A4-0305/95

Resolution on the draft general budget of the European Union for the 1996 financial year Section III - Commission - modified by the Council

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the draft budget for 1996, as presented after the Council's second reading of 17 November 1995, in its version accompanied by amendments and proposed modifications (C4-0500/95),

- having regard to its resolution of 5 April 1995 on the guidelines for the 1996 budget ((OJ C 109, 1.5.1995, p. 46)),

- having regard to its deliberations at first reading and its resolution adopted on 26 October 1995 on the draft general budget of the European Union for the financial year 1996, Section III - Commission ((Minutes of that Sitting, Part II, Item 8(a) + Annex.)),

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets (A4-0305/95),

A. whereas the Council's draft budget of 17 November 1995 has been drawn up with a ceiling of 1.189% of GNP, and the actual own resources ceiling is 1.20% of GNP,

B. whereas the decision to increase the own resources ceiling taken by the Edinburgh European Summit, which fixes the ceiling at 1.22% of GNP for 1996, has still not been implemented and it regrets that one Member State has not yet ratified it,

C. whereas the Council rejected 177 of Parliament's amendments without individual justifications, adopted 143, and modified 65 at its first reading,

1. Welcomes the constructive and intensive discussions during the conciliation meeting of 17 November 1995 and congratulates the Presidency of the Council for its substantive efforts to enter into a broad political exchange of views, especially on fisheries agreements, the MEDA programme and the agencies;

2. Notes with satisfaction that, at second reading, the Council has abandoned the practice of totally technical readings which characterized its activities until the first reading of this draft budget, thus complying with the request set out in the aforementioned resolution of 5 April 1995;

3. Regrets, however, that the Council has taken an arbitrary decision against more than one third of Parliament's amendments, without providing justifications on an individual basis, basing its arguments on the need to maintain free margins under the ceilings of the various headings of the financial perspective without reference to the Union's actual needs;

4. Notes that the 1996 budget shows an increase of 8.4% over the 1995 budget but draws attention to the fact that this increase results basically from increases in headings 1 and 2 (10.6% in each case), whereas headings 3 (5.4%), 4 (7.8%) and 5 (3.3%) show increases below the average;

5. Notes that the Council not only has not left an available margin under the ceiling of heading 1 - EAGGF - but has decided to increase certain lines in other headings in a significant manner for financial requirements not provided for in the original preliminary draft budget, in particular additional financing for the MEDA programme, determined by the Cannes European Council without consultation of the other arm of the budgetary authority;

6. Believes that it has made a contribution to improving the budgetary cooperation approved in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 29 October 1993 in that the two arms of the budgetary authority are willing to find a compromise on difficult issues;

7. Recalls the annual nature of the Union budget and the fact that any amounts indicated for multiannual programmes, whether in the financial statements or in legislative acts adopted under procedures other than Article 189b of the Treaty, have only indicative value and constitute no obligation for the budgetary authority, as set out in the Joint Declaration of 6 March 1995 ((OJ C 293, 8.11.1995, p. 4.)); recalls that the budgetary authority must establish the annual budget of the Union on the basis of available resources, political priorities, and efficiency of actions and of their management; at the end of each financial year, the Commission is required to adapt the financial statements on the basis of the vote of the budgetary authority;

8. Takes the view that, with the aim of achieving greater budgetary transparency, the Commission should specify in its working documents accompanying the PDB, heading by heading, the amount and the percentage of expenditure on studies, meetings of experts, conferences and congresses, information and publications;

9. Recalls the commitment given in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 29 October 1993 to review compulsory and non-compulsory expenditure, and reiterates in this connection its view that the distinction between compulsory and non-compulsory expenditure should be abolished, as expressed in its resolution of 17 May 1995 on the functioning of the Treaty on European Union with a view to the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference - implementation and development of the Union ((OJ C 151, 19.6.1995, p. 56.)), in particular paragraph 34(vii) thereof;

10. Shares the concern of the Council and Commission as to the seriousness of the unemployment currently affecting the European Union and its Member States; takes the view that the Union budget does not yet provide sufficient instruments to deal with this situation, although it does represent a first step in the right direction; calls for this trend to be strengthened when the 1997 draft budget is drawn up;

11. Calls on the Commission to pay particular attention to ensuring compliance with the remarks entered in the budget, thus facilitating sound implementation of the budget;

Classification of expenditure

12. Notes the judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C41/95; welcomes the confirmation of the principle whereby the problem of classification, like all those connected with the budget, must be solved by means of an agreement between the Institutions;

13. Recalls that agreement between the Institutions can only be achieved in a spirit of partnership and mutual respect; calls on the Council to undertake now to open an in-depth dialogue on the classification of the lines, leading to a review of the list annexed to the Joint Declaration of 1982, respecting the terms of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 29 October 1993;

