R&D survey on JSIS (Cassa Malattia): follow-up
Court Case Correction Coefficient 2010
In spite of all the efforts we did to straighten out the distorted 2010 correction coefficient, the Civil Service Tribunal rejected our appeal.
We will study carefully the long sentence with our lawyers, will assess what steps can be taken and we will come back to you shortly with more detailed information.
Note that the similar case F-112/11 (Dalmasso) on the same subject is also rejected.
Parliament pushes for change to the MFF
The vote of last Wednesday does not imply that the whole MFF negotiations will have to start from scratch, it was only an intermediate step in the co-decision procedure. The Parliament will give or refuse its consent on the MFF in July 2013.
With the vote of last Wednesday, the Parliament expressed its concern about the following main points:
- a lack of transparency and respect of the EP role during the negotiations of February
- the need for flexibility in the budget between different items of expenditure
- the need for a mid-term review of the MFF, after the establishment of the new Commission and EP
- no roll-over of 2013 unpaid bills into the new MFF
The EP is clearly showing to the Council that its increased power given by the Treaty of Lisbon has to be taken into account. The fact that the EP is counterbalancing the Council is positive for the defense of the European project and the public service that makes it possible!
In this context the reform of the staff regulation is not expected to enter into force before Jan 2014 at least.
For more information on the vote of Wednesday we invite you to have a look at the Parliament press relase and the Commission press release.
We remind that you can find more information on the MFF and the reform on the R&D website.
Latest update on the reform
In order to find the extra 1.5 Billion saving, the Commission proposes to freeze the salaries and pensions of all the staff employed in the EU Institutions, agencies and other bodies over the next 2 years (2013 and 2014). This means that the provision of the method that expired on 31 December 2012 to align the evolution of EU staff remuneration and pensions to that of national civil servants will not be applied for 2 years, even when the method will be reinstated following the reform.
The exact amount of purchasing power loss will depend on the combination of inflation and the evolution of national civil servants salaries during the next two years, but we expect that it will roughly correspond to one echelon. The effects of this salary freeze will be felt even after the 2 year period and when one enters retirement. We are following this point very closely but it seems that there is little that can be done to counter this perspective, the pressure of the Council on this aspect is very intense and in any case 1.5 Billion must be found within the administrative spending. During this freeze period, it is probable that the correction coefficient will be updated annually as usual.Another proposed measure is much more controversial: the negotiations in their current state foresee the introduction of a new 6% “crisis levy” in parallel with the salary freeze. We can’t accept this levy in the absence of method or if the reinstated method substantially diverges from the old one. As negotiated during the last reform of 2004, the levy was introduced in exchange for a stable and well defined method: one goes with the other. Our position is that during any salary and pension freeze, no levy can be applied. DG HR was receptive to this argumentation and will take it into account when negotiating with the Council. One point anyway seems clear: the levy cannot be retroactively applied. We will not have to pay back what we should pay now were the solidarity not having expired at the end 2012.
But there is even more!
The way the February Council conclusions are written is open to interpretation. Several members of the Council Status Working Group (with Austria as forerunner) wish to introduce in the new method after the 2 years freeze period a limitation in the salary evolution, until 2020 at least. It comprises a “dynamic cap” that consists in deducting 0.5 % from every annual salary adjustment, even if it results in a negative adjustment; and a “static cap” that limits any future positive annual salary adjustment to max. 2%.The Commission does not agree with this proposal that is not in line with the Council summit conclusions.
Since the Council summit, the Commission (DG HR) has met several times with the Council Status Working Group but discussions are difficult and the two parties don’t agree on how to implement the reform. Furthermore, the Status Working Group has no single common opinion and some of its members have a rather extreme position. The Commission requested to negotiate from now on at the COREPER level (the ambassadors of the Member States) and hopes that they will have a more realistic and reasonable approach.
The European Parliament will give its green or red light on the MFF proposal in June/early July. If the Parliament gives it OK, a trilogue will take place (Council-Commission-Parliament) to discuss the way forward to implement the MFF budget reduction, and it is thought that the Parliament will strengthen the Commission position against the Council.
To conclude, the negotiations on the reform are still in a very early stage and somewhat chaotic. Having reached an agreement for the MFF does not mean that everything is now clarified. A 2-year salaries and pension freeze seems unavoidable, but several Member States still want to attack the European public service even more.
In any case the reform won't entry into force before January 2014.
We must be very careful to defend our rights, and we need your continuing support!
R&D is here to defend your rights!
JSIS Online - Survey
As you may have already read last week,
the PMO has launched the new application "JSIS-online" through which
you'll be able to check the status of your claims for reimbursement and consult
your files (see broadcast sent on 25/02).
We really welcome this initiative and hope the problems
encountered by some of you will be solved soon. Nevertheless, we would like to
have your feedback regarding the new IT tool as well as any issues you may have
(or had) with the Joint Sickness Insurance Scheme. Please let us know if you
have undergone any kind of problem, such as for example late reimbursement,
refusals, prior authorisations, extremely penalising application of the new
parity coefficients, etc: please fill in the short anonymous
survey form at this address. We also want to hear from you if you
are happy with the service provided, in order that we can get a complete
picture - we really hope that all of our members will spend a couple of minutes
on this short survey. The deadline to respond is 15/3, and we plan to follow up
with a R&D Café to discuss the situation.
Further to the general information we are collecting in the
survey, we are of course happy to give you our support with any specific issues
you may have: please feel free to pass by at the Secretariat or to make an
appointment with our R&D colleagues if you wish. Your privacy will be
safeguarded at all times.
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