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I. Social assistance
II. Advances against medical expenses
III. Assistance in respect of tenancy guarantees
IV. Protection of personal data
V. Entry into force

Decision by the Director-general of personnel laying down general rules for granting social and financial assistance to officials and other staff of the European Parliament

THE DIRECTOR-GENNERAL OF PERSONNEL OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT,

having regard to the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Union (hereinafter 'the Staff Regulations') and to the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Union (hereinafter 'the CEOS'), and in particular to Article 76 of the Staff Regulations and Articles 30, 98 and 135 of the CEOS,

having regard to the Bureau decision of 13 January 2014 on the delegation of the powers of the appointing authority and of the authority empowered to conclude contracts of employment (hereinafter 'the AECE'),

having regard to the decision of the Secretary-General of 20 January 1993 establishing the Advisory Committee on Social Activities (hereinafter 'the ACSA'),

having regard to the decision of the Secretary-General of laying down Internal Rules on the application of Article 76 of the Staff Regulations on financial assistance for officials and other staff in a particularly difficult financial position (hereinafter 'Internal Rules'),

having consulted the Legal Service, the Data Protection Officer, the Staff Committee and the Committee on Equal Opportunities and Diversity,

HAS ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING GENERAL RULES

1 I. Social assistance

a) Submission of requests

Decisions as to whether to grant social assistance under Article 76 of the Staff Regulations and the Internal Rules will be made on the basis of:

1. a written request submitted by the official/other staff member (hereinafter referred to as 'staff member') concerned to a social assistant or to the Financial Support Sector in the Social Services Unit;

2. a report drawn up by the social assistant substantiating the need for action to be taken to address difficulties covered by Article 76 of the Staff Regulations. The social assistant will establish whether the staff member has first approached any other service within or outside Parliament to which he or she should turn before seeking assistance from the Financial Support Sector;

3. a financial appraisal carried out by the Financial Support Sector (availability of appropriations, likelihood of recovery, risks involved, need for assistance, likelihood of ameliorating the staff member's circumstances).

b) Procedure

Social assistance will be granted on the basis of:

1. the terms established on the basis of the financial appraisal refe1Ted to at a) 3 above and formally accepted by the staff member;

2. an opinion delivered by the ACSA, where such an opinion must be sought under Article 6(2) of the Internal Rules. In such cases, a meeting of the ACSA will be called and the Financial Support Sector will compile an anonymised file for the attention of the committee members;

3. arrangements for monthly checks on the staff member's circumstances by the social assistant and/or the Financial Support Sector;

4. direct payment to the staff memberts creditors or, on an exceptional basis and where warranted by the specific circumstances, payment of part or all of the sum involved to the staff member.

2 Il. Advances against medical expenses

The arrangements for providing advances against medical expenses are not intended to take the place of action by the Joint Sickness Insurance Scheme (JSIS), which retains primary responsibility for the defrayal of medical expenses.

a) Submission of requests

Decisions on the granting of advances against medical expenses will be taken on the basis of:
1. a written request submitted by the staff member concerned to a social assistant or to the Financial Support Sector; a statement of the expenses incurred and an explanation of the problems experienced must be enclosed with the request;
2. an appraisal of the staff member's social and financial circumstances produced by the service(s) to which the request was submitted.

b) Procedure

1. The appointing authority/AECE will, where appropriate after having sought the opinion of the ACSA under Article 6(2) of the Internal Rules, notify its decision to the staff member and will enclose a repayment schedule;

2. The staff member will send the invoices made out to him or her to the Financial Support Sector, which will pay the 'sum owed directly to the service provider. The staff member will send any invoices that contain medical data to the Medical Service, marked for the attention of Parliament's social assistant, who will forward the relevant financial data to the Financial Support Sector;

3. The staff member will, as soon as he or she receives them, pay any sums reimbursed by the JSIS in respect of expenses covered by the assistance granted into the Parliament bank account specified by the Financial Support Sector.

3 Ill. Assistance in respect of tenancy guarantees

Assistance with the provision of a tenancy guarantee may be granted to newly recruited staff members who are obliged to comply with Article 20 of the Staff Regulations. No payments may be made prior to recruitment. However, requests for assistance may already be submitted during the probationary period.

Assistance will be granted subject to the availability of the necessary appropriations and no more than once per household.

'Household' means the staff member and his or her spouse or stable non-marital partner as referred to in the first three points of Article I(2)(c) of Annex VIl to the Staff Regulations and specified in the household details recorded in the institutions' database or in a certificate issued by the competent authorities, or, failing that, in a formal declaration submitted by the staff member.

The household's overall income may not, other than in duly substantiated exceptional circumstances that have been acknowledged by the appointing authority/AECE, be higher than the income of a staff member in grade AST 3, step 1.

a) Submission of requests:

An assistance file will be opened on the basis of:
1. a written request submitted by the staff member to a social worker Il or to the Financial Support Sector; a copy of the draft lease must be enclosed with the request;
2. a social and financial appraisal based on the household's income and repayment ability. Where appropriate, the staff member will be asked to supply salary slips for his or her spouse/partner.

b) Procedure

1. The amount granted will be based on the tenancy guarantee stipulated in the draft lease and may not be higher than EUR 4 500. It will be paid directly into the staff member's bank account.
2. Repayment will be made in accordance with a schedule agreed with the staff member. The full amount must be repaid within a period of no more than 24 months.

