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

On 11 April 2002 the Court received a request for an opinion on the Commission's amended proposal on the special measures to terminate the service of officials of the Commission of the European Communities. As the Court has already stated in its opinion No 3/2001, the increase in future pension costs due to the appointment of the new officials seems not to have been taken into consideration in the Commission's proposals (for the Court, the Commission underestimates by 25% the total long term cost of this measure). It is for this reason that the Court suggests that the proposal should define which budgetary mechanism will be used to ensure the savings will actually be safeguarded in the long term. The Court also believes that the preamble to the proposed regulation should explain the coherence of the scheme with the European employment policy objective of increasing the employment rate of older workers through flexible and gradual retirement formulas. The Court takes note of the fact that no appropriate and clear selection criteria are established. The implementation of the scheme should ensure that staff who are able to update their skills are fairly treated. Lastly, the Court is of the opinion that an early retirement system such as the one proposed should only be a one-off solution. In the future the focus should be on improvement of staff development policy.