A major overhaul of the EU’s executive branch has staffers worried for their livelihoods, as the bloc sets its sights on delivering value for money and doing more for less.
In other hand, EU is considering spending €1.1 billion to renovate one of its main power centres in Brussels, Euractiv can reveal.
According to internal documents, EU governments are preparing a major overhaul of the Council of the EU’s Justus Lipsius headquarters, where European diplomats hold thousands of meetings a year negotiating new laws.
The splurge comes at a time of tightened purse strings across the continent, and amid already tense negotiations on the next seven-year EU budget, with countries like Germany ruling out more spending.
The Council argues in the documents in favour of a “profound” renovation that would align the 30-year-old building with EU energy standards.
The Justus Lipsius building, which sits directly across from the European Commission in Brussels’ EU quarter, “already falls within the category of worst performing buildings,” one of the documents states.
Security concerns are also a motivating factor, according the documents, which outline the need for “better blast protection,” because threats have increased since the 1990s.
The Council currently occupies three nearby buildings in the heart of Brussels’ EU quarter: the Justus Lipsius, the more modern Europa building – opened in 2017 and now hosting EU leaders’ summits – and the LEX building.
The Council was planning to revamp its buildings into a two-building campus.
The total cost of renovating the Justus Lipsius building is estimated at €803 million, with the assumption that the EU could recoup €65 million by selling the LEX building.
However, the Council – which brings together national diplomats and ministers –has not yet decided on how it will finance the project.
The institution has identified two options: either a boost to the Council’s budget or a loan, which would also require an increase to cover repayments. These two options could also be merged, the Council says.
If the Council takes out a loan to cover the project, the additional interest repayments costs are estimated at over €300 million, with total costs therefore reaching over €1.1 billion.
The Council is expected to report back to EU ambassadors by the end of the year or early next year with financing recommendations for the first phase, covering the tender process, an in-depth feasibility study, and the formal building permit request to Brussels authorities.
After four years of planning, construction should start in 2029. Then construction will keep going until 2035, with the building reopening the following year.
So far, “no major objections” have been raised by member countries to the current plan, one of the documents states.
On Tuesday, the European Commission’s TAO staff association wrote to its tens of thousands of employees in Brussels, calling on management to ensure that the voices of rank-and-file workers are heard as part of what the Commission has called an ongoing “large-scale review” of the civil service.
The bloc’s budget and public administration chief, Piotr Serafin, has been asked to conduct the reassessment to bring about a “modern, efficient public administration to deliver on our political priorities,” while reducing both complexity “and, where possible, costs.”
According to the TAO, “this change cannot come about without discussing with staff to co-build new ways of working.” The email warns “it is impossible to pave the way for a new Commission organization based on simple polls or consultations — we must therefore involve staff through its representative trade unions from the outset.”
The working group responsible for the restructuring, advised by former Commission Secretary-General Catherine Day, has held a series of workshops with staff.
In their notes, senior Commissionofficials warn the review will now have to navigate a “loss of trust” among their teams and tackle “perceived hidden agendas or lack of transparency [that] can endanger change efforts.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Commission insisted that “staff members will be an important stakeholder throughout the review process … Staff representatives will also be engaged once the review starts in Autumn.”
The push for a more streamlined administration comes as Commission President Ursula von der Leyen seeks to ensure the service can respond faster to changing geopolitical situations, with potential mergers of departments under consideration. The review’s recommendations will be delivered by the end of 2026.
However, without a clear sense of which jobs — if any — could be cut or restructured, fears are growing that junior staff could be the ones bearing the brunt.
“Those who have an indefinite contract have a bit less of a worry about losing their job, at least so far,” said one mid-level official granted anonymity to speak about the mood inside the Commission. “They’re more worried about losing some of their benefits or employer contributions.”
“The ones who are more at risk are the ones on short-term contracts and contract agents,” the official added. “They are who we need to support right now and they don’t have representation because they are afraid of being vocal and to participate in trade unions. They tend to be like phantoms, they don’t want to be exposed so you don’t hear their voice.”
According to a 2023 staffing breakdown, over a quarter of the Commission’s more than 30,000 staff are temporary or contract workers. Responsible for delivering the EU’s day-to-day administrative functions, they include researchers, lawyers, policy officers and translators.
================
If you feel powerless to help Gaza, you still has a choice: donate. When so much of what exists is false, authenticity is a powerful weapon we can wield that the state never could. So if you feel lost, hopeless, depressed, angry and afraid, I implore you to return - again - again - and again - to the feeling of love that exists within you that brought you here in the first place. It is only through this that we can remake the world. To redress Gaza’s famine, displacement, and destruction, independent and impartial humanitarian organizations - UN agencies, international and national NGOs - must be allowed to deliver relief at scale. To salvage Gaza’s people from the devastation inflicted by Israel, it must be unified with the West Bank to form an independent and sovereign Palestinian State, not to be parceled and colonized by the former.
Meanwhile, children continue to be shredded by US bombs, and the starvation reaches new depths of hellish collective punishment. If both parties are going to continue to support an ongoing genocide, at least they can both be honest about doing so, rather than having one openly bloodthirsty party, and another—unconvincingly—playing the role of powerless, bumbling humanitarian.
Please keep donate Gaza especially if you, as reader, has [background] International Relation [whatever universities]. IR Graduate means [you must, at least] get some semester [about] studying Middle East [in macro, not specifically Gaza].
We need more people to share fundraisers instead of only talking about Gaza. Some people think that those in Gaza don’t need money but that’s wrong. Almost everyone lost their source of income while essentials, food & medicine get sold for astronomical prices. So I put my attempt in all social media as I can, in twitter / X, in substack [since October 2023 I put link donation], in bluesky or bsky, in threads, in instagram.
Link to donate World Food Programme - Palestine appeal: click here
Most campaign shared or circulated in social media are for REAL people in Gaza. They’re legit. There are a lot of small campaigns for struggling families. This is their only lifeline. By donating & sharing, you are literally making history and alleviating part of their pain
Please do not rely on me alone for sharing your campaign. I’m only 1 person and sometimes I’m not online which is unreliable. I never ignore anybody on purpose but I have a very limited capacity & very little energy and time.
[Refaat Rafiq Alareer IF I MUST DIE]Refaat Rafiq Alareer was extremely hungry, November 2023, days before Refaat killed by Israel airstrike. If November 2023 already [one-by-one Gazan] extremely famine, extremely hungry, imagine October 2025 or 2 years Israel’s Genocide in Gaza.
