Staff unions oppose plan to abolish age limits

Date: 18/12/1997

By Rory Watson

THE European Commission's plan to abolish the age limits currently imposed on potential new recruits to the institution has run into opposition from staff unions.

The unions say they have no "fundamental objection" to the move, but insist that it has not been properly thought through.

However, Personnel Commissioner Erkki Liikanen is determined to push through the reform and is expected to win the support of his colleagues by mid-January. This would pave the way later in the year for the first EU-wide open competition for junior administrative grade staff not subject to the normal 35-year cut-off point.

The European Parliament has already taken the first steps to open up its own recruitment procedures by raising its age limits to 45 years for a two-year trial period. But, if Liikanen's plan is endorsed, the Commission's action would go considerably further, with other EU institutions likely to follow suit.

Liikanen believes that, as the guardian of the EU treaties, the Commission must change its approach in the light of the Amsterdam Treaty, which calls on the EU to take "appropriate action" to combat all forms of discrimination and mentions age specifically. The age limits are also being investigated by the European Ombudsman.

But Liikanen has so far failed to win over the staff unions, who were presented with details of the plan last week.

"We have no fundamental objection to raising age limits, but we believe that before doing so the potential consequences on the careers of officials in the institutions and the medical and pension implications should be carefully examined. We do not think it has been really thought through," said one union official.

Supporters of the change believe it would enable the institutions to recruit a wider range of experienced people and could make it easier for women, in particular, who have taken a career break for several years to raise a family, to return to work.

They also stress, however, that if the age barrier is to be removed completely, then eligibility for open competitions should not be directly linked to the receipt of a university diploma no more than two or three years earlier, except for the lowest administrative grade.

But critics challenge the assumption that changing the existing arrangements would help the Commission recruit more women to its ranks. They point out that it is only at the lowest 'A8' level that women currently outnumber men and maintain that, in general, women tend to be less geographically mobile than men.

Abolishing age limits would have one immediate and very significant consequence: there would be a potentially huge increase in the number of people sitting any open competition with all the administrative headaches that would entail.

The last A7/8 concours five years ago attracted 55,000 applicants from across the Union - a figure almost certain to be dwarfed by its successor next spring.