Brussels, 13/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - Civil servants at the European Council are not letting up on the pressure to keep their salary and purchasing power levels. The Union Syndicale, the largest European public service union, has promised a further strike for 16 and 17 May, following industrial action by 3,500 civil servants on 8 May (see EUROPE 10842). Their representatives met European Commissioner for Administration Maros Sefkovic and the President of Coreper for the Irish Presidency on Monday 13 May. This meeting took place a few hours ahead of a trialogue on the evening of 13 May. At this meeting, the negotiation mandate is to be granted, with Coreper having a “very strong qualified majority”, according to a source close to the matter, despite disagreements over careers. The Commission is expected to stick to its proposal plus the billion and a half of savings called for by the 27 in the multi-annual financial framework. The European Parliament is also inclined to stick to the Commission's proposal and its amendments. However, at this meeting, one of the three parties “will have to bend”, the same source observed.
In the current state of things, the Union Syndicale is still strongly rejecting the savings presupposed by this reform. In the press release following the demonstration of 8 May, the union argues that the measures proposed (two-year salary freeze or a 5% reduction in staff numbers, increase of working hours without compensation, raising of retirement age to 65) are “clearly disproportionate and in no way justified by the savings they would occasion, which are derisory in the face of the size of the crisis”. They describe it as a “pretext to weaken the European institutions”, which would be unable to recruit skilled staff. The Union Syndicale laments the fact that the measures currently being negotiated “far exceed what has been demanded of the member states which have been hardest hit by the crisis and serve no real purpose other than to deconstruct Europe”. (MD/transl.fl)