“They’re looking at the overall numbers and they’re saying, oh, it’s a big directorate general, so it needs to be trimmed,” said one of the officials, referring to the communications department. Another official, however, cautioned the restructuring will likely not be a “major reform” but rather a “readjustment” of resources.
What’s on the chopping block
The Parliament’s leadership intends to gradually reassign existing staff members to jobs in other departments or to reallocate posts after employees retire.
Less clear is what happens with subcontracted temporary positions — so-called externals — who often work in areas such as audiovisual services, website maintenance and event organization.
At first, senior leadership planned to discontinue up to 50 percent of external contracts, according to the minutes of an internal meeting seen by POLITICO. But those cuts are likely to be less drastic, according to one of the three officials. (Colard refused to provide the number of externals currently employed in the communications department.)
Overall, the Parliament’s outreach and campaign activities are likely to be most affected. Specifically, the administration is considering withdrawing funding for events such as the Brussels 20-kilometer race, grants for organizations at the regional and local level, and art exhibitions, according to a draft plan seen by POLITICO.
It may also slash part of its budget for awards, according to the three Parliament officials, including the LUX Audience Award for films, the European Citizen’s Prize and the European Charlemagne Youth Prize for youth projects promoting democracy.
The Europa Experience initiative, a project to establish EU-themed spaces across all 27 member countries, has already suffered cuts because of soaring costs and lackluster visitor numbers.
The uncertainty has caused some staffers to look elsewhere to build their careers, especially in the newly created legislative directorates, according to two of the officials POLITICO spoke to. “The feeling now is that the future is in the new directorates if you want to grow professionally,” one of them said.