WRITTEN QUESTION E-2045/99

by Jeffrey Titford (EDD) to the Commission

(3 November 1999)

Subject: Full list of allowances claimable by European Commission staff

Can the Commission list, in full, all allowances that are paid to or can be claimed by Commission staff in addition to their salaries?

Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission

(9 December 1999)

Under the terms of article 62 of the Staff Regulations, the remuneration of an official may comprise in addition to a basic salary, a number of family and other allowances that are set out below. The following information does not infer that the remuneration of any official is composed of the sum of all allowances.

1. Family allowances: a household allowance fixed at 5 % of the basic salary for married officials; a child allowance of 213,61 per month per dependent child; an education allowance of maximum 190,90 per month per child in regular full-time attendance at an educational establishment; a grant of 198,31 on the birth of a child. Family allowances are granted after deduction of any sums of the same nature that the official would receive from another source.

2. Allowances linked to active service before entering the service of an institution of the European Communities: for expatriated officials, depending on their situation, either an expatriation allowance equal to 16 % of the total amount of the basic salary + household allowance + dependant child allowance, or a foreign residence allowance equal to 4 % of basis salary; for C grade officials, a secretarial allowance of 99,55 or 152,63 per month depending on the grade; payment once a year of the annual travel expenses between the place of employment and the place of origin of the official;

3. Annex VII of the Staff Regulations also provides for the payment of: a fixed rate allowance for entertainment expenses (only the heads of the Representations of the Commission in the Member States and the heads and deputy heads of the private office of a Commissioner may currently benefit); a rent allowance or a transport allowance in places where the problem of either accommodation or transport is recognised as being particularly difficult (these places are determined in a Council Regulation and Brussels is not one of them); a fixed allowance not exceeding 892,42 a year for those officials whose duties constantly require them to make journeys for which they are authorised to use their own car to cover normal travel within the boundaries of the town where they are employed (fewer than 10 officials currently receive this allowance).

4. Allowances when taking up duties, when transferring between places of employment, or upon termination of service: an installation allowance equal to one month's basic salary or to two months' if the official is entitled to the household allowance; a resettlement allowance equal to one month's basic salary or to two months' basic salary if the official is entitled to the household allowance; reimbursement of travel expenses; reimbursement of removal expenses; a daily subsistence allowance.

5. Other allowances linked to working conditions: compensation of overtime work for categories C and D in cases of urgency or exceptional pressure of work; compensation for those officials who work regularly at night, on Saturdays, Sundays or public holidays; compensation for standby duty because of the exigencies of the service or safety rules.

6. For the officials who occupy posts in nuclear science and who are paid from appropriations in the Research and Development budget: pecuniary advantages, granted on a special proposal from the Commission, for a small number of officials who belong to grades A1 and A2; awards granted in appropriate cases for officials who are authors of a patented invention; awards granted for exceptional service; special allowances to compensate for particularly arduous working conditions.