WRITTEN QUESTION E-1347/00

by Christopher Heaton-Harris (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(4 May 2000)

Subject: Institutional reform

I am pleased that the Commission wishes to make itself a model employer that offers a good working environment for all staff. With these stated wishes in mind, could the Commission please comment on the thinking behind the recent closure of a Commission crèche and the scrapping of reception services at one of the DG buildings? I approve whole-heartedly of cost-cutting but hope very much that the Commission would agree with me that, in future, changes made to Commission services should go some way to realising the projects and aspirations set out in the consultation document on Commission reform rather than undermining them.

Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission

(3 July 2000)

The Commission has not closed any of its crèche facilities or reception services.

The Commission did propose the transfer of its after-school child-minding service (garderie) which is currently at the Wilson/Beaulieu complex to the European schools.

This proposal was made with two purposes in mind:

(i) to reduce the current overcrowding problem,

(ii) to increase the number of creche places available by subsequently converting the Wilson garderie into a new creche in order to try to reduce the present substantial waiting list.

Following consultations with staff representatives and the parents association, however, it has been decided not to pursue the proposal immediately because the conditions which were expressed by the parents for facilitating such a transfer could not be met in practice in the short term.

The Commission will continue discussions with the European schools to determine the possibility of providing the garderies facilities on their premises from 2002, if the requirements set out can be met.

Further options, over a longer time frame, will be examined in the framework of the Reform process and, in particular, in the consultative document on social policy that is foreseen in the White Paper on Reforming the Commission(1) for October 2000.

The Commission recognises the importance of offering good working conditions to its staff and continues to be convinced that they must include satisfactory crèche facilities.

The reference to the reception services may relate to the closure of the Welcome Office (bureau d'accueil) at the Beaulieu premises of the Commission. This decision was taken in the context of an initiative launched on 1 March 2000 consisting of an Infoservice to provide a better service to the staff and the Directorates general. This Infoservice including a call centre and info centre (former Welcome Office), as well as a specific site on intranet is mainly intended to provide an improved service to the staff and to use the services of Directorate general for Administration in a more cost effective and efficient way.

In recent years the number of staff running the Welcome Office in Beaulieu became disproportionate to the number of officials using the service and, after full examination of all relevant details, the Commission concluded that the number and nature of information requests from staff did not justify continued full time staffing of the Beaulieu facility.

A decision was therefore taken to allocate the posts to a new service that is being established. This will provide a visiting service of social workers to the Beaulieu complex on a regular basis as well as advice which, in the past, was provided by the Welcome Office.

(1) COM(2000) 200 final.