Elodie Bergot Still Doing Illegal Things at the EPO, Based on the Local Staff Committee Munich
It is "unfair and unlawful"
The EPO corruption for which Benoît Battistelli is responsible never ended. His friend António Campinos continues this corruption. A new publication by the Local Staff Committee Munich speaks of Elodie Bergot, who represents a manifestation of this corruption. The Local Staff Committee Munich wrote to staff this week: "The Local Staff Committee Munich met with Ms Bergot (PD 4.3) in her capacity as Deputy Site Manager on 16 June 2025. In the meeting, we addressed the new practice of the Office concerning Kindergeld. Staff members who, having received Kindergeld from the Familienkasse (German authorities) and also having the right to dependants’ allowance under Article 67(2) ServRegs, were subsequently asked by the Familienkasse to repay at least five years of the Kindergeld they had received over many years. We stressed that the Office’s decision not to fully reimburse staff was unfair and unlawful, and we declared we were prepared together with the trade union SUEPO to support any affected staff members wishing to reclaim the amounts. Among the other topics addressed are: the Renovation works in PH5-6, Campus Days, the future of the Amicale and of the European School Munich (ESM)."
For the sake of transparency (keeping the EPO accountable to the public; see this new publication; the EU published this while turning a blind eye to EPO corruption) the report is reproduced below as HTML, GemText, and plain text:
Örtlicher Personalausschuss München Innenstadt, Haar und Brüssel
Local Staff Committee Munich City, Haar and Brussels
Le Comité local du Personnel de Munich Ville, Haar et BruxellesMunich, 07-07-2025
sc25005mpReport on the meeting between the Deputy Site Manager
and the Local Staff Committee Munich
on 16 June 2025On 16 June 2025 members of the Local Staff Committee Munich met online with Elodie Bergot in her role as Munich Deputy Site Manager, accompanied by Jan Boulanger (People), Hilde Cadenau (Payroll Services), Frédéric Brunelle (General Administration), Maria Castellanos (Community Relations), Mohamed El Hadouchi (Pension and Remuneration Services), Maria Arranz Gomez (Social Dialogue Secretariat), Konstantinos Kortsaris (President's Office), Beatrice Marliani (People Engagement and Development, Steffen Peschgens (People Planning and Talent Management), Agata Poznanska (Social Dialogue Secretariat) and Andreas Sattler (Corporate Services).
Meeting opened: 10:30
Kindergeld
Staff Representation repeated their position concerning staff members who, having received Kindergeld from the Familienkasse (German authorities) and also having the right to dependants’ allowance under Article 67(2) ServRegs, were subsequently asked by the Familienkasse to repay at least five years of the Kindergeld they had received over many years. It had previously been EPO practice that the Office fully reimburses this repaid money to the staff concerned, but this was no longer happening, leaving staff out of pocket. The situation had occurred because of misleading information given in the past to staff members by the Office, suggesting that staff members could, and even should, claim first Kindergeld and subsequently the Office would pay the complement to reach the amount they would have received with the EPO dependants’ allowance only. Staff Representation stressed that the Office’s decision not to fully reimburse staff was unfair and unlawful, and they were prepared together with the trade union SUEPO to support any affected staff members wishing to reclaim the amounts.
Mr El Hadouchi said that around 425 staff members received Kindergeld. It was Office policy not to intervene in cases between staff members and national authorities, and in any case staff had been properly informed what the rules were. The Office did not, therefore, have any liability. Ms Bergot added that only 10-12 staff members had been asked to repay Kindergeld, and the Office had “solved cases that they were aware of”. The Office had since 2018 a policy not to reimburse staff for more than three years retroactively. In any case, detailed information on this topic was presented on the Intranet.
Staff Representation replied that staff should not be expected to regularly check the Intranet to check if the Office policy had changed. They said that the Office knows who are the staff members still receiving each month Kindergeld because the Office is paying to them only the complement. They said the Office should have actively pushed the information of a change of Office practice
directly to staff receiving Kindergeld. They said that staff members who had been asked to repay Kindergeld to the Familienkasse in the past were reimbursed by the Office at least five years retroactively. This should also still be the case for the presently affected staff members.
