What changed between the draft committee report and the plenary report

Removed:43. Notes that DG COMM’s final appropriations amounted to EUR 151 176 035 in 2023, representing 6,9 % of Parliament’s budget; highlights that, of that amount, a total of EUR 151 156 839 was committed; welcomes the high use of appropriations;

Removed:44. Underlines that DG COMM's communication efforts are focused on helping citizens to understand what Parliament is, what it does and what it stands for; notes that this goal is undertaken via several key pillars: media, multipliers (ranging from stakeholders to online content creators) and citizens themselves (i.e. via the visitors offer); welcomes the fact that DG COMM applies a data-driven strategy and evaluation method, while ensuring that all communication is undertaken in a strategic, integrated and consistent way;

Removed:45. Notes that 2023 was a special year for DG COMM due to preparation for the 2024 European Elections (EE24); welcomes the focus placed on so-called "delivery" communication, including a strong focus on communicating the decisions taken by Parliament and their impact on people's lives; welcomes DG COMM’s efforts to enlist various multipliers to promote the message of the election; notes that collaboration extended across private companies, civil society organisations, inter-institutional partners, and international organisations; notes that media engagement was pivotal, involving the development of new tools and actions, including grant schemes, management-led tours to meet key media figures and efforts to counter misinformation;

Removed:46. Highlights that DG COMM’s centrally orchestrated actions and strategies were mirrored and extended on the ground in each Member State through the EPLOs; notes that these offices serve as vital bridges between Members and national media, stakeholders, and citizens; highlights that the EPLOs also played a crucial role in expanding the Europa Experience interactive spaces,; remarks that these spaces serve as tangible sources for explaining European elections to citizens on the ground;

Removed:47. Highlights that the eleven Europa Experience centres, already running in the Member States, provide Members with a unique and effective communication tool, which allows local visitors and their specific audiences to feel Parliament closer than ever in their capital cities; notes with satisfaction that with the 2024 European Elections and beyond in mind, the rollout of the Europa Experience interactive spaces continued with three new Europa Experiences opening their doors in Stockholm, Warsaw and Vienna; notes that the exhibitions were upgraded to relay the key messages of the EE24 campaign and the together.eu community, with the aim of providing Members and Liaison Offices with tailored elections venues in 2024;

Removed:48. Notes that the initial plan to establish 27 Europa Experience centres across all Member States by the end of 2024 has not materialised in full, with only 13 centres currently open and experiencing varying levels of visitor engagement; acknowledges that certain sites very successfully attract considerable public, while others struggle to reach a broad audience; welcomes the Secretary-General’s announcement to reassess the original rollout plan, taking into account the performance, cost-effectiveness, and visitor usage of the existing exhibitions;

Removed:49. Underlines the importance of thoroughly evaluating the lessons learned so far, in particular the search for adequate buildings and access for target groups, identifying best practices, and adapting the future development of Europa Experience centres to local needs and demonstrated impact; stresses that this reassessment should guide future adjustments or reconsiderations in further expansion, ensuring that any future investments are more efficient in serving their intended purpose of bringing Parliament closer to citizens and improving their understanding of the Union’s democratic process;

Removed:50. Notes that an audit on the payment of visitor groups was launched in 2019, the final report of which was received in February 2021; highlights that the report contains a 14-point action plan with implementation due dates to reinforce the management and the control framework; remarks that out of these actions, only five fall entirely within the remit of what DG COMM can implement autonomously, whereas the remaining ones can only be accomplished through a revision of the rules governing the invitation of visitor groups; notes that these new rules on payment of subsidies for sponsored visitor groups were adopted by the Bureau on 11 September 2023, with an entry into force date of 1 January 2024;

Removed:51. Highlights that 2023 was the year of the 5th edition of the European Youth Event in the month of June; notes that there were over 8 500 participants in Strasbourg and a further 10 000 reached via online streaming; highlights that the event included 325 activities with 400 speakers, among them 35 Members, all co-created with young people; notes with satisfaction that the 2023 edition was a great way to raise awareness about the European elections, allowing young people to express their hopes and ideas for the future of the Union;

