REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL on the application of Annex X to the Staff Regulations (Council Regulation No 3019/87 of 5 October 1987) Year 2002

INTRODUCTION

In accordance with Article 101a of the Staff Regulations, Annex X determines, without prejudice to the other provisions of the Staff Regulations, the special and exceptional provisions applicable to officials of the European Communities serving in non-member countries.

Article 14 of Annex X requires the Commission to "submit an annual report to the Council on the application of this Annex and in particular on the fixing of the rate of the allowance for living conditions as provided for in Article 10".

Since 1 January 1988, the Commission has prepared twelve reports. They cover the following periods: October 1987-December 1988, 1989, 1990-1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997-1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001.

Reflecting the wishes of the Council, further staff redeployment took place in 2002.

CHAPTER 1: GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1: Recruitment

Staffing levels of External Service officials, which stood at 734 posts on 31 December 2001 (including 22 posts provided by non-Relex Directorate-Generals, 1 post frozen as a result of its secondment to the European Reconstruction Agency, and 5 "floaters"), were increased by 114 posts as part of the devolution exercise and by 9 posts redeployed from headquarters, bringing the total to 857 posts in July 2002. The 9 posts redeployed from headquarters were :

- 4 regional financial controllers,

- 2 posts for the Delegation in China (supervision of Mongolia dossier and reinforcement of political section),

- 1 Head of Office for Afghanistan,

- 1 trade post for Geneva and

- 1 A-grade post for the opening of a Trade and Economic Office in Taiwan.

On 31 December 2002, 724 posts out of 853 were filled, 4 non-Relex posts (3 Financial Control and 1 OLAF) having been abolished or returned to headquarters. Furthermore, account must be taken of the redeployment of 22 vacant posts during the year (see Article 2: Mobility) and the difficulty of filling certain posts under the second phase of the devolution exercise. On 31 December 2002, 64 officials had been recruited for devolution posts and 19 procedures were underway to fill vacant posts.

There was no external recruitment in 2002.

Article 2: Mobility

Rotation

The rotation arrangements for 2002 covered 175 officials on the list (178 in 2001), of whom:

- 76 moved between delegations (47 in 2001)

- 63 moved from a delegation to headquarters (74 in 2001)

- 15 terminated their service (17 in 2001)

- 21 remained in their posts (40 in 2001)

The principle of alternate postings in delegations and at headquarters resulted in :

- 63 moves from a delegation to headquarters (74 in 2001)

- 67 moves from headquarters to a delegation (79 in 2001)

In all, 221 officials moved under the 2002 rotation exercise (compared to 217 in 2001).

Redeployment

22 posts were reassigned in the context of regionalising and reorganising network staff and opening new representations, of which:

- 3 management posts: Heads of Delegation: Malaysia and Singapore; Deputy Head of Delegation: New York;

- 1 Chargé d'affaires ad interim post in Cuba;

- 2 posts for Delegations to international organisations (Vienna: political issues, New York: monitoring of development issues);

- 5 operational A-grade posts: Gabon, Jamaica, Guyana, Mauritius and Burundi;

- 2 B-grade operational posts replaced by A-grade posts (Gabon and Swaziland);

- 2 posts for monitoring trade issues (Geneva) and political/trade issues (Venezuela);

- 5 Head of Administration posts: Afghanistan, Malaysia, Singapore, Jordan and Tunisia (exchange of A grade for B grade between these two delegations);

- 2 posts of Secretary to Head of Delegation: Afghanistan and Algeria.

Article 3: Retraining

In 2002, 60 External Service officials posted back to one of the Relex DGs or departments at headquarters under the rotation policy were the subject of retraining decisions.

CHAPTER 2: OBLIGATIONS

Article 4: Carrying out duties at place of employment

Nothing to report.

Article 5: Accommodation

In 2002 DG Relex continued its work on the accommodation standards applicable in non-EU countries so that administrative responsibilities could be transferred to the Delegations. Some of the standards already drafted were submitted to CCAM (Advisory Committee on Procurements and Contracts) for approval in 2002, but CCAM did not want to give an opinion on the dossier because its mandate came to an end at the end of 2002.