Agricultural policy

14. Welcomes the fact that the Council has honoured the agreement concluded during the ad hoc procedure of 24 July 1995;

Structural actions

15. Welcomes the Council's decision to accept the spirit of the 'greening of the budget'; is of the opinion that only by applying internal rules in the form of a code of conduct for the Commission services can a serious effort be made to guarantee that programmes and projects under the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund will not be detrimental to the environment in the respective regions;

16. Welcomes the Commission's presentation in due time of a new approach to 'the Cohesion policy and environment' following its aforementioned resolution of 26 October 1995 and of a letter of understanding which is a serious effort to strengthen the environmental dimension of budgetary implementation;

Internal policies

17. Approves the launching of comprehensive information campaigns within the framework of 'PRINCE: PRogramme for the INformation of the Citizens of Europe' on a cooperative basis between the Institutions to make the citizens of the Union more familiar with the Community and to provide them with a better understanding of the actions already implemented in the single market as well as of the new challenges the Union will face in the coming years; approves of the appropriations being entered against this article and are intended to fund information measures in connection with specific policies, such as Citizen First and the single currency, with a view to preparing the Intergovernmental Conference for the benefit of Union citizens;

18. Welcomes:

(a) the fact that the Council has accepted the amount of the amendment for employment and growth in Europe and is convinced that the renewal of this action will confirm the positive impact of the first phase of this action set up on the initiative of Parliament in 1994,

(b) the establishment of a voluntary civilian service in Europe which should enable young people to acquire training experience by means of an active contribution to European integration, whereby this should initially take the form of pilot projects based on the existing Youth For Europe programme and pending the proposal by the Commission of an appropriate legal basis: Article 126 of the Treaty,

(c) the fact that research policy, with an appropriation of ECU 3251 million, continues to account for more than 61% of the appropriations allocated to internal policies;

19. Notes the decision to increase the appropriations for the TV Action Programme in respect of its first reading; considers that the action plan should concentrate on assisting small-scale TV producers; invites the Commission to inform it on the implementation of this priority;

20. Regrets that the Commission deleted in the PDB more than 30% of the appropriations entered for information outlets (B3-301) and considers that the latter may provide their assistance and expertise to the Commission in the organization of information campaigns; calls on the Court of Auditors to draw up a special report on the cost-benefit aspects of the implementation of this line;

21. Takes note of the appropriations entered for the IDA programme, but regrets once again the fact that the Commission did not withdraw the proposal when the Council changed the legal basis; calls on the Commission to inform Parliament of the dates and agendas for and the minutes of the meetings of the Advisory Committee and to forward to Parliament, prior to those meetings, all the documents referred to the Advisory Committee; is willing to regard this programme as a priority in 1997 if the Commission respects its insistence on information and if the programme is demonstrably well implemented;

22. Reiterates its first reading position that the specialized European agencies must align their internal financial regulations with particular respect to the discharge and that their respective budgets must be subject to budgetary transparency and control, as should the budgets of all institutions, bodies and agencies of the Union; proposes to transfer the appropriations from the reserve once the report requested from the Commission before 31 July 1996 has been acted on by the budgetary authority and after the Committee on Budgetary Control and the committees concerned have reported on the performance of the agencies;

23. Reaffirms its position concluded with the Council on 17 November 1995 in its declaration on the agencies; underlines its support for the agencies by making an accelerated financial contribution well beyond the average increase of all other institutions; confirms, however, its determination to establish proper control over the agencies and that funding and budgetary support should be in moderation;

External policies

24. Welcomes the accord reached with the Council concerning fisheries agreements; approves, therefore, the budgetary decision to increase the appropriation for this item by ECU 16.5 million;

25. Calls explicitly on the Commission to adopt a new procedure for informing the European Parliament as regards the negotiation of fisheries agreements and financial protocols and calls on it to submit at the end of each half-year a confidential report on the financial impact of the negotiations underway;

26. Notes the entry of an amount for the MEDA Programme which is ECU 200 million more than that entered in the PDB and approves the decision to finance it by a negative reserve on the entire budget, respecting, nevertheless, the ceiling of the financial perspective;

27. Would point out, nevertheless, that the transfer required to implement the negative reserve pursuant to Article 19 of the Financial Regulation will only be taken into consideration if:

. the rate of implementation of Title B7-4 amounts to at least 80% of the commitment appropriations entered at the time of the request for transfer,

. the transfer takes place at the latest before the first reading by Parliament in order to respect the deadlines laid down in the Notenboom procedure,

. a special procedure for verification of implementation is established jointly with the Committee on Budgetary Control and the committees concerned;

28. Welcomes the initiative to enter in the 1996 budget ECU 80 million for reconstruction in the republics of former Yugoslavia, thereby confirming its vote at first reading; approves, consequently, the creation of a reserve of ECU 20 million which may be allocated either to Title B7 or to Title B8 should a joint action under the CFSP be determined; points out that the transfer to Title B8 will only be authorized on condition that the Council takes a decision under the CFSP and agrees to honour the provisions of the Treaty and of the Financial Regulation as regards transfers and implementation;

