Those of you who were already working for the institutions at the time will probably remember the Commission report on the principle of equivalence published in 2011.
This report made a mockery of the impact of the 2004 reform by failing to compare the (still growing) gap between pre and post-2004 careers. Now that the 2004 staff regulations have come to an end, it would be worth doing a final assessment of the impact of this reform, in order to set the record straight. Moreover, the 2011 report made it clear that
“If purchasing power of officials proved to deteriorate regularly in the coming years, it is highly likely that the principle of equivalence would be breached for all staff categories.”
The virtual freeze that was applied to our salaries between 2011-2013 certainly qualifies as a deterioration of our purchasing power and would fully justify a revision of the 2011 report. For these reasons, the Joint Monitoring Committee, in which Generation 2004 is represented, has requested an update of the 2011 report. So far, however, there was no reply from DG HR despite two reminders. A sign of embarrassment?
