TRAINING EPSO OPEN COMPETITIONS 

PRE-SELECTION TEST

 

 Recently another trade union sent a message containing information regarding the intermediate salary update in June. The explanation of the adjustment calculation and the method was well explained.

Unfortunately, the net effect on the pay slip for staff based in Ispra in June will be - 0.1% (retroactive to January 2024 : - 0.6%),  because of the highlighted increase of 3% in the salary grid is more than neutralized by the nominal reduction of the coefficient corrector for Varese of 3% (from 0.95 to 0.92).

From our understanding, the situation for salary adjustment at the end of this year will be probably more positive.

The R&D Ispra Executive Committee

The Article 72(3) and how it must be applied by the PMO:
For R&D fairness and solidarity are not just empty words! 

The Article 72(3) is one of the best “hidden secrets” of the Staff Regulations, but also one of the aspects that demon¬strates the solidarity dimension of our Staff Regulations. 

A dimension that is all too often neglected in the implementation of the statutory provisions! 

Indeed, Article 72(3) provides for an additional “special reimbursement” by the Joint Sickness Insurance Scheme (JSIS) when individual affiliates face very high medical expenses. In particular, Article 72(3) reads:

‘Where the total expenditure not reimbursed for any period of twelve months exceeds half the official's basic monthly salary or pension special reimbursement shall be allowed by the appointing authority, account being taken of the family circumstances of the person concerned, in manner provided in the rules referred to in paragraph 1.’

As it can be immediately understood, this is a very important article because it can provide additional financial support when a colleague has medical problems that involve very high costs, which is a major additional, sometimes dramatic, problem for the lowest paid colleagues.

On an almost daily basis, we come across colleagues who are indeed faced with large financial expenses and don’t really know that they may be entitled to apply for a special reimbursement.

And the Paymaster’s Office (PMO) is unwilling to provide affiliates with an automated system that automatically calculates the amount of money an individual is responsible for over the last twelve months.

It is left to individual colleagues to calculate their own expenses, to compare them with their basic salary and to decide whether or not to submit the “special reimbursement request”

For R&D, this is unacceptable, both because the PMO would easily have the tools to automatically calculate the “rolling 12-month expenditure not-reimbursed by JSIS” of each JSIS affiliate at any given time, and also because the colleagues with very high medical expenses are often not in a position to make such calculations.

R&D requests that PMO include in each individual's JSIS page an automated calculation of the rolling 12-month expenditure for medical expenses, as referred to in Art. 72(3)

R&D will continue to push for the introduction of a screen in each affiliate's personal space in JSIS (or PMO Mobile) that automatically calculates the sum of the personal expenses over the last twelve months. In this way, colleagues could easily check whether they are eligible or not.

How can someone apply for a “special reimbursement”?

If an individual Affiliate estimates that he/she has incurred medical expenses that exceed half of the basic salary, then the Affil¬iate can submit the dedicated application form1. 2 . The special reimbursement rate will then be as follows3

•  a 90% reimbursement of the amount exceeding half your basic salary if you are a member and no one else is insured under your name; for example, if you are single and have no children;
•  a 100% reimbursement of the amount exceeding half your basic salary if there is at least one other person insured in your name, such as your spouse.

When applying Article 72 (3), in order not to penalise colleagues working in the countries with low salary correction coefficients, the PMO must consider the salary actually paid, taking into account the correction coefficients

In this respect, the Court of Justice has already clarified that the basic salary to be taken into account when applying Article 72 (3) is the salary actually paid, taking into account the correction coefficient: 4
 

‘(…) 15. ’15 It follows from the foregoing that to assess correctly the extent of the financial burden placed on an official who is seeking a special reimbursement, the living conditions of the place of his employment must be taken into account and consequently the special reimbursement provided tor in Article 71 (3) of the Staff Regulations must be calculated, not solely in accordance with the salary referred to in Article 66, but on the basis of the real salary adjusted by the weighting provided for in Article 64 whose purpose is precisely to take account of the living conditions in the place of employment.” 

This is a very important aspect to consider in order to ensure fairness and solidarity!

To give an example, if a colleague works in Croatia (where the correction coefficient is 84.8%) and has a basic monthly salary of 3000 €, what this colleague actually earns each month is not 3000 € but 2544 €.
Thus, according to the abovementioned case law, Article 72(3) must be applicable to this colleague if the medical expenses for the past 12 months would be higher than 2544/2=1272 € and not if the medical expenses for the past 12 months are higher than 1500 € without applying the salary correction coefficient.

Conclusion

Disregarding the salary actually paid when applying Article 72(3), denies the solidarity and fairness at the heart of this Article, creates a situation of unequal treatment between colleagues from different places of employment and it is detrimental to those colleagues working in Member States already penalised by a salary correction coefficient below 100%.

If you are in any doubt as to how Article 72 (3) should be applied to your case, or if you are faced with decisions by the PMO that do not seem right to you, please do not hesitate to contact us for assistance from our team of specialists and Lawyers.

R&D is always at your side!
 

