Brussels, 2 October 2020 

Note for the attention of Mr Johannes Hahn

Commissioner in charge of Human Resources and Budget 

Suject : COVID-19 health crisis

We would like to begin by thanking you sincerely and personally for your decision, taking due account of the evolution of the pandemic, to postpone the transition to Phase 2 which the administration had previou­sly announced a little hastily.

Thank you for making staff health a top priority

R&D welcomes your choices and thanks you for having, from the start of the pandemic, placed the health of staff as a top priority, favouring the approach of a safe working environment.

From the start of the pandemic, the staff of the institutions, mostly expatriates and often assigned far from their fami­lies, have often been prevented from moving freely within the Union, or even in certain cases of force majeure, as­signed to quarantine elsewhere than at their place of employment. R&D asks you to keep paying particular atten­tion to these situations, quite far from being deemed exceptional after so many months of health crisis and uncertain­ty. In this regard, we support with the greatest conviction the approach of the Central Staff Committee aimed at de­nouncing the profound differences in practices within the services with regard to the respect of instructions on tele­working abroad.

A staff of which our institution should be proud!

Indeed, while the health situation remains very worrying - even deteriorating - in a certain number of countries and regions and in particular in Brussels, the staff of the Institution, and their families, have been showing resilience and great ability to adapt to an uncertain situation.

In carrying out their duties, the staff has also - as on par with our President you have never failed to recognize it - demonstrated flexibility and a remarkable sense of responsibility by immediately acclimatising to the new working methods made essential by the context; this took place without weakening efficiency or motivation, and as a result, the overriding interest of our institution was preserved.

Overnight, the staff adapted and responded to the new requirements, anticipating the Green Deal and the digitalisa­tion of the Institution. In this regard, we would like to salute the professionalism of the technical and IT teams who have managed to swiftly  implement the radical changes to our working environment.

R&D supports with conviction the reform you advocate towards a new “culture of trust”

As you rightly pointed out, it is now important that management also evolves and moves from a “culture of control” to a “culture of trust”.

However, it is not enough to simply embrace this reform and announce it through frantic communication efforts, cur­rently being deployed within the framework of the exercise aiming at the "modernization" of the human resources policy of our institution.

Staff requests: "facta non verba"

To build and consolidate trust, all these good intentions have to be followed by action, regardless of the Ins­titution, Directorate-General, Agency or Office employing Institutions’ servants.

Unfortunately, we regret to notice that DG HR still does not seem capable of ensuring the essential consistency to the rules implemented by the many services of our institution, in allowing decisions at the most decentralized level because of the supposition that “staff and special situations are better known" at this level.

The result is a diverging application of the instructions in force, which is completely unacceptable when it comes to protecting the health of our colleagues.

Managers up to their missions ...

The vast majority of managers have been exemplary in managing this crisis by showing empathy and the utmost concern for their staff thereby building a climate of trust that will forever be remembered.

Others are definitely not ...

Others, unfortunately, in the absence of a real mastery at the central level, feel entitled to engage in personal and restrictive interpretations of the instructions in force and unnecessarily make the working conditions even more diffi­cult for colleagues under their responsibility.

The obsession with "face-to-face at all costs"

Excessive zeal going as far as the real permanent policing of teleworkers, pressing invitations to return to the office in anyway, even raising doubts as to the potential consequences on the annual evaluation and promotion exercise, criticisms and the openly displayed disappointment about your decision to delay the transition to phase 2… are all excessive or even offensive behaviours which only increase the already palpable anxiety among our most vulnerable colleagues.

Regarding the return to the office, it is not a question of preventing colleagues who in the greatest respect for the instructions in force wish to do so, but simply of preventing unacceptable pressures, or even ou­tright blackmail, from being exerted on the others who comply with the instructions in force.

The so-called "essential" missions

The same is true for the planning of the so-called "essential" missions that certain services are preparing to impose on colleagues with travels, including in countries heavily affected by the pandemic, currently perceiving from DG HR a relaxation of instructions in this regard.

In this regard, it is not reasonable, as DG HR envisages, to hand over to each line manager the responsibility of eva­luating, before sending colleagues on mission, "that the interest of the mission outweighs the risks to the personnel concerned ”, what is even more unacceptable when it comes to sending vulnerable personnel on mission.

While it is normal for each line manager to be called upon to assess the appropriateness of a mission, it is not ac­ceptable that the balance with the health risks of the mission managers is thus decentralized to the lowest level, in the absence of any mastery at the central level and entrusted to colleagues without any competence in the matter in allowing them to assess such risks.