Removed:52. Notes the constant struggle that the Union faces with regard to safeguarding Union values and the integrity of the democratic process; acknowledges the growing attempts by foreign actors to influence the work of Parliament and emphasises the need for vigilance in countering disinformation campaigns originating outside the Union; welcomes the actions taken by Parliament to prevent and react to disinformation; while recognising that no significant incident has yet occurred, stresses the importance of maintaining proactive measures to preserve the integrity of Parliament's public debate and votes; highlights the added value of initiatives like fact-checking meetings and summits, which play a crucial role in fostering transparency, equipping stakeholders with tools to counter misinformation, and strengthening collaboration among fact-checking organisations within and beyond the Union;

Removed:Directorate-General for Personnel

Removed:53. Recalls that the Directorate-General for Personnel (DG PERS) is responsible for the appropriate and efficient management of human resources within Parliament and ensures that Members are supported by a highly skilled workforce to enable them to duly fulfil their mandate; notes that by 31 December 2023, there were 475 members of staff, of which 294 were officials, 64 were temporary agents, 106 were contract agents, 1 seconded national expert and 10 agency members of staff;

Removed:54. Notes that DG PERS’s final appropriations amounted to EUR 1 163 329 780 in 2023, representing 50,1 % of Parliament’s budget; highlights that, of that amount, a total of EUR 1 160 835 147 was committed; welcomes the high use of appropriations;

Removed:55. Notes that, in 2023, DG PERS organised competitions and selection processes, handling an increasing pool of applicants; welcomes the efforts made by DG PERS to organise competitions, ensuring their completion on time and maintaining the necessary quality standards; welcomes that over 401 candidates were successfully shortlisted on reserve lists, thereby bolstering the recruitment efforts of various Directorates-General; regrets however that the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) has encountered systematic issues with the organisation of competitions and the lack of an available pool of candidates suited for Parliament’s needs; acknowledges the general difficulties encountered by DG PERS and other DGs in attracting and retaining talent, which has an impact on the performance of Parliament’s workforce; calls for more efficient, better targeted and shorter selection procedures that would result in increasing the attractiveness of Parliament as an employer and allow the Directorates-General to speedily recruit the specialist profiles needed to support their work;

Removed:56. Welcomes Parliament’s first-ever nationality-specific competitions with the aim of improving the geographical balance of Parliament’s members of staff by offering a wider pool of candidates from underrepresented Member States; regrets the lack of geographical balance within Parliament’s senior and middle management; insists that improvements are needed and asks the Secretary General to report back on the progress achieved in correcting the geographical imbalance within Parliament’s staff to the discharge authority;

Removed:57. Acknowledges that several Directorates-General have expressed their concerns about attracting talent and specialised profiles that are essential to carry out Parliament’s core business; notes that only services that are essential may be considered for a potential internalisation exercise; highlights that some services are carried out by external service providers due to their specific nature, which does not meet the conditions for internalisation; is therefore of the opinion that the services not meeting these conditions cannot be considered for internalisation by the governing bodies;

Removed:58. Notes that, in 2023, DG PERS played a leading role in the social dialogue with the interpreters’ representatives, with the Director-General for Personnel having been mandated by the President to lead negotiations in close cooperation with DG LINC; highlights that improved working conditions for interpreters were successfully adopted in autumn 2023; notes that the improved conditions enabled a return to regular interpretation capacity after a period of reduced maximum weekly working hours that was introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, while also addressing concerns about the potential impact on staff wellbeing and auditory health related to interpretation of remote speakers; remarks that the social dialogue that was created in the course of the negotiations has proven very useful in the negotiations that began in the autumn of 2023 on a new framework agreement with trade unions and staff associations ; acknowledges that the work of interpreters depends largely on the quality of the technical equipment in order to avoid unnecessary obstacles in their working environment; notes that Members have in some instances observed a difference in the quality of interpretation between languages during committee meetings and calls on DG LINC to address this matter;

Removed:59. Welcomes the work done by DG PERS with Accredited Parliamentary Assistants (APAs); highlights that the Staff Front Office Unit provided a wide range of educational events, namely 62 info-sessions for staff including APAs, in addition to four webinars on retirement, two on contract termination, and seven conferences covering legal topics such as international taxation and inheritance law; welcomes the APAs Front Office Unit as a support and information source for APAs and Members; notes that in 2023 DG PERS played a critical role in preparing a proposal to the Bureau for a revision of the rules governing the employment conditions for APAs; highlights that those amendments introduced a degree of flexibility, in particular by allowing for the possibility of a mutually agreed termination of an APA contract;