The standards will therefore have to be submitted for approval to DG BUDG, which wishes to receive at the same time all the revised standards for non-EU countries as well as a study of the budgetary impact.

CHAPTER 3: WORKING CONDITIONS

Articles 6, 7 and 9: Annual leave

Further standardisation of these arrangements was achieved in 2001 with regard to :

- entitlement, which has been calculated since 1998 on the basis of working days instead of calendar days.

- and requests for carryover of leave from one year to the next. Officials serving abroad have continue to make an effort to use their entitlement and reduce excessive carryover of leave, in line with the recommendation from headquarters.

- The increased number of officials has had no observed effect on the number of cases of leave of more than 35 days being carried over, which has remained stable.

The table below shows a clear fall from 1994/95 to 2001/2002 in carryovers of more than 14 days and in particular of those between 36 and 70 days :

>TABLE POSITION>

Articles 8 and 9(2): Exceptional granting of rest leave

Under its regular annual exercise, the Commission decided on 14 February 2002 to grant rest leave for the year, by way of exception, only for places of employment where living conditions were considered "particularly difficult", on the basis of the parameters used to fix the living-conditions allowance each year, and for places declared to be in crisis.

Strict application of the conditions set out in Article 8 of Annex X resulted in this decision being taken for 28 places of employment in 2002 (see Annex I), as in 2001. For places in crisis, entitlement is granted in proportion to the actual duration of the crisis.

CHAPTER 4: EMOLUMENTS AND SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS

SECTION 1: EMOLUMENTS AND FAMILY ALLOWANCES

Article 10(1): Allowance for living conditions

On 7 December 2001, the Commission fixed the living-conditions allowance rates for 2002 as shown in the table in Annex II. (3 increases: Fiji from 20 to 25%, Pakistan from 25 to 35% and Zimbabwe from 15 to 20%, and 3 decreases: Ethiopia, Mozambique and Uganda from 35 to 25%).

Article 10(2): Additional allowance

Commission Decisions allocated additional allowances in 2002 to officials in the following posts:

>TABLE POSITION>

Articles 11 and 12: Arrangements for the payment of remuneration

The currency in which officials' remuneration was paid in 2002 breaks down as follows in percentage terms:

- 73% opted to have their salaries paid in euros under Article 11 of Annex X to the Staff Regulations;

- 21.5% requested payment of part of their remuneration in local currency. Of these, 45% asked for the maximum allowed by the internal directives relating to Article 12 of Annex X (80%) and the remainder opted for percentages varying between 11% and 78%. In 2002, a 90% maximum limit continued to apply in Japan under the second paragraph of Article 1 of the internal directives relating to Article 12 of Annex X to the Staff Regulations;

- lastly, under the second paragraph of Article 12 of Annex X, 5.5% requested payment of part of their remuneration in a currency other than that of their place of employment (Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and Kazakhstan), on the basis of the necessary supporting documents.

Article 13: Weightings

On 24 July 2002, the Council adopted Regulation No 1522/2002 [1] laying down the weightings applicable to the remuneration of officials of the European Communities serving in third countries from 1 January 2002, and on 15 January 2003, Regulation No 101/2003 [2] laying down the weightings applicable from 1 July 2002.

[1] OJ L 229, 27.8.2002, p. 1.

[2] OJ L 16, 22.1.2003, p. 1.

On 20 November 2002 [3] the Commission approved the decision adjusting the weightings applicable from 1 February, 1 March, 1 April, 1 May and 1 June 2002.

[3] OJ L 321, 26.11.2002, p. 45.

Article 15: Education allowance

A total of EUR 3 815 860 was paid in education allowances in the year 2001/2002. The system of paying advances on education allowances to staff incurring particularly high costs was retained. All the advances granted for the 2001/2002 school year were settled within the prescribed deadlines.

As in previous years, the relatively high exchange rate for the yen prompted the Commission to allow the maximum annual reimbursement to be exceeded for the 2001/2002 school year in the case of officials serving in Japan whose children attended an international school there.

