Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament - The impact of the accession of Bulgaria and Romania on the human resources of the Commission
Date: 2005-11-15
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: Bulgaria, European Commission, Romania, accession to the European Union, enlargement of the Union, personnel administration, powers of the institutions (EU), staff

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 15.11.2005 
COM(2005) 573 final 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE 
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

THE IMPACT OF THE ACCESSION OF BULGARIA 
AND ROMANIA ON THE HUMAN RESOURCES OF THE COMMISSION 

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   EN 

 
 
 
  
COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE 
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

THE IMPACT OF THE ACCESSION OF BULGARIA 
AND ROMANIA ON THE HUMAN RESOURCES OF THE COMMISSION 

INTRODUCTION 

The  European  Parliament  gave  its  assent  to  the  accession  of  Bulgaria  and  Romania  on 
13 April 2005. On this basis, the Accession Treaty was signed by the EU Member States and 
Bulgaria  and  Romania  in  Luxembourg  on  25 April 2005.  Subject  to  ratification  of  the 
accession  treaties,  and  provided  they  comply  timely  with  the  conditions  necessary  to  fully 
implement  the  acquis  from  the  first  day  of  accession,  Bulgaria  and  Romania  would  be 
expected to become members of the EU in January 2007.. 

In  fact,  the  Commission  adopted  on  25  October  a  Communication  (Comprehensive 
monitoring report on the state of preparedness for EU membership of Bulgaria and Romania), 
which  refers  to  “…  a  monitoring  report  which  the  Commission  intends  to  present  to  the 
Council  dans  Parliament  in  April/May  2006”  and  points  out  that  “At  that  moment,  the 
Commission may recommend that the Council postpone the accession of Bulgaria or Romania 
until  1st  January  2008  if  there  is  a  serious  risk  of  any  of  those  states  being  manifestly 
unprepared  to  meet  the  requirements  of  membership  by  January  2007  in  a  number  of 
important  areas.  The  Commission  expects  Bulgaria  and  Romania  to  take  all  necessary 
corrective actions until then so as to avoid having issue such a recommendation”. 

The purpose of this communication is to substantiate the Commission’s claim for additional 
human resources by assessing department’s needs according to the impact of the accession of 
these  two  new  Member  States  on  the  Comission’s  activities.  It  outlines  the  general 
orientations and impact of enlargement on human resources by groups of policy areas and by 
job profile. It will be a key component in future budgetary proposals and in the design of the 
recruitment strategy. It does hawever not cover the recruitment targets of nationals from the 
new Member States, which is a different issue to be addressed in due course. 

This  assessment  extends  to  Bulgaria  and  Romania  (EU-2)  the  communication  presented  in 
2002  for  the  ten  Member  States  that  joined the  Union  in  May 2004  (EU-10).  Its  nature  and 
timing make the EU-2 enlargement very similar to the last one. Given the obvious similarities, 
this  analysis  was  carried  out  using  the  same  methodology  as  in  2002,  but  also  taking  into 
account the lessons learnt from the EU-10 accession as it occurred in actual fact in 2004. This 
communication therefore confirms and updates the medium-term estimates of human-resource 
needs made in 2002, as requested by the European Parliament in its resolution on the Annual 
Policy Strategy for 2006. 

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1. 

PURPOSE AND FRAMEWORK OF THE COMMUNICATION 

Experience  shows  that  recruiting  new  staff  and  integrating  them  smoothly  into 
Commission  departments  is  much  easier  if  prepared  well  in  advance.  This  stable 
framework is provided by identifying and planning the staffing levels needed for the 
post-accession  period.  The  previous  EU-101  communication  highlighted  the  central 
role played by this exercise and its usefulness both to the budgetary authority and the 
Commission. 

When  presenting  its  Preliminary  Draft  Budget  for  20062,  the  new  Commission 
expressly confirmed the validity of the analysis made in 2002 and the medium-term 
need for some 39003 new staff members by 2008 to carry out tasks arising from the 
accession of these ten new Member States. The findings of the 2002 communication 
remain valid today for EU-104. 

