To help you prepare for the oral tests of your internal competitions in the best possible way,

we are organising two coaching sessions with our specialist trainer Ruth Harland.

 

SAVE THE DATES

Coaching sessions for EPSO oral tests of AST2 – AST/SC2 internal competitions

REGISTER :

Our training are FREE for R&D members and those who wish to join our trade union!

R&D ISPRA BECOME A MEMBER

To participate in the sessions, it is mandatory to complete this form:

 https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdAsqa7EDbn5fAMvdq18FvjekI3E4lZpc1IWjCgqMeFhVfEVw/viewform

 Deadline for registration: 19/06/2023 at 5.00 pm

  Please note that your registration will be confirmed only

if you register via the links above

 

If you have any questions, you can contact us at : JRC-RD-ISPRA@ec.europa.eu

 

Online Training Sessions on the oral tests for the AD6 -7-9  internal competitions - 30/05/23 & 01/06/23

To help you prepare for the oral tests of your internal competitions in the best possible way, we are organising two coaching sessions with our specialist trainer Ruth Harland.

SAVE THE DATES

Coaching sessions for oral tests of AD6-7-9 - Internal Competitions

Our training are FREE for R&D members and those who wish to join our trade union! – Become a Member!

 REGISTER***

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

JRC-RD-ISPRA@ec.europa.eu

Deadline for registration: 29/05/2023 at 5.00 pm

  LINK WILL BE PROVIDED ONCE YOUR REGISTRATION IS CONFIRMED

 If you have any questions, you can contact us at : JRC-RD-ISPRA@ec.europa.eu

 We look forward to meeting you.

 

In case you were unable to attend the conference, you will find the complete recording below:

REPLAY – The Picard case concerning the continuity of pension rights

You can follow the conference

by attending : room SPAAK 6B1 (European Parliament) or online by clicking on this link.

https://renouveau-et-democratie.webex.com/renouveau-et-democratie/j.php?MTID=m96ab9354cb45884a403f0eeb70dc2761

 

  You were a contract agent or a temporary agent before 1 May 2004 or before 1 January 2014 and you have been appointed as an official after these dates ?  

You were a contract agent or a temporary agent before 1 May 2004 or before 1 January 2014 and you have changed status or you have been recruited with a new contract after these dates ?

You may be affected by the new very IMPORTANT Case Law C-366/21 from 15 December 2022,

the PICARD CASE concerning the continuity of pension rights

Other Trade Unions have conveyed contradictory information to colleagues potentially involved: from the compulsory necessity to introduce a collective Article 90 to the ex officio automatic application of the Picard Case Law to all colleagues in all the EU Institutions.

R&D wants to convey the correct information

and let colleagues concerned ask questions in this regard to the best expert in the field.

This is why R&D invites all colleagues potentially concerned to attend the conference with our specialist lawyer,

Maître Sébastien ORLANDI, the lawyer who won the Picard case concerning the continuity of pension rights after the Reform of the Staff Regulations - for CAs, TAs and those who have become officials in the meantime.

This conference will be held in English. You can ask your questions in French

 

TRAINING FOR EPSO COMPETITIONS   
ASSESSMENT CENTRE

R&D Ispra organises online training sessions (in English) in order to help all our colleagues to prepare themselves in the best possible way for all EPSO competitions.

R&D offers specialised and targeted courses, best suited to the needs of its members and new members.

SAVE THE DATEs!

Assessment Centre | Wednesday 10 & 17 May 2023

17:00 - 19:00

Assessment Centre for EPSO competitions 

REGISTER…..

 Our training are FREE for R&D members and those who wish to join our trade union!

 To participate in the session, it is mandatory to complete this form:

- > REGISTRATION FORM-ASSESSMENT CENTRE FOR EPSO COMPETITIONS

 

Deadline for registration: 05/05/2023 at 17.00

 

ZOOM LINK WILL BE PROVIDED ONCE YOUR REGISTRATION IS CONFIRMED

Please note that your registration will be confirmed only if you register via the online form above.

 

 

EPSO’s Director has decided to cancelCompetition EPSO/ AST/154/22 – Assistants (AST3), Accounting, Finance and Communication, with the support of EPSO’s governing body, the interinstitutional Management Board.

 

On 31 March 2023, EPSO announced widely “the foretold death” of competition AST-154-2022. It decided the final cancella¬tion of this competition and published it on its website1 . EPSO also informed candidates that the results obtained by them would no longer be valid or transferrable in the future in other competitions. A slam in the face of those who after days of pre-paration had to “pay for the errors of others”. The first fully online- and remotely performed- competition turned into a huge failure and a waste of enormous amounts of time and money for individual European Tax-paying citizens (including hundreds of colleagues in EU institutions), for EPSO and all other involved people, including tens of colleagues who worked massively as panel members.

How did we get to this point? Was that a surprise?

