Luxembourg

2025 where are we now?

Commission-wide, Generation 2004 has 33% of the vote as of June 2024. Some context: there are eight ‘local’ staff committees (LSCs) and one additional non-LSC staff committee which we mention in the table below.

The 8 LSCs are sometimes called ‘sections’ since all together they contribute to the Commission-wide Central Staff Committee (CSC): Brussels, France, Geel, Karlsruhe, Luxembourg, Outside the Union (CLP-HU) and Ispra and Seville (yes, a shared LSC). Continue reading 2025 where are we now?

The ONE: is this the future of the European civil service?

*Update 24.11.2023: Can any of you send us a photo of the new flexible-working ‘toolkit‘ inside a locker?[*]*

*Update 22.02.2022: we’re hearing that colleagues are changing DG in order to avoid open space/hot-desking. Is this you? Get in touch, we’d like to hear from you!*

Original article: No assigned desk and a cold pasta Bolognese from the vending machine: is this the future of the European civil service? If you want a glimpse of the latest building being showcased as the future the administration is designing for the EU civil service, come with us and visit ‘The ONE’, aka L107. This, the future workplace of some 1700 Commission staff from next year, comes not long after the dynamic open spaces set up in DG BUDG, DG TRADE, and is soon to be followed by the new Publications Office (OP) (POST-Mercier) and the Jean Monnet 2 (JMO2). Continue reading The ONE: is this the future of the European civil service?

The same electoral rules for all!

Uniform and fully democratic electoral rules throughout the Commission, synchronised electronic elections at all sites and, last but not least, a separate local staff committee (LSC) for Seville: these are the key elements of a proposal for staff-representation reform developed by Generation 2004. We have been raising these issues in one form or another since at least 2013 and have actively led on related efforts to address these three points on several occasions. Continue reading The same electoral rules for all!

Remote-working precedent: a workaround or a can of worms?

In January a call for expression of interest presented the possibility to work in a DG Health and Food Safety (SANTE [1]) unit in Luxembourg from any Commission site ‘for about six months’. As stated in the email, the initial Luxembourg-wide call had been unsuccessful, so this was a ‘plan B’ of sorts in these difficult times, a workaround.

Unfortunately, this quick fix opens a can of worms (there are so many issues here we almost didn’t know where to begin, hence the delay in writing this article. If you spot any additional issues, please feel free to get in touch and we’ll add them to this list!) Continue reading Remote-working precedent: a workaround or a can of worms?

Free (public) transport in Luxembourg: should I be bothered?

*Update 24.10.2024 We’re aware of OIB now accepting cross-border commuter passes reimbursement requests via myPMO, but Luxembourg-based colleagues are to use the same method as before (instructions here).*

*Update 14.10.2024 Luxembourg-based colleagues, the maximum reimbursement (‘ceiling’) for cross-border commuter passes has been doubled to €500 from 01.10.2024.* Continue reading Free (public) transport in Luxembourg: should I be bothered?

Luxembourg has elected a new Local Staff Committee

Luxembourg staff has voted for a new Local Staff Committee (LSC) and the results of the elections have been published. Three lists were competing for the favour of voters: Generation 2004, Union Syndicale Luxembourg (USL) and a composite list made up by 6 entities, one of which (RS) is already a grouping of trade unions and staff associations (OSPs) naming themselves “Ensemble Luxembourg” (EL). Continue reading Luxembourg has elected a new Local Staff Committee

Commissioner Oettinger visited Luxembourg

On 9 October 2019, Commissioner Oettinger visited Luxembourg in order to talk to Mr Asselborn, Minister of Foreign Affairs Luxembourg, and discuss with him the follow-up of the Georgieva-Asselborn-Agreement[1] about the reallocation of 250 posts from Brussels to Luxembourg. The Commissioner took this opportunity to meet also the Board of the Local Staff Committee and representatives of OSPs in Luxembourg for a one-hour meeting before his meeting with Mr Asselborn. Continue reading Commissioner Oettinger visited Luxembourg

Playing Three-card Trick with voters? And the winner is … the Alliance?

In theory, you have the choice between 3 different lists in the elections for the Local Staff Committee Luxembourg. In practice, however, the true choice will be between 2 alternatives: Generation 2004 (list 1) and the ‘old’ trade unions (list 2 and list 3) who 15 years after the 2004 reform still continue to claim extraordinary privileges for the few chosen.

Chart 1

At a closer look, the picture is even worse. Both lists are dominated by the Alliance (‘Confederal Alliance of Free Trade Unions’) [*] of “independent trade unions”, which mean small, at the Commission level often non-representative organisations. (NB: A trade union or staff association is considered representative if it represents at least 6% of staff at Commission level.) Since only representative organisations have access to resources for their operation, non- Continue reading Playing Three-card Trick with voters? And the winner is … the Alliance?