B Explanatory Memorandum
1 Draft Recommendation presented by the Committee on the Budget Note with request for urgent procedure
The Assembly,
Having regard to Resolution (55) 19 adopted, on 12th October 1955, by the Committee of Ministers, setting up a Working Party to study problems of a European Civil Service and to make proposals for the harmonisation of the separate statutes and for the co-operation of organisations in the administrative field ;
Considering that the Governments which have signed the Treaties instituting the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community will be preparing staff regulations for the officials of the new Communities;
Recalling the wish expressed on several occasions that a genuine corps of European officials be formed;
Convinced that, in present circumstances, in view of the new Communities about to employ large staffs and of the manifest trend towards rationalising European institutions, it would be of considerable advantage to increase in every possible way the attempts to prepare a " Statute " of a genuine European Civil Service, applicable to all officials employed in these organisations;
Considering that the creation of a genuine body of civil servants endowed with a constitutional status well adapted to their tasks, is essential to the efficiency of European institutions ;
Considering, therefore, that the preparation of such a " Statute " is in the interests of the organisations, their Member Governments and the officials employed by them,
Recommends that the Committee of Ministers should :
1. Specify the terms of reference of the Working Party set up by Resolution (55) 19, while instructing it to present, at the earliest possible date, a general report containing a complete draft European Civil Service Statute ;
2. Place at the disposal of the Working Party the necessary means to accomplish this task within a given period;
3. Invite the Working Party to approach the Interim Commission set 'up by the signatories to the Treaties instituting the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community, in order that the Working Party, bearing in mind the views and work of this Commission, may prepare a draft Statute applicable to both present and future European organisations;
4. Urge the Governments represented on the Interim Commission to facilitate in every possible way this approach, in the interests of harmonising and unifying the regulations governing European civil servants;
5. Transmit in due course to the Assembly for its Opinion the draft Statute prepared by the Working Party.
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6. Since the inception of the Council of Europe the Consultative Assembly and its Committees have seized every opportunity to stress the desirability of establishing standard administrative regulations for European civil servants. Thus, the Committee on General Affairs advocated in May 1952 establishing common standards " which would make possible the progressive establishment of a genuine European Civil Service and form the administrative basis of the future institutions of united Europe ".
7. Bearing in mind the views repeatedly expressed by the Assembly, the Committee of Ministers adopted, on 12th October 1955, Resolution (55) 19 setting up a Working Party to study problems connected with the establishment of a European Civil Service. The Working Party is made up of representatives from the eight major European organisations ( 0 . E. E. C , E. S. C. S., W. E. U., E. C. N. R., Central Rhine Navigation Commission, Customs Co-operation Council, Council of Europe and N. A. T. 0.) and of governmental experts. It is required to make proposals for harmonising the organisations' statutes and for administrative co-operation among them. The Working Party began its work in Strasbourg about a year ago (18th and 19th June 1956). It set up a Committee to study staff structure, recruitment and salaries, as well as a Sub-committee on pension schemes. The Committee and Sub-committee have met on several occasions, and the plenary Working Party will hold its second meeting at Strasbourg next July to discuss and adopt two reports : one on staff structure and recruitment, the other on pension schemes and provident funds. These reports will afterwards be submitted to the steering committees of the organisations and to the Governments
8. The Working Party has, therefore, clone very useful work, but recent developments in European policy lead one to think that the Working Party's terms of reference are no longer adequate, having regard to developments which have taken place in the European situation. On 25th March last the six Powers signed in Rome the Treaties setting up the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Community. Since these new organisations will be employing a large number of officials (Press reports mention the figure of 10,000 for one of them alone), they will, of course, have to be governed b y administrative regulations, and the Interim Commission set up by the Six is already engaged in preparing them.
9. At a time when the rationalisation of European institutions is being discussed and the number of officials employed therein is going to be considerably increased, it seems most desirable seriously to envisage the creation of a genuine European Civil Service. For the favourable development of its new institutions Europe needs a corps of selected officials, well trained for the difficult task awaiting them. Success largely depends on those officials. Great traditions are to be founded which, true to the principles of public service but unhampered by routine, will provide the firm basis for effective action for the benefit of the European institutions.
10. With a view to achieving a single " statute " , it will be necessary for the Interim Commission of the Six to get in touch with the Working Party set up within the Council of Europe. Moreover, for the co-operation between these two bodies to be fruitful, it appears necessary to widen the scope of the Working Party—-whose present activity concerns only some of the questions affecting European officials—in such a manner as to embrace all the problems raised by the preparation of a European Civil Service " statute " common to all organisations. The Working Party must also be in a position rapidly to fulfil this new task entrusted to it of drafting a complete " statute " ; it must be provided with the means to do this; it should, for example, be empowered to engage temporary assistance for any specific study.
11. The draft Recommendation submitted to the Assembly embodies these various points and requests in addition that the draft Statute, to be prepared by the Working Party with the least possible delay, be transmitted to the Consultative Assembly for opinion.
