Support for internal competitions
Union Syndicale welcomes the upcoming internal competition for translators (in 3 languages) scheduled for the second half of this year.
Internal competitions benefit our colleagues and the institution. They reduce job insecurity and offer temporary and contract agents decent career prospects. We urge the Administration to continue organising internal competitions and improve the test conditions for all candidates. The aim should be to hold two attractive internal competitions annually, which can help deliver greater fairness in the GSC career structure and increase the percentage of successful candidates.
Union Syndicale offers its members support at all stages of the competition and the selection procedure. Are you interested?
Send a message to union.syndicale@consilium.europa.eu
This month you received an intermediate 3% update to your salary.
The calculation for this update is based on “The Method”, a procedure developed by Union Syndicale. It was introduced after a long battle of the staff of the EU institutions, especially at the Council, to align the salaries of staff in the EU institutions with the salaries of national civil servants in a representative sample of Member States.
The increase will be applied to the salary scale and to pensions, allowances and grants (expatriation allowance, foreign residence allowance, allowance for dependent children, education allowance, travel expenses, etc.), as well as to our tax scale. It amounts to a 3% increase in our net salaries.
The update clearly shows, that the ” Method,” which came into being thanks to Union Syndicale, is working well and protecting our salaries and pensions.
For more information on the intermediate update and the application of ‘The Method’, please also read our tract.
Intermediate update of 3%
Length of entitlement to allowances extended
Thanks to Union Syndicale, the length of entitlement to the dependent child and education allowances has been extended.
Entitlement to the dependent child allowance and the education allowance ceases once your child has completed his or her education. But when does that education really come to an end?
The PMO considered that studies ended on the day of the final exam, so it no longer paid allowances from the following month. Union Syndicale consistently challenged this practice and insisted on the payment of these allowances until the publication of the exam results, which can sometimes be some months later.
On 5 June 2024, the Court of Justice issued its ruling on a case supported by Union Syndicale. It clarified that it is only after examination results have been published that a course of studies ends and that entitlement to the dependent child allowance ceases.
As a direct consequence of this Court decision, the PMO now has to pay the dependent child allowance and the education allowance for a longer period in many cases.
For more information about this Court case, please read our tract or attend our upcoming webinar on the subject (date to be communicated).
BAC to the future
After the Baccalaureate exam season, your child may be preparing for the third level of their education (some form of higher education). An educational allowance may be granted for this stage of your child’s career. If you would like to know what you are entitled to, you can use the Education Allowances Tool available on Domus and check the rules on My IntraComm.
The amount of the allowances is linked to the place where your child is studying. If your child studies in the country where you are employed, you will receive EUR 329.72 per month. However, if you receive the expatriation allowance, this amount can be doubled if the place of studies is located more than 50 km from your place of employment or in another Member State. In the latter case, you can also ask to transfer the education allowance to your child’s account in the country where the education establishment is located. Please be aware that the correction coefficient is applied to such transfers, and if the coefficient for the country of your child’s studies is below 100, such a transfer would not be beneficial. Your entitlement ends on your child’s 26th birthday.
The allowance is provisionally granted for one year’s higher education and paid on a monthly basis for each dependent child. To receive it, you need to submit an education declaration in SYSPER including an attendance certificate at the education establishment.
The deadline for the submission of the education declaration is 15 November each year. However, as payments are not retroactive, you should submit your documents as early as possible.
If you currently receive a children’s allowance in Belgium, please remember to immediately inform the local child benefit provider that your son or daughter will be continuing their education so there is no assumption that they have finished their studies – for more info click here.