Removed:60. Acknowledges that the work of APAs is an integral part of the work of Members and therefore of Parliament; notes that following the adoption of the APA statute in 2009, their status over the years has been protected by the rules; notes the efforts made by Parliament to create a framework for providing support to APAs; calls for due adherence to the rules in place; notes, that since then, APAs participate in official missions to Parliament’s three places of work; welcomes that the rules concerning the reimbursement of APA’s missions between the three place of work have been aligned with those applicable to officials, ensuring equality of treatment for APAs;

Removed:61. Notes with great concern the reports of a data breach centered on Parliament’s recruitment application PEOPLE, affecting mainly non-permanent Parliament staff, including APAs; regrets that the data breach involved ID card details, birth certificates, diplomas, employment history, medical records, rights to entitlements, insurance and documents related to proof of work dating back up to 10 years; calls on the administration to thoroughly investigate the incident, build safeguards to better protect private information and prevent another leak of data stored in recruitment databases while assessing why certain sensitive documents were stored for such long periods in the first place; calls on the responsible DGs to jointly report back to the Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control about the investigation and the details of the attacks, the search for the attackers, cooperation with EUROPOL and OLAF to investigate the incident, and measures taken following the attack, in particular the minimisation of data storage of private information;

Removed:62. Notes that, in 2023, DG PERS enhanced its recruitment processes, in particular contract staff recruitment through the management of the contract staff contracts platform (AC-People), improving electronic signatures, contract termination procedures, and grade calculations; notes that the completion of the functional analysis for the management of the permanent and temporary agents contracts platform (FT-People), aiming to manage recruitment files for officials and temporary agents, aligns with DG PERS’ goals for efficiency and for a paperless process;

Removed:63. Welcomes that the Missions Unit successfully deployed the eMiss application for electronic mission order processing, achieving a significant milestone in 2023 with the completion of its first phase, improving the operational efficiency of Parliament’s staff; welcomes that the Payroll Unit made significant strides in salary management through the semi-automation of shift allowances for security agents, representing thousands of transactions, and finalising a dashboard for managing individual rights; highlights that these advancements significantly improved operations within the unit;

Removed:64. Notes that, in 2023, DG PERS finalised the implementation of the Gender Action Plan and its accompanying roadmap and advanced with the Diversity Roadmap, implementing supporting measures regarding disability, sexual orientation, gender identity and racism; highlights that measures included conducting surveys on racial and ethnic diversity, integrating a third non-binary option in administrative forms, introducing special leave to facilitate the arrival of a new-born child to a household in cases where none of the parents receiving a child meet the conditions to benefit from maternity or adoption leave and improvements in physical or digital accessibility; remarks that with these actions, DG PERS supported the High-Level Group on Gender Equality and Diversity in its quest to make Parliament a leading example for inclusion in the Union and the world through mainstreaming gender equality and diversity within all its operations;

Removed:65. Notes that, based on the decision adopted by the Bureau in April 2023 that modified the calculation of the Luxembourgish social allowance provided to agents in Luxembourg with a basic salary below the minimum wage for qualified workers in Luxembourg, retroactively effective from January 2023, a comprehensive review of the files of the concerned colleagues was undertaken; highlights that as a result, 712 adjustments were implemented during payroll processing in June 2023;

Removed:66. Welcomes the review of the teleworking rules carried out by the Secretary-General in close cooperation with DG PERS and all DGs; notes that the new rules offer increased flexibility, effectively balancing the operational efficiency of the institution with the well-being and satisfaction of Parliament’s staff, impacting the attractiveness of Parliament as an employer;

Removed:67. Welcomes the possibility for staff to telework from abroad for five days per year; calls for a proactive monitoring and evaluation of the new ways of working;

Removed:Directorate-General for Infrastructure and Logistics

Removed:68. Recalls that the Directorate-General for Infrastructure and Logistics (DG INLO) manages facilities covering 1,3 million m2 in Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg, as well as the Liaison Offices and Europa Experience facilities in Member States; notes that DG INLO also provides catering and transport, and manages and equips Parliament’s office and meeting spaces; notes that by 31 December 2023, DG INLO was made up of 642 members of staff, of which 252 were officials, 50 were temporary staff, 339 were contract staff, and 1 Agency member of staff;

