DG RTD Reorganisation and delegation of projects to agencies discussed at the Local Staff Committee
There is a reorganisation ongoing in DG RTD. Its Director General, Mr Jean-Eric Paquet, is determined to make it more flexible, agile and efficient, closer to the Executive Agencies and ready for the European Innovation Council, as explained to members of the Local Staff Committee on 5th February.
During his intervention, Mr Paquet highlighted his intention to delegate all Horizon 2020 projects “as a block” to the relevant Executive Agencies on 1st January 2021. This would ensure the smooth transfer of staff working on projects, including Contract Agents.
The discussion that followed was far too short for such an important topic and Generation 2004 asked Mr Paquet to set up a separate staff meeting to address the numerous questions raised by Contract Agents not only from DG RTD but also from the Executive Agencies.
As change is always an opportunity for improvement, Generation 2004 also asked Mr Paquet to improve the conditions of DG RTD’s most precarious colleagues. We propose that Directors and Heads of Units review upwards the category of ASTs and Contract Agents in the lower Functional Groups (FGI, II and III) in order to better reflect their expertise, skills and actual tasks performed.
Generation 2004 considers that the 6-year rule imposed by the current staff regulations not only drains the expertise available in the EC, but that it also demotivates Contract Agents in the Agencies by hindering their career development opportunities. Therefore, Generation 2004 calls on Mr Paquet and the Directors of the Executive Agencies to work closely with us to achieve a true inter-institutional mobility for the benefit of the EU institutions.
Finally, Generation 2004 welcomes Mr Paquet statement that “The Executive Agencies are the European Commission, no more, no less” and agree that this principle must guide future social dialogue, with all its implications.
toolTips('.classtoolTips19','Staff Regulations of Officials and the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Union (\'Staff Regulations [1] (SR)\') are rules stating:
• fundamental conditions of service
• basic rights, duties and obligations of staff.
The SR have been reformed x 2 (so far):
• 2004 (Kinnock White paper)
• 2014 (Regulation 1023/2013 [2])
For a summary of stated intentions and real outcomes of those two reforms check out: European Court of Auditors, 2019, Special report no 15/2019 [3]: Implementation of the 2014 staff reform package at the Commission – Big savings but not without consequences for staff
'); toolTips('.classtoolTips23','
Contract Agents (CAs) were created by the 2004 Staff Regulations Reform. There are two types of CA: those with unlimited contracts, 3A [4] (‘indefinite’) and those with time-limited contracts [5], 3B [6]. CAs can belong to 4 different function groups (\'GF\') with different responsibilities and salaries [7].
As the use of contract staff becomes increasingly common, there has been a corresponding increase in the diversity of status and pay of the Commission’s workforce. For example, GFIV contract staff meeting the same minimum recruitment requirements (education and experience) as junior administrators may earn 28 % less. (European Court of Auditors, 2019, Special report no 15/2019 [3]: Implementation of the 2014 staff reform package at the Commission – Big savings but not without consequences for staff, point 61, page 34)
We have a working group dedicated to the dossier, and in December 2012 we addressed the first of many letters (\'notes\') about Contract Agents to Human Resources of all Institutions and Agencies [8] (here is the cover e-mail [9]).
As a background you can see the report of the Commission to the Council regarding the recruitment of the contract agents in 2010 [10] (in French, COM(2011)802 final 23.11.2011).
Our articles on Contract Agents [11]
'); toolTips('.classtoolTips24','Formal negotiations and meetings between the representative trade unions and staff associations (OSPs [12]) [Organisations syndicales et professionnelles] and HR.'); toolTips('.classtoolTips27','Formal negotiations and meetings between the representative trade unions and staff associations OSPs (Organisations syndicales et professionnelles) and HR.'); toolTips('.classtoolTips38','Agencies (in general) can be either:- the >40 decentralised organisations [13] with seats throughout the EU which are created by a specific legislative act and charged with a particular task\' e.g. Europol, the EMCDDA , the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and Frontex.
- the 6 Brussels-based Executive Agencies [14] which are \'legal entities established ... with a view to being entrusted with certain tasks relating to the management of one or more European Union programmes. These agencies are set up for a fixed period.\' They are CINEA, EACEA, HADEA, Eismea, ERCEA and REA.