Dear member,

This year will be a very difficult one (the Council is demanding the dismantling of the European Civil Service, similar to what is happening in almost all Member States; the Commission is quite weak, and the staff relatively).

The deadlines are approaching: negotiations with the Council and the European Parliament on the changes to the Staff Regulations, and the elections to the Local Staff Committee.

In accordance with the mandate given by the General Meeting of 10 October 2011, we have worked to establish a United Front to negotiate, initially with the Commission, and afterwards with the Council and the European Parliament. The United Front is now a reality and exists in all Institutions. It is something we should be proud of!

In the same way, to reduce the fragmentation of staff representation, we implemented the other aspect of the mandate from the same General Meeting, with the object of presenting common lists for the elections to the Personnel Committees.

We presented the NEAR list (R&D-U4U-USHU-Conf-SFE) in the EEAS (the European External Action Service) and it carried the majority of elected members. We are envisaging the same approach for the elections for the Staff Committee outside the Union (Commission) and will be presenting a fuller common list for the elections at Ispra.

For the elections in Brussels, we are continuing discussions with our partners, but time is running out. The elections will probably take place this June.

We need urgently to renew our Executive Committee.

After the cancellation of the elections in June 2011, starting in September we set up a working group to finalise the electoral rules.

This working group proposed substantial modifications to allow, in a transparent manner, firstly the widening participation to colleagues who wish to take a greater part in Union affairs, and secondly to give greater coherence to our actions by concentrating rather on problems specific to the Commission, while strengthening co-operation with other sections within the framework of the federal structure.

In particular, the group proposed:

  • to increase the number of members of the three committees (Executive Committee, Audit Committee and Appeals Committee;
  • to create a specific section for the Commission in Brussels;
  • to strengthen the functioning of Federal R&D which remains essential to ensure the effectiveness of our action across all the Institutions.

    A final draft has been produced, and modifications to our Constitution are also submitted for your approval.

    The General Meeting will therefore need to approve and/or improve these two documents which will allow us to have a new Executive Committee ready to face the important challenges awaiting us.

    You will find the two documents mentioned above in annex;(i.e. the draft Constitution and the electoral rules for the Section R&D Commission.

    In conformance with Article 4.1 of our Constitution (http://www.renouveau- democratie.eu/our-trade-union/statut_en/), the Members’ General Meeting, which is the sovereign body of the Union, is hereby called:

    in first session (the majority of attendees representing at least 12,5% of members) for Friday 2 March at 12 noon in the Meeting Room of the Staff Committee (rue de la Loi, 80 –CCP room);

    in second session (if the quorum specified in the paragraph above has not been reached, the new General Meeting will decide by a majority of members present) at 1.00pm on the same day (Friday 2 March) in the same room.

    The agenda will therefore be:

  • approval of the agenda;
  • presentation and approval of the 2011 accounts and the provisional 2012 budget;
  • modifications to the R&D Constitution;
  • approval of the Electoral Rules;
  • any other business.

    We wish as many members as possible to attend, as important decisions will have to be taken for the future of your Union.

    With best wishes,

    For the Executive Committee Franco IANNIELLO