ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM: EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT FULL-SQUARE BEHIND COMMISSION PROPOSAL.

• Position: Staffing regulations

The Legal Affairs Committee is expected to adopt the report by Malcolm Harbour (EPP-ED, United Kingdom) and Manuel Medina Ortega (PES, Spain) on March 10. The rapporteurs are very partial to the reforms recommended by the Commission, and welcome proposed improvements to staff regulations on certain specific points. They thus lend their full support to the inclusion of the method for the adaptation of salaries and minimum rates for collective promotion which, along with the pensions regime, constitute a fair and reasonable complement to a cutback in rank increases and the rationalisation of allocations and allowances. This is a very clear warning to the Council, which challenges both the minimum rate of promotions and the inclusion of the salary adaptation method in the staff regulations. The stand-off with the Council is not limited to these points. The report by Messrs Harbour and Medina Ortega also supports other Commission proposals rejected by the Council. The rapporteurs express their resolute support for a permanent early retirement regime, a proposal they believe is liable to promote the arrival of new blood and cut the average age of the workforce, which is currently much higher than in national civil services, not to mention the private sector; it is a fact that European officials generally take retirement later than national civil...