Fontaine warning provokes war of words over reforms

Date: 19/07/01

By John Shelley and David Cronin

MEPS have accused their president Nicole Fontaine of cowardice after backtracking on a commitment to radical reform of the European institutions' staff pay structure.

Socialist and Liberal members are furious after learning that Fontaine wrote to European Commission leader Romano Prodi expressing "serious reservations" about plans to scrap the existing rigid career system and pay rules.

They say her letter contradicts the European Parliament's official position, as a majority of members have already voted in favour of Commission vice-president Neil Kinnock's proposed reforms.

Danish Liberal MEP Bertel Haarder said Fontaine appears to have been pressured by some of the more 'conservative' unions representing assembly officials. "I think she should represent the parliamentarians and not the staff when she expresses herself," he said. Dutch socialist Michiel van Hulten accused the president of kow-towing to the unions rather than backing the man with whom the buck stops, Kinnock. "It's very easy for the Parliament's administration to say we don't like these reforms because in the end it's not up to them to solve the problem," van Hulten said.

EU officials are ranked according to an A-D grading system, based on a French civil-service model from the 1950s, which rewards time-servers and makes it difficult for talented staff to progress.

Kinnock wants to do away with the horizontal grading system, replacing it with a 'linear' structure which he believes will attract Europe's 'brightest and best'.

Last November, Parliament adopted a report, drafted by UK Conservative Malcolm Harbour, which backed Kinnock's plans. It stated: "The foundations of the reform are the creation of a linear career structure which enables staff to progress through the system on the basis of merit, without the creation of artificial divisions."

But in her letter to Prodi, Fontaine says the Parliament's senior administrative officials "have very serious reservations about this radical proposal which, in its view, is very difficult to reconcile with the necessity to maintain and even improve the quality of the European civil service". François Brunagel, Fontaine's deputy chief advisor, stressed that she had written the letter at the request of the Parliament's administrative chiefs, saying it did not necessarily reflect her personal views.

Julian Priestley, the Parliament's secretary-general, who has been negotiating with the institution's fonctionnaires, denied the letter had been written because of pressure from the unions.

He said the debate has moved on since the Harbour report was adopted, pointing out that Kinnock has since tabled alternatives which would create a more flexible version of the existing grade structure.

He said Fontaine's letter reflected the view of both the Parliament's administrative chiefs and its staff - that scrapping the grades was not the most efficient way of making it easier to reward talented workers. "It would be a major undertaking," he said. "Do we need to do all that to reach the objectives that have been agreed?" Niels Ersboll, chairman of the talks aimed at securing agreement between the unions and administration, is also reportedly furious about Fontaine's letter. However the former Secretary-General at the Council of Ministers is saying nothing publicly: "This is better left as a matter inside the Parliament," he told European Voice. "It would not be helpful for me to comment."

MEPs have accused their president Nicole Fontaine of cowardice after backtracking on a commitment to radical reform of the European institutions' staff pay structure.