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The Parliament’s Passerelle – the easy way in!

Newsletter #31 - Nov 2018, z Newsletter article Print This Post

If you work for the Commission, you understand that becoming an EU official is hard. You need to survive a tough selection process in open competitions. Tens of thousands of hopeful applicants contend for a hundred spots on the reserve list with no guarantee of finally landing a job. As contractual or temporary agent, you can also try your luck in internal competitions. But they are few and far between, and have an opaque selection process with many spots going to contenders from outgoing Cabinets.

Or, you work for one of the political groups in the European Parliament:

While the staff regulations foresee the possibility of internal competitions for all institutions, wise politicians in 2004 understood the unique need of the Parliament to have a legal requirement of holding internal competitions for you at least each legislative period for AD9 or AST6-level or higher[1] – a process known as “Passerelle”. In the Parliament,  rules on internal competitions make clear that ten years of service are required[2]. However the internal competition notice requires that you have been in the service for the Parliament for only three years while offering a number of places on the reserve list conveniently comparable to the number of “you and your eligible friends[3]”. The Parliament’s Human Resources is refreshingly clear in case you ever doubted if you should apply: “the true purpose of the internal Passerelle competition is to enable Political Group Staff to obtain the security of Official status”[4]. Continue reading The Parliament’s Passerelle – the easy way in! →

Generation 2004 & support for colleagues with cancer

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Did you know that new research finds that, from now 1 in 2[1] people will be diagnosed with cancer? This new estimate replaces the previous 1 in 3 people figure. In the period 2014 to 2025, the yearly number of new invasive tumour diagnoses (excl. nonmelanoma skin cancer) in Belgium is projected to rise from 67,820 to 79,140, an increase of about 17%[2]. In 2015, 1.3 million people died from cancer in the EU, more than one quarter (25.4 %) of the total number of deaths.[3]

That being said it is also promising that e.g. the UK’s cancer survival has doubled over the last 40 years and around half of patients now survive the disease for more than 10 years. But, as more people benefit from improved healthcare and longer life expectancy, the number of cancer cases is expected to rise.[4] However, there are always the side effects of any treatment that someone is exposed to: operation, chemo, radio, immunotherapy, pills…. Continue reading Generation 2004 & support for colleagues with cancer →

Generation 2004 & actions for our colleagues with disability

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The UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities sets out the legal obligations on States to promote and protect the rights of persons with disabilities. The European Union signed the Convention in 2010. It is legally binding. In the 2016 staff survey, about 6% of all Commission staff declared having long-standing health issues or a disability that affects their daily activities.

The Commission’s policy on disability was an essential concern for Generation 2004 and we were active in this regard at different levels. Especially, through the current Local Staff Committee (LSC) Brussels of which the President is a Generation 2004 member. Continue reading Generation 2004 & actions for our colleagues with disability →

Fact Checking

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Save Europe’s real position on mobility

In the Save Europe (SE) message of 26 September 2018 you will discover, that without this Trade Union there would be almost no actions related to mobility… SE has only 2 votes, yes 2 votes, out of 27 in the LSC Brussels, and only one of them voted for the Position of the Brussels Local Staff Committee regarding future of the mobility in Region Brussels-Capital: the perspective and recommendations of the Commission’s staff. The other one did not even bother to participate in the written procedure. Nevertheless, if you really would like to see the real position of SE on mobility just watch this video at 36m30s.

Staff elections in Brussels and outside the Union 2018

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The next staff elections for the Brussels local staff committee will take place from 24-26 October 2018. Generation 2004 has, for the third time, set up a very gender, nationality and staff category balanced list of 54 motivated candidates (27 pairs) for the Brussels staff elections.

Staff elections in the EU Delegations will also take place shortly after: from 5-9 November 2018. It will be the first time in history that Generation 2004 sets up a list and run in the “Outside the Union” elections though, and we are very excited about taking this step.

Those who will be elected in both elections will represent the interests of staff recruited since 2004 and 2014 in various committees and working groups in the next 3 years. Continue reading Staff elections in Brussels and outside the Union 2018 →

Internal competitions 2018

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Mid September DG HR called the trade unions for a “social dialogue” on the planned internal competitions. We did not have the impression that we attended a dialogue but rather an info session about DG HR’s plan to offer a platform for Cabinet members to find an easy way through an internal competition to become officials. This has unfortunately become a sad tradition that comes by every 5 years shortly before the end of each mandate of the Commission.

HR presented us the “biggest set of internal competitions the Commission ever published”. The presentation was only made available to the representatives of Union Syndical Luxembourg, who have distributed it to all staff in Luxembourg.

The following competitions will be open to officials, temporary agents but also Contract Agents: AST/SC2, AST 2 and AD 6. (Applications to AD6 will be restricted to FG IV.)

An AST 4 competition will be open to AST temporary agents and officials.

Continue reading Internal competitions 2018 →

Now all want to own the Local Staff Committee success story

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In the framework of the upcoming elections you will be bombarded with e-mails by many Trade Unions (TU). Some of them have already started to take credit for the achievements of the Local Staff Committee Brussels (see our Fact checking box on the first page).

In a recent article we highlighted the reality of the engagement of other TUs to allow the Local Staff Committee (LSC) Brussels to operate smoothly… Out of 4.5 allocated secondments, 4 were assured by Generation 2004. For details on actual LSC meetings’ attendance, you may also check the table of presences of elected members during the last 3 years (check page 48). We trust this may help you make up your mind before pushing the voting button. Continue reading Now all want to own the Local Staff Committee success story →

Greenpeace & Generation 2004 lunch-time conference on Air Quality

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We all know (with a few exceptions) that we are living in a polluted world. We all know (with few exceptions) that we should do something about it. But what perhaps we don’t know (with few exceptions) is that we need to do it now. No time to postpone our contribution to a clean air and a clean environment. We are at the point of almost no return and we need to act accordingly in order to leave a living planet to our kids and generations to follow.

In March 2018  Greenpeace Belgium presented a report called Mijn lucht Mijn School (My air My school) based on a 4-week study on the air in 222 Belgian schools. And with no surprise, the study indicates that the air our kids are breathing is quite bad. In fact, only 7 schools in Belgium are inside the so called “green zone” (good air quality, see table below), the rest of the schools are in the yellow, orange and light red zone. 5 Belgian schools are in the no go zone – not so many, but still a few. The EU normative on the NO2 particles are set quite high, so one could claim that the majority of the schools have actually clean air, but this is not the case. Everything outside a green zone is already a risk for the health.

Continue reading Greenpeace & Generation 2004 lunch-time conference on Air Quality →

Salaries paid in currencies other than Euros in Delegations

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Salaries of Local Agents in EU delegations are paid either in euros or in the local currency. The decision as to which currency is used is not always fully transparent and can lead to serious problems. In Turkey, for instance, the situation of Local Agents has become very difficult because of the massive drop in the Turkish Lira/Euro exchange rate in the past few months:

Continue reading Salaries paid in currencies other than Euros in Delegations →

New Commission building

Newsletter #30 - Oct 2018 Print This Post

The Commission has launched an international architectural competition for a new building around the area where DG AGRI is currently located, the “L130” competition. The EU Cyclist Group is organising an interesting survey to ask what the staff expect from this new building. You should fill it! Continue reading New Commission building →