The combination of a general increase in education costs and the unfavourable euro-dollar exchange rate prompted the Commission to allow the maximum reimbursement to be exceeded in other places of employment too.

However, these authorisations were granted on an exceptional basis and only for children following a course of education at the place of employment and attending an international school offering the European or international baccalaureate, i.e. the Lycée Français, British School, Deutsche Schule or American/International School.

As was the case last year, the purpose of enrolling a child at one of these schools should be to ensure continuity in its schooling. In line with this principle of continuity in education, four officials undergoing retraining were accordingly also allowed to exceed the maximum limit during the 2001/2002 school year.

The total amount paid over and above the maximum for the 2001/2002 school year (including Japan) came to EUR 195 875.

Article 16: Installation and resettlement allowances

During 2002 :

- 231 installation allowances were paid to officials newly posted to delegations, including 194 in euros to bank accounts in Belgium and 37 in the local currency of the place of employment with the weighting applied; and

- 17 resettlement allowances to officials permanently leaving employment, of which 2 in euros to bank accounts in Belgium and 15 in the currency of the country of resettlement with the weighting applied.

The total amount paid was EUR 3 011 812.79, of which :

- EUR 2 155 105.49 was for payments in Belgium and

- EUR 856 707.30 for payments in local currency with the weighting applied.

SECTION 2: RULES RELATING TO REIMBURSEMENT OF EXPENSES

Article 17: Reimbursement of expenses incurred in respect of removal of furniture and actual installation allowances for officials not in furnished accommodation provided by the institution

This article was not used in 2002.

Article 18: Temporary accommodation

318 decisions authorising temporary accommodation were taken in 2002 (compared to 187 in 1998, 163 in 1999, 195 in 2000 and 184 in 2001).

Article 19: Staff cars/mileage allowance

The rules for the use of vehicles, in force since 1996 and revised in 1998, still apply. The amount of the mileage allowance has not changed (EUR 0.26 per km and EUR 0.36 per km for 4WDs).

Article 20: Travel expenses for rest leave

Travel expenses for rest leave were reimbursed on the basis of the distance between the place of employment and the place of leave determined by the Commission. Where the place of rest leave was disregarded, reimbursement could be claimed up to the same amount. Expenditure in 2002 amounted to EUR 494 129.

Article 21: Reimbursement of the cost of transporting personal effects, removals and storage

There were 358 removals in 2002 (266 in 1998, 237 in 1999, 278 in 2000 and 324 in 2001), under the rules for the removal of personal effects which were updated in 1997 and implemented at the beginning of 1998.

Article 23: Reimbursement of rent where the official is not provided with accommodation by the Institution

Article 23 currently applies in 15 cases (10 in 1999, 8 in 2000 and 7 in 2001).

SECTION 3: SOCIAL SECURITY

Article 24(3): Repatriation in the event of a medical emergency or an extreme medical emergency

In 2002, 24 medical repatriations were authorised by the Medical Service, of which 19 were emergencies and 5 extreme emergencies. 9 of the 24 cases were settled in 2002 for a total of EUR 34 314.16. 18 cases from 2001 were also settled in 2002 for a total of EUR 37 785.86. The SOS Air Ambulance annual premium cost EUR 11 845 in 2002.

Article 25: Accident cover for dependants

There were two claims in 2002 under the accident cover for dependants.

CHAPTER 6: TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS

Article 27: Transitional provisions relating to remuneration

NB.: This article has been obsolete since October 1992.

ANNEX I

DETERMINATION OF ENTITLEMENT TO REST LEAVE (Article 8 of Annex X) Effective date: 1 January 2002

>TABLE POSITION>

ANNEX II

PLACES OF POSTING AND LIVING-CONDITIONS ALLOWANCE RATES (Article 10 of Annex X) Effective date: 1 January 2002

(Fiji and Zimbabwe on 1.1.2001, Singapore on 1.11.2001, Cambodia, Nepal and Paraguay on 1.12.2001)

>TABLE POSITION>