Opinion No 14/2002 of the Court of Auditors of the European Communities on a proposal for a Council Regulation amending the Staff Regulations of officials and the Conditions of Employment of other servants of the European Communities
Date: 2002-12-05
Institutions: European Court of Auditors
Subjects: European official, administrative reform, regulations for civil servants, servant (EU)

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(Information)

COURT OF AUDITORS

OPINION No 14/2002

of the Court of Auditors of the European Communities on a proposal for a Council Regulation
amending the Staff Regulations of officials and the Conditions of Employment of other servants of
the European Communities

(2003/C 21/01)

EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

and integrity. The Court therefore shares the Commission’s view
that the Staff Regulations should help to provide the Communi-
ties with staff of the highest calibre.

On 24 April 2002 the Commission presented a proposal for a
Council Regulation amending the Staff Regulations of officials
and the Conditions of Employment of other servants of the Euro-
pean Communities (1).

The Council requested the Court’s opinion on this proposal in a
letter received at the Court on 10 June 2002.

The Court has examined the proposal and issued the present
opinion, based on the following reasoning:

I. The Court’s attitude towards the overall policy behind the

Staff Regulations reform

1.
The Court of Auditors agrees with the main principles and
values stated by the Commission in its explanatory memorandum
to the proposal, the key words of which are competence, inde-
pendence, loyalty, impartiality, permanence, social welfare and
fighting against discrimination and harassment.

2.
The Court considers it important that the European public
administration should be enabled to perform the tasks assigned
to it by the Treaties in the best way possible. It is, in this context,
essential that the European civil service should possess the quali-
ties of independence, competence, high productivity, effectiveness

(1) COM(2002) 213 final of 24 April 2002.

The Court shares the Commission’s view that it is impor-
3.
tant to integrate different working cultures and that new staff
should be highly-qualified persons recruited on the widest pos-
sible geographical basis from within the Union.

The Court is aware of the fact that recruiting and retain-
4.
ing well-qualified staff involves offering sufficiently attractive
financial incentives to the candidates. In this regard it is important
that the career system should promote the will and the ability to
cooperate and avoid the divisiveness that undue emphasis on
individual results at the expense of teamwork creates.

5.
The Court also considers that satisfactory working condi-
tions and management efforts to improve job satisfaction have an
important role to play in motivating staff. On the other hand
appropriate and robust disciplinary procedures are required.

6.
The Court agrees that it is necessary to harmonise the pro-
visions relating to officials in the scientific and technical services
and the Conditions of Employment of other servants with the
new provisions applicable to officials.

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In general, it is the Court’s opinion that the present pro-
7.
posed amendments to the Staff Regulations are likely to improve
the performance of the European Institutions.

II. Additional remarks

Having studied the Commission’s proposal for an amended
8.
set of Staff Regulations, it appears to the Court that some subjects
have not been covered. The Court therefore recommends that the
following issues should also be taken into consideration:

9.
The periodical staff reporting procedure should include an
obligatory annual two-way dialogue between the superior and the
subordinate about their work and cooperation, the results achieved
and the goals for the coming year. This should enable staff to
improve their performance and, perhaps, suggest ways in which
their working conditions could be improved.

10.
It should be considered whether staff should have a right,
and maybe also a duty, to undertake additional training, of say,
five to 10 days every year. This could create a process of lifelong
learning and contribute to improving the staff performance and
motivation.

11.
It is important to ensure that it is always the best-qualified
applicant who is assigned to a management position. With this in
mind, it might be worthwhile to think of ways of broadening the
procedure for announcing and filling management vacancies.

12.
The Staff Regulations should deal with situations where
a member of staff impedes or evades a medical examination. They
should also provide for easier and swifter appeals and arbitration
mechanisms, and lower the threshold period of sick leave required
before the institution can start the invalidity procedure.

III. Reservations on specific subjects

The proposed amendments to Annex VIII of the Staff
14.
Regulations (Article 9a) provide for flexible retirement, as advo-
cated by the Court on several occasions (1). The Court considers
the possibility of retiring between 55 and 60 years of age without
the application of a coefficient reducing the pension entitlements
acquired until the date of retirement as an economical and fair
scheme. In this regard the new and more expensive measure con-
cerning the ‘termination-of-service scheme’, as set out in Article
47a of the amended Staff Regulations, is, in the Court’s opinion,
unnecessary.

The proposed amendments to Annex VIII (Article 12)
15.
provide for less-favourable conditions of awarding a pension to
an official and a temporary staff member aged less than 60 years,
whose service terminates and who is not entitled to a retirement
pension. Furthermore it is proposed that the benefits shall no
longer be transferred to the interested party but to a private insur-
ance or a pension fund subject to four specified guarantees, one
of which being that the capital will not be repaid. Since the new
rules could be in breach of the legitimate expectations of tempo-
rary staff in particular, it should be considered whether it might
create legal problems in the future. This could be avoided by a
temporary provision in the reformed Staff Regulation. Such a
provision might allow temporary staff, whose service had begun
before the entry into force of the reform, to continue to benefit
from the present severance grant, currently provided for, at the
moment of their leaving. It should also be considered how the
private funds compliance with the four guarantees will be con-
trolled.

