2.10.2002 Official Journal of the European Communities L 2645 COUNCIL REGULATION (EC, EURATOM) No 1747/2002 of 30 September 2002 introducing, in the context of the modernisation of the institution, special measures to terminate the service of officials of the European Communities appointed to an established post in the Council of the European Union THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Commu- nity, and in particular Article 283 thereof, Having regard to the Commission proposal submitted after receiving the opinion of the Staff Regulations Committee, Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament ("), Having regard to the opinion of the Court of Justice (), Having regard to the opinion of the Court of Auditors (), Whereas: (1) The Treaty on European Union has extended the scope of the Council's activities and has in consequence increased the role and tasks of its General Secretariat. (2)  The General Secretariat of the Council meets a significant part of its needs through internal rationalisation and redeployment. (3)  The General Secretariat of the Council is taking the necessary steps, mainly through training, to help rede- ployed staff to adjust in the most satisfactory and effec- tive way possible. 4) However, the skills of a section of officials, who have reached the age of 55 and who have completed at least 15 years of service, are deemed to be too far removed from the duties to be performed. (5 The General Secretariat of the Council needs new skill profiles and a rebalancing of its establishment plan, but the number of officials retiring in the normal way will not be sufficient to allow the necessary skills to be acquired through recruiting new officials within a satis- factory timescale. (6)  Special measures should accordingly be adopted with regard to termination of service together with internal administrative arrangements for effective monitoring of the implementation of this Regulation. (7)  These measures must be applied as far as possible with due regard for geographical balance, in compliance with the provisions of this Regulation. (8)  These measures must be budget-neutral. To this end a monitoring mechanism should be set up by the budgetary authority, (") Opinion delivered on 24 September 2002 (not yet published in the Official Journal). (%) Opinion delivered on 15 May 2002. () O] C 236, 1.10.2002, p. 4. HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: Article 1 The General Secretariat of the Council is hereby authorised, in the interests of the service and in order to take account of the need to renew skills arising from the refocusing of the use of its resources on priority activities, to adopt measures up to 31 December 2004 for terminating the service, within the meaning of Article 47 of the Staff Regulations, of officials who have reached the age of 55 and have completed at least 15 years service, with the exception of those in Grades A 1 and A 2, under the conditions specified in this Regulation. Article 2 The total number of officials to be covered by the measures referred to in Article 1 shall be 94 (12 As, 22 LAs, 8 Bs, 44 Cs, and 8 Ds). Respect for budgetary neutrality shall be monitored during the annual budget procedure. To this end, the Appointing Authority shall, taking into account the link between the number of officials whose service was terminated and the number of officials recruited, report to the budgetary authority at the appropriate time, certifying that the condition of budgetary neutrality is met. Article 3 Within the ceilings laid down in Article 2, and with due regard to the interests of the service, the General Secretariat of the Council, after having consulted its Joint Committee, shall select, from among the officials applying for termination of their service under Article 1, those to whom it wishes to apply this measure. It shall consider as a priority officials affected by the reorganisa- tion measures and measures for refocusing the use of its resources on priority activities, in particular redeployment, whose skills are deemed to be too far removed from the duties to be performed. It shall take account of the amount of training necessary for them to undertake new tasks, their age, ability, performance, conduct in the service, family circumstances and length of service.