Administration

The various institutions, bodies, offices and agencies of the European Union - and thereby in the end the European citizens - shall have the support of an open, efficient and independent European administration. In order to make this administration work, it needs highly qualified and loyal staff of high integrity. The Commission plays a crucial role amongst the European institutions and it is by far the biggest institution because of its numerous tasks of policy making, negotiating, and overseeing the implementation of Union law.

The European administration and the European Civil service

The Commission has the right of initiative for crucial legislation in both areas. It can make proposals to the Council and the Parliament which strengthen the openness, efficiency and independency of the administration and it also has the right of initiative for the rules for officials and other servants of the European Union. It therefore bears major responsibility for a legal framework which allows the administrations of all institutions to work in an open, efficient and independent way and to attract the best professionals from all over Europe to work for the institutions.

By the inter-institutional European Personnel Selection Office and the European Administrative School, both formally attached to the Commission, it also plays an essential role in attracting and selecting the best candidates possible for jobs in all European institutions.

However, administration in the European Union goes beyond the European administrations. In fact, in many cases it is the national administrations which are in the forefront of making Europe happen. Most European policies which are prepared and decided at European level have to be implemented in the Member States, be it on central, regional or local level. Effective implementation everywhere is essential for the proper functioning of the Union and it is a matter of common interest for all Member States and the European institutions that everyone plays according to the same rules.

Therefore, it is important that the various European administrations and the national administrations cooperate and interact. The European Union is ready to consider supporting the efforts of Member States to improve their administrative capacity to implement the law of the Union. Such action can include facilitating the exchange of information and of civil servants as well as supporting training schemes if a Member States so wish. Here, it is again up to the initiative of the Commission to make proposals.

The administration of the Commission

It is a permanent challenge to make a big institution with around 40 different services and ca. 30.000 staff members work in a way as efficient as possible. This is of particular importance because the Commission has taken a commitment to a zero growth policy with regard to staff numbers until 2013 in spite of the huge new challenges which the Union in general and consequently the Commission have to face.

The challenge is to find the right structures for the organization and its different services as well as to conceive the right internal procedures to coordinate work and to manage the staff.

Most of all, it means to manage 30.000 persons, to recruit the right persons for the right jobs, to strive for the most efficient use of human resources, to manage their careers, their rights and their obligations, to provide training, to have adequate ways to deal with problems of all kind and to make the right choices for a modern personnel policy which is both reliable and dynamic.

It also means providing modern IT-systems and adjusting them to new business needs, providing infrastructure and logistics for all services, be it office space, mail delivery or canteens, be it the management of outsourced services or the delivery of in-house services and last but not least it means to guarantee the safety and security of staff, of buildings and of sensitive information.

Many things in these areas have changed over the past ten years. Many areas, procedures and rules have been modernized with the comprehensive administrative reform five years ago which brought many changes for the working procedures of the Commission and its staff. The reform is an excellent basis to build on and to work on further modernizations of internal policies and management instruments.