PMO

Share Your Sad PMO Allowance Story! – Member’s opinion    

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Are you not getting all the necessary educational allowance information from the other parent? Do you feel that you are being treated unfairly?  Generation 2004 would prefer to share more positive stories about the PMO, but sometimes there are shortcomings that need to be pointed out and acted on! We have come across a case where a parent-official was seconded out of the Commission for four years to discover that the other parent-official was collecting monthly PMO educational allowances during that time without disclosing them. 

Continue reading Share Your Sad PMO Allowance Story! – Member’s opinion     →

Time for change: out-of-date restrictions on assisted fertility?

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Let the European Institutions lead the way forward, not hold us back with outdated rules.  In a world where medical science is advancing rapidly and professional careers increasingly shape personal timelines, the EU institutions and their Joint Sickness Insurance Scheme (JSIS) must ensure policies keep pace with technical and societal advances and follow the best practices seen in Member States. Commission Decision C(2023) 7673, updates its 2007 predecessor in order to broaden access to parenthood, but does it go far enough?  Continue reading Time for change: out-of-date restrictions on assisted fertility? →

Job Mobility for Contract Agent 3a Staff in Offices: From Better Visibility to Real Opportunities

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Assessing the current situation. Despite existing frameworks for job mobility (as discussed in a previous article), the experience of Contract Agents (CA) under Article 3a of CEOS, particularly those working in the Commission’s Offices[*], reveals persistent structural shortcomings.
 Continue reading Job Mobility for Contract Agent 3a Staff in Offices: From Better Visibility to Real Opportunities →

End-of-year checklist 2024

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*Update 19.12.2024 many thanks to the colleague who wrote to clarify that the flu vaccine is no longer reimbursed at 100%.*

Original article: In response to your feedback we try to send this list out a bit earlier in order to give you time to take action. We encourage you to do what you can now in order to be able to use the end-of-year period to rest and to recharge your batteries. This is not an opportunity to get work done!  Please, as far as you can, switch off your devices, mute notifications and disconnect: take the time for you. Continue reading End-of-year checklist 2024 →

End of service: IT access

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This topic came out of our October sessions on pensions but the information is applicable to anyone leaving the Commission whether that’s at the end of a contract, to retire or for several other reasons. According to your circumstances, you might need access to the IT systems  to submit medical costs, to get certificates or to manage the EU unemployment allowance[1]. Continue reading End of service: IT access →

Education allowances – Higher education

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Are you a parent navigating the complexities of higher education allowances for your dependent child? This informative session, organised by PMO, might be interesting for you.  It will focus on the various types of allowances available and the essential steps to complete the education declaration in Sysper for the 2024/25 academic year.
Continue reading Education allowances – Higher education →

Streamlining the Family Allowance Process: A Welcome Change for EU Staff in Belgium

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*Update 08.07.2024.  We will not claim that PMO reacted to our note of May and implemented the new system within this one month. But we do believe that we gave a bit of a push.  Lately, the European Union’s Paymaster’s Office (PMO) has been under scrutiny due to prolonged delays in processing school fee reimbursements and third-party allowances.

Continue reading Streamlining the Family Allowance Process: A Welcome Change for EU Staff in Belgium →

ING Lux client? Act now!

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*Update 28.06.2024: many thanks to the colleagues who got in touch to say that bank account changes are happening quickly and to suggest accounts with the association cooperative financière des fonctionnaires (AMFIE) as an option.*

Original article: If you have a Luxembourg ING bank account please act quickly to ensure that you receive your August salary. We calculate that you must not only have a new account in place but also have it approved within the FiLIP application by Thursday 20.06.2024 to avoid problems. We’ve sent a note to PMO to ask what workarounds they have in place and whether they’re ready for this additional (and sudden) increase in workload. Continue reading ING Lux client? Act now! →

Another positive PMO story

Newsletter - 2024-05-29, PMO Print This Post

Welcome to the latest of your positive PMO stories. We highlight again how much it comes down to the goodwill of our PMO colleagues and on their willingness to intervene manually to fill the gaps between different systems and processes. In this edition a PMO colleague ensured a colleague claimed the disability-related reimbursements they were entitled to. To that PMO colleague, thanks so much for doing this: it made an enormous difference! Continue reading Another positive PMO story →