Removed:69. Notes that DG INLO’s final appropriations amounted to EUR 223 331 000 in 2023, representing 10,5 % of Parliament’s budget; highlights that, of that amount, a total of EUR 221 658 618 was committed; welcomes the high use of appropriations;

Removed:70. Welcomes that throughout 2023, the administration continued the implementation of Parliament’s ‘Building Strategy Beyond 2019’ as endorsed by the Bureau in April 2018;

Removed:71. Takes note of major building projects in 2023, and in particular, the construction progress of the West Wing of the ADENAUER II building in Luxembourg, which reached 90 % completion and which, when finished, will bring all Parliament staff and services under the same roof; in this respect notes that an intra-DG appropriation of EUR 13 037 813 was mobilised to finance the extraordinary indexation costs; notes that the construction progress of the Europa Experience facility in Luxembourg reached 46 %; notes the signing of the long-term lease for the VEIL building in Strasbourg, with preliminary works conducted for the initial fit-out necessary to facilitate the building's occupation starting in autumn 2023; notes that the works to secure the entrance of the WEISS building were 84 % completed at the end of 2023, and that the renovation of the CHURCHILL restaurant and the establishment of the multiservice space in the DE MADARIAGA building were completed, and the opening ceremony took place in December 2023;

Removed:72. Takes note that during its meeting on 12 June 2023, the Bureau discussed the next steps for the renewal of the SPAAK building; notes that the Bureau expressed a preference for a comprehensive environmental renovation and approved the project on 11 December 2023; stresses that the SPAAK building has been in use since 1993 and is approaching the end of its life cycle in its current state; underlines that a renovation has the aim of achieveing a high-quality environmental renewal of the building, while preserving its architectural design and its functionalities; highlights that this would result in a nearly zero-energy building, a zero emission building, a proactive rainwater management system, and the lowering of the carbon footprint by means of circularity and life-cycle assessment of materials; appreciates that the SPAAK renewal project will be used as a reference for sustainable building techniques; notes the ambitious renovation is expected to be completed in time for the 200th Jubilee of the Kingdom of Belgium in July 2030;

Removed:73. Welcomes the fact that the renovation works for the hemicycle in the SPAAK building align with the conclusions of airflow studies conducted after the COVID-19 crisis to evaluate the ventilation of heavily used areas; notes that those works were 80 % completed at the end of 2023, with the final phase scheduled for May 2024;

Removed:74. Welcomes the completion of the renovation works for the multifunctional restaurant facility in the SPINELLI building, which opened on 24 April 2023;

Removed:75. Takes note that a permit for the Citizens’ House renovation project was obtained from local authorities in February 2023, highlights that works were estimated to begin in mid-2024 and were expected to conclude by the end of 2025; welcomes that Parliament wanted to incorporate a green space amenity into the visitor circuit and create a meeting space for Members, European citizens and civil society representatives; notes that, due to the building’s protected heritage status, the current strengthened environmental and energy performance criteria outlined in the new European Fit for 55 legislation, as well as the severe economic impact of the war in Ukraine, the initial budget of EUR 1,9 million presented to Members in 2017 increased to EUR 5,36 million and calls on DG INLO and DG COMM to evaluate how to better incorporate external factors into their planning that might lead to significant cost increases;

Removed:76. Takes note that the strategic approach of 'going local' and 'closer to the citizen' in implementing Europa Experiences continued throughout 2023; notes that in the course of the year, three Europa Experience facilities were opened to the public in Stockholm, Vienna, and Warsaw; highlights that by the end of 2023, 50 % of the planned Europa Experience facilities had been opened;

Removed:77. Notes that the Bureau has established an Environmental Management System (EMS) for the institution in accordance with the European standard for eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS) under Regulation (EC) No 1221/2009 ('EMAS III'); highlights that Parliament's three places of work have been listed in the European EMAS register since 2007; welcomes that, in 2023, Parliament successfully updated the registration to include the ADENAUER II building in Luxembourg;

Removed:78. Welcomes that in early 2023, the Parliament’s Guide for Socially Responsible Public Procurement was adopted by the Public Procurement Forum , which also manages the Green Public Procurement Helpdesk service, in coordination with 23 other participating Union Institutions and Agencies; notes that a Working Group on Sustainable Public Procurement was established with the mandate to continually monitor and exchange best practices on sustainable procurement methods;

