Civil Services in the EU of 27 between national tradition and Europeanisation

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Civil Services in the EU of 27 between national
tradition and Europeanisation Transatlantic
Dialogue on The Future of Governance George
WashingtonUniversity/RutgersUniversity-Newark 12
June 2009 Thomas Henökl European Public
Administration Network
Learning to build Europe
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Aims of the study

• Gather data, evidence and knowledge on
  structures, processes and reforms of the European
  civil service systems
• Substantiate the discussions, which are often
  based on perceptions, not on facts
• To compare national organisational systems,
  recruitment and promotion procedures, pay systems
  and reform priorities
• To clarify existing/prevailing differences
  between civil services and public employees

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Study challenges and response rate

• 27 Member states plus the European Commission
  addressed by an online survey
• Standardised questions for a complex and very
  different (national) issue
• Precisions to be done by a second questionnaire
• Many different definitions, traditions,
  structures
• Answers from a national logic not fitting into a
  European comparison, e.g., Ireland and Cyprus
  (narrow definition of CS), Portugal (need to
  distinguish appointed CS, public employees,
  top-officials), Poland (need to distinguish civil
  servants, civil service employees, public
  employees)
• National difficulties because of non-existence of
  a specific civil service, e.g. Sweden
• Analysis of the second round of questions (and
  delayed responses is ongoing)

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Analytical questions

• Is it still possible to classify Member states
  into career and position Systems? Which countries
  are more traditional?
• Does it still make sense to classify Member
  States into administrative traditions (e.g.
  Continental, Mediterranean, Scandinavian
  countries)?
• How important are specific national traditions
  for the selection of reform priorities (e.g. are
  new Member States not interested in diversity
  issues)?
• Do specific countries and/or systems follow a
  specific reform path while others do not (e.g.
  are career system countries less/more interested
  in PRP)?
• Can we observe Europeanisation trends or are the
  systems becoming more different?
• Is the classical bureaucratic civil service model
  a dying species?
• What kind of differences (still) exist between
  civil servants and public/private employees?
• Is it possible to identify other trends (e.g. is
  there a trend towards the alignment of pension
  systems with the labour market, flexibilisation
  of recruitment procedures, decentralisation of
  HRM responsibilities, abolishment of seniority
  etc.)?

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Comparing old and new Member States
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Civil service systems in transformation changes
over time (EU 15)
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Characteristics of career systems 2007 ()
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Clustering and methodology

• Definition of career system (analysis of
  indicators)
• Classification into career, hybrid and position
  systems
• Are conventional definitions of administrative
  traditions still valid? (e.g. how different are
  the Scandinavian states?)
• New vs. old Member States (differences?)
• Small and big Member States (do small countries
  have different structures)?
• Linking organisational structures with
  administrative traditions, e.g. are continental
  career systems following a specific reform path?
  Do these countries have comparable systems etc.?
• Do organisational structures matter in the reform
  process?
• Do values and fashion matter - are we all doing
  the same because it is hip?

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Indicators of classic career systems

• Civil servants have a public law status
• Different recruitment and promotion
  procedures/requirements
• Hierarchical, centralized and career based
  organisational system
• Higher job security (dismissal only for
  disciplinary reasons)
• Different pension rights and different pension
  system
• Different salary system (regulated by law)
• Distinct disciplinary and ethical rules
• Different social dialogue0
• No right to strike (or restricted for some civil
  service categories)
• Civil service is structured in careers and/or
  corps
• Professional experience in the private sector is
  not taken into account in the salary and pension
  calculation
• No possibility to recruit managers from the
  private sector
• Existence of specific salary and pension schemes
  (adopted by law)
• Wage system which is based on seniority and
  experience
• No existence of performance related pay
•  No or limited mobility between the public and
  private sector

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The great differences

• Almost all Member States have a specific civil
  service
• Almost all have employees with a public law
  status
• Almost all civil servants in all Member States
  enjoy a different status and specific working
  conditions as compared to other public and
  private employees

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Further differences

• Broad definition of civil service (almost all
  public employees are civil servants) vs. narrow
  definition of civil service (only employees of
  ministries)
• Civil Service Systems with important status and
  working condition differences vs. Civil Service
  Systems with almost no differences
• Countries with very high percentage of civil
  servants vs. countries with very small percentage
• Federal and regionalised systems (regions have
  their own legal competences in the field of pay,
  pension, recruitment etc.)
• Centralised systems vs. decentralised HR-systems
  (pay is centralised or not)
• Different impact of state structure on org.
  structure
• Civil Service of the a) state, b) territorial
  governments and c) hospitals (France), Civil
  Service of the Central Level, the County and
  Local level (Sweden), Civil Service of the
  Central and Local Level (Finland)
• Civil services with sectoral sub-divisions
  (Netherlands, Italy)
• Civil Service Systems with or without a specific
  senior civil service and different status,
  working conditions etc.
• Specific categories of staff established and
  unestablished civil servants (Poland), appointed
  staff, public employees and Senior Officials
  (Portugal), Beamte, Angestellte und Arbeiter
  (Germany)

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Legal status of civil servants

• Civil servants have public law status (with the
  exception of Czech Republic)
• Civil service rules and regulations do not
  usually apply to all public employees (except in
  Spain, Hungary, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal and
  Sweden)
• Differences between civil servants and other
  public employees still exist although general
  trend towards harmonisation of systems

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Civil servants with public law status ()
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Comparing civil servants and other public
employees
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Comparing civil servants and public employees by
HR system
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Systems with specific senior civil service

• Bulgaria
• Estonia
• Greece
• France
• Hungary
• Italy
• Luxembourg
• Malta
• Netherlands
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• United Kingdom
• European Commission

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Evolution of career/corps
civil service structured in careers and/or corps
no careers and/or corps
increasing newcareers/corps
reducing theirnumber
abolishing careers and/or corps
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Traditional elements ...

• Civil service structured in careers and/or corps
  15 vs. 11
• Recruitment taking place at the lowest
  level/rank/position 10 vs. 16
• Specific formalised recruitment requirements 21
  vs. 5
• Specific internal exam (concours) before
  promotion 16 vs. 9
• Wage system based on seniority 10 vs. 10 vs. 7

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... incorporating new features

• Private sector experience considered beneficial
  in recruitment 8 vs. 10 vs. 7
• Private sector experience recognised in
  calculation of pension rights 11 vs. 6 vs. vs.
  8
• Hiring senior private sector managers for limited
  period possible 14 vs. 8 vs. 4
• Hiring senior public managers for limited period
  17 vs. 5 vs. 3
• Wage system based on performance and target
  agreements 9 vs. 10 vs. 8
• Decentralisation of wage system
• 2 vs. 7 vs. 18

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Job security
traditionallife tenure
similar to private employment
high jobsecurity
AT- CY DE EL ES IE () LT LU PT () RO ()
BG LV MT NL SK
EE SE
DK UK
missing CZ HU EC IT FI PL FR
() with performance mgnt
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Internal mobility
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Development of managers HRM responsibilities
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Main reform priorities

• Deregulation and downsizing
• Reducing administrative burden (15), reducing
  workforce (8)
• HRM activities
• Quality management (13), training (9),
  performance mgmt (8), comptence mgmt (6),
  equality (6), diversity (6)
• Ethics
• Anti-corruption (14), citizen-orientation (14),
  transparency (12), principles of good
  adminstration (12)