Tuesday 23 March 1999C 177/44 EN 22.6.1999 Official Journal of the European Communities
22. Asks the Board of Governors of the European Schools to inform the budgetary authority well in
advance of all plans to open new European Schools; will not accept any ‘fait accompli’ , given that any new
school will have a severe budgetary impact;
23. Calls on the Commission to carry out a thoroughgoing revision of its management methods and to
put forward practical proposals to highlight the proportion of public spending on funded measuresaccounted for by administrative costs, introducing in particular administrative management based on thecost of the activities (activity-based budgeting); takes the view that the experience gained in connectionwith the management of Subsection B6 could usefully be extended, whilst taking steps to ensure that thedistinction drawn between administrative appropriations and operating appropriations safeguardstransparency and the power of the budgetary authority;
24. In the context of the 2000 budget procedure, calls for rigorous checks to be carried out on the
allocation of the human and financial resources made available to the programmes, in the light of theUnion’s political priorities, with a view to launching a general political debate into the resourcesearmarked for the implementation of the measures; requests the Commission, in its ongoing workprogramme of reform, to produce a report by 30 June 1999 which sets out its staffing priorities and realstaffing requirements, both in terms of numbers as well as nature of duties, to ensure the effectiveoperation of EU policies in the 21st century;
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25. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the Union’s
satellite agencies.
(b) A4-0120/99
Resolution on the guidelines for the 2000 budget procedure: Section I − European Parliament,
Annex: Ombudsman; Section II − Council; Section IV − Court of Justice; Section V − Court ofAuditors; Section VI − Economic and Social Committee and Committee of the Regions and Joint
Organisational Structure
The European Parliament ,
− having regard to the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 1999 (
1),
− having regard to the Court of Auditors’ Annual Report concerning the financial year 1997, together
with the institutions’ replies (2),
− having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets (A4-0120/99),
A. whereas a sum of EUR 4 502.3 million has been entered in the 1999 budget under heading 5,
Administrative expenditure,
B. whereas, if the 1993 interinstitutional agreement is not denounced and in the absence of a new
financial perspective, the financial framework for the 2000 budget will be constituted by the 1999financial perspective adjusted pursuant to Article 25 of the agreement, unless the denunciation of theagreement by the Council were to entail the use of Article 203 (future Article 272) of the EC Treaty;whereas, at all events, the margin for increases will be extremely limited, and whereas essentialstaffing increases in individual institutions or committees will have to be offset as far as possible byequivalent savings in other areas,
C. having regard to its resolution of 17 December 1998 on the draft general budget of the European
Union for the financial year 1999 as modified by the Council (all sections) and on Letter ofAmendment No 1/99 to the preliminary draft budget for 1999 − Section III − Commission (
3),
in which it called for reports on the financing conditions governing certain activities in the sphere ofadministrative expenditure and laid down the deadlines for the submission of those reports,
(1) OJ L 39, 12.2.1999.
(2) OJ C 349, 17.11.1998.
(3) Minutes of that Sitting, Part II, Item 1.
