WRITTEN QUESTION E-2056/01 by Gianfranco Dell'Alba (TDI) to the Commission. Commission's decision to discontinue medals for twenty years' service.
Date: 2001-07-13
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European official, honour

C 93 E/54

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

18.4.2002

institutional,

Regulation adopted in 2000 and the Indicative Programme for 2000-2003, which identified three priority
areas:
legal and administrative reform; private sector development; and the social
consequences of transition. This new multi-annual Country Strategy approach enables the Commission to
concentrate Community assistance efforts on key areas of mutual interest, where there is a clear will to
reform, such as, for the period 2002-2003, upgrading border management against the background of EU
enlargement, the legal and regulatory business framework and judicial reform. In parallel, co-ordination
with other Community funded programmes and co-operation with other donors has been strengthened at
both the level of programming and implementation. This concerns in particular our cooperation with the
international financial institutions and programmes to promote investment in small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) and municipal utilities.

The Ukraine is not eligible for aid under the PHARE programme.

(2002/C 93 E/069)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2056/01

by Gianfranco Dell’Alba (TDI) to the Commission

(13 July 2001)

Subject: Commission’s decision to discontinue medals for twenty years’ service

The Commission would appear to have decided to put an end to the practice of awarding medals to
officials after twenty years’ service and to replace it with a European civil servant’s ‘diploma’, to be awarded
after twenty-five years’ service.

The decision was apparently taken in response to a report produced by the Peer Group, which deemed the
awarding of medals after twenty years’ service in the European institutions to be a ‘negative priority’.

in spite of the fact that in its current staff reform
1. Would the Commission state exactly why,
proposals it continues to claim that European civil servants are the life blood of the European institutions,
it intends to do away with this traditional means of acknowledging the work carried out by officials in
these institutions, on the grounds that it is a ‘negative priority’?

2. Would the Commission not agree that the European civil service could do without another small but
significant gesture of this kind, which is clearly unhelpful and quite frankly incomprehensible?

3. Would the Commission not agree that it would be wise for it to reverse the decision?

Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission

(22 November 2001)

The award of medals for 20 years of service was originally introduced to mark the first 20 years of the
European Institutions and subsequently adopted as a way of recognising the contribution made by officials
working in the Institutions.

This year, the Commission will be following its usual custom of awarding 20-year service medals. The
awards will be made at Directorates General and services and a reception in honour of all recipients will
take place at each Commission location. In Brussels the President of the Commission will attend the
occasion.

The Commission recognises the significance of acknowledging good service and has recently proposed a
number of measures which will reflect that, not only near the time of retirement, but also during the
career of a civil servant.

These proposed measures are currently being discussed with the Staff Representatives in the joint
committees for social issues and they will be implemented as soon as a final decision has been reached in
2002.