

2.2.1. External personnel of the global envelope

· Allocation for external staff 2015

The allocation per DG is summarised in Table 5 in annex, including appropriations granted for specific one-off tasks (known as 'hors quota') listed in the footnotes of Table 5.

· Specific supplementary allocation for the replacement of absent staff 2015

Commission departments are entitled to additional appropriations for external staff for the replacement of long-term absence in accordance with the Communication on the replacement of absent staff[11]. As foreseen in the latter decision, 100 % of this amount is made available at the beginning of the year.

These appropriations allow for the distribution of € 17.6 million to Commission departments in 2015, corresponding to an estimate of 482 FTE (based on average standard cost). The allocation is distributed to Commission departments on the basis of 2013 Sysper2/Time management module statistics, weighted against past allocations. Table 5 details these specific allocations per DG.

· Conversion of former D category posts into appropriations for external personnel

In accordance with the principles defined at the time of the reform of Staff Regulations in 2004, vacant former Commission D posts of the operating budget shall be converted into Function Group (hereafter 'FG') I contract agents. The corresponding posts are frozen and withdrawn from the establishment plan in the earliest DB. Conversions taken into account in the 2015 DB, i.e. conversions requested up to 15 January 2014, have been granted by the budget authority and are included in Table 5 below.

For posts 'frozen' after 15 January 2014, DGs will receive the corresponding appropriations in accordance with the joint instructions of DG HR/BUDG to be sent to DGs.

· The impact of the delegation to executive agencies mentioned under point 1 implies the reduction of 1 FTEs of external staff for the delegating DGs as specified in table 5.

· The repartition of external staff financed under the global envelope as per the annexed table 5 reflects the approved 2015 budget. The impact of the reorganisation on the number of FTEs per DG will be adjusted and communicated by DG BUDG at a later stage. The related appropriations for 2015 will be made available to receiving DGs by way of a budget authority transfer early in 2015.

2.2.2. Other decentralised administrative appropriations of the global envelope

The allocation of other decentralised administrative appropriations of the global envelope is set out in Table 6 in annex and takes into account some minor adjustments following the delegation of tasks to executive agencies.

The impact of the reorganisation on those appropriations for 2015 will be made available to receiving DGs by way of budget transfer early in 2015 and subsequently communicated by DG BUDG.

2.2.3. Management of global envelope appropriations

According to the delegations granted by the Internal Rules on the implementation of the budget on the XX 01 02 01 and 11 lines[12], each authorising officer enjoys some flexibility in the management of these appropriations.

External personnel nevertheless remain centrally managed by central authorising officers. They are made available in 'persons-months', estimated on the basis of a standard cost by category of external staff. DG BUDG makes the corresponding transfers of appropriations in ABAC in accordance with the annual guide on the management of the global envelope. The 2015 guide for the management of the global envelope, to be published by DG BUDG at the end of the year, will define the rules and principles applicable in accordance with the Internal Rules on the implementation of the 2015 budget.

As regards hors quota allocations of external personnel and other decentralised administrative appropriations of the global envelope, which have proven a potential source of under-execution in the past years, failure to make use of the appropriations by the clearing exercise in the spring may lead to DGs losing these appropriations, should the transfer amongst XX 01 02 01 and 11 lines so require to serve more urgent needs.

2.3. Other external personnel financed under Heading 5 of the MFF

All appropriations for external personnel under Heading 5 are part of the 2015 draft budget. These appropriations account for an estimate of some 1.663 FTE of external personnel in the representation offices in the Member States, DGT, SCIC and the offices (see Table 4 on appropriations of external personnel and Tables 8 and 9 on overall human resources available by service, in annex).

2.4. Other external staff financed under operational budget lines (former BA lines)

Both at headquarters and in delegations, the requested sub-ceilings for external personnel financed under the operational lines of the structural funds and other sub-ceilings have been included in the 2015 DB and subject to the adoption of the 2015 budget may be confirmed in the final allocation 2015. The sub ceilings for delegations have been reduced by the amounts corresponding to the transfer to the EEAS budget of the Commission’s contribution to the running costs of delegations (the so called “common costs” including cost of buildings and related costs, office rent, insurance for offices, other administrative costs as IT). These costs, which were financed from the Commission’s budget (Headings 4 and 5), were transferred to the EEAS budget during the budgetary procedure, in order to simplify the administration of the delegations' budget by creating a single source of funding for the running of delegations.

The resulting sub ceilings are in Table 7 in Annex.

Following the reorganisation approved by the new Commission, appropriations for external staff authorised in the 2015 budget under the former "BA-lines" will be made available to the receiving DG by way of (co)delegation according to the applicable internal rules.

3. Resulting Available resources and allocation for 2015 on the Research budget

The redeployment effort mentioned under paragraph 2.1.2 also applies to posts financed from the research budget. The following paragraphs mirror posts and administrative appropriations that should ultimately be made available to the concerned services, subject to the adoption of the 2015 budget.

