2 Personnel and financial management
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Draft Regulation amending the Staff Regulations of officials of the European Communities and the conditions of employment of other servants of those Communities
Draft Regulation amending Council regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities, as regards the European External Action Service
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| Legal base | (a) Article 336 TFEU; co-decision; QMV
(b) Article 322 TFEU and Article 106a Euratom Treaty; co-decision; QMV
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| Documents originated | (a) —
(b) 24 March 2010
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| Deposited in Parliament | 26 March 2010
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| Department | Foreign and Commonwealth Office
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| Basis of consideration | Minister's letter of 25 March 2010 and EM of 30 March 2010
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| Previous Committee Report | None
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| To be discussed in Council | Possibly the end of April 2010
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | For debate on the Floor of the House, together with a draft Council Decision on establishing the European External Action Service
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Background
2.1 Management of the EU's staff and financial resources is
governed by the Staff Regulations and the Financial Regulation.
2.2 Amongst matters covered by the Financial
Regulation are budgetary principles, establishment, structure
and implementation of the budget, procurement, accounts, external
audit and discharge by the European Parliament. The Financial
Regulation is complemented by detailed Implementing Rules adopted
by the Commission.[6] The
Financial Regulation is subject to a triennial review, the next
one of which is due later this year.
2.3 The High Representative has proposed recently
a draft Council Decision about the organisation and functioning
of the European External Action Service (EEAS), which implies
the need for amendment of the Staff and Financial Regulations.[7]
The documents
2.4 The draft Regulation to amend the Staff Regulations,
document (a), is required to make the EEAS operational as soon
as it is established. The EEAS will be treated as an institution
for the purposes of the Staff Regulations. The High Representative
and Vice-President will be the Appointing Authority for the staff
of the EEAS (with a possibility to entrust EEAS staff members
with these powers).
2.5 Where it is stipulated in the Council Decision
establishing the EEAS that an entity from the Council or Commission
organisation chart is transferred to the EEAS (the list of entities
to be transferred has yet to be confirmed) the officials and temporary
staff occupying posts in that entity and other staff assigned
to that entity are transferred from their respective institutions
to the EEAS.
2.6 Appointment to the EEAS will be based on
equality of treatment between the sources of EEAS staffing:
"all members of the staff of the EEAS... shall
have the same rights and obligations, regardless [of] whether
they are officials of the European Union or temporary agents coming
from the diplomatic services of the Member States, and be treated
equally, in particular as concerns eligibility to assume all positions
under equivalent conditions" (Article 6(7) of the proposed
Council Decision establishing the EEAS).
2.7 Hence selection procedures for posts will
be open on an equal basis (as opposed to the current situation,
where internal candidates, followed by inter-institutional candidates,
have priority). The Appointing Authority will consider applications
for vacant posts in the EEAS from different categories of staff
— staff of national diplomatic services, officials of the
Commission, the Council and the EEAS, as well as temporary staff
of the EEAS from national diplomatic services — without
giving any priority to any of them. After the start-up phase,
but on 1 July 2013 at the latest, this facilitated access to vacant
posts in the EEAS will be extended to officials of other institutions
of the Union. In order to guarantee proper representation of staff
from national diplomatic services in the EEAS, it should be possible,
until 30 June 2013, to give priority to candidates from national
diplomatic services of the Member States in case of substantially
equal qualifications.
2.8 Staff from national diplomatic services will
be employed by the EEAS as a specific category of temporary staff.
For this particular category of temporary staff, certain rules
(retirement age, possibility of secondment, and leave on personal
grounds) have to be aligned to those applicable to officials.
These staff members will thus benefit from the same working conditions
as officials.
2.9 Special arrangements are foreseen for cases
where EEAS staff will have to perform functions on behalf of the
Commission. In this respect they will have to take instructions
from the Commission. Moreover, the Commission will be involved
in the recruitment and evaluation of these members of staff, as
well as in disciplinary matters. In addition, account is also
taken of the situation of Commission officials working in Union
delegations who will have to take instructions in certain areas
from the Head of Delegation (who will be an official or a temporary
agent of the EEAS).
2.10 Other, more technical, amendments concern
Annex X to the Staff Regulations (applicable to staff serving
in third countries), contract staff and local staff. They should
improve the functioning of the Union delegations. The whole of
Annex X (and not only certain provisions) will apply to contract
staff serving in a third country, including Commission staff.
2.11 The draft Regulation to amend the Financial
Regulation, document (b), is to make an ad-hoc revision
to the Financial Regulation to take account of the creation of
the EEAS in advance of the triennial review of the Financial Regulation
later this year. The main changes provided for in the draft Regulation
result from the Service being treated, for the purposes of the
Financial Regulation, as an EU institution, so that it would have
its own budgetary authority. Like the other institutions it would
implement its own administrative expenditure.
