66.

In line with its abovementioned resolution of 29 April 2021 on its estimates of revenue and expenditure for the financial year 2022: (a) takes note of the upcoming mid-term review of the Environmental Management System (EMAS) Mid-Term Strategy; reiterates its call to amend its current CO2 reduction plan for reaching carbon neutrality by 2030, using an internal carbon price; (b) takes note that one of the main focus areas for EMAS in the medium term will be reducing emissions resulting from transport of persons; reiterates its call for a reasonable decrease of travel for meetings that can be effectively conducted remotely or in hybrid mode and for promoting a shift to low carbon alternatives for all remaining travel, provided that this does not affect the quality of legislative and political work; (c) welcomes the expansion of voluntary teleworking for Parliament staff; reiterates its call for a preference to be given to hybrid meetings or fully remote meetings when they do not involve political decision making, such as hearings and exchanges of views or internal and preparatory meetings; reiterates its call for fully remote preparatory meetings and post-mission debriefings for all official delegation visits as a condition for authorisation, and the limiting of authorisation of delegations to only those within entitlements from 2022; reiterates its call on the Bureau to ensure that extraordinary committee meetings in Strasbourg are strictly limited to exceptional circumstances and that they are required to be duly justified before they are approved in each individual case; (d) welcomes the on-going process to revise the mission rules; reiterates its call for a proper needs-based approval and for using of low carbon modes of transport whenever possible; reiterates its call to revise the missions rule for Accredited Parliamentary Assistants (APAs) following the same principles; (e) encourages Members to use low carbon transport alternatives; reiterates its call to revise the implementing measures of the Statute for Members to reimbursement of flexible economy airline tickets when travelling within the Union except for duly justified exemptions; (f) reiterates its call for the Parliament to closely collaborate with the relevant local authorities and especially the Brussels Region in its efforts to be a frontrunner in sustainable urban mobility by taking a proactive role in the implementation of the GoodMove Plan, in particular as regards parking spaces; reiterates its calls for the expansion of the service bike scheme within Parliament and for official cars to be used to transport Members, staff and APAs with mission orders between Brussels and Strasbourg; reiterates its call for an appropriate increase in the number of car parking spaces reserved exclusively for electric vehicles; (g) welcomes the future proposal for a revision of the rules governing visitor groups; takes note of the actions taken by the responsible services as regards informing visitors groups about the environmental impact of their transport; reiterates its call for a system of incentive reimbursement of travel costs based on environmental impact to be established in 2022; calls for the revised rules to be in line with Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy — putting European transport on track for the future (COM(2020)0789), in particular paragraph 9 of that Communication, on collective travel, and to adapt the travel costs for visitors groups to changing market prices and to allow for modifications in order to avoid market fluctuation of travel expenses creating indirect geographical discrimination for visitors; (h) notes that feasibility studies are in progress to assess the cost effectiveness of the installation of new photovoltaic panels in several buildings in Brussels and at the same time reiterates its call for the installation of state of the art rooftop photovoltaics for the maximum potential in Brussels by 2023; reiterates its call for a halt to upgrading of fossil fuel heating installations and for a roadmap to phase out fossil fuels with specific milestones to be adopted in 2022 to avoid stranded assets and for an analysis of the effectiveness and efficiency of using heat pump systems and other relevant technologies in line with EMAS objectives; reiterates its call in parallel for the gradual replacement of Guarantees of Origin procurement with local renewable energy source; (i) recalls the support of the vast majority of Parliament’s Members for a single seat to ensure that Union taxpayers’ money is spent efficiently and for Parliament to assume its institutional responsibility to reduce its carbon footprint; recalls that according to the Treaty on the European Union, the European Parliament is to have its seat in Strasbourg; notes that permanent changes would require a Treaty change for which unanimity is needed; (j) welcomes that the EMAS Action Plan 2021 provides for an obligatory consultation of the ‘Green Public Procurement Helpdesk’ for all procurement procedures in the priority product categories, if deemed appropriate; reiterates however its