These decisions must be taken with all the more caution as, by invoking the rules imposed very recently by Belgium concerning essential professional activities, colleagues returning from an "essential" mission of less than 48 hours, even in a country in the red zone are not subject to testing or quarantine. Far from being a matter of an allegedly reassuring "ease", these exemptions are invoked to impose an immediate return to the office and, on the contrary, risk plunging the staff going on mission into a state of fear not only about their health but also concerning the risk that on their return they could infect their family and their colleagues.

Once again, this is not to deny that, in exceptional cases, missions, despite the pandemic, may prove to be essential for our Institution to perform its tasks up to the expectations of our fellow citizens.

It is above all a matter of ensuring very strict and centralized control over the decision to consider a mission as ”essential", again avoiding any overzealousness and personal interpretation in this regard. And it is not enough to stress that such drifts would constitute an exception in all cases. When it comes to the health of colleagues, even a single abuse is utterly intolerable.

It is important that within our Institution everyone without exception accepts the reform in the management culture based on trust, advocated by yourself and which we support with conviction.

This concerns above all managers who still remain faithful to the painful authoritarian vision of their role based on mistrust, by constantly fuelling a climate of fear.

Faced with the pandemic and with the major uncertainty that remains on the evolution of the situation in the weeks and months to come, the change in culture must, more than ever, be real and the Institution's duty of care towards its staff must be reflected in reality, in all cases, at all times and within all departments.

In this regard, while being aware of the current strong pressure on the demand for vaccines of this type, we appeal to you so that our Institution sets up, this year, a vaccination campaign against seasonal influenza likely to respond to the request of our colleagues.

Faithful to its mission of always being at the side and at the service of staff, R&D will not fail to bring to your attention any difficulty that our colleagues may report to us.

Cristiano Sebastiani,

President

Copy:

Ms. G. Ingestad, Director-General of DG HR

M. C. Roques, Director of Directorate HR/D

Mr. E. Sakkers, Head of Unit HR/E.1

The staff

 TRAINING FOR EPSO OPEN COMPETITION

For the preparation of the open competition EPSO AST-SC/10/20 SECRETARIES (SC 1/SC 2) R&D and its team of highly qualified trainers will offer a preparatory training session in English.

The session will focus on the pre-selection tests  - PROFESSIONAL  SKILLS

 Please find the details below:

Date	Time	Topics	Trainer	Location
20.10.2020	17:30 – 19:00	·         Accuracy & Precision ·         Prioritising & Organising	Frédéric Maillet	Webinar

 TO REGISTER…

We invite you to register for the training session by sending an e-mail to :

JRC-RD-ISPRA@ec.europa.eu -  by 12.10.2020 noon.

Our trainings are FREE for R&D members and those who wish to join us.

If you are not yet a member and wish to benefit from our trainings and other services, we will be glad to welcome you. Join our Union, Become a Member

All registered participants will receive a confirmation and details to access the webinar!

Questions or comments?  Don't hesitate to contact us via e-mail at JRC-RD-ISPRA@ec.europa.eu or call our office : Ext. 9645 (Monday to Friday 9:00 - 13:00) 

Your R&D Team

    

EUROPEAN COMMISSION    
JOINT RESEARCH CENTRE

The Director-General

                                                                                    

 

Brussels, 19/08/2020
JRC/SQ

Dear Mr Tirendi, dear Mr Kenny,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts about the upcoming launch of the JRC Editorial Review Board.

When I was first briefed about the introduction of a clear editorial review policy in the JRC with the newly created editorial board, I felt that my predecessors had taken an important and well thought through initiative. As a result, we now have an authorisation process with all steps necessary to be able to take full responsibility, as an organisation, for the science and knowledge that we produce. That is a professional approach appropriate for a Commission service. 

My predecessor reacted to most of your questions in an earlier letter and I fully agree with her arguments. The editorial review streamlines the JRC’s publication procedure for scientific manuscripts. It is a tailor-made process, well-documented, transparent with the same criteria across the whole organisation and the shortest possible delay.

That said, I understand that some concerns persist as regards issues have been raised in the past, for instance during the JRC Scientific Integrity Road Show in 2018/2019.We are therefore going to make an additional effort to clarify all questions raised through the planned communication campaign, so as to ensure that the finer points of the editorial review are fully understood by everyone.