29. Recognizes, nonetheless, the need for an extraordinary effort in connection with the peace process in former Yugoslavia, in parallel to efforts to be made by other world donors; takes the view, however, that the financing of this support can only be determined by the budgetary authority by means of the normal procedures provided for in the Treaty and within the ceilings established by the Edinburgh European Council and by Council Decision 94/728/EC, Euratom of 31 October 1994 on the system of the European Communities' own resources ((OJ L 293, 12.11.1994, p. 9.));

Administrative expenditure

30. Takes the view that the budget adopted, while being particularly restrictive in terms of administrative expenditure, is capable of ensuring the smooth running of the Institutions; takes the view that management savings could be made thanks to interinstitutional cooperation and calls on the Institutions to report back to the budgetary authority on this matter before 30 June 1996; calls on the Commission to present an analysis of its budget within the meaning of Article 13 of the Financial Regulation;

31. Welcomes the code of conduct adopted by the Commission in December 1995 with regard to outside activities of Commissioners; approves the decision to enter all appropriations on the line; demands nevertheless that Commissioners should make all declarations made under this code available to the budgetary control authorities (Committee on Budgetary Control and Court of Auditors) as well as to DG IX; trusts that this will provide the degree of transparency required;

32. Welcomes the decision to increase the staff at the Commission involved in anti-dumping and financial management activities; considers, nonetheless, that the conditions laid down by Parliament for the release of appropriations from the reserve have not been met; calls on the Commission to inform Parliament of the progress it makes in this direction;

33. Welcomes the fact that some progress has been achieved since the first reading of the 1996 draft budget on the European Schools with respect to an improvement of the internal situation of the schools; supports the increase in the funding of the schools under the appropriate heading (A-3273); notes the commitment of the Belgian authorities to open the third European School by September 1998;

34. Notes the efforts of the Board of Governors to reach agreement on a new statute for the schools and to introduce regulations which ensure equal and non-discriminatory conditions of employment; notes that the results so far achieved have not been satisfactory and urges the responsible bodies to align employment practices within an acceptable transitional period; reduces the reserve under this heading (A-3270) by 60%; agrees to transfer the remainder to the line as soon as new regulations have been adopted on the basis of principles agreed between the Board of Governors and the European Parliament to come into effect no later than 30 June 1997;

35. Confirms the decision at first reading to maintain in the reserve 10% of the appropriations entered for the delegations pending compliance with the following three conditions:

(i) submission in the report of a reassessment of the requirements in human resources, together with a specific redeployment plan within the context of the existing priorities before the end of March 1996,

(ii) a description of individual profiles (existing mandates) per delegation,

(iii) as regards the delegations in the countries covered by the PHARE and TACIS Programmes: reformulation of the respective tasks of the seat, the delegations and the other bodies (project management units and consultants) responsible for the planning, management and monitoring of funds on the basis of the observations of the Court of Auditors; the same conditions should apply to delegations working in the countries covered by the MEDA Programme;

36. Calls on the Commission, in accordance with its commitments, to submit a proposal before 30 May 1996 with a view to amending the current provisions and defining the statute of parliamentary assistants; would welcome a declaration by the three Institutions on this subject;

Appropriations entered in the reserve

37. Insists on the significance of the entry in the reserve of appropriations as an additional instrument of sound financial management enabling a closer link to be established between flexibility of implementation and proper information for the budgetary authority;

38. Recalls, to this end, its aforementioned resolution of 26 October 1995 and confirms its decisions to enter appropriations in the reserve and the conditions for their release, as set out in the table annexed to this resolution;

39. Welcomes the fact that, at the conciliation meeting of 17 November 1995, the Council agreed to open a dialogue on the use of the reserve to improve financial management, pending a report to be submitted by the Committee on Budgets by 30 May 1996;

Negative reserve

40. Recalls that the entry of a negative reserve must not encourage the Commission not to implement the budget in sectors where the Union's commitment is still very important;

41. Considers that the entry of the negative reserve covering the whole budget facilitates respect for the principles of sound management of the budget, since it increases the genuine determination to strengthen the MEDA Programme, and considers that this entry is in total compliance with the Treaty and with the Financial Regulation; notes that the entry of the negative reserve does not breach the IIA;

Margins

42. Notes the margins left available for a possible supplementary and amending budget of ECU 13 million in heading 3, of ECU 3.4 million in heading 4 and of ECU 62.3 million in heading 5, but draws attention to the fact that the reduced margin in heading 4 results from the additional cost of the fisheries agreement between the Union and Morocco (ECU 25 million more than the Commission's estimates);

Final provisions

43. Requests its President to designate the budgetary act as the budget of the European Union;

44. Instructs its President to forward these budgetary decisions to the Council and the Commission.

AnnexECU million

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