91998E2538

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2538/98

by Cristiana Muscardini (NI) to the Council

(1 September 1998)

Subject: Pensions and politicisation of the European civil service

The independence of the European civil service is a sign of transparency and democracy. The basic provisions governing that civil service are the Staff Regulations of Officials and Other Servants, which are applied by the Council by means of legislative acts. As a result, any decision taken by any institutional authority without the Council's agreement has no legal force, no legal basis and is, above all, against the spirit of those regulations.

Can the Council therefore:

1. provide genuine career planning for officials based on the criteria of transparency and democracy?

2. immediately make appointments to the vacant posts in high grades in the EP's establishment plan and comply with the principle that priority should be given to staff in the institution in which the appointment is being made, putting an end to inter-institutional transfers for which there is at present no justification?

3. arrange for all the expenditure necessary for the proposed purchase of the buildings in Brussels and Strasbourg and undertake as a priority to ensure sufficient funding for the budget items relating to staff?

4. shelve the proposal to create a fund to finance future pensions, given that sizeable payments have already been made by all officials to fund their own pensions (8,25 % of their monthly salary) and that the supplementary payments made by the Member States would be sufficient to guarantee the pension scheme, without threatening to reduce the budget items relating to pensions?

Reply

(22 October 1998)

The Council would remind the Honourable Member that, pursuant to Article 24 of the Treaty establishing a single Council and a single Commission of the European Communities, the Staff Regulations of officials and the Conditions of Employment of other servants of the European Communities are laid down by the Council, acting by a qualified majority and after consulting the other institutions concerned.

To date the Commission has not placed any proposal before the Council on either the creation of a fund to finance pensions or amendments to the provisions relating to the career of officials.

The Council points out that, pursuant to Article 29 of the Staff Regulations, the implementation of procedures for filling vacant posts in an institution is a matter for that institution's appointing authority.

The expenditure referred to in point 3 of the Honourable Member's Question concerns Section I of the European Communities' General Budget and is the subject of budgetary decisions taken by the European Parliament as part of its administrative autonomy.