Brussels, 29/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the European Commission adopted two proposals aiming for rationalising the day-to-day management of administrative and support services, particularly those that are currently carried out by the Directorate General for Personnel and Administration. In transferring part of the tasks to three Offices, one for the payment of all Commission staff entitlement, the other two for the management of Commission infrastructures in Brussels and Luxembourg, the Commission is seeking to increase the effectiveness of the delivery of these services to the benefit of staff. The new Offices would lead to annual savings on overall operating costs of up to € 16 million annually, roughly 18% of the current cost of providing these services. A press statement underlined how these efficiency gains could increase further if the other EU institutions agreed to pool their responsibilities in these fields. The proposals adopted today will now be discussed with the Commission staff unions before a detailed decision is prepared by Commissioner Neil Kinnock's services and then presented to the Commission for final adoption this autumn. Neil Kinnock explained how these proposals sought to will advance the efficiency in provision of essential services like payments or social support and would, "At the same time, the changes will release permanent staff for work on core activities and make consequent savings, without loss of accountability".
The Commission's first proposal foresees the creation of the legal framework for a new type of Office which, whilst remaining under the responsibility and supervision of the Commission, would benefit from a significant degree of management autonomy. These Offices would be headed by a Commission official (reporting to a Board representative of their main clients in the Commission), who will be responsible for setting their operational targets, controlling the implementation of their functions, and reporting to the College of Commissioners. The Offices would employ a limited number of EU officials who will retain all of their current rights and obligations as well as new public law "Contract Agents" who will be recruited for a fixed period of time specifically to carry out the technical tasks transferred to the Office.
The Commission's second proposal would apply this model to many of the services currently provided to staff by the Directorate-General for Personnel and Administration (DG ADMIN): a "Paymaster's Office" would be responsible for determining, calculating and paying out individual staff entitlements (pay, mission expenses, sickness and accident insurance, pensions, reimbursement of experts). This Office would manage a budget of roughly € 1.95 billion (2001 figures), with the present operating costs of about € 26 million reduced by some 15% to € 22 million; two "Infrastructure and Logistics" Offices (in Brussels and Luxembourg) would deal with the building policy and management of office space, the housing of departments, technical maintenance, purchases, supplies, internal logistics and services. Together, these two Offices would manage a budget of roughly € 347 million, with operating costs reduced by about 20% in Brussels and 17% in Luxembourg, from € 46 million and € 17.5 million to € 37 million and € 14.5 million.
The Commission believes that these Offices would be capable of taking on an inter-Institutional role. Since the Paymaster's Office will take over DG ADMIN's task of paying pensions to all EU staff, including those of other Institutions, it would therefore be equipped to pay all other entitlements. There is already clear interest from the other Institutions based in Luxembourg in participating in the "Infrastructure and Logistics" Office. In Brussels, the difference in size and needs of the Institutions mean that discussions are not as advanced.
The full implementation of the proposals, which will necessarily imply a transition of 5 to 7 years, depends on a certain number of elements: Discussions with Commission staff unions, which will take place over the summer, leading to a final proposal this autumn; the adoption by the Council of the recast Financial Regulation, which allows the increased decentralisation of financial decisions. This is now foreseen for June 2002; the adoption by the Council of the modernised Staff Regulations. Discussions on this have started and the target date for adoption is June 2003.