The European Parliament should be spared the effects of a proposal to cut the number of staff in European Union institutions by 5%, according to a report being put before MEPs. 

Dagmar Roth-Behrendt, a German centre-left MEP, is in charge of drafting the Parliament’s response to proposals from the European Commission to reform the EU staff regulation.

Those proposals include lengthening the working week, raising the retirement age and cutting staff in all EU institutions by 5% by 2018. The plan also foresees a less generous pay–adjustment system for EU officials, and a rise from 5.5% to 6% in the flat-rate levy on the income of EU officials.

The aim is to save €1 billion by 2020, on top of €8bn saved by reforms in 2004.

Roth-Behrendt says the staff cuts and reductions in pay should be watered down.

Her recommendations, to be debated by the Parliament’s legal affairs committee today (1 March), will be resisted by the Commission as well as by member states, many of which are calling for much deeper cuts to EU staffing levels, pay and conditions.

While agreeing in principle that savings are necessary, Roth-Behrendt argues that a one-size-fits-all proposal is inappropriate, and she rejects a call for a blanket staff-cut. “It is wrong to claim that it should apply automatically to all the institutions,” she says in her report. “This will not prove realistic.”

She says that the Parliament, and other institutions facing an increased workload because of the Lisbon treaty, should be exempt from the 5% cut. The institutions should be given a right to decide for themselves how to make savings, the report suggests.

Gender balance

The German MEP also condemns as an affront to women a plan for a lower salary structure for secretarial and clerical staff – a point already raised by staff unions. “Most recruited secretaries are female, and it is they who would bear the burden of savings,” says Roth-Behrendt. “That could hinder the principle of gender equality.”

By contrast, George Lyon, a UK Liberal MEP who is drafting an opinion on the proposal for the budgets committee, said the Parliament “cannot be shielded” from staff cuts in the wake of austerity at national level.

Ingeborg Grässle, a German centre-right MEP who is drafting an opinion on the reforms for the budgetary control committee, has called for much deeper cuts, including reducing public holidays for EU officials from the current 18 days per year to 14 days.

Diplomats and Commission officials said Roth-Behrendt’s proposal was “out of touch” with reality, adding that EU institutions had to reflect budget cuts made at the national level.

A group of 17 member states including France, Germany and UK has called for cuts of up to 12% to staffing levels.

The Council of Ministers is expected to agree a position at the end of March, after which negotiations with MEPs will begin. Diplomats and Commission officials remain optimistic that large parts of the reform can be finalised before the end of June.