Removed:Directorate-General for Translation

Removed:79. Recalls that the Directorate-General for Translation (DG TRAD) is responsible for the provision of high-quality multilingual legislation and other linguistic services to Parliament, Parliament’s services and all citizens of the Union, based on the principle of full resource-efficient multilingualism; notes that by 31 December 2023, DG TRAD was comprised of 1 161 members of staff, of which 950 were officials, 109 were temporary agents, 88 were contract agents, and 14 were agency members of staff;

Removed:80. Notes that DG TRAD’s final appropriations amounted to EUR 20 242 272 in 2023, representing 0,8 % of Parliament’s budget; highlights that, of that amount, a total of EUR 20 021 717 was committed; welcomes the high use of appropriations;

Removed:81. Notes that, in 2023, over 2,96 million gross pages were translated and edited; acknowledges that this represents a 2,7 % increase compared to 2022, owing to the cyclical nature of translation demand; remarks that the demand for DG TRAD’s services traditionally increases steadily during the legislative term; highlights that this continued to be the case in 2023, the fourth full year following the elections in 2019; notes with satisfaction that on-time delivery was 98,9 % in normal circumstances, and 98,2 % when the requested deadlines did not comply with the rules of the Code of Conduct on Multilingualism;

Removed:82. Notes that, in 2023, in addition to supporting the plenary work, legislative, budgetary, discharge and scrutiny processes, and external action activities, DG TRAD continued to promote and produce content in Citizens’ language; recalls that this is Parliament’s own approach to clear language in formats adapted to people’s needs (text, audio and video) and in the 24 official Union languages; notes that DG TRAD undertook various actions to promote this policy, including training courses on clear language that were offered to drafters and authors from all across Parliament, comprising a total of over 1 000 participants; notes that DG TRAD continued to produce subtitles in 24 languages, delivering, for example, the subtitles of the five nominated films of the 2023 LUX Audience Awards edition and ensuring that the winner was subtitled for audiences who are deaf and hard of hearing;

Removed:83. Notes that, in 2023, DG TRAD produced 343 audio programmes (for a total of 6 667 language versions) and notes with concern that these platforms reached an audience of 9 394 plays for the Europarl Radio website and app and 28 096 plays for commercial audio platforms; notes the cooperation with Union radio stations in 2023 involved 25 radio stations in Austria, Cyprus, Finland, France, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden; notes that Parliament has not reported the number of listeners obtained from this cooperation; notes that the audio-related tasks represent around 25 % of the work of the DG TRAD’s Directorate for Citizen’s Language; notes that the core team for audio programmes comprises four sound engineers and five producers in Luxembourg (all temporary and contractual agents); calls on DG TRAD to use the resources employed for audio programmes in a more efficient way, and potentially reassign the resources to activities with higher outreach;

Removed:84. Notes that 2023 was a year of preparation of the groundwork for new outsourcing tenders which will be published in 2024 for all 24 languages; highlights that the goal is for the new contracts to enter into force in 2025; notes that the Enlargement and non-EU Languages Unit was up and running in 2023, contributing to Parliament’s activities in supporting Ukraine; remarks that DG TRAD provides linguistic services in Ukrainian, including translations, audio products and subtitles for a dedicated website “Stand with Ukraine”; notes that it also covers translations into Russian, Arabic and soon, Chinese, and coordinates the external translation and quality control of documents in any other non-EU language;

Removed:85. Welcomes that DG TRAD, together with DG PERS, successfully recruited Intercultural and Language Professionals from the second round of competitions organised in 2022 and that in addition, a new round of competitions was launched for five more languages; highlights that this cooperation makes the recruitment of highly qualified officials with updated and forward-looking profiles significantly quicker and has been another step towards achieving full coverage of all language needs;

Removed:86. Welcomes that DG TRAD already harnesses the power of technology in its machine translation tools and has embarked on a journey towards artificial intelligence for its IT landscape, by exploring how this can be integrated in its workflows; welcomes that DG TRAD has explored potential options in view of a Single Digital Workflow Tool; highlights the work done on the DG TRAD Speech-to-text tool increased its coverage of languages to all 24 official languages of the Union; remarks that the tool can automatically transcribe and translate multilingual parliamentary debates in real time, highlights that the innovation partnership to develop and acquire the tool has come to an end, and the preparations to implement the tool in Parliament’s infrastructure have begun; asks DG TRAD to quantify how the implementation of such new technologies will help to achieve financial savings and contribute to synergies in Parliament’s workflow;

