IP/03/261
Brussels, 19 February 2003
Commission well on track to meet its increased responsibilities following enlargement
The Commission has today set the targets for recruitment of officials from the 10 new Member States from May 2004. This forms the latest stage in the Commission’s ongoing and thorough preparations for enlargement. The recruitment targets are based on objective criteria so as to ensure a fair and transparent approach. Overall preparations have covered and continue to cover many different areas including: a Commission staff policy which enables it to hire the necessary extra employees to cope with its increased responsibilities whilst fully respecting the limits on Heading V of the Financial Perspectives (Administrative costs); re-organisation of the linguistic services to ensure the effective continuation of high quality multi-lingual provision; and modernisation of the Commission’s systems to face increased workloads, in particular in terms of financial management.
Commenting on the Commission’s preparations for enlargement, Commission President Romano Prodi said: “The forthcoming enlargement of the EU is the single most important priority of this Commission. The recruitment of EU officials from the incoming Member States will be a potent symbol of the new face of Europe, and the Commission is looking forward to their arrival, as a definitive signal of the end of the separation of Europe.”
Vice-President for Administrative Reform Neil Kinnock said: “This enlargement increases the EU population by 20%, the number of Member States by 66%, the number of working languages by 82%. It consequently poses testing and complex challenges to the Commission. The Commission services have therefore been getting ready for the new demands and opportunities for a long time and, as we enter the final phase of preparation, I’m confident that we will ensure that enlargement is an organisational success as well as a great political and economic advance for our continent.”
Ensuring recruitment is carried out to guarantee the widest possible geographical balance
The Commission’s policy is to recruit officials on the broadest possible geographical basis from among nationals of Member States. In order to sustain that purpose and to use positive recruitment measures, the Commission is following the precedent of all previous enlargements and proposing to the Council a time-limited derogation (7 years) from the rule which forbids the reserving of posts for nationals of particular Member States.
The Commission will set an overall recruitment target for the new Member States, based on their relative weight in the enlarged EU and calculated on the basis of the three following objective criteria:
-the number of inhabitants of each State;
-the weighting of votes for States in the Council;
-the number of seats in the European Parliament for each State.
The indicative overall recruitment target during the transition period for the new Member States as a whole is established at 2/3 of the weighted figure. A corresponding number of posts should be earmarked during the transition period for the new Member States, corresponding to their relative weighting.
Based on this proposal, the absolute number of posts to be reserved for the 10 new Member States over the transition period amounts to 3441 posts (see national breakdown in annex 1). This would include 10 A1 posts, 42 A2 posts and 189 middle management posts.
For officials in general, open competitions will be organised by nationality. However, there are some exceptions: Competitions for linguists, for instance, will be run on the basis of language, and Reference Values will not be applied to A1 staff. For A1’s the Commission’s objective continues to be to ensure that at least one qualified national from each Member State holds a Director General, Head of Department or similar position. Finally, for management posts which are earmarked for enlargement (including those at senior management level) selections will cover all enlargement countries.
It is important to note that meeting targets is not compulsory. The Commission will only recruit candidates who prove that they possess the necessary qualifications, as set out in the competition advertisements and the vacancy notices. Further information about the Competitions can be found on the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) website at :
Finalising Administrative Reform will be a major factor in ensuring successful enlargement
One of the prime Commission objectives in undertaking Administrative Reform was to ensure that the Institution could deal with any major shift in its priorities or its workload flexibly and effectively, whilst ensuring that administrative spending remains within the ceiling set by the 1999 Financial Perspectives. Clearly, the forthcoming enlargement, with increases of some 20% in EU population, 66% in EU Member States and 82% in EU official languages, presents such a challenge. The Commission has introduced a wide range of measures to ensure that its working methods can cope with the extra workload through – amongst other things – better planning and programming, more flexible financial management arrangements and more rigorous financial control systems (see Reform Implementation Review and Report presented by Vice-President Neil Kinnock on 30 January 2003, IP/03/133). The Council and Parliament are currently discussing the modification of the Staff Regulation which governs the careers of EU officials and other staff, and the Council intends to agree on the new legislation by the end of June 2003. The Commission is confident that the full and timely implementation of all reform measures will lead to savings in administrative expenditure from base line of over € one billion over the first fifteen years.
This means that, with Reform, Enlargement can take place while respecting the expenditure ceiling for administrative expenditure set by the Financial Perspectives; without Reform this will not be feasible.