Renovation works, PschorrHöfe 5-6
Staff Representation stated that they had appreciated the guided tour of the new offices in Bauteil 5-6. The rooms had made a good impression with lots of light and wooden doors, although it was a shame that the carpets were so dark. The cafeteria on the terrasse was also a great idea. What was going to happen to canteen capacity, though, when the renovations were taking place? The Bauteil 8 canteen was clearly too small to replace that in the main building.
Mr Brunelle replied that this had been considered, there would be a canteen service and Bauteil 7 would also be open.
Staff Representation replied that they had recently met with the President of the Boards of Appeal and so knew that no date had been set for when Bauteil 7 would reopen.
Mr Brunelle replied that staff would not have to move into Bauteil 5-6 for at least a year and a half and the situation would be clearer then.
Campus Days
Staff Representation said that the Campus Days were appreciated but asked if the Office was aware that some staff had had trouble booking activities.
Ms Marliani replied that there had been some problems with the registration tool, but any staff who had asked for help via the mailbox had received it. There had also been a problem that some activities had been overbooked. For the next Campus Days in October every team would therefore have access to at least two activities. Staff members who were separated from their teams would also be able to travel, for which there was a budget.
Staff Representation asked that the dates of Campus Days be told to staff members far in advance so that staff could plan better, for example around oral proceedings. This was noted by Ms Marliani.
Amicale
Mr Boulanger told Staff Representation that Amicale had been asked to participate in the Campus Days. It was known from the staff engagement surveys that Amicale was popular with staff. However, as part of SP2028 an internal audit had found a weakness in the governance model which needed to be clarified. This concerned the rights and obligations of the Office and the risks for Amicale organisers because of liability issues. The tax element also needed to be investigated. The Office wanted to implement the new governance and legal framework by 2026.
Staff Representation stressed that the recent and highly successful Amicale party in The Hague showed how important Amicale was. It should not be reduced to organising Campus Days events. What had happened to the working group on the reform of Amicale? What was happening to the full-time Amicale post?
Mr Boulanger replied that the working group would resume when there was more clarity. Amicale was important, but the Office needed to know when to apply national law. Amicale committee members would be involved in the Working Group. An Office-wide change to the Service Regulations would be needed.
Regarding the full-time Amicale post, nobody had applied to fill the vacant role. Amicale was currently being supported by someone from The Hague, although it was understood that a local Munich solution was preferred.
European School Munich (ESM)
Ms Castellanos said that the school’s budget had increased between 2022 and 2026 from 31 to 36 million Euros. This was because of increased staff costs, the number of staff members at the school having stayed the same. The EPO’s contribution had proportionally decreased because between 2022 and 2026 the percentage of EPO pupils (category 1) had decreased from 82% to 66.9%.
Staff Representation reminded the Office that it was important that the school remain primarily for EPO children.
Ms Castellanos agreed, but added that financial sustainability also had to be considered, including the number of language sections.
Staff Representation was worried about declining diversity. Staff members from smaller countries would be less likely to join the Office if there was not a range of language sections.
Ms Castellanos replied that removing language sections was not always a bad idea. For example, Dutch pupils would have a better education if the Dutch language section was closed because they would no longer be educated in mixed-age groups. Ms Castellanos further noted that fixed-term contract staff were less likely to send their children to the ESM, preferring to keep their children in their previous schooling system. The Office would be carrying out a survey of EPO parents to ask them why they had chosen the ESM.
Mr Peschgens added that after fixed-term contracts had been introduced the number of EPO pupils had decreased, then with New Ways of Working it was possible that newer staff had had a different idea of where to live.
Staff Representation asked if the Office was aware which language sections were most populated by the children of fixed-term contract staff members.
Mr Peschgens replied that because such small numbers (less than 100) were involved statistics were difficult.
Meeting closed: 11:31
Your representatives of the Local Staff Committee Munich (LSCMN)
They keep taking away from the staff while compelling the staff to do illegal things. This isn't a properly-run patent office but while-collar crime taking advantage of a patent office to milk it for money while granting lots of invalid monopolies to foreign mega-corporations. █