Removed:Directorate-General for Logistics and Interpretation for Conferences

Removed:87. Recalls that the Directorate-General for Logistics and Interpretation for Conferences (DG LINC) is responsible for providing linguistic, technical and logistical support for meetings and conferences; notes that by 31 December 2023, there were 710 members of staff, of which 432 were officials, 36 were temporary agents, 88 were contract agents and 154 were agency members of staff; highlights that the quality of the interpretation provided has a direct impact on the message conveyed to the citizens of the Union;

Removed:88. Notes that DG LINC’s final appropriations amounted to EUR 76 681 673 in 2023 representing 3,2 % of Parliament’s budget; highlights that, of that amount, a total of EUR 76 442 728 was committed; welcomes the high use of appropriations;

Removed:89. Notes that a total of 22 169 meetings were organised by Parliament in 2023, and the Directorate-General's interpreters, conference technicians, ushers and support staff played a crucial role in servicing those meetings during a busy pre-election year; notes that of those meetings, 5 534 took place with interpretation; notes that 46 039 conference participants registered in Parliament’s events registration platform managed by DG LINC;

Removed:90. Welcomes that a milestone was reached in the social dialogue with interpreters' representatives when improved working conditions for interpreters were adopted in the autumn of 2023; notes that those conditions enabled a return to regular interpretation capacity after a period of reduced maximum weekly working hours introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, while also addressing concerns about the potential impact of poor sound quality related to interpretation of remote speakers on staff wellbeing and auditory health;

Removed:91. Notes that increases in the remuneration of external conference interpreter agents required careful management of resources available; notes that further actions were needed to consolidate and further enhance conference technology (including interpretation and meeting room equipment and remote meeting participation), in an environment of growing cost pressure and unstable supply chains; welcomes that DG LINC actively tracked the evolution of its budget and organised a number of budget transfers;

Removed:92. Notes that further improvements were made to the quality of hybrid meetings through its technical support services, which serviced a total of 3 007 hybrid meetings, as well as by adding new features to the multilingual videoconferencing platform;

Removed:Directorate-General for Finance

Removed:93. Recalls that the Directorate-General for Finance (DG FINS) is the administrative body responsible for Parliament’s budgetary and financial affairs; notes that by 31 December 2023, there were 243 members of staff, of which 147 were officials, 27 were temporary agents, 62 were contract agents, and 7 were agency members of staff;

Removed:94. Notes that DG FINS’s final appropriations amounted to EUR 400 593 290 in 2023, representing 19,3 % of Parliament’s budget; highlights that, of that amount, a total of EUR 399 173 592 was committed; welcomes the high use of appropriations;

Removed:95. Notes that 2023 was a special year for DG FINS in that it was the year preceding the European elections, which took place in June 2024; notes that expansion in Members’ activities in 2023 was reflected in an increased workload in a number of areas for which DG FINS is responsible, in particular travel arrangements (25 % more bookings) and travel-related reimbursements (+7,1 %);

Removed:96. Recommends that DG FINS establishes a risk-based approach to controlling and auditing Members; acknowledges that is essential to have a baseline level of control to ensure compliance with the rules; welcomes the fact that in the event of doubtful expenditure by a Member, the administration has every right to control the funds concerned; underlines, however, that an approach of general suspicion towards Members, by continuously increasing the number of rules to a degree and complexity that Members and their offices struggle to fully comply, creates legal certainty only for the administration; stresses that Members and their offices must also be assured of legal certainty;

Removed:97. Acknowledges the problem of attracting staff in Luxembourg, where 37 % of DG FINS posts are based and notes that the recruitment difficulties stem mainly from the disparity in remuneration levels on the labour market and the difference in the cost of living, particularly in relation to housing; calls on DG FINS, DG PERS and DG PRES to address this issue and work out a dedicated plan to create incentives to fill vacancies or consider the relocation of some urgently needed staff to Brussels where the labour market offers better conditions;