Tuesday 23 March 199922.6.1999 EN C 177/45 Official Journal of the European Communities
D. convinced that a uniform presentation of administrative expenditure, as was the case in the 1999
budget procedure, will lead to a single reading of the draft budget,
E. in an effort to improve the performance of the institutions and the two committees by implementing a
competence-oriented staff policy which is capable of motivating its staff,
All institutions and the two committees
1. Calls on the administrations of the institutions and the two committees, when presenting their
budgets, to be guided by realisation of the Union’s medium-term objectives, including enlargement; urgesthem to employ a strategy geared to enhancing efficiency by improving transparency, motivation,mobility and further training;
2. Calls, therefore, for due account to be taken of the requirements of detailed accounting based on cost
centres (‘activity-based budgeting’) and, experimentally, for them to be submitted in annexes in thepreliminary draft budgets for the next financial year;
3. Takes the view that appropriate staff mobility is required within and among the institutions and
committees and that further professional training, including the use of state-of-the-art technologies, shouldbe encouraged;
4. Calls on the institutions and the two committees to seek fresh opportunities for interinstitutional
cooperation, since experience has shown that savings can be generated in this way; in that connection,thinks in particular of the testing of the synergies which can be achieved by means of cooperation amongthe Parliament departments in Brussels and those of the two committees, which are geographicallyadjacent, in a number of technical areas, such as libraries, the Medical Service, the Security Service, thesports centre, etc.;
5. Draws attention to its abovementioned resolution of 17 December 1998 and to its resolution of
16 December 1998 on the Commission’s work programme for the year 1999 (
1) in which Parliament calls
on the institutions and committees, in the context of interinstitutional cooperation and under the leadershipof the Commission, to adopt, mutatis mutandis , the Commission Action Plan on Sustainable Adminis-
trative Management;
6. Emphasises that measures are needed to make provision for officials’ pensions; assumes that such a
reform must
(a) be sustainable,(b) take the fullest possible account of the contributions made, and(c) lead to the allocation of costs to the institutions in a manner which reflects periods of service as far as
possible; calls on the Council to give its views on this matter at the first reading of the 2000 budget;
7. Reiterates its view that the volume of the institutions’ budgets does not represent a spending target,
but rather an absolute ceiling which must not be exceeded;
8. Calls for an interinstitutional approach to the negotiations with the Luxembourg authorities or
alternative contractual partners so that a coherent buildings policy can be pursued and the mostadvantageous terms possible secured; calls for a speedy continuation of the policy of purchasingbuildings; expects, prior to the purchase of buildings, detailed comparative cost schedules to be submittedto the budgetary authority; draws attention, further, to the need to prepare in good time the smoothhandover to subsequent tenants of any buildings to be vacated and thereby avoid any situation in whichbuildings stand empty;
9. Calls on the institutions to submit to it, along with the budget estimates, relevant information
concerning the permanent and temporary posts which will fall vacant as a result of natural wastage duringthe 1999 financial year, broken down by category, grade, activity and administrative unit plus a list ofsuccessful competition candidates, at the respective institutions, who are suitable to fill vacant posts;
European Parliament
10. Notes the proposals put forward by the Secretary-General in the ‘Second Note on the Consequences
of the Amsterdam Treaty’ of 25 November 1998 and calls for consideration to be given to the possibility of
further rationalising human resources by merging committee secretariats in the Directorate-General forCommittees and Delegations;
(1) Minutes of that Sitting, Part II, Item 12.
Tuesday 23 March 1999C 177/46 EN 22.6.1999 Official Journal of the European Communities
11. Asks the Council to approve the proposal for a Statute for Members of the European Parliament and
the proposal for a Statute for Members’ assistants, as put forward by Parliament (1), as soon as possible
and calls on Parliament’s Secretary-General to take account of this objective in the estimates for the year2000;
12. Notes that the mopping-up of outstanding appropriations in the 1998 budget (volume: almost
EUR 62 million) has led to a reduction in the financial cost of Parliament’s buildings in 1999 of EUR 8,5million, and urges Parliament’s Administration to continue this practice;
13. Is of the opinion that facilities within EP buildings which are not needed in connection with the
Institution’s activities must be economically self-supporting and may not be financed with subsidies fromParliament’s budget; any exceptions for imputed costs must be shown separately;
Ombudsman
14. Advocates a continuation of the agreement with the Ombudsman;15. Takes the view that the Ombudsman’s budget should be a separate section of the general budget