Over the last three years, from 2003 to 2005, the budgetary authority has granted the 
Commission  1980  new  staff  for  enlargement-related  tasks  (1480  new  officials  and 
500 external staff). Though significant, these initial reinforcements are nevertheless 
insufficient  to  ensure  the  proper  functioning  of  the  enlarged  EU  and  the  full 
application  of  all  Commission  policies,  Community  rules  and  programmes.  To 
safeguard  the  continuity  of  all  ongoing  activities,  especially  the  main  common 
policies  linked  to  cohesion  and  the  single  market,  the  Commission  will  need  the 
remainder  of  the  3900  FTEs  considered  necessary  if  it  is  to  meet  its  institutional 
responsibilities in the projected period. 

2. 

SCOPE OF THE CHALLENGE 

2.1.  What is expected from the Commission in an enlarged Union? 

As  the  European  Union's  executive  body,  the  Commission  is  responsible  for 
managing  and  implementing  the  EU  budget  and  the  policies  and  programmes 
approved  by  Parliament  and  the  Council.  After  enlargement  the  Commission  will 
have to manage programmes designed to support the new Member States, primarily 
under the common agricultural policy, structural operations and internal policies. 

As guardian of the Treaties, the Commission will have to ensure that Community law 
is properly applied in all Member States. Though the candidate countries have been 
making considerable efforts to assume their future responsibilities as Member States, 
their administrative and judicial systems and capacities might sometimes take a few 
years to settle. 

1 
2 
3 

4 

COM(2002) 311 final 05.06.2002 
COM(2005) 300 from 15.06.2005 
Of which 3960 FTEs covered by the administrative budget and a reduction of 60 FTE covered by other 
headings 
Further  explanations  were  provided  to  the  budgetary  authority,  at  its  request,  during  the  budgetary 
procedure : See working paper on “Human Resources for Enlargement” dated from 14th July 2005 

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The proper functioning of the single market, the safety and health of the public, the 
protection of the environment, the  supervision  of  the  EU's  external  borders  and  the 
careful  management  of  Community  funds  in  an  enlarged  EU  all  demand  that  the 
Commission be given additional human resources so that it can: 

•  actively  manage  EU  policies  and  monitor  their  implementation  in  the  new 

Member States; 

•  help  the  new  Member  States  apply  Community  law  correctly  and  initiate 

infringement proceedings where necessary; 

•  propose and then implement Community programmes to provide the new Member 

States with financial support; 

•  supervise whether programming and spending is being carried out correctly; 

•  communicate and publish Community documents in two new languages. 

2.2. 

Scale of the tasks in figures 

The  scope  and  challenges  of  the  next  enlargement  can  be  gauged  by  the  following 
indicators: 

•  Two  new  Member  States  will  take  the  EU’s  membership  from  25  to  27  (8% 

increase). 

•  Two new official languages will take the total from 20 to 22 (a 10% increase5). 

•  30 million additional citizens will increase the EU’s total population from 452 to 

482 million in 2007 (a 6.6% increase).  

•  With a per capita GDP in Purchasing Power Standards of about 30% of the EU-25 

average, the two new Member States are the poorest new entrants to date. 

The  impact  of  this  enlargement  on  the  activities  of  the  Commission  should  ,  be 
viewed  in  the  context  of  the  previous  enlargement  as  the  accession  of  12 new 
Member  States  in  a  quite  short  period  brings  obviously  new  challenges  for 
Community institutions, which now have to deal with 80% more Member States and 
twice as many languages. 

3. 

ASSUMPTIONS, METHODOLOGY AND STRATEGY 

3.1. 

Assumptions 

The  working  scenario  for  assessing  the  impact  of  enlargement  is  based  on  the 
following assumptions: 

5 

For the sake of comparison, Irish is not included in the 20 existing languages as it is subject to specific 
arrangements and to a 5-year transitional period starting from 2007 

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(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

(4) 

(5) 

(6) 

Subject  to  ratification  of  the  accession  treaties  and  provided  they  comply 
timely with the conditions necessary to fully implement the acquis from the 
first day of accession, two new countries would join the European Union on 
1 January 2007. If those conditions are not fulfilled, the calendar presented in 
this communication will be adapted accordingly. The estimates of the human 
resources  needs remain,  however, valid independently of the final accession 
date. 