Ensuring the Commission continues to offer a multi-lingual service
The Commission is committed to continuing provision of the same high quality level of multi-lingual service as that available now. Accordingly, the Commission's Joint Interpreting and Conference Service (SCIC) started preparing for enlargement in the early 1990s with training for interpretation teachers, training for in-house interpreters in the languages of candidate countries, providing assistance to universities in candidate states, etc. Similarly, a Task Force to prepare for Enlargement was set up in the Translation service (SdT) of the Commission in 1996. This Task Force has for example, helped the candidate countries set up their own translation units so that they could translate EU legislation into their own languages, and it is also training in-house translators in the languages of those countries. In a series of steps from the end of 2001 to Spring 2002, the Commission adopted a range of measures to improve the global management and the productivity of its linguistic services and make sure that they could continue to provide high quality multi-lingual services at a reasonable cost. This culminated in a major reorganisation of the Translation Directorate General decided on 30 January that will take effect on 1 July 2003. This Spring, both the SCIC and the SdT will be posting officials in the candidate countries to oversee the preparatory work carried out by the linguists from the candidate countries (for example preparing lists of technical terminology in the different areas of EU activity).
Training of in-house translators in the new languages has been going on for some years on a completely voluntary basis. To date 287 translators have learned, or are learning, a language of a candidate country. The objective is to have 46 in-house translators per new language. Meanwhile, 59 SCIC interpreters are currently studying one or other of the new languages. And this year, for the first time, staff of all the Institutions, including translators and interpreters, are being offered intensive summer courses in the applicant country languages.
The SDT has estimated that, to meet the EU's translation requirements, for each new language the Commission needs the equivalent of 110 full-time staff. Of these, a reduced figure of 60 will be permanent, full-time translator officials. The remaining resources will comprise auxiliary and supporting staff and freelances. These needs will be met progressively from 2004 and 2006, as officials from the accession countries are phased in. The SCIC will also need 40 interpreters per new language, half of whom will be freelance. If ten new languages join the EU, this would therefore represent a total increase of only 1500 staff compared to some 2000 linguists currently employed (1300 translators, and 700 interpreters).
The costs of comprehensive multilingual translation and interpretation services will remain at the current level of 2 euro per citizen per year.
Application of the approach to a scenario of 10 new MS
Indicative recruitments targets
TOTAL STAFF / of / whichA2*
Director / Middle Managers
Malta / 83 / 1 / 5
Cyprus / 110 / 1 / 6
Estonia / 117 / 1 / 6
Slovenia / 134 / 2 / 7
Latvia / 155 / 2 / 9
Lithuania / 241 / 3 / 13
Slovakia / 279 / 3 / 15
Hungary / 489 / 6 / 27
Czech Republic / 492 / 6 / 27
Poland / 1341 / 16 / 74
Total / 3441 / 41 / 189
*Sum is not 42 due to rounding
COMMUNICATION OF MR. KINNOCK TO THE COMMISSION
On 1 May 2004, the European Union is expected to comprise 25 Member States. As was the case for previous enlargements, it is important to anticipate two elements of the Commission personnel policy: 1) the new establishment plan (in absolute terms); and 2) the level of representation of the new Member States within that establishment plan.
Concerning the new establishment plan, the Commission has already identified the needs in human resources related to enlargement in its Communication to the Council and the European Parliament on its activities and human resources in the enlarged EU (COM(2002)311final of 5 June 2002) and concluded that 3900 additional human resources would be needed.
The present communication addresses the second issue, i.e. the level of representation of new Member States. It proposes an objective and transparent approach based on the following principles: the approach used must provide for fair and balanced representation of new Member States in the Commission staff; the recruitment procedures must ensure a high level of staff qualifications which will facilitate integration of new personnel; and, in achieving balanced representation, the principles of equal treatment and gender balance will be applied.
The accession negotiations as reflected in the Copenhagen Conclusions determined a revised level of representation for each Member State in the Council and the European Parliament. The proposed approach combines these levels with the number of inhabitants per country.
The Commission is asked:
-to approve the overall approach;
-to endorse the proposed increase in middle and top management posts;
-to mandate Vice-President Kinnock implement the new approach and to monitor its results.
COMMUNICATION OF MR. KINNOCK
Concerning the recruitment of Commission officials from the new Member States
1.Introduction
On 1 May 2004, the European Union is expected to comprise 25 Member States. Since this enlargement process is the largest and most complex to date, it has numerous implications for the administration of the Commission. As was the case for previous enlargements, it is important to anticipate two elements of the Commission personnel policy, i.e. the new establishment plan (in absolute terms) and the level of representation of the new Member States within that establishment plan.
Concerning the new establishment plan, the Commission has already identified the needs in human resources in its Communication to the Council and the European Parliament on its activities and human resources in the enlarged EU.[1] It concluded that 3900 additional human resources would be needed. The breakdown of these 3900 posts is as follows: 3400 posts in the operational establishment plans (Part A of the budget), 150 posts in the research establishment plans (Part B of the budget), 560 additional appropriations for outside personnel in Part A of the budget, less a reduction in appropriations for the equivalent of 210 outside personnel currently financed in Part B of the budget. The approach to ensuring geographical balance proposed here will only be applicable for the first two categories mentioned above, which, excluding the estimate for JRC posts, leads to a total of 3430 posts.
