A4-0361/98

Resolution on the draft general budget of the European Communities for the financial year 1999(C4-0300/98)Section I - European Parliament - Ombudsman AnnexSection II - CouncilSection IV - Court of JusticeSection V - Court of AuditorsSection VI - Economic and Social Committee and Committee of the Regions

The European Parliament,

- having regard to Article 203 of the EC Treaty,

- having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 29 October 1993 on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedure,

- having regard to its resolution of 2 April 1998 on the guidelines for the 1999 budgetary procedure: Section I - European Parliament, Ombudsman Annex; Section II - Council; Section IV - Court of Justice; Section V - Court of Auditors; Section VI - Economic and Social Committee and Committee of the Regions ((OJ C 138, 4.5.1998, p. 153.)),

- having regard to its resolution of 2 April 1998 on the proposal for a European Parliament and Council Decision on the adjustment of the financial perspective to take account of the conditions of implementation (submitted by the Commission pursuant to paragraph 10 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 29 October 1993 (SEC(98)0307 - C4-0192/98) ((OJ C 138, 4.5.1998, p. 155.)),

- having regard to its resolution of 28 May 1998 on the estimates of revenue and expenditure of the European Parliament and the estimates of revenue and expenditure of the Ombudsman for the financial year 1999, and on a letter of amendment to preliminary draft supplementary and amending budget 1/98 ((OJ C 195, 22.6.1998, p. 45.)),

- having regard to its opinion of 15 September 1998 on the proposal for a Council Regulation (EC, ECSC, Euratom) amending the Financial Regulation of 21 December 1977 applicable to the general budget of the European Communities (COM(98)0206 - C4-0290/98 - 98/0130 (CNS)) ((Minutes of that sitting, Part II, Item 5.)),

- having regard to its decisions of 7 October 1998 giving discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget for the 1996 financial year Section I - European Parliament/Ombudsman Annex, and giving discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget for the 1996 financial year - Sections IV - Court of Justice, V - Court of Auditors, VI - Part B: Committee of the Regions; and its resolution of the same date informing the Economic and Social Committee of the reasons for the postponement of the decision concerning the discharge for the general budget of the European Union for the 1996 financial year - Section VI - Part A - Economic and Social Committee ((Minutes of that sitting, Part II, Item 15.)),

- having regard to the preliminary draft budget for the financial year 1999 (COM(98)0300),

- having regard to the draft general budget for the financial year 1999 (C4-0300/98),

- having regard to Article 142 of the EC Treaty, Article 25 of the ECSC Treaty and Article 112 of the EAEC Treaty,

- having regard to Rule 10 of its Rules of Procedure,

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets and the opinion of the Committee on Petitions (A4-0361/98),

I. General framework

1. Restates its basic policy of setting the 1999 budgetary procedure in a context of rigour comparable to that which the Member States are imposing on themselves;

2. Takes the view that realisation of this objective presupposes a limited and justified increase in expenditure which is based on the principles of sound financial management, and especially thrift and cost-effectiveness, and takes account in particular of the outturn of the 1997 budget and this year's budget;

3. Is keen to stress that the pursuit of effective interinstitutional cooperation, in particular in sectors for which the Staff Regulations provide a framework, may become a factor in the rational management of administrative appropriations, a potential source of savings and a setting fostering comparability of expenditure and the application of uniform rules;

4. Has created the conditions, in terms of budget structure, for a reform of the system of pensions for the employees of the institutions, committees and agencies which will be the subject of interinstitutional negotiations with the Council;

5. Points out that, when the guidelines for this procedure were adopted, it invited the Institutions to provide appropriate information on aspects relating to staffing policy and the introduction of working methods assisted by new technologies;

6. Notes the report forwarded by the Commission on harmonisation of nomenclature, which was called for during the procedure for adopting the 1998 budget, and invites the Institutions to take account of those proposals when they submit their estimates for the financial year 2000;

7. Notes that, in its deliberations at first reading on the 1999 draft budget, the Council left a margin of EUR 300.4 million;

II. Section I - European Parliament

8. Recalls its commitment to promote parliamentary cooperation in the Mediterranean in the form of a 'Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Forum' by way of implementation of the Barcelona Declaration of November 1995; recalls also the Commission statement that all the costs of participation by Mediterranean third country (MTC) representatives in that forum would be chargeable to the MEDA programme;

9. Has therefore amended the nomenclature and presentation of budget Items 1004, Travel and subsistence allowances, attendance at meetings and associated expenditure, and 1301, Mission expenses;