Activities are assessed at full cruising speed, once all the activities and tasks 
associated  with  enlargement  have  been  phased  in  or  out,  taking  account  in 
particular  of  the  need  to  ensure  that  staffing  of  preaccession  programmes 
management  and  control  activities  remains  fully  adequate  until  their 
closure.The  time  profile  of  human  resource  needs  will  differ  from  one 
department  to  another,  a  difference  which  will  be  reflected  in  the  annual 
allocation6. 

The  starting  point  for  the  level  of  human  resources  by  activity  reflects  the 
2006  situation,  assuming  that  this  specific  enlargement  does  not  change 
policies,  programmes  and  delivery  systems.  However,  changes  already 
approved or proposed by the Commission for the future have been taken into 
account (e.g. executive agency7). 

All types of human resources (establishment plan posts and external staff) and 
all  sources  of  financing  (administrative  budget  or  operational  programmes) 
are considered on an equal footing. Staffing needs are measured in full-time 
equivalents  (FTE).  The  basic  assumption  is  that  this  enlargement  will  not 
change fundamentally the ratio between different types of human resources at 
the Commission. The breakdown of human resources by type and source of 
financing has been made on an aggregate level and will be specified in each 
individual budgetary procedure. 

The  assessment  has  been  carried  out  on  a  net  basis,  taking  account  of  the 
scope  for  redeployment  in  the  light  of  the  expected  completion  of 
pre-accession  activities  during  this  period  (pre-accession  programmes, 
negotiations, relations with applicant countries).  

The  total  estimate  includes  100  external  staff  already  catered  for  in  the 
Preliminary  Draft  Budget  (PDB)  for  2006  as  an  advance  on  medium-term 
needs. To being ready for enlargement, preparations have to start in 2006. In 
its PDB, the Commission estimated its priority human-resource needs at 100 
staff to perform essential activities in preparation for enlargement, mainly in 
the  linguistic  sector.  These  staff  are  not  additional  to  the  estimated 
post-enlargement needs but part of the overall package. 

6 
7 

This could be the case in particular for the linguistic services. 
This  communication  does  not  take  into  account  staff  in  executive  agencies.  However,  estimate  of 
human resources requirements for the Commission has been correspondingly reduced compared to the 
2002 analysis where an executive agency has been set up since 2002 

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3.2.  Methodology 

As this assessment updates the 2002 communication for the accession of the EU-10 
countries for the purposes of the EU-2 enlargement, it is consistent to apply the same 
methodology. 

Human-resource  needs  were  assessed  on  the  basis  of  the  activities  defined  by  the 
Activity  Based  Budgeting  (ABB)  nomenclature.  To  ensure  a  methodical  and 
homogenous  review  of  expected  developments,  a  questionnaire  was  sent  to  all 
departments. 

The  impact  of  enlargement  on  activities  was  then  analysed  and  activities  rated 
according  to  whether  they  increased,  remained  unchanged  or  diminished.  The  next 
step  was  to  assess  the  impact  on  human  resources.  As  a  rule,  changes  in 
human-resource needs have been estimated in relation to changes in the main factors 
determining the workload for a given activity. 

Where an activity, organisation or delivery system has undergone - or is to undergo - 
no significant changes since 2002, and where the impact of the EU-2 enlargement is 
assumed  to  be  proportional  to  the  EU-10  enlargement,  the  results  of  the  previous 
EU-10 communication have been extrapolated to the EU-2 enlargement. 

To  ensure  consistency  between  demands  for  various  activities,  responses  were 
screened to ensure equal treatment and comparability of data with a view to making 
sure that: 

• 

the figures and the underlying justifications provided were coherent; 

•  the  estimated  needs  of  different  departments  for  similar  activities  were  treated 

identically; 

•  only the additional workload arising from enlargement was covered;  

•  the  scope  for  redeployment  from  pre-accession  activities  was  duly  taken  into 

account. 

3.3. 

