On 13 May 2020 the European Parliament (EP) granted discharge to the EEAS [1] and most other EU institutions for the year of 2018.
Despite granting discharge, the EP didn’t stop short of immediately calling for a stronger protection of EU spending against fraud, corruption, conflict of interest, intentional misuse and organised crime, as well as for EU money to be distributed more fairly and transparently.
Among all those things, MEPS also called for some action on staff related matters. Namely, among other things, it called on the EEAS to:
- enhance the geographical balance within the EEAS;
- the EEAS to update its gender and equal opportunities strategy in order to include concrete goals regarding the presence of women in management positions;
The report prompted Ms. Helga SCHMID, the EEAS Secretary General, to write the following on a message to staff on 3 June 2020:
“…the Parliament emphasised the importance of addressing the gender imbalance in management and the geographical imbalance with regard to staff from new (post 2004) Member States. MEPs expressed concern that an increasingly heavy average workload and understaffing issues could be detrimental to the health and quality of life of staff. More efforts are needed to avoid potential conflict of interest situations with former EEAS staff…”
If on one hand it is good to see that these matters have not remained in hiding in the EP discharge report, on the other hand, we would like to know what concrete measures will be taken to address the issues flagged by the EP that affect staff at the EEAS, most notably in EU Delegations.
Generation 2004 has recently invested and is still investing in EU Delegations and we will follow this issue closely and inform you in due time about any progress. Meanwhile, if you have any questions please get in touch [2].