10. Recommends, in order to prepare Parliament for the entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty, that its political authorities agree proposals by the end of 1998: to rationalise the structures and competences of committees; to reduce the number of parliamentary organs; and to focus Parliament´s work more clearly on its political, legislative and budgetary functions; considers that the criteria of high quality and cost-effectiveness, shared volume of work, broad representativeness and rationalisation of organs, given the resources voted in the 1999 draft budget, should guide these proposals; considers that all these proposals should be approved by plenary;

11. Points out that the legislative procedure is in progress on the proposal for a Council Regulation laying down the general framework for the arrangements governing parliamentary assistants;

12. Has therefore created, by means of an amendment, the appropriate nomenclature: new Chapter 39, Expenditure relating to parliamentary assistants, and an Article 390, Parliamentary assistants;

13. Notes the reports on staffing matters submitted at its request, made when the estimates were adopted, and notes the outturn figures concerning certain inherent expenditure;

14. Has decided, by means of amendments, on the following measures:

establishment plan: upgrading/conversions:

- permanent posts: 1 LA7 to A7 for the Action Taken on Parliamentary Acts Unit within the Directorate-General for Committees and Delegations and changes to certain footnotes to the list of posts as a result of the decisions taken during the financial year 1998;

- temporary posts: 2 A7 to A5, 1 B5 to B3, 2 C5 to C3 stemming from the conclusions of the discussions with the chairmen of the parliamentary committees most closely involved in the enlargement process;

other measures:

- auxiliary staff: setting of appropriations at a volume equivalent to that for 1998, account being taken of the deliberations concerning Transfer C9/98;

- interpreters and conference technicians: reduction in appropriations by EUR 1.5 million, account being taken of the structural savings recorded; laying down ((Between the institutions involved (European Parliament, Commission and Court of Justice) ahead of the negotiations with the AIIC (International Association of Conference Interpreters) conducted by the Commission.)) of rules concerning the refunding of freelance interpreters' travel expenses;

- entering of an appropriation of EUR 60 000 for welfare aid for disabled persons (Item 1640) accompanied by a call for general provisions on arrangements for granting that aid to be adopted in cooperation with the Commission ((The instrument for that aid should introduce a refund ceiling, provide the administrative authority responsible with a set of objective criteria for assessing each claim for refund of necessary expenses, disregarding excessive expenses, provide a mechanism for periodic auditing of this expenditure on the basis of supporting documents substantiating the spending, and take account of the effect of aggregating spouses' salaries, as is the case when calculations are made for payments of other family allowances.));

- entering of an appropriation of EUR 100 000 for Item 1863, Early Childhood Centre and approved day nurseries;

15. Notes the report on the progress which has been recorded in the area of computing and the impact of word-processing software migration to a package common to the Institutions, which has become necessary to maintain and extend interinstitutional document interchange with the Commission and the Council; points, among its priorities, to the issue of the introduction of the euro, the impact of the century date change and the specific requests made during the financial year 1998 concerning improvement of e-mail applications at intra- and interinstitutional level, the scope for redeployment of its PC workstation base at the working places and faster development of electronic document transmission, including handling of the budgetary procedure and the associated documents ((SEI-BUD+)), in order to reduce substantially the volume of documents circulated on paper;

16. Has decided, by means of amendments, to release the appropriations entered for Chapter 21, Data processing and telecommunications, in the reserve and to top up the relevant budget headings by an overall amount of EUR 2.95 million, including expenditure on professional training in connection with the word-processing software migration;

17. Instructs its Secretary-General to do away with the bottlenecks which prevent the 'Rainbow' edition of the Verbatim Report of Debates during Brussels part-sessions from being available in good time;

18. Notes the progress which has been made and the negotiations under way, and notes that the option to purchase the IPE IV building in Strasbourg should be exercised in 1999 with ten-year refinancing, following an invitation to tender, on terms comparable to those applicable for the D3 building in Brussels; notes also the more favourable data with regard to calculating the annual lease payments for the D3 building in Brussels;

19. Has therefore decided, by means of amendments, to top up Item 2000, Rent and annual lease payments, by EUR 10.8 million and to reduce the appropriations against Article 206, Acquisition of immovable property, by EUR 8.3 million;

20. Notes the deliberations in the financial year 1998 with regard to Article 203, Cleaning and maintenance, and therefore enters, against the heading, an appropriation of EUR 5 million from the reserve;