and, should the Council opt not to draw up a new section, intends to implement this in line with theFinancial Regulation to be revised;
16. Invites the Council to adopt, as soon as possible, the eighth series of amendments, part B, revising
the Financial Regulation, called for by Parliament and the Commission;
Court of Justice
17. Expresses its understanding for the Court’s problems with regard to the translation service; asks the
Council, therefore, as the institution responsible, quickly to comply with the wishes of the Court of Justicefor appropriate changes to its Rules of Procedure, to be submitted by it, with a view to limiting the increasein the workload and keeping to a minimum the allocation of new posts which would otherwise be required;
18. Looks to the Court to submit an interim staffing plan with the aim of bringing about structural
changes, a plan which outlines a transitional solution covering the period until it has become clearer whatthe impact of the structural changes to the profile of tasks will be; states that no new posts will beauthorised unless such an interim plan is submitted;
Court of Auditors
19. Calls on the Council, in connection with the appointment of eight new Members of the Court in the
year 2000, to avoid duplication of staff and other costs over certain one-month periods and proposes,therefore, 29 February 2000 as the date on which outgoing Members should leave their posts and 1 March2000 as that on which new Members should take up their duties;
The two committees
20. Calls on the two committees to submit a plan for the division of their Joint Organisational Structure
as soon as possible and an action plan concerning their establishment plans in good time prior to theCouncil’s first reading; the plan should have legal certainty as its aim, so that the two committees can carryout their work efficiently and on a long-term basis; emphasises that this action plan should take account ofthe tasks entrusted to the committees by the Amsterdam Treaty and the modernisation and dynamisationof the administrations referred to above;
21. Takes the view that the allocation of the posts from the Joint Organisational Structure to the two
committees should take account of the workload of the committees and should guarantee equal treatmentfor officials of the two committees as regards career development;
Economic and Social Committee
22. Expects that, through cuts in the membership of the study groups and a reduction in the number of
meetings required to deal with requests for opinions, significant savings will be achieved against budgetItem S6-A250 (Meetings in general);
(1) Minutes of Sitting of 3.12.1998, Part II, Item 1, and Minutes of Sitting of 11.3.1999, Part II, Item 4.
Tuesday 23 March 199922.6.1999 EN C 177/47 Official Journal of the European Communities
Committee of the Regions
23. Welcomes the fact that the Committee of the Regions is introducing new rules for its plenary
sessions structure with a view to reducing costs and points out that the system of substitutes must not leadto additional costs;
European Central Bank
24. Looks to the ECB to forward its budget at the same time as the other institutions and committees;
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25. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to all the institutions and to all the advisory bodies
concerned and the European Central Bank.
11. EAEC accession to KEDO − EU-DPRK relations
(a) A4-0104/99
Resolution on the Agreement on terms and conditions of the Accession of the European Atomic
Energy Community to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation (KEDO) (C4-
0483/97)
The European Parliament ,
− having regard to the Agreement on terms and conditions of the Accession of the European Atomic
Energy Community to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation (C4-0483/97),
− having regard to the Euratom Treaty, in particular Article 101 thereof,− having regard to its resolution of 14 May 1998 on improvements in the functioning of the Institutions
without modification of the Treaties − making EU policies more open and democratic (
1),
− having regard to its resolution of 28 May 1998 on the role of the Union in the world (2),
− having regard to the report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Security and Defence Policy and the
opinions of the Committee on Budgets and the Committee on Research, Technological Developmentand Energy (A4-0104/99),
A. whereas the decision for the European Union to join KEDO is an important issue of foreign policy,
which also has budgetary and energy implications,
B. whereas the Commission and Council agreed that it was appropriate for Euratom to be the Community
which acceded to KEDO, despite its CFSP aspects,
C. whereas the Accession Agreement is based on Article 101 of the Euratom Treaty, which does not
provide for consultation of the European Parliament,
D. whereas the Commission and Council refused to consult Parliament on the Agreement on a voluntary
basis,
E. whereas the Agreement was concluded by the Commission with the approval of the Council on
19 September 1997, without the European Parliament having delivered an opinion thereon,
(1) OJ C 167, l.6.1998, p. 211.
(2) OJ C 195, 22.6.1998, p. 35.