Summary: The suppression of speech in Europe's second-largest institution should be a cautionary tale or loud alarm to the rest of Europe. Corruption and cover-up have reached the point where mentioning the corruption is, in its own right, considered a 'crime'.
GOTTA love the endless irony! People who break privacy law to the point where arrest should be considered (Benoît Battistelli would be sentenced to prison if he wasn't immune and António Campinos is heading down the same route) censor those who speak about their abuses, under the guise of 'privacy'...
"The term "public officials" has the word "public" in it."Earlier this week we mentioned one such example and here we have another. We're sure there are plenty more; it's just part of a pattern. The term "public officials" has the word "public" in it. Someone ought to explain to these dictators (many of whom are entirely unqualified, with "French-as-the-mother-tongue" cabal, Campinos included) what that word means in English...
Tonight we release this report [PDF], which is in English. It's not new but now that things heat up at the Office (there's no genuine dialogue and no chance of one, either) it might be worth sharing widely.
The backstory:
Report of the 157th Admin Council
It is understood that the requested upload on the CSC Intranet site of last week has not been authorised - no reason being provided. More of the same?
Dear Mr Valkenberg, Dear Colleagues,
Could you please take care of uploading the text below in the CSC announcement area?
Headline: “Report of the 157th Admin Council”
Summary line: “A new President makes a difference – and three new VPs”
Body text: Dear colleagues,
The agenda of the 157th Administrative Council in Munich on 10 and 11 October 2018 was mainly dominated by the election of three new Vice-Presidents.
VP1: Mr Stephen Rowan (UK) VP4: Ms Niloofar Simon (AT) VP5: Mr Christoph Ernst (DE)
It was the first Council of the new President. The appearance of the new President is different to the previous one and provides for a better and more relaxed atmosphere in the Council.
One further change could be seen that 39 additional posts have been agreed for the Boards of Appeal to the request of which the previous President was rather reluctant.
The President took the chance of his activities report to convey once again his vision of the EPO challenges to the delegations. One challenge relates to efficiency and effectiveness and one to staff engagement. To the latter one he is fostering a renewed social dialogue amongst others by first constructive meetings with the staff committees and the union, which are to be continued. We welcomed his first approaches and confirmed our dedication to a renewed social dialogue. However, in our intervention we also drew the attention to the fact that there remains a part of the administration from the previous Presidency which still follows or defends the old regime leading to the bad atmosphere in the office. We concluded that with the new President first positive steps have been made in the right direction, however, staff expects further and more concrete actions towards reviving the trust in the EPO’s management and restoring the formerly exceptionally good reputation of our Office.
[...]
We can repeat our outlook from the previous Council:
The near future will be shaped by the new President – first signs are encouraging that this time it will be done with staff.
We will keep you posted on the developments.
Your Central Staff Committee