As the title shows, for some of us this was even expected.
EPSO organised a fully online, remote competition without proper preparation, without an actual assessment of what this new scheme would mean and what the requirements to participate would imply for the candidates, demonstrating itself com¬pletely detached from the everyday reality of European citizens.
Needless to say that EPSO did everything relying on an external contractor who demonstrated also not to be at the height of this situation.
Indeed, several candidates were complaining that their results were lost and only after these complains, their results were finally found, not to mention the rude and impolite way some candidates were treated leading in excessive stress during the moment of their testing.
The European Commission Central Staff Committee (responsible also for the nomination of some of the selection panel members forthis competition’s board)  being fully concerned of how this competition was evolving, rang the bell on EPSO and DG-HR2 already mid-december 2022, listing all issues with regards to disrespect of candidates privacy, equal opportuni¬ties of candidates, competition time slots allocated in the middle of the night, US-toll phone line for complaints etc.
EPSO and DG-HR replied on 17 January 20233 denying any major concern and defending this type of competition as an own “strategic choice” … this, notwithstanding the 967 complaints and questions (out of 5693 candidates who booked for the on¬line testing). 

Concerning the Offices, for DG HR everything is fine, everything is very fine…

As it often happens, the concerns raised by the staff representation were not given the appropriate attention, by EPSO and DG HR, which could have helped save this competition.
DG HR's attitude concerning these complains made by the staff representation was not at all surprising because it is now very clear that DG HR is absolutely incapable of ensuring any kind of governance of the Offices. This, when it is absolutely his responsibility to.
DG HR’s speciality is now to answer any complain confirming that everything is just fine, to refuse any real social dialogue, to play the advocate pro deo of the Office Directors, denying all the problems that can still be denied and trivialising those that in the meantime it has become impossible to continue to deny... trying to calm things down in the hope that the storm might pass … to start again as if nothing had happened.
Unfortunately, for this competition, the storm did not pass and, on the contrary, it exploded in all its gravity…

The “final nail in the coffin”: AST-154-2022 competition cancelled 

Indeed, we were glad to see the European Ombudsman on 17 March 2023 opening a formal investigation4 raising the same issues that staff representation raised, requiring an answer by mid-June 2023 and announcing possible follow-up after these answers. 

EPSO evidently unable to save the competition at this late stage decided to cancel it, a decision that can legally take, but…
WHAT ABOUT: 

 • the individuals who had succeeded in the competition so far?
• those citizens who had decided to invest on new PCs and training in order to succeed in this competition and eventual¬ly succeeded?
• the future credibility of EPSO?
• the EU Institutions’ reputation? 

For the afore-mentioned reasons, on behalf of the candidates, R&D requests: 

A revision of the decision of the Appointing Authority. EPSO should find a legal way to allow successful candidates to maintain the successful results in future competitions. 

That DG HR must re-establish some capacity for governance of the Offices including, in cooperation with the other institutions, for EPSO. 

That EPSO should finally discover what it mean to be “fully accountable” and the obligation to take into account the “lessons learned”, stopping once for all to use candidates as guinea pig…

That EPSO should give evidence of being able to respect European Tax Payers, to guarantee a perfect implementa¬tion of any external contract and to attribute responsibilities to those who must and deserve to be responsible. 

If European Institutions want to hire the BEST EUROPEAN TALENTS, as a minimum, they should be able to treat them in the BEST possible way. Nothing less than that!
 

Cristiano SEBASTIANI,
President

1. https://epso.europa.eu/en/news/important-competition-has-been-cancelled

2. https://circabc.europa.eu/ui/group/f072a88e-6bd4-4b5c-887a-381a8fc1195b/library/81f60ff6-ecd4-4f0f-9575-3cd1711c5fc6/details?download=true

3. Note Ares(2023)356282

4. https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/opening-summary/en/167288

 

 

CONFERENCE        

 

on TAX DECLARATIONS and TAX DEDUCTIONS for EMPLOYEES AND PENSIONERS OF THE EUROPEAN INSTITUTIONS

Thursday, 16th February 2023 from 12:30 to 13:30

HYBRID WEBINAR:

Club House - Room Ginestre  or

Join the conference via Zoom:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88987724157

Meeting ID: 889 8772 4157

R&D Ispra would like to invite you to a hybrid conference on TAX DECLARATIONS AND TAX DEDUCTIONS.

The accountant, Mr Claudio Belmonte, of the accounting firm STUDIOBELMONTE, will explain and answer your questions relating to Italian taxation for employees and pensioners of the European Institutions.

During the conference, the following topics will be covered:

TAX MONITORING OF FINANCIAL ASSETS HELD ABROAD – DUTIES AND FULFILLMENTS

• The RW model of the tax declaration

• (IVIE – IVAFE)  tax declarations on the value of financial and real estate assets held abroad

• The late, supplementary and/or amending tax litigation

• The disciplinary aspects and the omitted declaration

 

SUPERBONUS AND ECOBONUS – NEWS FOR THE YEAR 2023 AND PROCEDURES FOR THE PAPERWORKS INTRODUCED IN 2022

•  The Ecobonus and tax deductions for energy requalification

•  The Superbonus:  new percentages and deadlines of tax deductions

•  Who is entitled to the Superbonus/Ecobonus and which works are included

•  Tax deductions,  so-called “Cessione del credito” and  “Sconto in fattura”

             

The conference will be conducted in Italian, but questions may also be asked in English.

If you wish more info, you can contact our secretariat by phone: 0332 78 9645 or by e-mail:

JRC-RD ISPRA@ec.europa.eu