21. Has topped up, by means of an amendment, the appropriations against Article 250, Meetings in general, to meet operational requirements (in particular consultation of experts) stemming from the dialogue which has been established with the European Central Bank;

22. Instructs its Secretary-General to submit a proposal on ways and means of improving the security of valuables in offices and meeting rooms;

Ombudsman Annex

23. Points out that the Ombudsman proposes to submit proposals on the conversion of temporary posts into permanent posts; also points out that, in its aforementioned opinion of 15 September 1998 on the proposal to amend the Financial Regulation, it recommended that the Ombudsman's budget should henceforth be covered by a separate section; points out that the Commission has endorsed that proposal;

24. Notes in addition the underutilisation of the appropriations in Chapter 11, Staff in active employment, during the financial year 1998 because of underoccupancy of the establishment plan ((See Doc. ME 00012.)); has decided by means of amendments:

- to confirm the 6 posts authorised by the Council, to convert the grades (1 A2 to A3; 1 A4 to A5; 1 C3 to C5) in accordance with the rules adopted on the rationalisation of administrative expenditure;

- to enter in Chapter 100 the appropriations for three posts (1 A3, 1 A5 and 1 B5), pending submission by the Ombudsman of a global action plan to restructure and refashion his Secretariat;

25. Recalls the deliberations in the financial year 1998 with regard to Article 117, Supplementary services; has decided, by means of an amendment, to enter an appropriation of EUR 175 000 in Chapter 100; invites the Ombudsman to submit an updated budgetary statement for the financial year 1999;

III. Section IV - Court of Justice

26. Points out that the Court of Justice had requested the creation of 66 posts, chiefly for the translation directorate; points out that some of the most urgent requests concern proofreaders; points out that the Council authorised only 10 LA posts;

27. Notes that these requests do not permit it to be claimed, however, that they cover all the requirements of the Court of Justice, nor can they afford the certainty that they reflect a plan based on an in-depth analysis of how its services operate;

28. Restates, in addition, its call for a report to be drawn up on the organisation of the interpretation service;

29. Takes the view, under the circumstances, that the Court of Justice's requests should be considered on the basis of a multiannual plan setting out an in-depth analysis of the requirements; invites the Court of Justice furthermore to submit alternative solutions which, with due regard for the proper conduct of the cases referred to it, enable the overall volume of documents requested for translation to be stabilised;

30. Has decided, by means of an amendment, to enter the appropriations corresponding to 5 LA6 posts in the reserve;

IV. Section V - Court of Auditors

31. Points out that augmenting the establishment plan of the Court of Auditors under the 1997 supplementary and amending budget and the 1998 budget involves endowing Chapter 11, Staff in active employment, with appropriate funding to enable it to recruit staff and maintain a reasonable level of establishment plan occupancy;

32. Has decided, by means of amendments, to set the standard abatement at 3% and to grant the following upgradings for permanent posts: 2 C4 to C3, 2 C3 to C2, 2 C2 to C1, 1 D2 to D1;

33. Notes the project to extend the Court of Auditors' building, the financial impact of which would have implications for the current financial perspective and, in particular, the financial perspective for the period 2000-2006; notes that that financial perspective ought to bear four fifths of total spending on the project, which is put at EUR 25 million;

34. Takes the view in this connection that the conclusions concerning the new Interinstitutional Agreement should be awaited; and, in relation to the technical aspects of the project, invites the Court of Auditors to consider alternative solutions as regards the appropriateness of building a 150-seat chamber, given that Plateau du Kirchberg is the site of 2 other chambers capable of meeting its stated needs;

35. Invites the Court of Auditors, in addition, to provide appropriate information on the procedure followed for awarding the study to the firm of architects and on the other factors which were taken into consideration before the contract was awarded in the light of the special nature of the new building, which is to house interpreting booths;

36. Has decided, by means of amendments, to enter appropriations of EUR 5 million and EUR 100 000 in Chapter 100 for Articles 206, Acquisition of immovable property, and 208, Other expenditure preliminary to the acquisition of immovable property or the construction of buildings;

V. Section VI - Economic and Social Committee, Committee of the Regions, Joint Organisational Structure

37. Points out that the Treaty of Amsterdam abrogates Protocol 16 concerning the Joint Organisational Structure; points out that abrogation has implications for the presentation of the respective budgets of the ESC and the CoR and for the way in which they will manage their budgets in future; points out accordingly that, under the current budgetary procedure, the ESC and the CoR have been invited, in good time, to submit their proposals, in particular on future staff management; points out that those proposals ought to contain rules adopted by their respective competent bodies which guarantee a homogenous staff policy for the ESC and the CoR, with a view to long-term interinstitutional cooperation that is compatible with budgetary discipline and the Staff Regulations;