call for an obligation to consult the Green Public Procurement Helpdesk for procurement above EUR 15 000; (k) reminds that following the 2018 Bureau decision on the General Expenditure Allowance (GEA), subsequent plenary decisions have been taken and therefore reiterates its demands to the Bureau to introduce changes to the rules governing the GEA by the end of 2021; (l) invites the Bureau to define clear and legally certain standards specifying in which cases whistleblower protection can be granted, including for APAs, and to publish those standards; (m) highlights the need to revisit Parliament’s HR policy in order to allow the institution to make use of expertise acquired by all Parliament staff; believes that it is therefore necessary to change the rules to enable all categories of staff, including APAs, to participate in internal competitions and to establish HR development schemes that will allow Parliament to keep the expertise of these categories at the service of the Institution; (n) regrets that the Bureau refuses to implement the will of the Plenary expressed on numerous occasions to take action for the full alignment of the allowances rates of officials, other civil servants and APAs in respect of duty travel between Parliament’s three places of work; calls on the Bureau to address this issue to remedy that inequality without any further delay and to take immediate action with regard to the revision of the applicable Rules which is necessary to change the legal framework; (o) reiterates its call on the Conference of Presidents to revise the Implementing provisions governing the work of delegations and missions outside the European Union; underlines that such a revision should consider the possibility for APAs, subject to certain conditions, to accompany Members on official Parliament delegations and missions; (p) takes note of the Bureau decision on 8 February 2021 regarding voting under the remote participation regime; notes that voting remotely in the absence of a decision by the President establishing extraordinary circumstances is currently not possible; reiterates its call on the Bureau to allow Members to exercise their right to vote while benefiting from maternity or paternity leave, during a long-term illness or in cases of force majeure; (q) takes note on the ongoing works to replace the WI-FI infrastructure in the three places of work; calls for a fast installation of the new infrastructure; (r) recalls the inherent risks for information security and privacy of using third-party-dependent solutions and the positive impact of using open source software; insists that users should be enabled to use open source software on Parliament’s devices, and the need for decentralised, open source solutions for virtual meetings and instant messaging; highlights the need to properly train users with a special focus on cybersecurity; stresses the need for automatic language transcription and translation software to support the equal diffusion of information in all official languages; (s) takes note of the Cloud strategic orientations adopted by the Bureau in June 2020; reiterates its call for measures to ensure that Parliament’s procurement of software and digital infrastructure, including cloud solutions, avoid vendor lock-in effects through portability and full interoperability requirements and use open source software and earmarks procurement for SMEs and startups; (t) takes note of services provided by some EPLOs in non-official languages of the Union; requests the Bureau to analyse the feasibility and estimate the financial cost of providing communication materials, for example for the Europa Experience Centres, in the languages of linguistic minorities, regions and communities within different Member States; (u) takes note of the approximate costs of outsourcing the translation of key foreign policy resolutions into the official language of the country concerned; reiterates its call to draw up translation of such documents, with a view to enhancing the impact and outreach of the Parliament's foreign affairs activities, and to ensure that sufficient appropriations are made available for that purpose; (v) takes note of the project ‘Immersive Online Experience’ and other online activities available to visitors; asks to develop and promote opportunities for the citizens and the residents of Member States and partner countries to make virtual guided tours in Parliament in order to achieve a better understanding of the work and values of the institution among the broader public; (w) reiterates its request to the Bureau to make known its decision on the PHS building including a detailed breakdown of costs and the supporting documents; (x) recalls Article 27(1) and (2) of the Statute for Members of the European Parliament on the voluntary pension fund set up by Parliament; (y) takes note of the actions taken by the Parliament to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the cleaning and catering service providers; reiterates its call on the Bureau to reconsider Parliament’s externalisation policy as regards cleaning and catering services;