The present communication addresses the level of representation of the new Member States based on the following principles:
-Representation of new Member States in the Commission’s staff must be fair and balanced, i.e. reflecting their relative weight in the enlarged Union;
-The recruitment procedures must be such that they ensure a high level of staff qualifications which is particularly important for the successful integration of new personnel in the Commission and their advancement in the reformed career development system;
-In achieving balanced representation, the principles of equal treatment will be applied. As provided in Article 1a of the Staff Regulations, equal treatment will be “without reference, direct orindirect, to race, political, philosophical or religiousbeliefs, sex or sexual orientation”. In particular, the Commission’s policy on gender balance will be applied in the same way as to recruitment from the existing Member States.
2.Legal basis and transition period
The principle of geographical balance is laid down in Article 27, paragraph 1, of Staff Regulations which states that "recruitment shall be directed to securing for the institution the services of officials of the highest standard of ability, efficiency and integrity, recruited on the broadest possible geographical basis from among nationals of Member States of the Communities".
However, paragraph 3 of the same Article limits the Commission’s discretionary power to the extent that "no posts shall be reserved for nationals of any specific Member State". The Court of First Instance has given a clear interpretation of this rule: under the Staff Regulations as they stand, nationality considerations may be invoked only to distinguish between candidates whose qualifications are equivalent.
Therefore, as was the case for previous enlargements, a time-limited derogation from the rule in Article 27 needs to be agreed by means of a Council regulation allowing the recruitment of nationals from the new Member States through special measures. Currently, this derogation is being discussed in the Staff Regulations Committee and should be adopted by the Council in the first half of 2003.
Considering the nature of this enlargement, it is proposed to provide for a transition period of 7 years.
3.Ensuring Geographical Balance: Approach and Results
The proposed approach is applied to 10 new Member States joining the Union as from May 1, 2004. However, it can be applied to any number of new Member States.
This proposal is written on the basis of the understanding that the budgetary authority will confirm the financing of the additional resources required for enlargement. The communication on the assessment of human resource needs in the enlarged European Union allows the calculation of the number of posts earmarked for each new Member State on the basis of the increase of the establishment plan according to DG BUDG’s analysis. However, in the event that the establishment plan would not increase as planned, the absolute share for the 10 new Member States that would correspond to the weight of the new Member States regarding the three criteria, and the indicative recruitment target for the new Member States as a whole would be lower.
There is also a link between this proposal and general political agreement with Council by mid-2003 on the new Staff Regulations. Without such an agreement, the present proposal about geographical balance could not be implemented within the agreed budgetary ceilings.
3.1A two step approach using objective criteria
This communication proposes a two step approach in order to reach a fair and balanced representation of the new Member States among Commission staff. The first step is to determine the overall share of posts that are earmarked for the new Member States as a whole on the basis of objective criteria. The second step is then to calculate for each new Member State a Reference Value, i.e. an indicative relative share of posts expressed as a percentage of total posts and an indicative recruitment target.
3.2Overall share of posts and indicative overall recruitment target for the new Member States
At each previous enlargement, a value for the relative share of Commission human resources of the new Member States was established. This value was determined on the basis of negotiation, comparisons between old and new Member States and occasionally made reference to objective criteria, such as population and GDP. It is clear, therefore, that the resulting reference values for recruitment were not derived directly from objective criteria. Specific provisions were applied to senior management.
Due to the specific nature of this enlargement, applying the criteria that were used in previous enlargements would not lead to a fair and balanced result. For instance, population is still a valid objective criterion. However, GDP can no longer be considered as an adequate criterion since nearly all of the ten candidate countries have, at present, a per capita GDP lower than that of any existing Member State, but which could rise considerably over the next ten years. It should be noted that the combined GDP of the 10 new Member States accounts for only 4,4 % of the total GDP of the enlarged Union.
3.2.1Calculation method
Given that the Nice European Council revised the level of representation of the present and new Member States in the Council and the European Parliament, and taking into account the outcome of the accession negotiations as reflected in the Copenhagen Conclusions, the revised levels of representation in the Council and the Parliament should be used as critera for determining staff levels. These levels reflect a considered weighting of new Member States. In determining the overall share of posts earmarked for the new Member States, it is therefore proposed to take the following three criteria into consideration:
-The number of inhabitants, which is the most basic objective criterion;
-The weighting of votes in the Council; and
-The number of seats in the European Parliament.
The overall share of posts that would correspond to the weight of the new Member States is calculated on the basis of their relative part in the enlarged EU regarding the three above-mentioned criteria.
The indicative overall recruitment target during the transition period for the new Member States as a whole is established at 2/3 of this figure, while the remaining 1/3 of this figure is expected to be filled after the transition period through the normal EU-wide recruitment process. A corresponding number of posts should be earmarked during the transition period for the new Member States. This is necessary in order to ensure a smooth integration of new officials from 10 new Member States with an additional 10 languages and a reasonable geographical balance of staff of present Member States across the generations. In addition, there must be a balance between highly qualified multilingual expert staff in Member States capitals and in the Commission.