Promoting JRC Scientific Excellence – some case studies
Promoting JRC Scientific Excellence - some case studies
On 23 November 2020 R&D sent our Director General, Mr Quest, a note with some comments and questions on three topics that we believe are of fundamental importance for the JRC.
Dear Mr Quest,
Firstly we wish to congratulate
the JRC management for its overall good handling of the difficult ongoing
coronavirus crisis. While urgent, we don’t wish that this distracts us from
other important topics of importance to the JRC.
We observe that the JRC sometimes takes impromptu decisions without sufficient consultation with the staff who find their work subsequently affected. A lack of supporting evidence leads to tensions which could have been avoided - especially unfortunate when aspects of the changes do have some merits and considering that our work at the JRC is precisely to provide evidence-based policy support.
We wish look more closely at decisions surrounding these three topics:
- JRC Editorial Review Board
- JRC's role in indirect actions under Horizon Europe
- Knowledge Management
UPDATE 17/12/2020
REPLY RECEIVED FROM MR QUEST, GENERAL DIRECTOR JRC, TO THE ABOVE NOTE
CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC - “Good for the citizens, good for the Institutions”
Brussels, 23 November 2020
CORONAVIRUS
PANDEMIC
Communication n°7:
“Good
for the citizens, good for the Institutions”
R&D appreciates the deal reached with the
EP and
now calls to go an extra mile to finally seal the package
Dear President von der Leyen,
dear President Sassoli, dear President Michel,
In our six previous
communications (link), R&D federal , the largest Trade Union representing the staff of the EU Institutions,
Executive and Decentralised Agencies and other EU Bodies, analysed -via its taskforce of economists- the
tragic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and called upon all involved
stakeholders to reach swiftly an agreement entailing both an increased
envelope and innovative and unprecedented investment tools.
We once again would like to thank sincerely the
hundreds of colleagues who constantly show us their full support and encourage
us not to let anything go in this important combat both for the citizens in
every corner of the Union and the credibility of the Institutions at large.
Like so, R&D federal therefore warmly welcomes the agreement reached with
the European Parliament last week on an increased MFF.
The deal, we believe, not only shows your leadership
in favouring such a result but it is a good compromise between the Council’s
July package and the initial requests of the European Parliament’s budget
Committee, which had asked for an increase of €39 billion.
Moreover, the good news comes during a week where the
results of various phase-3 vaccine trials have been disclosed: it has also been
thanks to the massive European Commission’s efforts to secure a sufficient
number of jabs that we can now finally say that there is some light at the end of the tunnel.
On the one hand, we want to celebrate the “health package” adopted by
the Commission consisting of a set of proposals to strengthen the EU's
health security framework and to reinforce the crisis preparedness and response
role of the relevant EU agencies: the European Centre for Disease Prevention
and Control (ECDC) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
As we’ve already stressed in our previous communications, it is crucial
to draw lessons from the current crisis, analysing what has been done and what
can be improved.
We fully support President von der Leyen's commitment
to better protect the health of all European citizens underling that “The coronavirus pandemic has
highlighted the need for more coordination in the EU, more resilient health
systems, and better preparation for future crises….Today, we start building a
European Health Union, to protect citizens with high quality care in a crisis,
and equip the Union and its Member States to prevent and manage health
emergencies that affect the whole of Europe."
We cannot agree
more because that's exactly what we had requested in our previous
communications, and we can guarantee that our staff is fully committed to work
hard more than ever to support this project!
On the other hand, there is no denying that with € 16
billion more compared to the initial amount, both the next MFF and NextGeneratioEU are much better
equipped to meet the many challenges in the years ahead.
In particular, Horizon Europe (with a final endowment
above the initial European Commission’s proposal of 2018), EU4Health (which has tripled) and Erasmus+
(whose increase equals to one year of program as such) show us clearly that
innovation (in all its multidimensional uses and implications, environment
included), health and culture will be key in building up the bright future of
the post pandemic world.
That being said, we cannot help notice that the
agreement is not yet adopted.
Though we do not wish to enter in
political debates, R&D federal considers that amid the worst economic and health
crisis of the last 100 years, nobody can support to delay any longer the final adoption of measures
which could help millions of citizens and SMEs in the 27 Member States.
Therefore, R&D federal :
· Call on you to work tirelessly to make
possible the adoption of the package avoiding, once for all, cheap theater
tricks;
· Ask you to adopt any possible measure
insuring that EU budget is well spent, reaching people who most need it;
· Ask you to open up a reflection (once
the bulk of the crisis is behind us), on how to improve the decision-making
mechanisms of the European Institutions to avoid having to postpone decisions
on requests of millions of citizens across the EU
On behalf of R&D FEDERAL
Cristiano
Sebastiani, R&D Commission, Executive and
Decentralised agencies, other EU bodies
Beatrice Postiglione, R&D Council
Pasquale Ciuffreda, R&D European Parliament
Oren Wolff, R&D EEAS
Dimitrios
Katsanidis, R&D CoR and EESC
The reform of the Junior Professional Programme "Eppure si muove " (and yet it moves)
Brussels, 10 November 2020
The reform of the Junior Professional Programme
"Eppure si muove " (and yet it moves)Recall
of facts
First, let us recall all the
communications and other R&D initiatives denouncing the unacceptable
and heinous nature of this programme, as well as the intolerable
discrimination it has created, in particular towards our CA, AST, and AST-SC
colleagues ( our communications )
In particular, we denounced that this
programme, aka "friends first", was the triumph of the fait du prince
(or princess), and the open door to nepotism and favouritism!