From September, the Editorial Board - Koen Jonkers and his team - will continue with a series of meetings with directorates and units where they will discuss the details of the new process. They have already launched their website on Connected, which also deals with frequently asked questions, such as for example the review for articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Our objective remains for the editorial review to start immediately after the September campaign. We believe that it has been designed in a way to fit well with our work, but will of course keep it under careful review in the initial phase. We will also ensure that the process is evaluated in due course, so as to assess its performance, costs, benefits and any potential adjustment needs.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen QUEST

c.c.: B. Magenhann, D. Al Khudhairy, M. Landabaso Alvarez, P. Szymanski, G. De Santi, D. Chirondojan, G. Van den Eede, M. Betti, P. Duponteil, K. Maruszewski, X. Troussard.

 

NOTE SENT BY R&D TO MR QUEST, DG JRC ON 29/07/2020 - JERB - NUTCRACKER OR SLEDGEHAMMER?

Subject: A vision for the future of the Ispra site
Reference: Ares(2020)3730594
understand that similar issues have already been raised by you with the previous College, and
take good note of the fact that you are now reverting to this matter in the new context of the
I will not repeat the positions already expressed on this matter by former Commissioners
Oettinger and Navracsics and former Vice-President Georgieva. Suffice it to say that the JRC is
generally considered to have achieved major progress in recent years in positioning itself as
strategic partner of the Commission and its policymaking. It has also built up its site
management services to a high level of expertise and professionalism. Having said that, I also
We are currently very much focused on the preparation of the JRC Work Programme under the
next MFF and, as you know, the negotiation of the specific sectoral programmes (including
Horizon and Euratom), and the available budgets, have yet to be finalised. We are also still
That said, I hope we will be able to find the time to meet and further exchange ideas when the
circumstances improve later on this year and I finally get the opportunity to travel to the Ispra

Some flaws but many virtues of one of the best administrations in the world: the EU
Interview of "IL Riformista" to Cristiano Sebastiani, President of R&D Brussels.

Read full article (Italian version only)

Ispra, 13^th July 2020
 
 
Dear Mr Quest,
Preparedness and robust organisational structures have emerged as important assets in times of crisis. Indeed the coronavirus outbreak demonstrated that organisations and governments which had greater flexibility and shorter communication chains proved to be more resilient. This is undoubtedly the case for the JRC!
R&D Ispra anticipated much of this several years ago when we looked to the future and posed questions about the organisational and operational challenges we face as the Science arm of the Commission (see Annex for further details). What was true then is even more valid today - a more streamlined JRC and a stronger Ispra site are an asset for all.
Ispra hosts the third largest Commission site, and this is our vision for its future:
   
1. Free the JRC to focus on its role to underpin and enhance policy-making through high quality science delivering data, knowledge and options for action. Science services go beyond mere explorative research, and routine tasks not compatible with the JRC strategy can be entrusted to the direct control of policy DGs, which ensures the highest policy impact¹.  These staff should nevertheless be located at Ispra to maximise interaction and information exchange;
2. Consider Ispra as the hosting site of some current and future new Commission structures, enabling synergies with existing and future JRC activities in related areas;
 
3. The Ispra site already hosts a very advanced crisis management infrastructure, and can provide increased resilience through decentralisation and geo-distribution of vital Commission services, thus guaranteeing business continuity in case of extreme events impeding their normal functioning at other major locations;
   
4. Renaissance of the idea of applied science diplomacy, as formulated in the treaties, making the Ispra site the hub of an active partnership between Europe, Africa and the Middle East;
   
5. The enabling factor: from "OIB and JRC site management" to OII (Office Infrastructure for Ispra). A neutral and independent management of the site infrastructure guarantees harmonised services to any DG that wishes to host staff at the Ispra site. We are thinking, for example, of EUROPOL, for whom a specially constructed facility has been created at Ispra.
We understand that our strategic perspective for the Ispra site would imply significant changes. We trust that you will find the time for an in-depth analysis and reflection with your senior management team. We would also appreciate the possibility to further discuss our ideas with you in more detail at your convenience.
Your Sincerely,
Gianfranco Selvagio                    Robert Kenny
President, R&D Ispra                     Political Secretary, R&D Ispra
 
   
Annex – Supporting information and links to previous communications with Commissioners

¹ While in the JRC implementation review 2017 some of these activities are flagged for possible outsourcing, we consider more reasonable and effective to attach them and their related staff directly to the relevant policy DG (In some cases, legal constraints make externalisation impossible).



•          A clear line of command related to Health and Safety on the Ispra site, where the leadership of the OII could become the single responsible according to Italian law.