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Accession of Croatia: special temporary measures for the recruitment of officials and temporary staff of the EU

2012/0224(COD)

PURPOSE: to adopt special temporary measures for the recruitment of officials and temporary staff of the EU on the occasion of Croatia’s accession to the EU.

PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.

BACKGROUND: on the occasion of the accession of Croatia on 1 July 2013, special temporary measures should be adopted to derogate from the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Union and the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Union. Given the need to make the planned recruitments as soon as possible after accession, this Regulation should be adopted before the actual accession date.

It is recalled that in previous enlargements, specific measures were adopted to recruit nationals of the countries that were joining the Union. This required a Council Regulation temporarily derogating from the relevant provisions of the Staff Regulations concerning recruitment.

IMPACT ASSESSMENT: no impact assessment was undertaken.

LEGAL BASIS: Article 336 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

CONTENT: a derogation from Article 4(2) and (3), Article 7(1), Article 27, and Article 29(1)(a) and (b) of the Staff Regulations is proposed, as is a derogation from the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Union in so far as they provide for application of these provisions of the Staff Regulations to the recruitment of temporary staff.

The main points are as follows:

  • given the relative size of the country acceding and the number of persons potentially involved, these measures, albeit temporary, should remain in force for a substantial period. The expiry date set is 30 June 2018;
  • the proposal provides for the organisation of competitions for the selection of officials from Croatia on a national basis;
  • competitions for Croatian nationals may be held, and lists of successful candidates drawn up, before the accession of that country to the Union. However, a country must have joined the Union before its nationals may be appointed as officials to a post with the Institutions’
  • the Institutions have the possibility of derogating from the requirement to advertise vacant posts within the Institutions. They may, however, publish vacant posts if they so wish.

Each Institution will determine the number of officials and temporary staff from the candidate country to be recruited under this derogation Regulation.

BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS: there are no implications for the EU budget.