The entente cordiale put under strain

Date: 26/10/1995

Relations between those strange bedfellows, the Economic and Social Committee (ECOSOC) and the Committee of the Regions (CoR), are not improving.

The way the CoR recruited eight of its temporary staff into full-time posts over the heads of ECOSOC candidates has already been reported by Entre Nous. ECOSOC staff have retaliated by launching a work-to-rule amongst officials handling translations and publications.

Now ECOSOC financial staff have joined in, delaying payments to CoR members for their travel costs and subsistence allowances - sums which can easily reach £1,000 a week.

For their part, CoR staff are complaining about the aggressive tactics being used by their ECOSOC counterparts.

In the opinion of one insider, the dispute is a breath of fresh air. “We're getting more publicity because of this dispute than either organisation has ever generated,” he said. Now that's what you call positive thinking.