Transitional period for new posts 

The assessment takes account of departments’ needs and the Institution’s capacity to 
absorb new recruits. The Commission therefore proposes that new posts be phased in 
over  a  period  of  three  years,  subject  to  the  availability  of  reserve  lists  and  to  the 
absorption  capacity  of  the  services  concerned.  However,  most  of  the  Commission 
departments  felt  the  five-year  period  for  new  EU-10  posts,  a  period  dictated  by 
budgetary  and  recruitment  constraints,  was  too  long  and  the  selection  and 
recruitment pace has now reached its cruising speed.  

It does not prejudge the duration of the transitional period for the recruitment of the 
officials from the two new Member States, which the Commission is proposing to be 
a  5  year  period.Therefore,  the  Commission  will  set  in  due  time  the  recruitment 
targets for nationals of the new Member States, which is a different issue. 

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4. 

RESULTING HUMAN RESOURCES NEEDS 

4.1. 

Result of the screening 

In their initial assessments, Commission departments put their gross needs for extra 
staff at about 1084 FTEs and expected the end of pre-accession activities to free up 
237 FTEs. 

Screening produced revised estimates that put the gross increase in human resources 
demanded by an expansion in activities at over 984 FTEs. These needs can be met by 
redeploying about 98 staff (23 of them within departments) and recruiting 886 new 
staff.  The  need  for  redeployment  is  driven  by  the  Commission's  aim  of  providing 
quality service at a reasonable cost. It is also assumed that the equivalent of around 
145 outside personnel currently working on pre-accession instruments (and financed 
on the former BA budget items) will have to be let go as they cannot be redeployed. 
This brings net additional resources to 741 FTEs . 

Chart I 
Reinforcements, Redeployments and Additional Resources

1.000

984

886

i

l

t
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a
v
u
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E
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F

800

600

400

200

0

-200

741

-98

-145

Reinforcement of
expanding activities

Redeployments

Additional resources Non redeployable
resources (BA lines)

Net additional
resources

S1

Compared to the present situation, the additional 741 FTEs represent an increase of 
around  2.5%  in  the  overall  human  resources  employed  by  the  institution,  which  is 
below  the  relative  weight  of  the  acceding  countries,  as  measured  by  the  various 
indicators specified in section 2 of the communication. 

4.2. 

Type of human resources and financing source 

As  specified  in  Table  1  below,  the  741  additional  staff  by  type  and  source  of 
financing could be indicatively be broken down as follows: 

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•  750 posts in the operational establishment plans (administrative budget under the 
current  heading  5  of  the  financial  perspective),  including  about  166  posts  for 
linguists; 

•  36 posts in the research establishment plans (operational budget); 

•  additional  appropriations  for  around  100  outside  personnel  in  the  administrative 

budget; 

•  reduction in appropriations for the equivalent of 145 outside personnel currently 
items  of  pre-accession 

the  operational  budget  (former  BA 

financed  on 
instruments). 

Table 1 

Administrative 
budget 

Operational 
budget  

Posts in establishment plans

Outside personnel 

750 

36 

786 

(FTE) 

100 

-145 

-45 

850 

-109 

741 

This table confirms that some 850 FTEs financed by the administrative budget will 
be needed, in line with the assumption underlying the proposed financial perspective. 

4.3. 

Phasing-in 850 new staff in the administrative budget 

The Commission proposes that new staff should be phased-in over a period of three 
years. This would allow account to be taken  of  departments’  real  needs  and  reflect 
the  Institution’s  capacity  to  absorb  new  recruits.  The  indicative  profile  is  shown  in 
Table 2 below, in the case that accession takes place in 2007. 

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Table 2 

Year 

2006 

2007 

2008 

2009 

of 

Share 
additional 
posts 

New establishment 
plan posts 
(administrative budget)

External 
staff8 

Total Staff planned 
administrative 
budget 

33% 

33% 

33% 

250 

250 

250 

100 

100 

350 

600 

850 

The  time  profile  and  annual  share  of  future  demands  for  establishment  plan  posts 
might demand a degree of flexibility. The Commission will detail its annual requests 
for  new  posts,  cumulatively  with  the  1280  people  still  to  be  recruited  for  EU-10 
enlargement  in  2007-089,  in  each  Annual  Policy  Strategy  and  Preliminary  Draft 
Budget. The planned schedule for competitions will also be taken into account. 