38. Notes, in addition, the underutilisation of appropriations for the Joint Organisational Structure because of the underoccupancy of the authorised posts on its establishment plan and has therefore decided by means of amendments to:

- classify 1 permanent A3 post as a permanent A4 in part C (JOS);

- transfer 1 permanent A7 post from part C (JOS) to part B (CoR);

- upgrade 2 LA7 to LA6 and 2 C2 to C1 in part C (JOS);

39. Regards it as essential to introduce internal rules on budget implementation and to adopt appropriate rules with regard to arrangements for the utilisation of appropriations intended for Members' allowances;

40. Has decided, by means of amendments, to make a block entry of appropriations in Chapters A-100 and B-100 respectively for budget items A-1003, Representation allowances, A-1006 and B-1006, Allowances intended to cover expenses arising from the activities of Members of the institution, and invites the ESC and the CoR to submit their appropriate rules;

41. Notes that the ESC has modified its internal structures; notes that that restructuring has cut the number of specialised sections from nine to six; notes, however, that the number of study groups has been kept at 165;

42. Therefore invites the ESC to submit an account of the effects of that restructuring on the overall organisation of consultative proceedings (appropriations and staff) and has decided, by means of an amendment, to enter the appropriations for Article 250, Meetings in general, in the reserve;

43. Notes the outturn against Article B-250, Meetings in general, for the CoR and the Council's deliberations in this connection when the 1999 draft budget was established;

44. Has decided, by means of an amendment, to top up that article by an appropriation of EUR 200 000;

45. Points out that the ESC and CoR have undertaken to occupy the Belliard I and II buildings; points out that negotiations are under way with the owner of those buildings in order to examine the possibility of a purchase; points out that, during its deliberations on the 1999 draft budget, the Council limited the appropriation for Chapter C-102, Reserve to provide for the take-over of buildings, to an amount of EUR 32 000 for removals in the financial year 1999;

46. Takes the view that, pending the conclusion of the negotiations on the Belliard I and II buildings, the adequate funding allocation for rental payments and other associated expenditure should be earmarked ((See in this connection Article 27 of the Financial Regulation.));

47. Invites the ESC and the CoR, in addition, to conclude an agreement with Parliament on the arrangements for making those rental payments, it being understood that for the half-year from 1 October 1998 to 30 March 1999 they have been charged to Parliament's budget; notes that the appropriations corresponding to the rental payments and associated costs for the period from 1 April 1999 to 31 December 1999 have been entered in Chapter C-100, Provisional appropriations, for Chapter C-20, Investments in immovable property, rental of buildings and associated costs;

48. Considers that the take-over of the Belliard I and II buildings will involve costs for the refitting of the premises; considers that occupation of the Belliard I and II buildings takes priority over that of the Atrium building, which could take place at a later stage, taking account of the plan to give up the Ravenstein complex; notes, in addition, that, since the submission of the report on the refitting of the Belliard I and II buildings, the ESC and the CoR have affirmed their wish to occupy Belliard I and II jointly in future;

49. Highlights this development and therefore invites the ESC and the CoR to submit an updated plan for refitting the Belliard I and II buildings;

VI. The institutions as a whole

50. Points out that the Europa Internet site of the European Institutions was developed to foster access by European citizens to information without, however, allowing them to enter into a dialogue with the Institutions; calls therefore for the Europa Internet site to be made more interactive so as to establish a dialogue between Institutions and citizens as soon as possible;

51. Notes that not all the Institutions have adopted internal rules for the implementation of their own budgets, as foreseen by the Financial Regulation; notes that significant differences exist on the way in which each administrative budget is implemented, despite the similarities of the expenditure in question; invites the Institutions concerned to remedy this situation when they come to adopt their draft estimates for the year 2000; instructs its competent committee to specify further the conditions under which the Institutions apply the provisions covering the operations from the moment of the commitment of an appropriation until its payment;

52. Recalls that when adopting the 1998 budget it drew the attention of the Institutions to the tariff advantages that liberalisation of the telecommunications market could provide; recalls that the Commission was invited to organise an interinstitutional call for tenders that takes account of the interests of all the institutions; invites the Commission, in cooperation with the other institutions, to present a report before the second reading of the 1999 draft budget on the progress made, commitments undertaken and initiatives which should be taken at interinstitutional level;

53. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Community Institutions and bodies concerned.