Brussels, 17/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - On 16 January, the European Commission adopted a report providing detailed analysis of the 1985-2005 financial situation regarding the unemployment fund for former temporary and contract agents. It demonstrates that reform of the status for European officials, introduced in May 2004, has had a significant impact on fund revenue and spending.
Those likely to one day become a recipient of Community unemployment benefit have “practically doubled” since the gradual replacement of auxiliary agents with temporary agents. Auxiliary agents come under the exclusive remit of national social security systems and have no claim to European Community social allowances. The Commission's conclusions are as follows: surpluses have been enjoyed throughout the three quarters of the period in which the complementary Community unemployment scheme has existed; current reserves will enable needs to be met during deficit for around six years; these is a continuous imbalance between income from the Economic and Social Committee (ESC) and spending incurred by former agents from this institution who are unemployed (costs of unemployment benefit payments are well above the contributions); specific events (Commission reshuffles and change of personnel in Commissioners' cabinets, as well as personnel changes in European Parliament political groups after elections) have had a “significant influence” on the financial balance of the scheme over the years; the number of agencies and offices, as well as staff employed by the latter, is constantly increasing and is even greater than the number of temporary and contract agents employed by the Commission.
The Commission analysis illustrates that reform (implementation of the Community complementary unemployment scheme) hit cruising speed in 2007-08. Nonetheless, initial data on the balance of the new modified scheme demonstrate that: contributions paid by temporary agents have significantly increased; although the cost of an unemployed person covered by the new scheme is considerably higher than under the initial scheme, it does appear that current contributions are more or less covering the same proportion of expenditure as in the past; schemes applicable to former temporary or contract agents do not appear to provoke significant differences in covering expenditure by income from these two categories of agents.
The Commission will carry out a study on the system for the 2007-08 period, which remains open. As many contract agents will be finishing their contracts during this period, the Commission is seeking to gain an idea about the balance of the scheme in the long term and therefore examine where there is a need to adapt the level of contributions and rights. (lc)