REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL on the application of Annex X to the Staff Regulations (Council Regulation 3019/87 of 5.10.1987) Year 2001

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 eleven reports. They cover the following periods: October 1987-December 1988, 1989, 1990-1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997-1998, 1999 and 2000.

Reflecting the wishes of the Council, further staff redeployment took place in 2001.

CHAPTER 1: GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1: Recruitment

The allocation of posts in the External Service, which stood at 693 (including five 'floaters') at 31 December 2000, was increased by 40 as part of the devolution exercise, giving a total of 733 posts. At 31 December 2001 636 of these were filled. A further 27 vacant posts were redeployed (see Article 2: Mobility) during the year A sizeable proportion (around thirty) of the officials recruited to the 40 devolved posts took up their duties in the delegations in January 2002.

In 2001, there were only two external recruitment procedures (two successful candidates from competitions (COM/1/12/98 and COM/10/98).

Article 2: Mobility

Rotation

The rotation arrangements for 2001 covered 178 officials (175 in 2000) on the list, of whom:

- 47 moved between delegations (64 in 2000)

- 74 moved from a delegation to headquarters (62 in 2000)

- 17 terminated their service (12 in 2000)

- 40 remained in their posts (37 in 2000)

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

- 74 moves from a delegation to headquarters (62 in 2000)

- 79 moves from headquarters to a delegation (67 in 2000)

In all, 217 officials moved under the 2001 rotation exercise (compared to 205 in 2000).

Redeployment

Continuing the redeployment exercise for 2001, 4 posts were taken from the 31 approved for redeployment in 2000 and used to build up the strength in Côte d'Ivoire, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia.

Another 17 posts from that reserve were reassigned as follows: Brazil, Cambodia (2), China (2), Croatia, Côte d'Ivoire, India (2), Nepal, Paraguay, Russia (3), Thailand, Vietnam and Washington.

A further redeployment of 10 posts was approved:

from: Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Lebanon, Niger, Zimbabwe, Costa Rica, Albania and Bosnia, to: Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Malta, Niger, Tunisia and Venezuela.

Article 3: Retraining

In 2001, 53 External Service officials posted back to headquarters to one of the Relex DGs or departments 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 2001, DG Relex continued the policy of providing furnished accommodation for officials serving outside the Community. References for floor area, number of bedrooms and cost/m by country had been laid down early in 2000. In many cases, however, they quickly turned out to bear little relation to market conditions. Since late 2001, therefore work has been under way to devise new standards based on London's ECA (Employment Conditions Abroad). These will be submitted to the CCAM (Advisory Committee on Procurements and Contracts) for approval in the course of 2002.

CHAPTER 3: WORKING CONDITIONS

Articles 6, 7 and 9: Annual leave

Further standardisation of these arrangements was achieved in 2000 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. In line with headquarters' recommendations, officials serving abroad have made an effort to use their entitlement and reduce excessive carryover of leave.

The table below shows a clear fall from 1994/95 to 1999/2001 in carryovers of more than 14 days and in particular of those between 36 and 70 days:

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

Under its regular annual exercise, the Commission decided on 5 February 2001 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 2001 (see Annex I), against 30 in 2000. 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 11 December 2000, the Commission fixed the living-conditions allowance rates for 2001 as shown in the table in Annex II. (The allowances were increased for three postings: South Korea from 15% to 20%; Japan/Naka from 20% to 25%; Zimbabwe from 10% to 15%, and lowered for three others: Bosnia-Herzegovina from 25% to 20%, Tanzania from 35% to 25%; and Vietnam from 35% to 25%).

Article 10(2) Additional allowance

Commission Decisions allocated additional allowances in 2001 to officials in the following posts:

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Articles 11 and 12: Arrangements for the payment of remuneration

The currency in which officials' remuneration was paid in 2001 breaks down as follows in percentage terms:

- 70.5% opted to have their salaries paid in euros under Article 11 of Annex X to the Staff Regulations;

- 24.5% requested payment of part of their remuneration in local currency. Of these, 40% 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 17% and 78%. In 2001, 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% requested payment of part of their remuneration in a currency other than that of their place of employment (Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan), on the basis of the necessary supporting documents.

