EU govts want to slash Commission staffing - note

BRUSSELS, July 14 (Reuters) European Union governments want to slash staffing levels severely at the EU's executive arm and other institutions over the next seven years, a confidential note showed today.

The European Commission's note, obtained by Reuters, said the EU's 25 member states planned to axe about 1,700 posts, about 8.5 per cent of Commission staff, in 2007-2013 as part of a ''productivity plan.'' ''The Council (EU governments) suggests in a declaration that the EU institutions' staff should be drastically reduced,'' the note said.

It said it made no sense for the Commission to hire well over 3,000 staff to cope with the EU's 2004 eastward enlargement and at the same time cut other posts.

''The scope of the plan is massive as it would imply the deletion of at least some 1,700 posts for the Commission or 8.5 per cent of existing Commission staff,'' the note said.

It surfaced on the day EU governments met Commission officials and European Parliament representatives to demand spending cuts in an already austere budget draft for next year.

The Commission protested vocally against member states' plans to slash some 1 billion euros (1.27 billion dollars) in spending from the 126.8 billion euros that the executive proposed in May, a Commission official said.

EU Budget Commissioner Dalia Grybauskaite believes such cuts would make it impossible for the Commission to meet a commitment to hire next year 800 officials from the mostly east European countries that joined the EU in 2004.

But the governments say EU spending must be controlled tightly at a time when many member states are struggling to tame high budget deficits.

Governments argue that even after the 2007 budget reduction, there would still be more than 500 new hires next year, diplomats said.

Grybauskaite has said that in real terms, accounting for inflation and economic growth, and excluding funds for Bulgaria and Romania which are expected to join the EU next year, the budget is already smaller than in 2006.

In terms of actual payments, rather than budget lines that can be used after 2007, governments want to cut the budget by 1.8 billion euros from 116.4 billion euros.

Nearly 50 per cent of the EU's budget is spent on farm subsidies and rural development, about one third on regional aid and the rest on administration, security and foreign aid.

REUTERS PKS ND1718