Brussels, 10/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - Brussels Local Staff Committee elections, to select representatives of European officials, temporary agents and contract employees at the Commission for a period of three years, began on Tuesday 9 June and will close on 11 June 2009. If, however, after three days of voting, the quorum of two thirds of those on the voting list has not been reached (14,932 voters), the voting period will be extended by two weeks, until 25 June. If the minimum turnout has still not been achieved, a second round of voting will take place, this time with a 50% quorum of those registered to vote.
54 members will be elected to the Brussels Local Staff Committee, 27 current members and 27 alternate members. At the previous elections in 2006, 5 lists were put forward, but this year voters have the choice of 9 different lists. They can vote by list, but they can also note their preferences, for the candidates of their choice, on each list. In 2006, two thirds of voters chose to vote for lists and one third used their preferential votes.
Following the elections, the Brussels Local Committee will appoint 19 representatives, to the Central Staff Committee. This committee comprises the representatives of the eight local staff committees of the European institutions and has 40 members.
The 9 candidate lists this year are: - list 1: the “European Solidarity” (ES) union; - list 2: the “Union for Unity”; - list 3: the “Union of International and European Civil Servants” (UIECS); - list 4: the “Confederation-Union of the European Civil Service (Conf-SFE); - list 5: the “European Civil Service Federation” (ECSF); - list 6: the “Union Syndicale” (US); - list 7: the “Association of Independent Officials” (TAO/AFI); - list 8: “Renewal and Democracy” (R-D); - list 9: Solidarity, Independence and Democracy” (SID).
Of these 9 unions, six presented at the 2006 elections: UIECS, ECSF, TAO/AFI, R-D, US and Conf-SFE (the last two having formed a coalition at the last elections). This is the first time that ES and SID have presented candidates in Brussels Local Staff Committee elections. They have, however, already worked on the Luxembourg staff committee.
One real innovation to be highlighted is the list two “Union for Unity”. In its manifesto, this union, created by former members of the US and the ECSF, lays great importance on defending the European civil service, which, it says, is currently at risk, even though the recent economic has shown how important and useful it is. The European civil service is in danger both from growing Euro-scepticism and by those who reject the work done by the European institutions. The Union for Unity believes that, since 2004, the European Commission itself has been engaged in dismantling the European civil service. The adoption of the Kinnock reform of the European civil service in 2001 shows, the union claims, that the Commission wants to destroy the European civil service, as does the recent report, known as the “three Directors General report”. This would see European civil servants replaced, every time it was possible, by seconded national experts or by agents recruited on an ad hoc basis or co-opted. These agents and national experts lay greater stress on specific interests or on what their national governments want than on the European “common interest”. The desire to dismantle the European civil service can also be seen in the trend within the Commission to outsource management of European programmes, granting them increasingly to member states, the United Nations or private agencies. Today, the “Union for Unity” believes that the work of the European Commission is becoming increasingly bureaucratic and that there is a “constant decline in our political and institutional usefulness”. The European civil service must challenge this questioning of its existence and raison d'être. The “Union for Unity” wants to be the catalyst in this effort. (L.P./transl.rt)