Cristiano Sebastiani,
Chairman
——————————————
1.  In English: https://myintracomm.ec.europa.eu/staff/Documents/health/demande-rembspecial-en.pdf
2.  In French: https://myintracomm.ec.europa.eu/staff/Documents/health/demande-rembspecial-fr.pdf
3. https://myintracomm.ec.europa.eu/staff/EN/health/reimbursement/special-rules/Pages/special-reimbursement.aspx
4. Affaire 115/83 :  eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:61983CJ0115

The recording of the conference is available here : Renouveau & Démocratie - Antonio Cenini - Looking to the FUTURE of the European Schools System... (youtube.com)

As announced at the conference, we are committed to passing on the hundreds of questions and also the comments posted in the chat during the conference that you have sent us and that we were not yet able to address to the appropriate interlocutors, and to making sure that all the answers are provided.

The conclusions of the first Teachers’ forum held in Parma from 8 to 12 April, with the representatives of the 27 Member States of the European School System, the European Commission, the representatives of students, parents and the teachers of the European Schools who will set up the first “European Teachers' Forum”, are available here : TEACHERS' FORUM 8-9 APRILE 2024 | Scuola Per L'Europa (scuolaperleuropa.eu)

As announced, we will be happy to provide you with the final versions of the Action Plan and the Parma Declaration as soon as they are available. 

We are also delighted to confirm that Mr Antonio Cenini has agreed to be our guest at a second follow-up conference to be held in June before the end of the Italian Presidency, in order to pass on any unresolved issues to the Cypriot Presidency to the Cypriot presidency of the Governing Board of the European Schools.   

In this respect, we invite you to keep sending us your questions and issues using this FORM

For any further information, please contact our colleagues responsible for this file:  

Aleksander Kedra : Aleksander.KEDRA@ec.europa.eu  Marco Pino : Marco.PINO@ec.europa.eu

Thank you very much again for your trust and support!

Cristiano Sebastiani,

Chairman

PRE-SELECTION TESTS

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If you are not already a member, you can join by filling out this online form:
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To participate in the sessions, it is mandatory to complete the Google Form below:

CBT TESTS - EPSO OPEN COMPETITIONS


 Deadline for registration: 22/04/2024 at 08.00 am

Please note that your registration will be confirmed only if you register via the link above

MCQ FORMAT ON KNOWLEDGE OF EU POLICIES AND INSTITUTIONS

Online Training  Sessions for the AST3 (COM/AST3/2024)  internal competitions open to AST-SC |

There is no doubt that AST-SC colleagues are constantly being let down by our institution's staff policy and this is no longer acceptable!

Enough is enough! AST-SC colleagues have always been treated as “Children of a lesser God”, by our administration, whether in terms of promotions or opportunities for career advancement through internal competitions.

R&D has always been a vocal opponent of this scandalous practice :

R&D alongside AST/SC colleagues! – Renou¬veau & Démocratie (renouveau-democratie.eu)  
All we are saying … is give AST-SCs a chance – Renouveau & Démocratie (renouveau-democratie.eu)

As the leading Trade Union of European civil service, we have always used the best practices also of other institu¬tions to fight the bad practices of the Commission and to reject any unreasonable decision of our administration, namely  to pretend that the Staff Regulations did not permit the organisation internal competitions for AST-SC. R&D immediately supported the petition organised by our colleagues in TAO-AFI, members of the Alliance to which we be¬long, asking for internal competitions to be organised for AST-SC colleagues. 

With the aim of countering the administration’s arguments and proving that they had no basis, R&D presented the ‘good practices’ that our R&D’s sections in other institutions had negotiated, namely at the Committee of the Re¬gions, the European Council, the European Parliament, etc., which had actually organised such internal competitions for AST-SC under the same Staff Regulations.
A FIRST step in the right direction, but there's still a lot for AST-SC colleagues to do !

We are pleased to say that we have won the FIRST a battle here and that our advocacy has tipped the scales, as the administra¬tion has finally announced that the FIRST internal competition will be held to allow AST-SC colleagues to access the AST career path, which has just been published :

NOTICE OF INTERNAL COMPETITION - EN  (europa.eu)
AVIS DE CONCOURS INTERNE  - FR (europa.eu)

True to its commitments, R&D will make a special effort to offer you the best possible training to maximise your chances of succeeding in these competitive exams. And without asking you to pay outrageous prices, because we never treat our colleagues as clients.

These internal competitions open to AST-SC colleagues will be very challenging for you. It is therefore time to start your preparation right away!
In particular, we are convinced that no external consultant will be able to grasp the challenges of CBT on European knowledge better than very experienced and/or former colleagues.

Thinking of you, our trainer Maria Glowacz - de Chevilly and colleague Blandine Pellistrandi are launching new sessions on EU Knowledge including a new set of 100 MCQ in an interactive exercise format of 4 separate sessions in EN and FR (each session will consist of 50 questions).
 
These sessions will allow you to assess your knowledge of the European construction, the main policies and the decision-making procedures.

It will also be an opportunity to discuss the usual tips and tricks and the methodology to use in order to prepare in the most efficient way.

If you want to check where you are in your preparation, please: