Brussels, 27/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - During a first examination of the Commission's proposals amending the statute of EU officials, most of the delegations of the Council's "statute" group asked to be able to have additional information on the financial impact of the reform (on salary costs and pensions), even if, generally speaking, the Commission's proposals were quite well received at this stage.
The Council's working group defined certain aspects of the proposals that should be the subject of intensive negotiation between the Member States and the Commission. Thus, while welcoming the general objective of the new career system (strengthening the notion of merit), many delegations expressed great reticence about the inclusion, in the statute, of the minimum rate of promotion for each grade. Voices were also raised against transitional measures foreseen for going from the old to the new career structure as well as on integrating the method for adjusting remuneration into the statute. The "statute" group also opposed the inclusion of provisions on funds to be foreseen in the budgetary authority in social policy matters.
Some observations hinted at there being divergence between Member States, mainly on the subject of the conditions for appointing officials (greater or lesser proficiency in several languages) or on pensions (the Spanish, Greek and Portuguese delegations in particular do not want the correcting coefficient system applying to pensions to be kept as they find it discriminatory, while northern countries consider the principle of equality in purchasing power between pensioners justifies keeping the system).
On Monday, the Spanish Presidency informed the Committee of Permanent Representatives of EU Member States (Coreper) of the state of progress of work. Coreper noted the first orientations of the working group. The Danish Presidency stated its intention to proceed within the "statute" group to a second article-by-article examination of the Commission's proposal. A detailed report will then be forwarded to Coreper. We recall that the General Affairs Council had pointed out in its conclusions of 15 April that it wished to be able to "enact on this proposal before end June 2003". With this in mind, the European Parliament, Court of Justice and Court of Auditors were invited to give their opinion on this dossier "before the end of 2002".