Despite all our
warnings, DG HR continued to move forward for two years!
All our criticisms
and all our requests have been rejected and almost ridiculed by DG HR with an
inquisitive, haughty and contemptuous tone
In particular, by
having recourse to pseudo-legal arguments, the administration claimed
that our requests aimed at allowing all colleagues meeting the eligibility
conditions to enrol in this programme, without prejudice to the nature of their
contract, were outright inadmissible.
In response to
these unreasonable DG HR’s proclamations, we refused to recant our claims, we confirmed all our criticisms and
our legal analyses.
The changes all of
a sudden introduced by DG HR to the JPP
Now, all of a sudden DG HR is proposing a new generation of
the programme ... recognizing the merits of the criticisms made by R&D, after probably realizing, without a
shadow of a doubt, that maintaining the current approach was simply
indefensible.
Faithful to its
highly selective approach aimed at enhancing and amplifying opinions which go
in the desired direction and simply ignore those which do not correspond to its
priorities, DG HR has just published a communication announcing these changes,
specifying that they aim to respond to requests from staff and their
representatives…. which would have been, for once… and after two years and five
exercises, finally heard!
In particular, as
we have constantly requested, the JPP will henceforth be open to officials and
to temporary staff in Categories AST and AST-SC, as well as to ALL fellow
contract agents, both for function groups I, II, III than IV.
However, the condition remains of having
a university degree and meeting the other selection criteria, in particular the
maximum duration of 3 years of professional experience.
Candidates will have to pass the CBTs in
order to be shortlisted by the DGs.
This is still an umpteenth pilot
exercise and a consultation process will be organized to address, before the
launch of the 2021 exercise, all the other aspects that remain unchanged at
this stage concerning in particular the length of the professional experience
required. , the number of candidates…
And DG HR must also explain how
they want to duly compensate colleagues who were ineligible at the time under
the old selection criteria and who are now ineligible again because they have
exceeded the maximum duration of professional experience!
Regarding the
communication from DG HR ( lien ), we could note, echoing the responses
of colleagues, that:
1) we are still waiting for the
necessary reforms of the EPSO selection procedures, which are nevertheless the
real deep root of the recruitment problems;
2) in the consultation with DG
HR, a proposal entitled "Keep the Junior Professionals Programme"
was the one that obtained the worst score among colleagues, coming down to -640
votes;
3) DG HR is the big winner of the
competition ““making decisions while consultations with staff related to
the“ modernization ”of Human Resources” are still ongoing” ;
4) social dialogue in the new DG
HR’s style now seems to be a painful chore that they need to get rid of as much
as possible: it is better to limit ourselves to a simple communication sent a
few hours before the official announcement;
5) we take care of that poor and
unfortunate DG HR’s colleagues who are thus entitled to announce exactly the opposite
of what they had so proudly indicated so far and, as if that were not painful
enough, they must also getting the heated criticism of staff representation
about the lack of any real social dialogue;
6) aware of their sincere
embarrassment, we propose to grant these colleagues an allowance for such
strenuous work!
7) the candidates’ selection
procedure remains absolutely unacceptable and should have been corrected
without delay since it lacks all the necessary guarantees of transparency and
equitable treatment, and also because of the least parity-based dimension,
under which the staff representatives are relegated to the role of simple observers;
8) It is still unacceptable that
our colleagues in the Executive Agencies continue to be excluded;
9) these changes will not be
enough to stem the criticism relating to access to AD civil servant posts
under conditions which are not even comparable with those of an open
competition and which candidates for these competitions, including colleagues
excluded from the JPP because of the eligibility criteria with regard in
particular to the maximum duration of professional experience, will see their
chances further reduced due to the quota of posts allocated to the JPP;
10) despite these changes, this programme risks
remaining one of the primary sources of demotivation for many colleagues.
But, in spite of
all this…, let us rejoice that our administration finally begins to recognize
the merits of our criticisms that, without in any way refusing to recant our claims we had always confirmed by repeating… “And
yet it moves” !
And we must recognize that this is a
significant change as compared to the "change - a real masquerade" -
concocted in the past by the DG HR by “moving” from the "Junior
professional" to the "Junior programme" ... namely the triumph
of "changing everything so that everything stays the same".
True to our ever-constructive spirit, we
remain hopeful that within the framework of the next "social monologue"
that DG HR announces in this
regard for the next exercise, it will be possible to correct the remainder of the
subsisting critical aspects.
Thus, we remain online, in front of our PCs, awaiting a convocation, in 2021, of course… a few hours before the launch of the next exercise.