The breakdown between establishment plan posts and external staff will also have to 
be fine-tuned in each annual budgetary procedure. However, while contractual staff 
hired in 2006 to prepare enlargement should progressively be replaced by officials, 
the  Commission  will  still  need  external  staff  even  at  cruising  speed,  mainly  in  the 
language  services  and  representations  in  the  new  Member  States.  Should  the  final 
need in external staff be less than 100, the Commission would request the conversion 
of some external staff into posts. 

4.4. 

Budgetary implications for administrative expenditure 

At  cruising  speed,  the  total  cost  of  these  new  staff  is  expected  to  be  around  €  85 
million10 (including the related infrastructure costs) for the Commission alone11. This 
amount  is  fully  compatible  with  the  financial  perspective  proposed  by  the 
Commission. The final agreement on the definitive financial perspective should cater 
for  this  specific  budget  allowing  the  Commission  to  recruit  the  staff  needed  for 
enlargement;  due  consideration  should  also  be  given  to  the  corresponding  needs  of 
other institutions. 

8 

9 
10 
11 

Some of these 100 external staff might also be converted into pasts while keeping unchanged the 850 
FTE 
Assuming the 700 new posts requested for 2006 are granted as expected 
At 2004 prices 
Calculation made for the draft financial perspective demonstrates that an amount of around 130 million 
should be included in the financial perspective for the accession of Bulgaria and Romania assuming that 
the human resources needs of other institutions is proportional to the last enlargement 

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5. 

IMPACT ON POLICIES AND ACTIVITIES 

The  analysis  conducted  by  the  Commission  for  the  purposes  of  assessing  its 
human-resource  needs  allows  results  to  be  broken  down  by  “Policy  Group” 
(departments) and ”Job Profile” (individuals). 

5.1. 

Changes by policy group 

Chart II 
Net Variation of FTE by policy group (administrative expenditure)

t
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v
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T

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F

900

800

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0

-100

850

349

322

144

93

17

-75

Internal
policies

Linguistic
services

Support
services and
co-ordination

Structural
interventions
incl. Agri. and
Fish.

External
policies

Pre-accession

TOTAL

5.1.1. 

Internal Policies 

Making  law  and  enforcing  that  law  in  the  new  Member  States  are  the  two  main 
factors  driving  staff  increases  in  internal  policies.  From  the  day  of  accession,  the 
Community  acquis  will  be  applicable  in  new  Member  States  and  the  whole 
legislative process will have to adapt to include them in the consultation process on 
policy initiatives and legislative proposals. 

The  domain  covers  tasks  as  diverse  and  complex  as  the  internal  market,  the 
environment,  competition,  taxation  and  customs  union  and  health  and  consumer 
protection.  What  is  more,  a  number  of  new  strategic  goals  set  by  the  EU  focus  on 
internal policies, among them the “Lisbon Strategy” for prosperity through economic 
growth  including  the  trans_European  networks  and  the  “Hague  programme” 
strengthening freedom, security and justice in the European Union. This heading also 
covers the gradual establishment of press offices in the new Member States. 

The full integration of the new Member States into the application of these policies 
and Community rules requires the assignment of around 349 FTEs. Given the array 
of  policies  that  need  to  be  implemented  across  27  Member  States  and  current 
resourcing,  this  represents  a  relatively  modest  increase  in  human  resources  and 
accurately reflects the main focus of the Commission’s activities today. 

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5.1.2.  Language services 

Providing quality language services is one of the Commission’s key priorities of the 
period following enlargement. The relatively strong increase (322 FTEs) in this area 
of activity (translation, interpreting and publication) should, however, be seen in the 
context  of  the  introduction  of  very  efficient  demand  management  and  quality 
assurance systems. This has allowed demands on resources to be kept to a minimum 
while guaranteeing multilingualism and promoting the EU's legitimacy, transparency 
and efficiency. 

