The EU institutions demonstrated considerable resilience in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic according to a new audit report published last week by the European Court of Auditors (ECA).
The audit covered four EU institutions - the European Parliament, the Council, the European Commission, and the Court of Justice of the EU – and focused on how they internally handled the crisis between February 2020 and July 2021. Decisions taken after July 2021 were also taken into account, if they had an impact on the institutions’ post-COVID-19 environment.
The scope of this audit was limited to the EU institutions own preparedness for the pandemic and the disruption caused by it but ECA is also auditing the crucial issue of EU’s response to the outbreak and spread of the pandemic in the EU member states, in particular measures to coordinate the decisions taken by EU member states on lockdowns, restrictions, and vaccination policy.
ECA has for example reviewed the EU’s public health response and audited air passenger rights during the pandemic. Next week (12 September), it will publish an audit of EU’s vaccine procurement which examines whether the Commission and member states procured COVID-19 vaccines effectively up to the end of 2021, including negotiation strategy and follow-up on contract implementation.
Overall, the EU institutions passed the test and all audited EU institutions responded rapidly and flexibly to the pandemic, ECA concluded. They benefited from previous investments they had made in digitalisation. When teleworking from home became the norm, the EU institutions managed to equip all their staff with teleworking solutions within six weeks.
Staff travel to China was suspended on 6 February 2020. After the first COVID-case was s discovered in Europe on 24 January, travel restrictions for EU staff to Italy and parts of France were imposed a month later. Despite limited coordination, the EU institutions responded in similar ways to the pandemic.
Not foreseen in business plans
That said, the scale and duration of the COVID-19 crisis was unprecedented and hardly foreseen in the business continuity plans of the EU institutions. They therefore had to adapt and complement their plans with ad hoc decisions. According to the auditors, they still have challenges ahead to make the best of the innovation and flexibility brought about by the crisis in the post-COVID world.
“The EU institutions have not been immune to the COVID-19 crisis,” commented Marek Opioła, the Polish ECA member responsible for the audit. “The crisis has had profound and far-reaching effects on the way how the institutions function, and how their staff members work.”
Opiola, a former member of the Polish parliament (Sejm) and Vice-President of the Supreme Audit Office of Poland, was appointed as ECA member during the pandemic. He added that resilient organisations are ones that have the capacity to learn from a crisis and emerge stronger. “We think that EU bodies have proved their resilience over the past two years of crisis.”
“The institutions’ business continuity plans did not contain provisions for formal coordination between them in times of crisis, and we are asking them to correct that,” ECA member Marek Opiola told The Brussels Times.
In early March 2020, the EU institutions set it place a forum to discuss regularly the actions they were taking. This allowed them to limit divergences in response but it was not possible for them to take exactly the same decisions because of differences in their tasks and different lockdown rules in the countries where they are located.
Some institutions depend on public access to their buildings, like the Court of Justice, some – like the Commission – can more easily continue working with their staff at home. In fact, the stringency index on office attendance shows that teleworking was somewhat more frequent among Commission staff.
In December 2019, the Commission reported that around 25 % of its workforce was using the possibility to telework on an occasional basis. When the institutions introduced compulsory telework in mid-March 2020, most of their staff had never used this possibility before.
Marek Opiola does not agree that the Commission was slow in its response in the beginning of the pandemic or that inadequate decisions were taken later on.
“Looking at the timeline of the decisions taken, we see that the first actions taken by the institutions to limit travel came in February 2020. The decision to put in place compulsory telework was taken by all institutions before most lockdowns, and was kept even when member states started lifting restrictions.”
“Staff’s ability to travel was always subjected to national rules in place. The institutions offered additional ‘well-being’ possibilities, such as teleworking from abroad, to take into account the psychological impact the pandemic was having on staff, in particular those that had not been able to see their families for months.’
What could the EU institutions have done better?
“Our report concludes that the institutions reacted well to the crisis,” he replied. “We give recommendations such as improving the inter-institutional cooperation and preparing better for long-term disruptions, as well as continuing the progress in the digitalisation of support services – that should help the institutions respond better if a similar long-term crisis arrives.”
Did the EU institutions reduce office space during the pandemic and save money or will they do it in the near future?
“Depending on whether the institutions own or rent their buildings, they do not have the same financial constraints or the same incentives to reduce office space to achieve savings. The Commission as the institution with the largest property portfolio has more opportunities for savings. It has put forward a plan for a 25% reduction of its office space.”
The Parliament has not taken a decision about reducing its office space in Brussels. In Luxembourg, the plans for the construction of the KAD II building were further amended, in part to take into account the changes in working practices. The Parliament decided not to go ahead with some parts of the project, whose cost was estimated by the Parliament at €18.6 million (4 % of the total cost).
The Council was reflecting on a new building strategy at the time of our audit. The Court of Justice was not planning to review its building strategy in the short-term, preferring to wait a few years to assess the needs brought about by the new ways of working.
What is the most effective mix of remote (telework) and office work?
“We have seen that meetings linked to the core activities of the institutions, such as Council meetings, parliamentary debates, Court cases, are better done in their original place (in situ),” he replied.
For the day-to-day work, there is no one-size fits all solution. “We ask the institutions to carefully evaluate the results of the extension of telework, not just on a financial or environmental basis, but also its impact on staff’s performance; and based on this, not to hesitate to adapt the rules they have put in place after the pandemic.”
Not surprisingly, the EU institutions were satisfied with the report and accepted the audit recommendations. The Commission told The Brussels Times that “it appreciates the overall positive result of the audit report and the acknowledgement of its timely and flexible response”.
The Commission also welcomes the “forward-looking approach” taken by the Court of Auditors in its recommendations. In fact, some of them have already been initiated by the Commission or even started before the COVID-19 crisis. As regards more interinstitutional cooperation in the business continuity plans, it noticed that this also depends on the commitment of the other institutions.
According to its formal reply to the report, the COVID-19 pandemic also changed the way the Commission staff works.
In March 2022, the Decision on Working Time and Hybrid Working was adopted. It introduces hybrid working arrangements and commits to re-assess these new working arrangements in 2023. The decision is an internal document and has not been published. In April 2022, it adopted a new Human Resources Strategy as well as a Communication on Greening the Commission.
As regards office space, a Commission source said that the Commission intends to reduce significantly the number of its buildings until 2030, presumably as a result of teleworking. “The overall surface will be reduced by 25%: from 780 000m² to 580 000m² which is still very large, and the number of buildings will be reduced by 50%”.
M. Apelblat
The Brussels Times
