We are sorry to inform you that the meetings with the Administration and Eurostat haven't led to the desired improvements of the Correction Coefficient.. The Administration tried to assure us that the work was done in the best professional way. But still, we don't accept that the inflation difference between Brussels and Varese is 1.2 % and that at the same moment the CC for Varese undergoes a nearly 5 % reduction. organised in a simple way and the calculation of the CC is no exception to this rule. It is a very complex calculation mechanism laid down in the ・gmethod・h which has been accepted by the social partners in the past. This "method" is not just a simple comparison of the inflation in Brussels and Varese.

What does this mean in practice?

This means a reduction of our salary by:

4,8% (CC 97,1-92,3) + 0,43% (special levy increase)

- 0,3% (pension contribution) - 0,4% (basic salary adjustment)

This in consequence leads to a reduction of our purchasing power by:

4,53% salary reduction + 1,2% (inflation ISTAT for Varese)

The Court sentence on the 2009 Salary Index cut is expected within the next months. Let's hope that the court will take a technical decision and not a political one. The current political situation doesn't really make things easier and the agreements made should be respected by all parties involved but it is obvious that something went terribly wrong and that we cannot stop here.

 

5,73%

4,53%

Even after the concessions made by Vice-president Šefčovič, it was not possible to really go into the detailed data.

The surveys are the professional responsibility of the National Statistical Offices (NSI) and Eurostat, which performs also all calculations

However, we all know that nothing within the European Institutions is

Furthermore, as we have no access to the data used, it is almost impossible to check the calculations for mistakes. We can only formulate questions to Eurostat, which replies confirming that there is no error. We will definitely open the discussion on the confidentiality of the data used by Eurostat. We think that we need more transparency here.

R&D doesn't want to justify the drastic reduction but we want to inform you on what is happening. Of course, nobody is happy with a more or less 5% salary reduction when you live in a place with an official ISTAT inflation of 1,2 % but this is a consequence of the method agreed. This method needs to be revised but you have no credibility if you just claim the highest CC, one year Rome, next year maybe Varese. Also attacking our colleagues in Brussels, Torino or Parma is not going to improve our situation. We are absolutely convinced that it would be wrong to take into consideration the situation of one or two years only. This issue needs a long term vision; quick fix proposals will never be accepted by the administration and could also be very dangerous for the following years.

We are afraid that we might not be able to change much this year but we have to prepare ourselves very well for the change of the "method" planned for 2012 and we have to take advantage of our experiences of today to improve the situation tomorrow.

Lastly, we will have 0,4% increase of the Basic Salary but this will be eliminated by an increase of the special levy by 0,43%. So, in the end we only gain a 0,3% decrease of the pension contribution.