Cristiano Sebastiani,
President
|
Our Programme 2018-2021 |
|
|
Our Actions |
|
|
11/7/2018 |
Junior Programme—Model of complaint
|
|
4/7/2018 |
Note from to the Alliance to the
attention of Mr OETTINGER Commissioner in charge of Budget and Human
Resources
|
|
18/6/2018 |
|
|
11/6/2018 |
“young – Junior professionals”
programme a scandalous approach! |
|
8/3/2017 |
|
CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC - R&D salutes the Hamiltonian emission of the SURE Bonds and calls the European Commission to support the European Parliament in increasing the next MFF
Brussels, 4 November 2020
CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC
R&D salutes the Hamiltonian emission of the
SURE Bonds and
calls the
European Commission to support
the
European Parliament in increasing the next MFF
Dear Commissioner Hahn,
In our five previous communications (link), R&D federal, the largest Trade Union representing the staff of the
EU Institutions, Executive and Decentralised Agencies and other EU Bodies, has called upon the President and the College to go
against the grain and put on the table effective proposals to fight the recession.
We once again would like to thank sincerely the
hundreds of colleagues who constantly show us their full support and encourage
us to tirelessly monitor to what extent the various European Institutions live
up to the expectations of millions of citizens in every corner of the Union.
Along these lines, R&D federal therefore salutes the Hamiltonian emission of
the SURE bonds that will keep
hundreds of thousands of people in work via topping up various furlough
national schemes.
Looking back at the pre-pandemic world, such a
historic step would have been unimaginable both technically and politically.
Once again, though, the EU has cleared the cards by
both showing resilience against any prediction and indicating that it is
precisely when threatened by an existential threat that it can perform at its
best.
By registering at a subscription rate 13 times
higher than its demand when launched last week, the social bonds have, in
particular, demonstrated three things.
Firstly, they have showed the appeal and the solidity
of the European block as a whole, the multi-annual yields offered to investors
being a clear sign of this.
Secondly, they have paved the way both for the NextGenerationEU
emissions and, possibly, for even more innovative macroeconomic tools to be
launched in the future, as our economists taskforce has since the beginning of
the COVID-19 pandemic pledged for.
Lastly, they have demonstrated the incredible
adaptability of our staff. That same staff, whom you recently thanked in a
series of video messages on the Intranet and showed your appreciation for,
and who juggles since months between Teams meetings, home schooling and strict
sanitary measures.
We believe this is the right way staff should be
addressed and supported.
We would hence like to thank you
for that and sincerely trust this approach will be consequential to invest in
the European Institutions most hidden gem: its people.
Danger escaped? Not
quite…
Regardless of these rays of light, R&D federal remains realistic and still believes that – unlike the proclamations of
many politicians- that the worst is, unfortunately, yet to come.
The skyrocketing infection rate all around the Europe
in these very days and the concrete prospect of an imminent – and generalised –
harsh lockdown risk to leave even deeper scarves and wounds that the first
lockdown.
In this respect, it is understood that the stall in
the negotiations for the adoption of the next MFF is even more inexplicable in
the eyes of the citizens, who need immediate answers to their daily issues
and are tired of the old Brussels’ political drama.
Since weeks now, the big three (EC, EP and the
Council) are, indeed, fighting on a € 39 billion increase across various
headings of the next MFF (a rather marginal adjustment over a 7-year period in
a Union of 27 member states!) with the serious and concrete risk to enter a
provisional exercise.
We are quite sure you and the College appreciate that,
the more time it passes, the less effective the approved package risks to be in
its countercyclical effects.
We are conscious that with so many involved parties it
is rather hard to find a compromise and that no involved stakeholder possess a
magic wand.
Yet, we fear that the longer we wait the easier the
tipping point will be reached.
It is indeed imperative that the positive change in
the EU’s public opinion, which followed the lengthy approval of last summer
package, is not thrown away and that we speed up on this credibility capital.
The European Institutions, whose staff works on many
different strands (from a vaccine to promoting intra-EU solidarity and
coordinated EU responses, from medical equipment procurement to border
controls, from helping SMEs to saving the tourism industry), need now to
provide immediate economic relief.
That is even more necessary since
the unemployment schemes in some Member States do not last much.
This is why, R&D federal is:
· Calling on you and the College to work
tirelessly to find as soon as possible an ambitious outcome to the current
Trilogue negotiations in view of a substantially increased budgetary envelope;
· Calling on you and the College to keep
on investing on the European Institutions staff who has proved to be able to
deliver meaningful results in very challenging circumstances;
On behalf of R&D FEDERAL
Cristiano
Sebastiani, R&D Commission, Executive and
Decentralised agencies, other EU bodies
Beatrice Postiglione, R&D Council
Pasquale Ciuffreda, R&D European Parliament
Oren Wolff, R&D EEAS
Dimitrios
Katsanidis, R&D CoR and EESC
1: Hamiltonian – From Alexander
Hamilton, Founding Father of the US who fought to increase the Federal power by
co pleting the monetary union under George Washington Presidency.
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