4 IV. Protection of personal data

Officials and social assistants and counsellors responsible for administering social assistance granted under these rules are required to handle personal data that in many cases are extremely sensitive because they concern the data subjects' private lives and state of health.

In order to comply with their obligations under Article 5 of the Internal Rules on the application of Article 76 of the Staff Regulations, staff handling social and financial assistance files must at all times abide by the data protection instructions set out in Annex 1 to this decision.

A briefing note for staff members making use of the social assistance services is attached as Annex 2 and draws their attention to the access, processing and rectification rights they enjoy in respect of data relating to them.


5 V. Entry into force

These General Rules will apply from the date on which they are adopted.

Done at Luxembourg, on 01/12/2016

Signed

Herwig KAISER

Director-General of Personnel

In the event of a disparity between language versions, the French text shall be the authentic version

ANNEX 1
TO THE DECISION BY THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF PERSONNEL LAYING DOWN GENERAL RULES FOR GRANTING SOCIAL AND FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO OFFICIALS AND OTHER STAFF OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Instructions for social assistants, counsellors and officials responsible for administering social assistance granted under Article 76 of the Staff Regulations and the corresponding articles of the CEOS

Your duties include processing personal data relating to current and former officials and other staff members and their families, These data, which in many cases are extremely sensitive because they concern the data subjects' private lives and state of health, must be processed in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 ('the Regulation) on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data.

You must therefore:

1. draw your clients' attention to the data protection rights they enjoy and recommend that they read the briefing note attached as Annex 2 to the rules for granting social and financial assistance that is available on the DG PERS intranet site (Financial Support Sector) and, if asked to do so, forward the note to them;

2. comply with points (c) and (d) of Article 4(1) of the Regulation, which stipulate that personal data must not only be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purposes for which they are collected and/or further processed but must also be also accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date. Those provisions apply to any personal notes you take during meetings with clients and to paper or electronic files produced with a view to the granting of an entitlement or of assistance;

3. be particularly careful with medical or health-related data, as referred to in Article 10(3) of the Regulation, because such data may be handled only. by doctors and social workers and by staff members subject to equivalent confidentiality requirements. Access to such data is restricted to authorised Medical Service staff, who are reminded that all medical data and documents are strictly confidential and must not be used or disclosed to third parties;

4. allow clients to state their views on the position you take on their circumstances, wherever that position may affect the enjoyment of their rights. In this connection, files produced for the authority with responsibility for granting a specific entitlement or form of assistance, for the Advisory Committee on Social Activities or for any other advisory or supervisory body must be signed by the client, who may add any comments he or she wishes to make;

5. be particularly careful when passing on personal data to services outside Parliament. You may do so only where strictly necessary, only where doing so would not at any time go against the client's legitimate interests, and only with the client's agreement;

6. keep the paper files locked away in the facilities provided for this purpose inside Parliament, under your own personal responsibility, throughout the processing period. When a case is closed, the paper file relating to it must be destroyed, without prejudice, in cases where financial assistance has been provided, to the provisions of the Financial Regulation and the Rules of Application governing the retention of financial documents;

7. make sure that the electronic files are kept in Parliament's secure network area, which may be accessed only by persons authorised to do so by the appointing authority. The files may be kept for no more than three years after the problem in question has been dealt with. The security instructions on the use of IT tools and passwords in Parliament must be followed in all cases.

ANNEX 2
TO THE DECISION BY THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF PERSONNEL LAYING DOWN GENERAL RULES FOR GRANTING SOCIAL AND FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO OFFICIALS AND OTHER STAFF OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Briefing note for staff members who make use of the social and financial assistance services made available under Article 76 of the Staff Regulations and the corresponding articles of the CEOS.
Officials in active employment, former and retired officials and other staff members who seek assistance from Parliament's social services are required to provide information or produce data concerning various aspects of their private and professional lives in order to obtain the support, counselling or assistance they have requested.

They are hereby informed that:
1. these data will be collected and processed in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data. They may be collected and processed solely for the purposes of applying the articles of the Staff Regulations and the CEOS referred to above and must be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purposes for which they are collected and processed. The persons concerned enjoy all the rights provided for in Regulation CC) No 45/2001;

2. the Head of the Social Services Unit is the data controller. Questions concerning the protection or retention of data linked to the provision of social and financial assistance may be put to him or her at any time. If necessary, a referral may be made to Parliament!s Data Protection Officer and/or the European Data Protection Supervisor;

3. in most cases, if an answer is given orally, no paper or electronic file is produced. If the assistance requested is financial, or if the request is made in order to obtain an entitlement, a file is produced for consultation by the competent authority, by the bodies asked to deliver an opinion and by the authorities responsible for monitoring compliance with EU law. The applicant is informed of the procedure to be followed and of the official status of the parties involved. If data need to be passed on to services outside Parliament, the agreement of the person concerned is requested;

4. applicants: attention is drawn to the fact that they have a right of access to the data contained in these files - including archived data - and a right to have these data rectified, as provided for in Articles 13 and 14 of Regulation (EC) No 45/2001. They have the right to give their views, which must be passed on in full to the advisory bodies and the competent authority. To that end, applicants are invited by the social assistants and counsellors to familiarise themselves with the content of the files before they are forwarded to the competent authorities and to add any comments they regard as necessary;

5. the files are kept in paper form during the period of provision of the assistance requested and then archived in electronic form for three years after the matter in question has been dealt with. At the end of this period they are destroyed. Files of a financial nature are kept in accordance with the provisions of the Financial Regulation and the Rules of Application governing the retention of financial documents.