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The
Band has Started Playing and our Crystal Ball has
Turned Red! Brussels, 21 January 2002 |
Open letter to Members of the College Dear Commissioners, The numerous changes announced or carried out since you took office ought to have improved the way the services function, but in fact the Commissions work continues to be profoundly destabilised, and the staff are suffering from increasingly acute demotivation. The greatest concern has been caused by the project to reform the European Institutions. Back under the Santer Commission, R&D was arguing for necessary and urgent reform to ensure that the dysfunctioning ceased. Unfortunately, the reform proposed by Mr Kinnock has proved to be dangerous, confused and demagogic. You recently gave your backing to this project, but without knowing the exact content, and even since you gave your approval, the Administration has continued to alter it, among other reasons, in order to take account of criticism from the Legal Service. To our profound regret, the project was conceived hastily and unprofessionally, and is now in the process of being finalised. Staff insecurity, and therefore demotivation, continue to grow because of rumours spread ever widely of another game of musical chairs at a higher level for A1s and A2s. R&D has frequently denounced the waste caused by keeping senior officials in the same jobs for too long, and thereby leading to the establishment of little kingdoms. What is more, when you started in your new job, R&D gave a warm welcome to the idea of rotation among some of the most senior officials. But what is the point of a great upheaval 2½ years from the end of this Commission when we know perfectly well that the next Commission will probably have the same attitude? Do you realise that the work that has been done since you have been here has not been carried out properly? What stability do you think you can guarantee services in such a chaotic situation? How do you hope to keep our colleagues motivated? R&D wants to know:
R&D is quite clear that, before moving on to the next round, your Commission should have made sure that vacant posts in the upper hierarchy had been filled as soon as possible and not left vacant with no justification, and in circumstances that are very hard to explain for excessively long periods of time. Can the Commission say how many A1 and A2 posts are in the organigram but are still unfilled, and for how long? And are there any valid justifications for these delays in the nomination procedures? As it looks into its crystal ball (which has now turned red), R&D wonders with dismay whether the aim of these rotations is to get rid of certain senior officials (for example by sheer chance those who have criticised Mr Kinnock's reform), and to start recruiting externally. The new way of simultaneously publishing A1 posts internally (article 29.1) and externally (article 29.2) effectively allows in-house officials who do not have the two years seniority at grade A2 (and pals outside) to apply. Not only does this procedure block the careers of colleagues who moved into civil service basic grades through competitions; it also opens the door to the nationalisation and therefore the dismantling of an independent European civil service. To allow our crystal ball to return to its normal colour, could the Commission tell us how many candidates there were for the post of Assistant Director-General in DG SANCO, both internally (article 29.1) and externally (article 29.2)? The Commission has often been criticised over nominations to managerial posts for failing to meet the competence criterion. If it continues to do so after declaring urbi et orbi that merit is now the sole selection criterion, it will hardly be surprising, Commissioners, if there is a further loss of credibility. Yours sincerely, For the Executive Committee |
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102 7/12 |
Membres du Comité Exécutif: Ianniello Franco, Adurno Giuseppe, Zorbas Gerassimos, Ravagli Alessandra, Uguccioni Bruno, Docherty Michael, Vassila-Souyoul Erica, Bochu Claude, Drevet Jean-François, Napolitano Raffaele, Crespinet Alain, Sybren Singelsma, Paul Frank, Panarisi Edi, Sperling Christiane, Domingos Dias. |
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