5.1.3. 

Support services and coordination 

In a comprehensive enlargement strategy, support  services  and  coordination  have  a 
decisive role to play and should receive adequate staffing for the smooth running of 
all  operations.  Decision-making  in  the  EU  will  become  increasingly  complex  and 
demand  more  staff  for  the  new  Commissioners’  private  offices  and  for  the 
coordination of policy in an EU with 27 Member States. Special attention must also 
be given to permitting the application of European law in all new languages. Other 
activities include stepping up the recruitment process and reinforcing anti-fraud and 
audit capabilities in an enlarged Europe. An estimated 144 FTEs seems adequate for 
these heterogeneous tasks. 

5.1.4. 

Structural interventions, including agriculture and fisheries 

Structural  and  cohesion  policies  pursue  the  goal  of  economic  convergence  by 
promoting  growth  and  competitiveness  and  strengthening  the  economic,  social  and 
territorial  cohesion  of  the  Union.  They  are  major  European  programmes  with  a 
significant  macroeconomic  impact.  Current  legislation  makes  both  accession 
countries  eligible  for  support  for  less  developed  regions  (Objective  1).  This  is  the 
area  of  activity  in  which  accession  is  expected  to  cause  the  biggest  increase  in 
appropriations. As these programmes are managed on a decentralised basis, (shared 
management) comparatively fewer additional staff will be needed. Notwithstanding, 
control and audit function requirements have to be served. 

Agriculture  plays  an  important  part  in  the  economic  and  political  life  of  the  two 
countries about to join the EU. Current activities under the pre-accession instrument 
for  rural  development  (Sapard)  will  be  brought  under  the  umbrella  of  mainstream 
agricultural policy. However as it is the case for the other pre-accession instruments 
(e.g. PHARE and ISPA), there will be a transitional period as the implementation of 
these  programmes  will  continue  after  the  accession  until  their  closure.  The 
Commission  will  also  have  to  monitor  how  the  acquis  is  implemented  by  the  new 
Member  States  after  accession  by  the  same  mechanisms  as  those  applicable  to  the 
existing Member States. 

Structural  interventions,  agriculture  and  fisheries  together  account  for  an  estimated 
93 FTEs in additional human resources, a relatively low figure in view of the sums 
involved but well in line with the delivery mechanisms. 

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5.1.5.  External policies 

The  main  changes  concern  trade  policy  and  trade-defence  measures,  including 
negotiations in the WTO following the adoption of the common customs tariff in the 
new Member States and the need to strengthen the European Neighbourhood Policy 
in particular towards our Eastern neighbours.The overall impact for external relations 
will be fairly limited, with needs estimated at 17 FTEs. 

5.1.6.  Pre-accession (including delegations, PHARE12)  

Delegations  in  the  acceding  countries  and  pre-accession  activities  relating  to 
Romania and Bulgaria, such as negotiations and the monitoring and management of 
pre-accession  instruments,  will  be  phased  out  under  the  relevant  provisions  of  the 
Accession  Treaty.  Accordingly,  the  relevant  staff  in  Delegations  and  most  of  their 
counterparts at Headquarters will be redeployed progressively taking into account the 
timing of the accession process Redeployment of pre-accession staff will further take 
account  of  the  fact  that  pre-accession  programmes  are  carried  through  under 
principles of sound financial management according to the timing of the programme 
management  cycle  itself.  All  in  all,  this  will  progressively  reduce  staffing  by  220 
FTEs (75 FTEs financed by the administrative budget and 145 external staff financed 
by the PHARE programme). 

5.1.7.  Research 

Most  research  programmes  are  already  open  to  accession  countries,  and  the  6th 
Framework  Programme  increased  the  involvement  of  candidate  countries  before 
enlargement.  It  has,  moreover,  focused  on  a  reduced  number  of  priorities  and 
simplified  management  methods  and  procedures.  While  the  next  multiannual 
framework  programme  will  continue  the  trend  towards  greater  efficiency  and 
concentration, the estimated human-resource needs for EU-2 enlargement warrant a 
modest  increase  of  36  FTEs,  which  will  be  financed  within  the  limits  of  the  7th 
Framework Programme’s ceiling on administrative expenditure. 

