CoR faces anger over voting ‘glitch’

Date: 31/10/02

By David Cronin

THE European Committee of the Regions has been challenged to explain an apparent glitch in how it arrived at a decision to bypass normal procedures for recruiting EU officials.

The institution's internal administrative bureau is reported to have voted by 12 votes to 11 in favour of filling staff vacancies with people already working there on temporary contracts. But it has emerged that the minutes of the meeting when the vote took place on 9 October state that just 22 members of the bureau attended - not the 23 previously indicated.

Alan Hick, head of Union Syndicale, the main body representing CoR officials, is calling on CoR President Albert Bore to state how a 12-11 vote could be possible in the circumstances. 'The fact that the sums do not even add up destroys any credibility whatsoever in the CoR bureau decision,' Hick said. 'The whole 'jobs for the boys' saga at the CoR is a fiasco.'

Union Syndicale has served a strike notice over what it terms a 'bogus' recruitment procedure. It argues that officials should be hired through open competitions. Some 200 members of the union are due to walk out next week.

Bore did not return phone calls from European Voice yesterday.

The European Committee of the Regions has been challenged to explain an apparent glitch in how it arrived at a decision to bypass normal procedures for recruiting EU officials.