Team size: Two

Key team members: Constantin Fladerer and Monika Niedermüller

Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?

We have developed guidelines and a risk assessment process which allow us to assess whether our activities meet the non-profit requirements under the Austrian Federal Fiscal Code with greater certainty.

This innovative process is crucial for us to maintain REEEP’s legal status as a Quasi-International Organisation under Austrian Law. Quasi-International Organisations have a special legal status in Austria and internationally and enjoy privileges such as access to the labour market for employees and their relatives, an exemption from income tax for employees. To maintain this status, several criteria need to be fulfilled. One of these criteria is that essentially all activities carried out by REEEP qualify as non-profit activities. Therefore, REEEP can implement only programmes that fall in line with this requirement.

The guidelines we have developed aim at ensuring compliance with this legal framework and therefore ensuring REEEP maintains its special legal status. They allow us to assess not only our current programmes, but also future programmes. To do the latter, we have introduced a risk assessment step in the workflow when applying for new tenders for open programmes. During this assessment, we as the legal team run the terms of reference of an open tender through a risk matrix and the guidelines we have developed.

Conducting this assessment internally comes at no costs for the organisation and ensures compliance with the applicable legal framework.

Apart from legal matters, has the team worked on other company initiatives?

We have actively led on several organisation-wide initiatives and have recently developed several key policies to foster the open, supportive and inclusive working environment at REEEP, including an Anti-Harassment Policy, Code of Conduct for Staff, Duty of Care Policy and Home Office Policy. We also handle security issues for REEEP staff who travel frequently, including engaging with kidnap and ransom insurance providers and organising specialised hostile environment awareness training (HEAT). Currently, we are working on a Code of Ethics and a Sustainability Policy, which will be rolled out in the coming months.

Furthermore, we work on a wide range of compliance matters. As process owners of our own internal procurement rules, we ensure that all goods, services and works procured by REEEP are awarded based on the principles of impartiality, transparency, equal treatment and competition. In terms of compliance with social security law, we request the necessary certificates to allow staff to work from abroad. Furthermore, we work closely with our data protection officer and have recently developed a privacy statement for our brand-new website.

Can you sum up the team culture/ethos in one sentence?

‘We are full of (renewable) energy and always go the extra mile, offering solution-oriented advice to move the whole organisation forward’.

We achieve this by having an open-door policy and listening to the needs and ideas of our colleagues. By doing so, we have developed a thorough understanding of the organisation, its operational practices and its culture. We proactively identify and raise organisational needs with our management team and provide high-level but hands-on legal advice on how best to address these needs.