Brussels, 27/02/2004 (Agence Europe) - Adopting in Brussels on Thursday the report by British Conservative Malcolm Harbour and Manuel Medina Ortega (PES, Spain) on changes to the Terms and Conditions of European Community civil servants, the European Parliament suggested making some improvements to the amended draft put forward in November 2003 following consultation with trade unions (see EUROPE of 22 November 2003 for details). The text must now be examined by the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Member States to the EU (COREPER) before being formally adopted by the EU Council of Ministers, probably before the end of March.
The EP's opinion (in the consultation procedure) notes that the regulation has to come into force on 1 May 2004 (when the new Member States join the EU) with the aim of removing discrimination against officials from ultra-peripheral regions when calculating allowances on a distance basis. The EP rejected an amendment to recruit parliamentary assistants under the same conditions as apply to contractual agents of the European Communities.