WRITTEN QUESTION E-0103/02

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(28 January 2002)

Subject: Commission staff allocations

1. Will the Commission say how many posts were foreseen at the beginning and end of 2001, and how many staff were in post at each date?

2. Will it further set out in a table the change in the number of posts allocated to each directorate-general in 2002 compared with 2001, and in 2001 compared with 2000?

3. Is the Commission satisfied that its internal flexibility in the allocation of staff to different tasks is adequate to meet changing needs?

Answer given by Mrs Schreyer on behalf of the Commission

(13 March 2002)

1. The number of vacant posts strongly decreased in 2000: it went from 790 on 1 January 2000 to 480 on the 31 December 2000. This represents 2.8 % of the total number of permanent and temporary, which is the lowest rate during the past six years and very near to the 2 % Commission's target on the basis of current recruitment procedures.

The situation for permanent and temporary posts in the operating establishment plan of the Commission in 2001 was the following:

>TABLE>

The Commission started the year 2001 with 500 additional vacant posts in its establishment plan simply as a result of the additional posts authorised in the 2001 budget: 400 new posts plus the conversions of appropriations for outside personnel into 100 permanent posts.

Despite such an increase and a higher than originally foreseen turn-over, by the end of December 2001 the number of vacant posts had decreased to 660 from 1026 on 15 January 2001.

In addition some 75 of the vacant posts concern LA posts set aside to prepare for enlargement and thus intentionally left vacant.

2. The allocation of posts for each Policy Area appears as part of the budget remark to Chapter A-11 in the Budget of the Union (2000/81/CE(1), CECA, Euratom page 371; 2001/110/CE(2), CECA, Euratom page 371, 2002/50/CE(3), CECA, Euratom p. 2).

3. The present Commission has made full use of the possibilities for re-deployment offered by a single Statute, a single operating establishment plan and officials with skills that can be effectively used in many Commission departments.

A first in-depth restructuring of the various departments of the Commission was carried out in autumn 1999, leading to redeployment of around 690 staff to core tasks and policy priorities.

In 2000 a Peer Group of Members of the Commission examinded carefully the balance between tasks and human resources. A shortfall of 1 254 posts was identified. The Commission undertook to cover part of the needs through re-deployment: 222 posts to be redeployed following discontinuation or scaling down of activities in 2001-2002 and 315 posts to be redeployed in the same period following exceptional productivity gains.

The Commission intends to continue using re-deployment when appropriate. There are however limits to the possibilities of re-deployment.

Firstly, after the efforts in the past three years, inevitably possibilities for further re-deployment have been greatly reduced.

Secondly, when re-deployments concern officials rather than vacant posts, their skills sometimes need adjusting to the changed environment. To this end, the Commission has intensified training programmes for its officials. Such an intensification is a key component of the Commission's administrative reform, and has been possible also thanks to the increasing appropriations for training authorised by the Budget Authority.

However, some of the officials concerned may not be vocationally capable of changing their career orientation to the extent needed to meet the new profiles required. The

Peer Group conclusions thus announced that the Commission would put forward a proposal to the Council for an ad hoc budgetary-neutral scheme to allow 600 officials to take early retirement from the Commission in the interests of the service.

(1) OJ L 40, 14.2.2000.

(2) OJ L 56, 26.2.2001.

(3) OJ L 29, 31.1.2002.