- For those who choose to leave the institutions before reaching 10 years of service, “transfer-out” of pension rights to a private scheme is possible but under very strict conditions that limit the range of financial products available for the transfer (see here [1]). In particular, the available private schemes charge a high entry fee because they are fully aware that their customers have no viable alternative.
- For those who remain for more than 10 years in service, the “transfer-out” of pension rights can only be back to national systems where the applicable conditions are left to the discretion of national authorities. In particular, there is no transparency on the amount of pension rights that the “transfer-out” will generate in countries where pensions are based on an annuity principle (countries where in order to get a pension, you need to have contributed for a number of years).
- If one keeps one’s rights in the EU system and acquires pension rights elsewhere after leaving the institutions after more than 10 years of service, it is very likely that the country in which one moves will grant no further pension or a very small additional pension on the grounds that the potential beneficiary already has access to the EU pension scheme.
- As a result, there is little flexibility for “transfers out”. For those who decide so or are forced to leave the institutions, tough luck for their pension!
- Contract Agents in executive and decentralised agencies, many of whom will serve more than 10 years, will be the primary victims of this barrier to mobility.
Contract Agents (CAs) were created by the 2004 staff regulations Reform. There are two types of CA: those with unlimited contracts, 3A [2] (‘indefinite’) and those with time-limited contracts [3], 3B [4]. CAs can belong to 4 different function groups (\'GF\') with different responsibilities and salaries [5].
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 [6]: 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 [7] (here is the cover e-mail [8]).
As a background you can see the report of the Commission to the Council regarding the recruitment of the contract agents in 2010 [9] (in French, COM(2011)802 final 23.11.2011).
Our articles on Contract Agents [10]
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- the 6 Brussels-based Executive Agencies [12] 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.