Article 2 Provisions applicable to all employees
Authority
Employees shall be subject to the authority of the Director and responsible to him for the performance of their duties, which they shall undertake to carry out as scrupulously and conscientiously as possible.
Declaration
On accepting engagement with the European Union Satellite Centre each employee shall subscribe to the following declaration:
‘I solemnly undertake to exercise in all loyalty, discretion and conscience the functions entrusted to me as employee of the European Union Satellite Centre, and to discharge these functions with only the interests of the Centre in view. I further undertake not to seek or accept instructions in regard to the performance of my duties from any government or from any authority other than the Centre.’
Conduct
Employees shall conduct themselves at all times in a manner compatible with their status as representatives of the European Union Satellite Centre. They shall abstain from any action or activity that may in any way undermine the dignity of their position or the good name of the Centre.
Responsibility
An employee may be required to make good, in whole or in part, any damage suffered by the Centre as a result of serious misconduct on his part in the course of or in connection with the performance of his duties.
A reasoned decision shall be given by the Director in accordance with the procedure laid down in Annex IX.
The Appeals Board shall have unlimited jurisdiction in disputes arising under this provision.
Security
Employees shall, on engagement, acquaint themselves with the Centre’s security regulations. They shall sign a declaration whereby they acknowledge their disciplinary and financial responsibility in the event of non-compliance with those regulations.
All employees may be required to have security clearance giving them access to classified documents in the course of their duties. A request for such clearance will be addressed to the competent authorities by the Centre. Pending official clearance, temporary access to classified information may be granted by the Director in exceptional cases and emergencies.
Employees shall inform the Security Officer immediately in the event of the suspected loss or compromise of a classified document.
Assistance and compensation
The Centre shall provide assistance to employees who, by reason of their current appointment or duties at the Centre, and through no fault of their own, are subject to threats, insults, defamation or attack. Compensation for any material damage sustained may be granted provided that:
the employee has not wilfully or through negligence provoked the damage in question;
no redress has been obtained;
employees make over to the Centre any claims they may have against a third party, in particular insurance companies.
All decisions in this matter that could involve action or payments by the Centre shall be taken by the Director, who has a discretionary power to assess the circumstances of the case and to decide what form the assistance should take and what compensation, if any, should be granted.
Proprietary rights
All rights, including title, copyright and patent rights, in any work carried out by an employee in the performance of his official duties, shall be vested in the Centre.
External activities
An employee shall not without the permission of the Director accept from any government or from any other source outside the Centre any honour, decoration, favour, gift or payment of any kind whatever, except for services rendered either before his appointment or during special leave for military or other national service and in respect of such service.
Employees shall abstain from any public action or statement or publication if such action, statement or publication is incompatible with the duties or obligations of an international civil servant or liable to involve the moral or material responsibility of the Centre.
An employee shall not hold any post or have any regular or paid occupation outside the Centre without the Director’s permission.
An employee may not directly or indirectly hold such interests in a commercial firm as could, by their nature, compromise his independence in the discharge of his duties in the Centre.
If the spouse or the registered partner of an employee is in gainful employment, the employee shall inform the Director. Should the nature of the employment prove to be incompatible with that of the employee and if the employee is unable to give an undertaking that it will cease within a specified period, the Director shall, after consulting the Staff Committee, decide whether the employee shall continue in his post or be transferred to another post.
Candidacy for public or political office
Employees who for personal reasons wish to stand for public or political office shall notify the Director of this intention.
Any employee who stands for public or political office shall be given unpaid leave starting on the date he declares that he is beginning his electoral campaign.
If elected, the employee shall request termination of his contract. Such termination shall not carry any entitlement to loss-of-job indemnity.
If he does not accept the public or political office, the employee shall be entitled to resume his appointment with the same salary and seniority from which he benefited at the time his unpaid leave began.
Time spent on unpaid leave shall not count towards seniority.