According to Articles 22a and 22b of the proposed
16.
amended text of the Staff Regulations, any official who becomes
‘aware of evidence which gives rise to a presumption of the exist-
ence of illegal activity’ or of a failure to comply with the obliga-
tions of officials, shall inform one of his superiors (Head of Ser-
vice, Director-General, Secretary-General) or the European Anti-
Fraud Office directly. The official shall not suffer any adverse
consequences as a result of his denunciation if ‘he acted reason-
ably and honestly’. The complaint system should be organised in
a way that every complainant knows exactly to whom a com-
plaint should be addressed (Appointing Authority or any other
person charged by the Appointing Authority).

17.
The proposal provides for compensation or remuneration
of overtime worked by officials in the new AST function group.
This is not logical, because officials in grades AST 5 to AST 11
will receive the same remuneration as the correspondent AD 5 to
AD 11 grades and will be able to be transferred, on certain condi-
tions, to the AD function group. Compensation or remuneration
of overtime should be allowed, if ever, only for grades AST 1 to
AST 4.

The Court has a number of reservations about certain

13.
amendments proposed by the Commission:

(1) Lately in its opinions Nos 5, 6 and 7/2002 on termination-of-service

schemes (OJ C 236 of 1.10.2002).

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According to the new wording of Articles 90a and 90b
18.
of the Staff Regulations, any person to whom the Staff Regula-
tions apply can request the Director of OLAF to take a decision
relating to him or submit a complaint against an act adversely
affecting him. Requests and complaints may also be submitted to
the European Data Protection Supervisor. No reference is made to
the relevant provisions of the regulations laying down the tasks
of these bodies and no indication is given about any particular
consequences or follow-up of such requests and complaints. The
meaning and the scope of the proposed amendments should be
clarified.

19.
Regarding the new ‘invalidity allowance’, the words ‘in his
career brackets’ contained in the first paragraph of Article 13 of
Annex 8 should be replaced by the words ‘in his function group’,
as in the amended text of Article 78 of the Staff Regulations. The
latter wording would allow the assignment of an ‘invalid’ to other
tasks within the same function group.

Having regard to the Council’s request for an opinion on this pro-
posal, received at the Court on 10 June 2002,

HAS ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING OPINION:

1.
The Court approves the principles and values underlying
the proposed reform of the Staff Regulations, particularly with
respect to the high qualities which European Union staff must
possess.

The Court considers that additional issues should be dealt

2.
with in the proposal, in particular:

IV. The cost of the reform, evaluation of the Commission’s

calculations

— an obligatory annual two-way dialogue in the framework of

the periodical report procedure,

20.
The Court, having reviewed the methodology applied by
the Commission to evaluate the financial consequences of the
reform of the Staff Regulations, considers the Commission’s fore-
cast of a moderate increase of the expenditure from 2004 to 2010
(between 0,6 % and 2,5 % of the 2002 expenditure for remunera-
tion per year) reasonable. For the following years the Commis-
sion, under the present known conditions, forecasts moderate
savings. However, this forecast is based on the assumption that
the number of staff and pensioners and their main characteristics
(staff age and family structure, distribution within the different
career positions) will remain the same over time.

V. The need for appropriate tools for the carrying out of the

reform

21.
The transition from the present to the new career and
remuneration system will inevitably be a rather complex proce-
dure. The Commission will have a key role to play in this proce-
dure, by providing the other institutions, and in particular the
smaller ones, with appropriate information technology tools.

— additional education and a broader procedure for filling

management vacancies,

— improving certain mechanisms of the invalidity procedure.

On the following issues the Court expresses the reserva-

3.
tions set out in the explanatory memorandum above:

— as a flexible retirement scheme is already proposed,

‘termination-of-service’ schemes are not necessary,

— it should be considered whether the amended rules appli-
cable to staff leaving the service without being entitled to an
immediate or deferred retirement pension will breach legiti-
mate expectations and therefore a temporary provision could
be introduced to avoid legal problems,

— the complaint system concerning alleged irregularities should

be organised in a one-line channel,

THE COURT OF AUDITORS OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

AST 5 to AST1 1 is not justified,

— a compensation of overtime worked by officials in grades

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Commu-
nity, and in particular Article 283 thereof,

Having regard to the Commission proposal of 24 April 2002 (1),

(1) COM(2002) 213 final of 24 April 2002.

— the meaning and the scope of the provisions relating to cer-
tain requests and complaints submitted to the Director of
OLAF or to the European Data Protection Supervisor should
be clarified,

— for the invalidity allowance, the same wording should be
used in the main text and in the annexes of the amended
Staff Regulations.

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Having reviewed the Commission’s evaluation of the cost
4.
of the reform of the Staff Regulations, the Court considers the
forecast of a moderate increase in expenditure from 2004 to 2010
reasonable. However, the Commission’s forecast of decreasing

expenditure in the following years appears to be based on the
assumption that the numbers and characteristics of staff and pen-
sioners will not change over the years.

This Opinion was adopted by the Court of Auditors in Luxembourg at its meeting of 5 December 2002.

For the Court of auditors

Juan Manuel FABRA VALLÉS

President