1. Ag. No. 7 International collaboration
Doc.A6465/18/06
Ag. No. 7 International collaboration
Working Group on Articles 64 and 65 of the Staff Regulations
Meeting in Luxembourg March 2018

2. Content of this presentation
Reminder of context: MoU 2009 update
Main areas of collaboration Mar.2017 – Mar.2018
Data exchange
Harmonisation of survey methods
Topics from meetings
Next steps

3. Memorandum of Understanding 2009
Between main international groupings
Facing similar management and measurement issues for remuneration of secretariat staff
Goal: effectiveness, efficiency, economy
MoU 2009
European Commission - Remuneration Statistics for Administrative Purposes (ESTAT.C3)
United Nations - International Civil Service Commission (UN.ICSC)
Coordinated Organisations - International Section Remuneration and Prices (CO.ISRP)

4. Updating proposal 2018 Existing agreement has proved its worth
However, a lot has changed during 10 years
Revisions proposed:
Administrative housekeeping
Clarifications (who does what, when, how)
Expanded collaboration (depth, domains)
Trilateral discussion ongoing

5. Data sharing (cost-of-living)
Intra EU
Extra EU
ESTAT-C3 28 9
(TR, IS, NO, CHBER, CHGEN, AL, BA, MK, ME, RS)
Contract +5
(non capital) 1
(Taiwan)
ISRP - 7
(AUS, CAN, JAP, KOR, MEX, NZL, USAWDC)
ICSC
HQ = ESMAD, FRPAR, ITROM, ATVIE, UKLON
HQ = USANYC, USAWDC, CANMON, CHGEN,
19 = Grp 1
4 = Grp 2
126 Grp 2
Data sharing (cost-of-living)
c.3000 items, avg.10 obs
c.300 items, avg.5 obs.

6. Main collaboration year to Mar.2018 (9th year)
Exchange FBS weights data:
coordinate harmonised FBS 2017 (14 places + Brussels)
replace common Extra-EU weights with regional (continental)
Exchange Extra-EU price survey data
EU-CO PPP80 (AUS, CAN, JAP, KOR, MEX, NZL, USAWDC)
EU-UN xP2P (part of 5 year cycle), 178xCPI
CO-UN rents
Exchange Intra-EU price survey data
EU-CO
EU-UN E16-1 & E16-2 avpr, E17-1 & E17-2 specs

7. UN use of ECP price data UN HQ price surveys in autumn 2016:
USANYC, USAWDC, CANMON, CHGEN
ES, FR, IT, AT, UK = use ECP data from Eurostat ► Feb.2017 mtg quantify impact of switch
Research programme during 2017:
Outlet-type consistency report (Eurostat)
Top-up survey in Brussels (Eurostat)
"Old UN-type" survey in Brussels (to compare to ECP)
+ similar comparison USAWDC (OECD) and CHGEN (Eurostat)
Impact of using subset (250) rather than full list (2500)
Impact of non-ECP prices (= 15% list)

8. New York, New York
Unusually, two Extra-EU duty stations in USA: Washington DC (capital) + New York (non-capital)
Switzerland (Bern + Geneva); China (Beijing + Hong Kong SAR);
Special cases: Bosnia (Sarajevo + BanjaLuka); Indonesia (Jakarta + Banda Aceh)
ECP survey data for USA-Washington (via OECD), but not for USA-New York (= UNICSC)
Old New York survey 2010 (proprietary methodology)
New New York survey 2016 (harmonised methodology … but outlet choice)
Goal: next survey with BLS in similar way as Washington
(see also agenda point 9.3)

9. Collaboration on mission expenses
EU, UN and CO currently have different systems
Lower annual budget impact than cost-of-living adjustments = possible justification for a simpler EU approach (automatic) in next reform of Staff Regulation
Intra-EU, specific methodology using price data available from large-scale collections (HICP, ECP)
UN monthly publication: partly used by Eurostat for Extra-EU
(see also agenda point 21)

10. Increasing collaboration on A65 data
8 EU Member States are also in sample for Coordinated Organisations: BE, DE, ES, FR, IT, LU, NL, UK European Patent Office and EuroControl also require A65 data for their Staff Regulation purposes Some method differences in aggregation, but common source data requirement: opportunity for greater efficiency…

11. Related collaboration: Benchmarking
UN requirement enshrined in Staff Regulations ("Noblemaire" principle - in essence, ensure ability to recruit/retain even from higher-income countries)
Occasional comparisons by EU and by Coordinated Organisations, notably to inform periodic reforms
Obvious comparator = other international organisations, competing for similar staff profile
Opportunity to agree on methods and embed regular collection in information systems

12. Next steps
Usual exchanges (2017 price survey data, index data, 2018 rents data)
UN extend use of ECP price data to rest of EU28
Explore feasibility of ECP-style survey in NYC
UN explore access to ECP price data for OECDx7

13. Possible expansion Explore collaboration on mission expenses
Explore collaboration on hardship allowances
Harmonise input data collection for A65 purposes
Discussions about salary benchmarking

14. Thank you for your attention!