*Update 28.10.2024: the Commission proposes to pay Brussels-based colleagues who cycle €100 per year [1]as part of its green commuting plan. We asked about provision for other sites, but the response was negative.*
Original article: EASME , one the Commission’s Executive agencies has started offering its staff a financial contribution for cycling to work [2]. Congratulations to the agency and its enlightened director!
Meanwhile, the Commission has been bogged down with the preparation of its new mobility plan for the past 2 years (at the current pace, by the time the plan comes out, it will be obsolete…).
The former Director General for Human Resources was notoriously opposed to any changes in the mobility patterns of staff but now that she is gone and with the arrival of a new Commissioner, one can hope that things will start moving again.
The first step for the Commission should be to propose a cycling allowance, following the example of EASME (and before them the example of the European Economic and Social Committee). With the Green Deal, the Commission proposes to take the lead in fighting global warming. Therefore it needs to put its money where its mouth is and lead by example.
The colleagues involved in EUStaff4Climate [3] have made a number of proposals in a recent petition [4] and we have invited them to present them to the Staff Committee. Let us use this momentum and get the Commission to come up with an ambitious plan to overhaul our mobility patterns and reduce our CO2 footprint! Encouraging colleagues to cycle to work (and to their business meetings) should be a top priority. It is low-hanging fruit, and Generation 2004 will do its best to encourage our political masters to convince our administration that cycling to work is something to be fostered among staff!