EC officials: termination of service for officials of the Commission (amend. Regulation (EEC) No 549/69)

On 9 February 2001, the Court received a request for an opinion on the proposal for a Council Regulation introducing special measures to terminate the service of officials of the Commission of the European Communities as part of the reform of the Commission. In its explanatory memorandum, the Commission stated that the termination-of-service scheme for 600 Commission officials would make it possible for 258 new officials to be recruited, with a neutral impact on the budget, as the savings generated by the scheme would make it possible to balance the cost of the 258 new recruitments. In the analysis, the Court questions the principle of budget neutrality, the Court states that no allowance is made for the real costs of the pension rights earned by the newly recruited officials. This implies the long-run full cost (but not the immediate cash cost) of the newly recruited officials would be some 25 % higher than shown in the Commission's calculation. However, overall, the net effect in the long run should be a significant reduction in Commission staff costs, essentially reflecting the lower numbers employed than would otherwise have been the position. Given that the Commission's proposal involves a derogation from the normal arrangements whereby the Staff Regulation applies to all the institutions, the Commission should have sought their views on whether they face a comparable situation before putting forward this draft Regulation.