Kinnock fine tunes his blueprint for internal reform

Date: 02/03/2000

By Simon Taylor

THE European Commission spelled out this week how its strategy for reforming the institution would complement Romano Prodi's drive to ensure 'good governance ' in the EU.

But the proposals outlined by Commission Vice-President Neil Kinnock in his White Paper on reform have once again run into opposition from the staff unions, which welcomed many of the changes made to his blueprint but criticised his plan to create a new career structure for officials.

The White Paper sets out a programme for a "fundamental review of working practices, the programming of activities and the management of human and financial resources". This will allow the EU executive to ensure that it is making optimum use of its resources so it can focus on its 'core tasks' of "policy conception, political initiative and enforcing Community law" in line with the strategy laid down by the Prodi Commission.

"Nowadays, almost half of the Commission's officials are fully occupied in executive tasks, notably in managing programmes and projects and directly controlling the latter. This is not an efficient use of scarce resources. More importantly, it detracts from the Commission's role as defined in the treaties and the Prodi Commission's five-year priorities," states the paper.

The document makes it clear that several thousand staff could be moved to new jobs as the Commission focuses on performing those tasks which genuinely need to be carried out at Union level. It says resources will "need to be reallocated on an unprecendented scale", adding that if extra funding or staff are required, Kinnock will seek them from EU governments and the European Parliament. It also warns that the Commission will refuse new tasks if they are not properly resourced.

The paper states that the Commission will complete a comprehensive assessment of its current activities by September 2000.

It will then be able to "assess accurately" whether its resources are commensurate with its tasks" and, if not, "face up to the choices honestly".

Kinnock's paper closely mirrors the consultation document published at the end of January, but attempts to allay staff concerns about some of the proposals by offering key concessions in some areas and clarifing the strategy in others. It also praises officials' contribution to the consultation process, saying staff comments have led to "significant modifications in the proposed approach". But the initial response from the staff unions to the White Paper suggest that officials' concerns that Kinnock's plans might erode their pay and conditions have not been entirely laid to rest.

Ludwig Schubert, head of the biggest staff organisation Union Syndicale, warned that plans for a more merit-based career structure could be very hard to implement, even though officials support the idea in principle, because they risked creating a surfeit of people eligible for the institution's top jobs. "The document gives different options but we need to examine them in detail because they are not very clear," he added.

Kinnock is planning to scrap the existing system of four rigid categories of staff based on officials' functions which make it very difficult for high-performing staff to gain rapid promotion. He wants instead to introduce a more open scheme where promotion is based more on individual merit and less on long-service.

Despite their reservations about this part of the plan, the unions were generally supportive of the latest blueprint. "They have taken account of a lot of things," said Schubert.

The European Commission spelled out this week how its strategy for reforming the institution would complement Romano Prodi's drive to ensure 'good governance' in the EU. But the proposals outlined by Commission Vice-President Neil Kinnock in his White Paper on reform have once again run into opposition from the staff unions, which welcomed many of the changes made to his blueprint but criticised his plan to create a new career structure for officials.