No Xy Lo

xyloglossie : n.f. [pédant, humour] nom parodique donné plaisamment à la langue de bois

You don't like either the sterile quarrels amongst the trade unions or the secure income of certain "representatives". You don’t like the unions' impotence in front of the administration? You can no longer bear this inertia, the locked debates and hollow words? Neither can U4U !

We want to get rid of the wooden language (xyloglossie in French, a word which lends its name to this letter between us) and all its variations. We declared personae non grata sectarian and quarrelsome trade union representation. We laid the foundations of a new trade union of proximity, democratic participation, anchored in the place of work or each one of us and resolutely focused on your genuine concerns.

U4U is a new and forceful trade union and is listening to you.

We chose to keep you informed in a brief and if possible, humorous manner. This is the goal of NoXyLo which supplements our monthly publication Le Lien/The Link.

We need more than a vote in an election; we need true, systematic and vigorous implication. In exchange, we undertake not to abuse your confidence carried by each vote and to regard each and every one of you as actor of his/her own destiny as well as of the collective future of Europe.

The Treaty and the Staff Regulations

With the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon, all statutory regulations will be ratified through a co-decision procedure and not through consultation. The next amendments to the Staff Regulations will therefore be subject to negotiations and agreement with the European Parliament.

Should we be happy about this?  Most probably yes.

Launching of new Open Competitions

The Commission's Joint Committee (CoPar) will soon adopt the first open competition notices which will be published in March on the EPSO site according to the new plan for tests (EPSO Development Programme). 

This procedure could be more transparent and regular.

Amendment of Salaries

The Commission is preparing to adopt a revised proposal following late statistical date from two Member States.  The salary increase will be 3.7% and not 3.6% as it was originally announced.

Pension Rights Transfer

The Commission just convened a meeting with the Trade Unions concerning the adoption of a new decision on the transfer of pension rights.  This concerns all colleagues who still want to carry out this transfer.  U4U will keep you informed about the results.

Banks

As from next year, the new provisions on tax concerning mobile assets will be applied.  U4U will return to this question in the Link.

Additional taxation to our Greek colleagues

The Commission asked the Greek government to conform to Community legislation and therefore not to demand additional taxes from Greek employees of the Institutions.  The Commission is ready, if necessary, to start infringement procedures.  Bravo Commission!

Repeat rate in the European schools

The Commission CPL working group finished an analysis on this question which strikes more some of the linguistic sections. More broadly, it raises the question of governance in the European Schools (see relevant article in the first issue of our monthly magazine, The Link) 

You can find the CPL document on the GUDEE site through via : http://u4unity.eu/ecolx.htm 

Call for a Case

We are looking for an AST1 colleague to lodge a complaint and follow it up with the relevant actions against the promotion procedure, in order to contest the Regulation of the Tribunal relevant to costs.