Article 13: Weightings

On 10 September 2001, the Council adopted Regulation No 1794/2001 [1] laying down the weightings applicable to the remuneration of officials of the European Communities serving in third countries from 1 January 2001, and on 12 February 2002, Regulation No 302/2002 [2] laying down the weightings applicable from 1 July 2001.

[1] OJ L 244, 14.9.2001, p. 1.

[2] OJ L 47, 19.2.2002, p. 4.

On 30 November 2001 the Council adopted Regulation No 2367/2001 [3] to adjust the weightings for officials serving in Naka (Japan), amending:

[3] OJ L 320, 05.12.2001, p.1.

- Regulation No 106/2001 laying down the weightings applicable from 1 January 2000, and

- Regulation No 1794/2001 laying down the weightings applicable from 1 July 2000.

On 26 November 2001 [4] the Commission approved the decision adjusting the weightings applicable from 1 February, 1 March, 1 April, 1 May and 1 June 2001.

[4] OJ L 321, 6.12.2001, p. 31.

Article 15: Education allowance

A total of EUR 2 835 400 was paid in education allowances in the year 2000/2001. The system of paying advances on education allowances to staff incurring particularly high costs was retained. All the advances granted for the 2000/2001 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 2000/2001 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 2000/2001 school year.

The total amount paid over and above the maximum for the 2000/2001 school year (including Japan) came to EUR 167 627.

Article 16: Installation and resettlement allowances

During 2001:

- 161 installation allowances were paid to officials newly posted to delegations, including 129 in euros to bank accounts in Belgium and 32 in the local currency of the place of employment; and

- 21 resettlement allowances to officials permanently leaving employment, of which 3 in euros to bank accounts in Belgium and 18 in the currency of the country of resettlement.

The total amount paid amounted to EUR 2 297 062.95, of which:

- EUR 1 347 387.96 was for payments in Belgium and

- EUR 949 674.99 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 applied just once in 2001.

Article 18: Temporary accommodation

184 decisions authorising temporary accommodation were taken in 2001 (compared to 166 in 1997, 187 in 1998, 163 in 1999 and 195 in 2000).

Article 19: Staff cars/mileage allowance

The rules for the use of private cars for the purposes of work and vice versa have applied since June 1996. The rules were reworded at the end of 1998, and the revised version distributed at the beginning of 1999. The mileage allowance referred to in Article 19 was established in accordance with practice in several Member States on the basis of average running costs. At present it stands at EUR 0.26 per km (EUR 0.36/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 2001 amounted to EUR 341 649.

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

There were 224 removals in 2001 (247 in 1997, 266 in 1998, 237 in 1999 and 278 in 2000), 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 seven cases (10 in 1999, eight in 2000). In the interests both of legal protection for lessors (who are dealing with the European Commission, not individual diplomats) and of housing policy (maintaining quality housing stock for the medium and long terms), experience shows that application of Article 23 should be reserved for countries where the market and legal conditions permit (e.g. Geneva and Washington).

SECTION 3: SOCIAL SECURITY

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

In 2001, 22 medical evacuations were authorised by the Medical Service. Three of the 22 cases were settled in 2001 for a total of EUR 26 269. A further four cases from 2000 and one from 1999 were settled in 2000 for a total of EUR 5 452. The SOS Air Ambulance annual premium cost EUR 11 845 in 2001.

Article 25: Accident cover for dependants

There were three claims in 2001 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)

In force from: 1 January 2001

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ANNEX II

LIST OF POSTS

AND LIVING CONDITIONS ALLOWANCE RATES

(Article 10 of Annex X)

In force from: 1 January 2001 (1.1.2000 for Japan - Naka)

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