Council of the Union: termination-of-service for officials of the General Secretariat

AIM: To enable officials who are affected by the redeployment of human resources in the Secretariat-General of the Council to take early retirement. CONTENT: The Secretariat-General of the Council considers it necessary to terminate the service of some officials, as suggested in a Commission proposal relating to the various departments of the Council administration, a proposal that is currently under examination by the executive bodies of the Council. The proposal in question is intended to authorise the release of 94 officials from the Secretariat-General of the Council (12 at category A, 22 at LA, 8 at B, 44 at C and 8 at D) between 2002 and 2004. Provided that the operation has no net budgetary impact, the savings from these staff cuts (the difference between the cost of full remuneration and that of the redundancy packages) should pay for the recruitment of some 46 new officials. Overall, this amounts to a recovery by the budgetary authority of 48 posts (the difference between 94 redundancies and 46 recruitments). The eventual cost saving will be felt from 2006 onwards. In fact, between 2006 and 2012 the amount of termination allowance payable will tail off as the former officials gradually become eligible to draw their occupational retirement pensions. By about 2012, the savings generated will correspond to the cost of 48 posts recovered by the budgetary authority. �