European Civil Service
The rules, principles, standards and working conditions of the European civil service are set out in the Staff Regulations.
[5] European civil servants are sometimes referred to in the anglophone press as "Eurocrats" (a term coined by Richard Mayne, a journalist and personal assistant to the first Commission president, Walter Hallstein).
[5] Most administration is based in the Belgian capital,[5] Often, those states under-represented in the service tend to have more of their nationals in the higher ranks.
Moreover, staff reforms introduced in 2004 have severely reduced the possibilities for career progression and have created divisions within the service, with pre-2004 entrants enjoying greater pay and privileges.
[14] Salaries were considerably reduced for new entrants from 1 May 2004 onwards as a result of a significant number of reforms effected by Commissioner Neil Kinnock.
For example, a Director General's salary is below what a senior executive with similar responsibilities could expect to be earning at the end of their career in the UK and in some countries (like Luxembourg) the lowest wages (FG I – FG II) are even under the legal minimum salary in the respective country, which raise the question about legality of such terms of employment.
[15] The formula led to a salary adjustment of 3.7% but the council, representing the member states, was only willing to grant a pay rise of 1.85%.
[16] In November 2010, the European Court of Justice ruled that there was no legal basis for the council to set the pay rise to 1.85%.
During the 1980s, the commission was primarily dominated by French, German and Italian cultural influences, including a strictly hierarchical organisation.
As one former servant, Derk Jan Eppink has put it, even after new staff had passed the tough entrance exams: "Those at the top counted for everything.
"[23] One example of this was the chef de cabinet of President Jacques Delors, Pascal Lamy, who was particularly notable for his immense influence over other civil servants.
He became known as the Beast of the Berlaymont, the Gendarme and the Exocet due to his habit of ordering civil servants, even Directors-General (head of departments) "precisely what to do – or else."
He was seen as ruling Delors's office with a "rod of iron", with no-one able to bypass or manipulate him and those who tried being "banished to one of the less pleasant European postings".
[24] However, since the enlargement of the EU, and therefore the arrival of staff from the many newer Member States, there has been a change in the culture of the civil service.
New civil servants from northern and eastern states brought in new influences while the commission's focus has shifted more to "participation" and "consultation".
A more egalitarian culture took over, with Commissioners no longer having a "status equivalent to a sun God" and, with this new populism, the first women were appointed to the Commission in the 1990s and the service gained its first female secretary general in 2006 (Catherine Day).
[27] There has been some criticism that the highly fragmented DG structure wastes a considerable amount of time in turf wars as the different departments and Commissioners compete with each other, as is the case in national administrations.
Each covers a specific policy area or service such as External Relations or Translation and is under the responsibility of a European Commissioner.
