- minimum qualifying conditions: 10 years’ service, age 50;

- value of pension: 65% of final salary + benefits;

- opportunity to pay into pension scheme for 6 years;

- number of beneficiaries: 300 in 2001; 300 in 2002 (or about 10% of the eligible population);

- beneficiaries: all grades except A1 and A2. Priority given to ‘tops of grades’: A4, B1, C1 and D1. The Administration to take account of the ‘skill profile’, age, ‘output’ and ‘conduct during the period of service’.

Measures in support of the reform include the Council’s draft regulation on ‘pre-retirement’, which is available on the following intranet : http://www.cc.cec/home/matching/fr/early_fr.html

THE MAIN OBSERVATIONS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

THE CONCEPT

The details of the definition of ‘beneficiaries’ are largely negative: officials ‘unable to re-direct their careers’, and who have ‘particular difficulties in acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills’.

What will happen in these circumstances to officials who are candidates but are not successful?

They will have admitted their incapacities with the backing of their hierarchies, but they then have to remain in their jobs. What, then, is to become of these colleagues?

In the view of R&D, a draft pre-retirement scheme must be a voluntary, dignified and automatic matter for those who apply for it; it must also be open to all who meet certain objective and indisputable objectives, and not a gift for some and a semi-reprimand for others.

THE CONDITIONS

The figure of 65% of final salary is below what is offered for ‘redundancies’ linked to enlargements.

What is the reason for this discrimination? According to the Council’s draft proposal, the normal scheme applies after six years’ voluntary contributions to the old age insurance scheme. That would seriously penalise many people throughout their retirement.

Moreover, to deal with obligations particularly associated with enlargement (28% of the European public service will eventually have to be recruited from candidate countries) and the need to free up posts for new member countries, R&D proposes the introduction of a permanent ‘pre-retirement’ scheme for officials/temporary agents starting in January 2001 in anticipation of ‘redundancy’ linked to enlargement, and which:

1. is exclusively voluntary;

2. is open to all who meet the objective conditions of age and seniority as fixed by the Council regulation;

3. takes account of age and length of service, particularly for the oldest colleagues, who must not be discriminated against;

4. complies with provisions of the Staff Regulations that protect the European public service against conflicts of interest;

5. is managed on joint basis so as to avoid favouritism.

In this way, it will be possible to become a European official and, after a number of years, to have the opportunity to leave the Institution in a voluntary, dignified manner.

to be continued …

The Executive Committee

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