WRITTEN QUESTION E-3675/01

by Ioannis Marínos (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(17 January 2002)

Subject: Lack of procedural transparency at Cedefop

The highly regarded newspaper, European Voice, reported (6 December 2001) that the Court of Auditors had severely criticised the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (known as Cedefop) over its system of recruiting and managing human resources. In their assessment of the Centre, the Court's inspectors stress that it had done little to achieve compliance with the current rules, while in examining the cases of 36 of its officials, they found that 28 of the appointments made were insufficiently justified. The entire situation tarnishes the image of this decentralised agency, the EU itself as well as Greece which hosts it and assists it in every way and is in no way responsible for its alleged lack of transparency.

What action will the Commission take to strengthen the transparency and impartiality of this agency's procedures? Will the appointments which the Court of Auditors finds insufficiently justified be declared null and void? Can the Commission provide details of each of those appointments, the nature of the post and the nationality of the officials appointed on the basis of unsatisfactory criteria? What are the official languages used at Cedefop?

Answer given by Mrs Reding on behalf of the Commission

(1 March 2002)

Cedefop is a decentralised body set up under a specific Regulation (Regulation (EEC) No 337/75 of the Council of 10 February 1975 establishing a European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training(1), Article 7 § 4). It is autonomous as regards its staff policy, over which the Commission has no control, beyond being represented on its Management Board. Indeed according to its basic Regulation, it is the Director who is responsible for all staff matters and for engaging and dismissing staff(2). Therefore, the appointments which the Court of Auditors finds insufficiently justified cannot be declared by the Commission as null and void.

The Centre has provided the following details concerning the above appointments. The 28 cases in question concern 14 A posts (experts in education and vocational training, translators, administrators, etc.), 8 B posts (financial managers, documentalists, computer specialists, etc.) and 6 C posts (secretaries), all with temporary contracts (initially for a duration of two years).

The breakdown by country is as follows:

- Belgium: 5,

- Greece: 5,

- Germany: 4,

- France: 4,

- Spain: 3,

- Italy: 2,

- United Kingdom: 2,

- Finland: 1,

- Norway: 1, and

- Ireland: 1.

As the Court's conclusions on this issue result from an audit undertaken in 2001 on the staff policy of all the Agencies between 1995 and 2000(3), they mostly refer to the critical period that Cedefop went through after its transfer from Berlin to Thessaloniki, in 1995-1998. The Court underlines the urgency with which the Centre had to implement numerous recruitment procedures in view of maintaining its activities in a situation where only half of its staff followed it in the transfer to Greece.

The Commission has already recommended greater transparency in the Agency's recruitment procedures by inviting inter alia the Management Board in 1997 to provide clear guidelines for the Director on staff policy issues including systematic reporting on implementation. The Commission considers that the subsequent Management Board decision has contributed to improving the transparency of the day-to-day staff decisions taken by the Centre. The Court's report states For subsequent recruitment the Centre has made use of the results of competitions organised in the Community institutions in which members of its staff or candidates for posts at the Centre have participated.

For the official languages used at Cedefop the Commission would refer the Honourable Member to its previous answer to written question P-3015/98 Mr Kaklamanis(4).

(1) OJ L 39, 13.2.1975.

(2) See also answer given by the Commission to written question E-2549/98 by Mr Kaklamanis, OJ C 118, 29.4.1999.

(3) Court of Auditors report on the financial statements of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop) for the financial year ended 31 December 2000.

(4) OJ C 182, 28.6.1999.