Conclusions and recommendations
UK nationals on the staff of the EU institutions:
situation in 2013
1. In relation to its share of the EU's population, the UK is significantly underrepresented among the staff of the major EU institutions (Council, Commission and Parliament). We were seriously concerned to learn that the number of UK nationals on the staff of the European Commission has fallen by 24% in seven years. The UK now fields 4.6% of Commission staff, compared to its 12.5% share of the EU's population; France's shares are 13.0% of the EU population and 9.7% of Commission staff. In the increasingly-powerful European Parliament, the UK's share of administrator-grade staff has fallen from 6.2% to 5.8% since 2010 (while France's has risen from 7.5% to 8.6%); and in the General Secretariat of the Council of the EU the UK's share of administrator-grade staff fell from 4.8% to 4.3% over the same period (while France's fell from 7.7% to 6.9%).
(Paragraph 11)
Government action
Concours
2. The Government is correct to have identified both the importance of UK personnel on the staff of the EU institutions as a channel for UK influence in the EU, and the fact that the UK faces a serious problem with respect to its declining representation among EU staff. We commend the Government for launching an effort to increase the UK staff presence in the EU institutions.
(Paragraph 18)
3. The Government is taking steps to try to increase both the number and the success rate of UK entrants to the competition to become permanent EU officials:
- The entry competition for new permanent EU officials is tough. As regards the success rate, among UK entrants it appears to be roughly the same as for the EU as a whole, although we were concerned to note that it is on a downward trend. We were especially disconcerted to discover that the Civil/Diplomatic Service European Fast Stream scheme, which is intended to prepare candidates to take the EU staff entry competition successfully, appears so far to have generated no additional permanent generalist EU officials for the UK since it was re-launched in 2010.
As regards the numbers of UK candidates in the EU staff entry competition, we welcome signs that more UK nationals are becoming interested in embarking on this career path. However, given the pass rate, the numbers of UK entrants to the competition remain too low (at 2.4% of the total in 2012, for example) to generate an upandcoming UK presence in the EU institutions large enough to compensate for the numbers of UK officials who are retiring, having gone to work for the EU institutions when the UK joined the then-European Economic Community forty years ago. This applies particularly to the European Commission. The Government must therefore reckon with a declining UK presence among Commission staff in coming years, especially at the most senior levels. Even if UK representation at entry levels in the Commission were to pick up significantly now, it would be too late to fill what the Foreign Secretary has correctly identified as a 'generation gap' in the UK presence.
(Paragraph ?19)
Seconded national experts (SNEs)
4. We welcome the creation of an EU Staffing Unit in the FCO with a remit to increase secondments of UK civil servants into the EU institutions. We recommend that, as it develops its plans for Civil Service reform, the Government should ensure that undertaking secondments into the EU institutions will be encouraged and recognised. We recommend that in its response to this Report the FCO should set out in detail how its new EU Staffing Unit will work with other Departments, and Ministers and officials responsible for Civil Service reform in the Cabinet Office, to deliver more secondments from among UK civil servants into the EU institutions.
(Paragraph 23)
European External Action Service (EEAS)
5. In the new European External Action Service (EEAS), one-third of policy jobs must go to national diplomats seconded from the Member States. This appears to be enabling a slightly larger UK presence in the new Service than in other EU institutions. However, the number of such jobs remains limited, and UK candidates face tough competition to secure them. We endorse the FCO's strategy of seeking to target EEAS jobs of particular potential importance for the UK, although it must do so without risking UK candidates being seen as representatives purely of UK interests.
(Paragraph 32)
6. We endorse the view taken by our predecessor Committee when it first examined the European External Action Service (EEAS), namely that it will be to the benefit of the FCO and the UK if high-quality UK diplomats and other civil servants undertake secondments into the EEAS and then return to UK service. While we recognise that FCO and Civil Service financial and staff resources are strained, it must be to the UK's benefit to have UK officials in key EEAS positions and to gather first-hand experience of the new Service to feed back into Whitehall. As UK diplomats move through their periods of secondment to the EEAS, we recommend that the FCO should focus on maximising the prospect that they will return to UK service.
(Paragraph 33)
EU membership uncertainty
7. We
recommend that the FCO should report annually to Parliament, either
in its departmental annual report or separately, on the numbers
of UK nationals working for the main EU institutions (as permanent
staff, temporary agents, seconded national experts, and seconded
national diplomats in the European External Action Service), and
on the representation and performance of UK nationals in the EU
staff entrance competition (the concours). This is warranted
by the importance of the issue for UK influence in the EU, the
resources that the FCO is devoting to increasing the numbers of
UK personnel working for the EU, and the difficulty otherwise
of compiling relevant published data from multiple sources. Such
an annual publication could also act as an indicator if the Prime
Minister's commitment that a Conservative Government after 2015
would hold an 'in/out' referendum on the UK's continued EU membership
were to weaken the willingness of UK nationals to pursue EU careers.
(Paragraph 35)
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