WRITTEN QUESTION E-1486/98 by Rosemarie Wemheuer (PSE) to the Commission (13 May 1998)

Subject: Commission establishment plan

In view of the recurring argument revolving around an overstaffed administration on the one hand and overworked staff on the other, I would like to have an overview of the exact establishment plan and distribution of officials working in and for the Commission. I would therefore ask the Commission to answer the following questions:

How many Commission officials are there at present? How many are there in the different grades (A, LA, B, C and D)? How are the various nationalities represented within the grades? And what is the distribution of officials by grade within the different Directorates-General?

How many other employees coming under the Staff Regulations are currently employed in the Commission? How are they divided up among the various categories (temporary staff, auxiliary staff, local staff, special advisers) and what is the distribution of these employees among the Directorates-General?

How many employees not covered by the Staff Regulations are currently employed by the Commission? What categories, for example security, cleaning and canteen staff, maintenance services, as well as national experts, scientific experts, advisers, staff taken on through temporary employment agencies, staff receiving fees, etc., are there, and how many employees are there in each of these 'categories'?

How many employees not covered by the Staff Regulations are employed by the Commission in-house?

How many employees not covered by the Staff Regulations are employed by the Commission externally?

Are there separate conditions of access for employees not covered by the Staff Regulations as regards buildings, documents, data bases and other sources of information? Are there differences here between in-house and external staff?

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission (16 June 1998)

Statistics on staffing within the Commission are set out in an extremely detailed quarterly bulletin, a copy of which has been sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament's General Secretariat (situation at 3 April 1998). This document contains the answers to all the Honourable Member's questions regarding staff covered by the Staff Regulations and Conditions of Employment (officials, temporary staff, etc.). On the matter of external staff, the Commission would refer the Honourable Member to the consolidated balance sheet of 31 December 1997, which has also been sent to her direct. Finally, at the end of June the Commission will be tabling a document on the staffing situation within the Commission in Parliament's Committee on Budgets in support of its preliminary draft budget for 1999. This document will provide further information.

The Commission also concludes service contracts with a large number of companies for maintenance and repair work (including telephone services and cabling), cleaning and catering, in accordance with invitations to tender.

In the case of maintenance and repairs, the number of staff employed from day to day depends entirely on operational requirements. This being so, there is little point in providing average figures, as they would not give a reliable picture.

Cleaning services are provided by two companies, which employ 400 people on average.

In the catering sector, one company provides approximately 295 staff (total number of staff on the company's establishment plan on 1 March 1998). The staff shop employs 19 agency staff.

The Commission also employs 130 people in its nurseries and day-care centres on contracts under Belgian private law; some of the costs are recovered through contributions from parents.

The Commission currently employs 478 staff as security guards and to control access to the various buildings in Brussels.

Staff who are not covered by the Staff Regulations but who have a contractual link with the Commission or who work for a company with a contractual link with the Commission, have cards giving access to its premises issued at the request of the Directorates-General that employ them.

These cards provide access only to those buildings where the services are performed, for the duration of the contract, and, except by special decision of the employing department, during normal working hours.

Access to documents, databases and other information sources is governed by the Commission Decision of 30 November 1994 on the security measures applicable to classified information produced or transmitted in connection with European Union activities.