83.

In line with the estimates adopted by Parliament: (a) welcomes the measures taken by Parliament regarding the COVID-19 outbreak, including new temporary working methods and the provision of a COVID-19 screening test centre for Members and staff; reiterates its request to the Secretary-General to evaluate the financial consequences of those measures on Parliament’s budgets for 2020 and 2021 and present it to Parliament’s Committee on Budgets in November 2020; calls on the Secretary-General to elaborate detailed guidelines to better prepare for any future force majeure events in order to ensure the continued fulfilment of Parliament’s legislative functions if orderly functioning cannot be upheld; (b) reiterates its call on the Bureau for a detailed roadmap on achieving the ambitious environmental targets and reducing its carbon footprint as set in the Bureau decision of 16 December 2019 and for an annual review of results to be presented to Parliament’s Committee on Budgets; (c) recalls its request to align the accredited parliamentary assistants (APAs) mission allowances for the missions they carry out between the three places of work of Parliament to the level of allowance for civil servants and other agents; calls again for the revision of the Implementing provisions governing the work of delegations and missions outside the Union to consider the possibility for APAs, subject to certain conditions, to accompany Members on official Parliament delegations and missions; (d) reiterates its request to the Bureau to establish full flexibility of presence for Members during green weeks; (e) underlines the need for Parliament’s Committee on Budgets to receive all relevant information relating to Parliament’s budget in a timely and intelligible manner to be able to take informed decisions; strongly reiterates its requests for: — a detailed analysis and justification of the costs and savings relating to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Union and that the exact figures be communicated to Parliament’s Committee on Budgets in November 2020; — a detailed breakdown of expenditure for the establishment of the new Europa Experience centres for 2021 while taking into consideration the potential consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak on local market prospections and the roll out of Europa experiences spaces; — a detailed breakdown of expenditure for the new visitor strategy and the four-year information campaign, as well as a thorough evaluation of the communication campaign undertaken before and during the 2019 European elections; is of the opinion that any new communication measures should be based on an objective and factual analysis of that evaluation; — a detailed and thorough analysis of the representation costs of diplomatic presence beyond the borders of the Union in Indonesia (Jakarta), Ethiopia (Addis Ababa) and the United States (New York); — further details regarding the expenditure for the project management of the construction of the west wing of the Konrad Adenauer building; — an overview of all other currently rented Parliament buildings in the three places that will remain occupied in 2021 as well as a detailed projection of the energy costs; calls in that regard for green energy savings; — an analysis of the impact on human resources, especially on translators and interpreters, of the Directorate-General for Translation project in the event of a tool being deployed that is able to automatically transcribe and translate parliamentary multilingual debates in real time; — a transparent decision-making process in the field of buildings policy; (f) asks the Bureau to make known its decision on the future of the Spaak building in Brussels and a detailed breakdown of the costs at the end of the architectural competition launched by Parliament in 2020 for its renovation or replacement; recalls that the 2021 Budget includes items for the preparation of the works in the Spaak building; (g) recalls the recommendations contained in Parliament’s resolutions of 26 October 2017 (13), 11 September 2018 (14) and 15 January 2019 (15) on combating sexual harassment and abuse in the Union as well as measures to prevent and combat mobbing and sexual harassment; acknowledges the measures taken by the Secretary-General to prevent and combat such events; demands that the Secretary-General provide all information on the programme for the near future; asks the Secretary-General to provide an assessment of the new harassment procedures before presenting the 2022 estimates to the Bureau; is of the opinion that staff as well as Members should be encouraged to participate in training courses to minimise the occurrence of such events inside Parliament; (h) recalls the request from the Bureau to the Secretary-General to investigate as soon as legally possible ways to ensure the sustainable financing of the Voluntary Pension Fund; (i) recalls its request to the Secretary-General to verify that the highest standards of labour law are being uphold by external contractors with respect to cleaning workers in the Parliament, as well as for the workers in the self-service restaurants, in particular as regards psychological pressure and working conditions arising from the COVID-19 crisis;