Kinnock plans tougher disciplinary rules

Date: 23/11/00

By Simon Taylor

EUROPEAN Commission officials accused of commiting fraud or breaking other staff rules could be suspended for up to six months and have their pay and pensions cut under new disciplinary regulations being drawn up by Vice-President Neil Kinnock.

The proposals, aimed at enabling the Commission to take more effective action against staff suspected of wrong-doing, would allow the executive to suspend officials facing prosecution in national courts for up to year and cut their salaries to a bare minimum. Their pension rights could also be reduced. At the moment, the Commission can only suspend officials accused of breaking staff rules for four months and cut their pay to 50% of normal rates.

Kinnock is also planning changes designed to reduce by half the time it takes to reach decisions on whether to punish officials. "The current system takes too long. It is not professional enough and there is not enough consistency in judgements," said one official.

It currently takes up to 18 months from the moment the Commission launches an investigation into alleged wrong-doing for a decision to be reached on whether to punish guilty officials.

Investigations to gather evidence - which are carried out by a committee created for the purpose and made up of other officials of the same grade as the person accused - can take up to a year.

If the committee finds grounds for disciplinary action, the decision on what, if any, punishment to impose is taken by another ad hoc disciplinary board made up of officials.

In an attempt to improve the quality of investigations and rulings, which are often challenged in the European Court of Justice, Kinnock will call next week for the creation of a permanent investigation and disciplinary committee, a permanent staff disciplinary board for most officials and a semi-permanent one for top civil servants.

But plans to appoint someone from outside the Commission to chair the four-man disciplinary board have been attacked by the staff unions, which claim it would deny officials the fundamental right to be tried by their peers and insist there is no need to change the disciplinary rules. "Things are going very well as they are. If the Commission wants to conduct its investigations in a better way, it can do that without making a change to the staff regulations," said Loek Rijnhoudt, president of the European Public Service Federation (FFPE).

But Kinnock's aides argue that bringing in an outsider would not undermine the principle that officials accused of wrong-doing are judged by colleagues of the same grade. They say the board's president would only be there to ensure that rules and procedures were being properly followed and could only vote on whether to punish an individual if the other committee members were divided.

European Commission officials accused of committing fraud or breaking other staff rules could be suspended for up to six months and have their pay and pensions cut under new disciplinary regulations being drawn up by Vice-President Neil Kinnock.