2.12 The draft Regulation also provides for changes
consequent on what were Commission Delegations around the world
becoming EU Delegations and part of the EEAS, needing therefore
to have authority to implement operational expenditure from the
external actions programming of the General Budget. And Heads
of EU Delegations, members of the Service, would be responsible
for signing off parts of the EU budget previously administered
by the Commission. So the draft Regulation provides for specific
rules so that Heads of EU Delegations, when they implement part
of the Commission section of the budget, would apply Commission
financial management rules and be submitted to the same duties
and obligations as any other sub-delegated authorising officer
of the Commission. Finally the draft Regulation provides that
administrative and support expenditure to finance common costs
in EU Delegations should be carried out by a single support service,
whatever the section of the General Budget in which the respective
appropriations are entered.
2.13 In its Explanatory Memorandum on the draft
Regulation the Commission stresses the importance of the EEAS
building on the Commission's considerable experience, guidance,
support and training for financial management and internal control
in the external relations field. In a staff working document accompanying
the proposal the Commission outlines the amendments it is likely
to make to the Implementing Rules to complement the amendments
it proposes to the Financial Regulation.
The Government's view
2.14 On the draft Regulation to amend the Staff
regulations, document (a), noting that "the Government is
keen for the EEAS to be established as soon as possible so that
it can support the High Representative in her vision of making
the EU a true global actor", the Minister for Europe (Chris
Bryant) says that discussion on the detail of the changes to the
Staff Regulations will take place in the week beginning 12 April
in the Coreper preparatory group (Antici).
2.15 The Minister states that the EEAS needs
the mixture of experience provided by the Member States, Commission
and Council Secretariat. If there is not equal division between
these three groups then the EEAS will be less effective because
the internal balance will be upset. The Minister welcomes the
suggested changes to the Staff Regulations that will allow Member
State representatives to be recruited into the EEAS on an equal
footing to the Commission and Council Secretariat staff. In particular,
he welcomes the fact that it should be possible until 30 June
2013 to give priority to candidates from Member States in case
of substantially equal qualifications. Overall, he considers that
the changes suggested by the proposed amendments will help achieve
the objectives on staffing and recruitment set out in the draft
Decision on the establishment of the EEAS. Finally, the Minister
says that the Government welcomes the confirmation that the
Amending Staff Regulation is broadly budget neutral.
2.16 On the draft Regulation to amend the Financial
Regulation, document (b), the Minister says that:
- the Government is broadly content
with the proposed amendments from a budgetary perspective;
- they will enable the establishment of the EEAS
as an institution and its operational functioning;
- with the changes proposed to the Financial Regulation
Heads of EU Delegations would be able to sign off on Commission
budgets, so ensuring that they would be involved in the work of
the Delegation as a whole, answerable to the High Representative;
- at the same time, the changes aim to ensure that
those best placed to authorise and disburse external action funding
on the ground would be able to do so, while, crucially, ensuring
that EU funds are properly protected from misuse and are well-managed;
and
- the Commission and Council continue to discuss
precise divisions of responsibility between the institutions —
as they become clearer the Government will examine closely further
proposed working rules between the institutions on implementation
of the EEAS, Council and Commission sections of the budget.
2.17 The Minister tells us that:
- these proposals are not expected
to have any direct financial implications for the UK; and
- a Commission proposal outlining the implications
for the EU budget relating to the establishment the EEAS is expected
once the Council has adopted the draft Decision establishing
the organisation and functioning of the Service.
He adds a reminder that in October 2009 the European
Council endorsed guidelines stating that "unnecessary duplication
of tasks, functions and resources with other structures should
be avoided" and that establishing the Service should be guided
by the "principle of cost-efficiency aiming towards budget
neutrality".
Conclusion
2.18 The precise implications of these two
proposals, particularly how accountability would work in practice,
will only become apparent when relationships between the functions
of the Council, the Commission and the European External Action
Service are fully defined on adoption of the draft Council Decision
on the Service. Nevertheless we recommend that these two documents
be debated on the Floor of the House with the draft Council Decision.
We so recommend not only because of their intrinsic importance
but because it seems likely that the European Parliament will
use the leverage it has, as co-legislator on the draft Regulations,
in relation to discussion of the draft Council Decision.
2.19 Whilst the main focus of the debate may
well be the draft Council Decision, we suggest that in considering
the draft Regulations Members will want to explore how the detail
of the proposals is developing during negotiations.
6 Commission Regulation (EC, EURATOM) No 2342/2002:
see http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2002:357:0001:0071:EN:PDF.
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