Rue Montoyer, home of DG HR in Brussels, is not precisely known as the hotbed of innovative HR policies (unless of course one has to find ways to lift people with no management responsibilities or other noticeable qualifications to AD13 and 14). But occasionally, very occasionally, even there an idea sees the light of day which makes you think “Ehre wem Ehre gebuehrt” [Honour where honour is due].
We are talking about one of the changes introduced in the new mission guidelines under the heading “Authorised Travel”. Authorised travel is a kind of lightweight business travel (‘mission’) which allows you to take part in events related to a programme covered by an ad hoc Commission decision or other external events and have your cost in part be covered by the Commission (and possibly the organisers of the event). How big that part is (and how much you would have to pay yourself) is at the end of the day something your boss needs to decide, taking into account how important your participation in the event is for the Commission and your negotiation skills.
(NB: You may wonder at this point why programmes such as Back to School, EU Fellowships or language courses are not fully in the interest of the service anymore and therefore have to be covered in the future by “Authorised travel”. We share your bewilderment … as if the European project is not in need of greater number of ambassadors who spread the gospel.)
But we are digressing. What makes “Authorised travel” a sensible idea is something else. Among the external events explicitly covered by it are scientific conferences which scientists in the JRC or in research DGs would like to attend. Of course, if doing so is required by your job, then the Commission should pay for it. End of story. But there may be cases where things are not as straightforward, where you are very keen to go while your head of unit (HoU) does not want to use too many of the scarce resources. So you try to make a deal. The Commission pays say, only for the flight while you waive the daily allowance and bunk together with a friend you have not seen for years. Everybody is happy, including the European taxpayer, who, alas, will never give you credit for saving her money.
In particular Contract Agents (CAs) working in research at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) are likely to benefit from the scheme as for them, working for the Commission is in many cases just one stepping stone for their scientific careers. For these colleagues networking, getting known and presenting their work in as many occasions as possible is very important. Increasing possibilities in this respect are therefore bound to contribute to the attractiveness of the Commission as an employer and the JRC as a research institution.
But it is not going to be. In the information recently provided by Office for the Administration and Payment of Individual Entitlements (PMO) about the implementation of the new rules (and in clear contradiction to the Commission decision) it is specified that costs of external events will never be covered by the Commission, not even partially. So what you get at most is a couple of days off. But in order to get these, you have to provide a host of information about not only the purpose of the trip but also your interests, the times and itinerary for the round trip, including local transport where appropriate, accommodation arrangements, estimated costs involved etc. See section 3.3.1 of the decision. So much ado about something which could have been implemented much simpler as a kind of special leave in Sysper.
In a way, the rationale provided by PMO speaks for itself. PMO argues that the Commission should not contribute to the costs of participating in external events because that would cause problems of equal treatment. But the issue here is not equal treatment; it is the absence of clear and easy to apply criteria for assessing the interest of the service and the concomitant lack of trust in managers to take decisions on the basis of such criteria.