3.1 Indirect Research

3.1.1. Posts (XX 01 05 01).

All posts requested (including an upgrading of 6 AST6 into AD5 and a transformation of 12 AST1 into AST/SC1) and corresponding appropriations have been reintroduced into the new 2015 DB. The impact of the delegation of programmes to EAs mentioned under point 1 is mirrored in Table 1.

Following the creation of the Common Support Center for the new Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (Horizon 2020), efficiency gains equivalent to 30 FTEs (21 posts and 9 contract agents) were identified. These economies are spread over 2 years, 2014 (10 FTEs) and 2015 (20 FTEs). For 2015, the 20 FTEs are broken down into 14 posts and 6 contract agents. The repartition of the 14 posts by DG, based on the contribution of each DG to the Common Support Center, is mirrored in Table 1.

The above mentioned changes result in an availability of 1723 posts, which are proposed to be allocated as shown in Table 1.

3.1.2. External staff (XX 01 05 02)

As an effect of the compensation of the delegation to executive agencies and of the savings derived from the Common Support Center, 28,5 FTEs have been deducted from the 2015 draft budget pre-allocation. Subject to the approval of the 2015 budget, the estimate of 757 FTE may thus be confirmed to the benefit of DGs AGRI, CNECT, EAC, ENER, ENTR, HOME, SRD HOME JUST, MOVE and RTD (see Tables 8 and 9 on overall human resources available by DG, in annex). Appropriations should be implemented accordingly, resorting as necessary to flexibility rules as detailed in the Internal Rules on the implementation of the 2015 Budget.

3.2. Direct Research (JRC)

3.2.1. Posts (budget line 10 01 05 01)

All posts requested (including the transformation of 10 AST1 into AST/SC1) and corresponding appropriations have been reintroduced into the new 2015 DB and can be allocated to JRC, subject to the adoption of the 2015 budget.

3.2.2. External personnel (budget line 10 01 05 02)

The estimate of 759 FTE may be confirmed to the benefit of the JRC (see Tables 8 and 9 on overall human resources available by service, in annex). Appropriations should be implemented accordingly, resorting as necessary to flexibility rules as detailed in the Internal Rules on the implementation of the 2015 Budget.

4. All human resources available by service

Table 8 and Table 9 in annex summarise the overall human resources (posts and estimates of external personnel financed under all headings of the MFF) that should ultimately be made available to the services in accordance with the present communication (with and without structural surcharge) subject to the adoption of the 2015 budget.

Technical annexes

to the Communication to the Commission on the allocation of human resources and decentralised administrative appropriations for 2015

Index

Table 1 || 2015 Final Allocation of Establishment Plan Posts – Commission

Table 1 bis || 2015 Final Allocation - Reinforcement in human resources by service

Table 2 || 2015 Final Allocation - Returns by Commission services due by 1/1/2015

Table 3 || 2015 Final Allocation - Outstanding temporary allocations due to return in the years to come

Table 4 || 2015 Final Allocation - Appropriations for external personnel under all headings of the MFF

Table 5 || 2015 Final Allocation - Appropriations for external personnel of the ‘global envelope’

Table 6 || 2015 Final Allocation – Other decentralised administrative appropriations of the “global envelope”

Table 7 || 2015 Final Allocation – Appropriations for External Personnel authorised on Former “BA lines”.

Table 8 || 2015 Final Allocation - Overall human resources available to Commission services excluding structural surcharge

Table 9 || 2015 Final Allocation - Overall human resources available to Commission services including structural surcharge

[1] A New Start for Europe: My Agenda for Jobs, Growth, Fairness and Democratic Change - http://ec.europa.eu/about/juncker-commission/docs/pg_en.pdf

[2] Inter-institutional Agreement between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline, on cooperation in budgetary matters and on sound financial management of 2 December 2013, OJ C 373, 20.12.2013, point 27

[3] The definition 'external personnel' includes: contract agents; local agents; seconded national experts; agency staff.

[4] Statement of estimates of the European Commission for the financial year 2015 of 11 June 2014, COM(2014)357 final.

[5] OJ L 287, 29.10.2013.

[6] COM(2013) 719, 16.10.2013.

[7] COM(2014) 329, 28.5.2014.

[8] Amending Letter No 3 to the Draft general Budget 2015, COM(2014) 637 final of 15.10.2014.

[9] Decision of 1.10.2014, QABD point 7

[10] Communication from the President to the Commission "The working methods of the European Commission 2014-2019", C(2014) 9004 of 11 November 2014.

[11] "Guidelines for an additional procedure concerning the replacement of absent personnel following the reform of the Staff Regulations", C(2005) 4754 adopted on 9 December 2005.

[12] Where 'XX' represents the different policy areas.