Rahm Emanuel, a former White House Chief of staff, is known for his quote about crisis management:
You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that [is] it’s an opportunity to do things that you think you could not before.
It seems the Commission is following Rahm Emanuel’s playbook as the basis for the recent decision to close the CHAFEA executive agency in Luxembourg and move its tasks and staff to Brussels. The decision was announced to staff in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis and without any prior discussions with the staff representation. In a videoconference meeting, Colleagues in CHAFEA were informed about the decision, and learned that the move should happen as early as January 2021. This means that in the context of the current COVID-19 crisis if later in the year there is a second COVID-19 wave and resulting lockdowns, colleagues who choose to move to Brussels will be forced to search for housing and move house to another country under extremely difficult conditions! We just recall that right now travel from Luxembourg to Belgium is prohibited by the Belgian authorities and that there is no clear view of when this cross border travel restriction will be lifted.
Generation 2004 ran a survey among the CHAFEA colleagues to find out how we can best defend their interests. 60% colleagues working for CHAFEA replied; the results do not leave much room for creative interpretation.
[1]In our first questions, we asked how colleagues perceived the communication by their hierarchy about the move, but also about the effect on their career. Two thirds of respondents considered the communication insufficient or bad.
[2]The next question was about the preference regarding the future site of the CHAFEA agency. More than 85% of respondents prefer CHAFEA to stay in Luxembourg.
The move to Brussels poses a real risk for a brain drain, as confirmed by question 3 when we asked colleagues about their 
[3]own plans for a removal. Over 40% of colleagues are already set on the idea of staying in Luxembourg, possibly in another EU institution or Commission service where their current skills will not be used to full capacity. Another 30% still undecided. Only one out of four colleagues is currently set on moving to Brussels.
[4]
The staff in the agency consists mostly of contract agents, which shows just again that the Commission is without doubt hitting hard at the most vulnerable categories of staff.
We also gave colleagues the opportunity to express their opinion in a free-text field. The comments reflect the dark picture of the previous questions, questioning the ‘Luxembourg – a great place to work’ initiative [5], when the Commission is forcing staff to move to Brussels at the same time. We can only support this comment: wouldn’t it be great to work in a Commission where announcements and actions go hand in hand?
Armed with the results of the survey, we met with the relevant Commission services (HR, BUDG and SG) to discuss this issue. Many words were said, but we still do not know why this matter was developed in such high secrecy. Nevertheless, some points from the meeting below:
- The new structure of the agencies reflects the programme structure that will be implemented as of January 2021.
- Apparently, the Commission considers that 8 months in the middle of the worldwide COVID-19 lockdown, including a summer break and a potential second COVID-19 wave in the autumn is sufficient time for this move – Generation 2004 strongly disagrees.
- Colleagues from CHAFEA who move to Brussels will do so as a continuation of their contract. A new Brussels based agency will be a legal successor as regards their rights. This is important for Contract Agent colleagues who would choose to move to Brussels and are working under pre-2014 staff regulations, because they would not have to change to the often worse 2014 staff regulations and 2017 General Implementing Provisions (GIPs). Additionally, they will have their expatriation allowance eligibility re-examined. To the contrary, staying in Luxembourg in any institution (including the Commission) will require a new work contract under the new – and generally worse – conditions.
- DG HR promises help to colleagues who want to move to Brussels, but also to colleagues who want to stay in Luxembourg. They seemed awkwardly surprised when we confronted them with the results of our survey, showing that a huge majority of the respondents prefer to stay in Luxembourg. However, even HR admitted that the job market in the EU institutions in Luxembourg is rather limited for the specific profile of CHAFEA colleagues.
Generation 2004 joined the voices of all other staff representatives and criticized both the decision process and its immediate repercussions: this decision is causing anxiety among all 3000+ colleagues working in all the Executive Agencies – what if after the next programme reshuffle they are forced to move all over Europe at such short notice? Adding insult to injury, throughout the meeting, CHAFEA was praised for its high-quality work and committed staff, which is a clear and negative sign that doing good work and showing commitment is not enough to prevent you from being put on the street…
We would like to assure the colleagues in CHAFEA that we will not stop here and will do our best to support them. We have already asked [6] the agencies’ directors for an urgent meeting under the recently signed memorandum of understanding. Given the outright top-secrecy in which this matter was handled so far, we can only assume that the Commission is trying to push ahead during the current crisis and confinement, to take irreversible decisions that, in our opinion, should only be taken in the scope of the next MFF (2021-27), which is currently in negotiation phase.
This is unacceptable and we are currently working together with the other trade unions to conduct a joint common action against this move.
We encourage the colleagues in CHAFEA to contact us [7] and let us know of their individual problems and situations so that we can best defend their interests.