12 

Excluding Ispa and Sapard, whose staff will be redeployed within the same department, since human-
resource needs for agriculture and structural operations are presented on a net basis 

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5.2. 

Changes by job profile 

Chart III 
Net Variation of FTE by job profile (administrative expenditure)

850

328

279

135

59

49

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E
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T

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F

900

800

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0

Linguistic

Law Making,
monitoring and
enforcement

Policy making and
co-ordination

Programme
management

Human resources
and budgetary
management

TOTAL

5.2.1.  Linguistic 

The  number  of  linguists  will  increase  more  than  any  other  job  profile  so  that  the 
Commission  can  bring  its  policy  closer  to  the  citizen  and  facilitate  the  EU's 
decision-making process at meetings. Estimated needs stand at 328 FTEs, including 
external staff and also support staff. 

5.2.2.  Law making, maintenance and enforcement 

Legislation  is  another  central  pillar  of  the  Commission’s  work,  an  area  of  activity 
that includes the monitoring and enforcement needed to create a real “community of 
law”. This area of work will experience by far the second most important expansion. 
The  enlargement-led  workload  at  most  stages  of  the  legislative  process  is  directly 
proportional  to  the  number  of  Member  States.  This  is  particularly  true  at  the 
enforcement  stage.  The  number  of  interested  parties  and  their  diversity  will  also 
influence  legislative  drafting  and  maintenance.  The  estimated  needs  stand  at  an 
additional 279 FTEs. 

5.2.3.  Policy making and coordination 

Drafting policy will become increasingly complex with the rising number of Member 
States and stakeholders. Policy-making needs will grow to reflect the importance of 
including new members in all processes. Estimated needs stand at 135 FTEs. 

5.2.4.  Programme management 

The small rise in human resources for programme management (59 FTEs) might be 
striking at first glance. The reasons for this rise become apparent when one considers 

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that  current  candidate  countries  are  already  eligible  for  many  EU  programmes  and 
that  serious  efforts  are  currently  under  way  to  streamline  the  administrative 
procedures  associated  with  programming.  The  additional  estimated  needs  for 
expanding  programme  management  activities  are  covered  by  the  progressive 
redeployment  of  resources  currently  needed  for  management  and  control  of  pre-
accession instruments till their actual closure, which will take more than 3 years after 
accession.13. Nevertheless, further needs arise for planning and coordination as well 
as for control functions. When these aspects are taken into account, they produce a 
more balanced picture. 

5.2.5.  Human resources and budget management 

The  overall  increase  in  activity  demands  an  appropriate  increase  for  managing 
operational budget and human resources. These needs are estimated at 49 FTEs. 

6. 

CONCLUSIONS 

Drawing  on  its  experience  and  the  results  of  its  2002  communication  for  the  last 
enlargement, the Commission has assessed its human-resource needs in view of the 
forthcoming accession. The Commission confirms the human-resource needs for the 
previous  enlargement  and  assesses  its  needs  induced  by  the  forthcoming  at  an 
additional  850 FTEs  on  the  administrative  budget  and  36  additional  FTEs  on  the 
research budget. This outcome is consistent with the previous exercise and relevant 
indicators measuring the incidence of this accession. It also proves the ability of the 
Commission  to  generate  productivity  gains  without  jeopardising  its  ability  to  carry 
out its tasks properly. 

The  analysis  further  highlights  the  targeting  of  new  personnel  on  operational 
activities, showing that human resources policies are in line with political priorities. 
The  time  profile  for  phasing-in  is  consistent  with  the  sums  earmarked  for 
administrative expenditure in the Draft Financial Perspective 2007-2013 and with the 
Commission’s capacity to absorb new staff. 

The  budgetary  authority’s  support  for  granting  these  resources  is  crucial  for  the 
proper preparation of the recruitment strategy and the sound planning of tasks. 

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Taking  into  consideration  non-redeployable  resources  from  former  BA  lines,  the  reduction  in 
programme-management staff due to the end of pre-accession instruments is greater 

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