EN    EN EN 
 
EN    EN  COMMISSION OF THE E UROPEAN COMMUNITIES 
Brussels, 26.11.2009 
SEC(2009)1635 final 
  
AMENDING LETTER No 3 
TO THE PRELIMINARY DRAFT BUDGET 2010 
STATEMENT OF EXPENDITURE BY SECTION 
Section II - Council 
 
EN    EN AMENDING LETTER No 3 
TO THE PRELIMINARY DRAFT BUDGET 2010 
STATEMENT OF EXPENDITURE BY SECTION 
Section II - Council 
Having regard to: 
– the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 272 
thereof, 
– the Treaty establishing the European At omic Energy Community, and in particular 
Article 177 thereof, 
– the Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the 
Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities1, 
as last amended by Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1525/20072, and in 
particular Article 34 thereof, 
the European Commission hereby presents to the budgetary authority the amending letter 
No 3 to the Preliminary Draft Budget for 2010 for the reasons set out  in the explanatory 
memorandum. 
                                                 
1 OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1. 
2 OJ L 343, 27.12.2006, p.9. 
 
EN 2   EN TABLE OF CONTENTS 
1. Introduction................................................................................................................ .. 3 
2. Presentation of expenditure by nature.......................................................................... 5 
STATEMENT OF EXPENDITURE BY SECTION  
The statement of expenditure by section is fo rwarded separately via the SEI-BUD system. An 
English version of the expend iture by section is attached for inform ation as a budgetary 
annex. 
 
EN 3   EN 1. I NTRODUCTION  
1.1 This letter of amendment to the preliminary draft budget of the Council for the 
financial year 2010 presents an estimate of  the appropriations needed to finance the 
consequences of the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon for the functioning of the European Council and the Council in 2010.  
It is important to underline that as far as  the European Council and its President are 
concerned, this is an initial estimate for the start up phase. The resource requirements 
for the European Council and its Pr esident may evolve in the future. 
1.2 This amendment gives a provision for: a) The creation of the European  Council as an Institution
3. 
The direct consequence of the creation of the European Council as an Institution is 
that the events to which participate the Heads of State and Government and which 
were organised by the Member State holding the Presidency in the past, will be 
organised in principle by the new Institution in the future. The cost of these events shift thus from the budget of the Member  State in question to the EU-budget.  
This affects in the first place the organi sation of the meetings of the European 
Council. Until now, the available resources (building, staff) of the Council have 
covered, to a large extent, the activities of the Europ ean Council. The incremental 
costs of summits have so far been fina nced by the Member State ensuring the 
presidency and administered by the GSC
4. On the basis of experience of previous 
years the incremental cost of a session of the European Council may be estimated to EUR 1,3 million. The current proposal foresees the expenditure to cover the cost of the organisation of 5 summits, which corre sponds to an amount of EUR 6,5 million.  
In addition, the cost of summits with third countries has until now been borne 
exclusively by the Member State holding the rotating Presidency. The technical 
estimate
5 for these meetings, which in the future  will be organised by the President of 
the European Council amounts to EUR 2,5 million. 
Finally, since a large part of the events mentioned above will be organised in the 
premises of the European Council and the C ouncil, investment in  infrastructure has 
to be foreseen. A provision for refurbishmen t, technical and IT equipment, furniture 
and transportation means an amount  of EUR 3,1 million is envisaged. 
                                                 
3 New article 13 of the Treaty on European Union.  
4 The appropriations needed for the financing of  the summits are treated as assigned revenue in 
the budget of the Council.  
5 It should be noted that this figure is based on 2 assumptions made by the Secretariat: 
•  In conformity with the declaration of the European Council of 12 December 2008 (17271/08,
 page 13) on the transitional measures concerni ng the Presidency of the European Council, all
 activities organised during the first semester of 2010 in Spain, will be financed by the Spanish
 Presidency. 
•  Meeting organised outside of the seat of Eu ropean Council and the Council will be financed
 by the Member State holding the Presidency.  
 
EN 4   EN b) The creation of the function of President of the European Council6 
The means allowing the President to act should be foreseen in the budget for 2010. 
The provision should cover the emoluments of the President, the staffing of his 
Private Office, the security and the pre ss service as well as mission expenditure. 
The technical estimate for the function of the President for 2010 amounts to 
EUR 1,5 million including his trav el and representation costs. 
The estimate for the staffing of his Private Office and his personal security is 
EUR 4,5 million including remuneration (EUR 3,9 million) and mission costs (EUR 0,4 million) and other expenditure (EUR 0,2 million). 
c) Increase of co-decision
 
As a consequence of the Treaty the volume of co-decision procedures will 
significantly increase. This means that it is necessary to reinforce the existing resources of the Council (e.g. preparation of  legislation, Irish translation). The 
estimate for this reinforcement amounts to EUR 1,9 million. 
d) Reserve
  
An amount of EUR 3,5 million is placed in a reserve since it is not possible at the 
moment to foresee how the act ivities of the European C ouncil and its President will 
develop. 
1.3 In summary, the GSC proposes to increas e the budget for 2010 by an overall amount 
of EUR 23,5 million and an increase of the establishment plan with 60 posts. 
Compared to the preliminary draft budget established in April 2009, the proposal 
would lead to a budget of s ection II of EUR 638,652 million  (increase compared to 
original PDB 2010 by3,8 %). 
1.4 The fixed costs for the functioning of th e European Council (b uildings, operational 
expenditure, and staff) have always been  provided for under section II of the budget 
of the European Union. According to article 235.4 of the TFEU7 this approach will 
be maintained. The incrementa l cost of the creation of the European Council as an 
institution will be added to the existing resources. 
These additional resources will be presen ted in section II of the general budget, 
entitled " Council and European Council " 8. 
                                                 
6 New article 15 of the Treaty on European Union.  
7 "The European Council shall be assisted by the General Secretariat of the Council".  
8 "Article 316 of the TFEU  allows this interpretation: "The expenditure of the European Parliament, the 
European Council and the Council , the Commission and the Court of Justice shall be set out in separate 
parts of the budget, without prejudice to special arrangement s for certain common items of 
expenditure". 
 
EN 5   EN 2. P RESENTATION OF EXPENDITURE BY NATURE  
2.1 Members of the institution (chapter 10) 
The provisional appropriation includes appropriations of ca 1,5 m€ destined to cover: 
• the salary and other entitlements of the President of the European Council in his 
first year of the entry into service9,  
• a provision for the President's trav el and representation costs.  
2.2 Increase of the establishment plan 2010 (chapter 11) 
The GSC proposes an increase of the establ ishment plan related to the entry into 
force of the Treaty. It is  proposed that 22 new posts10 are created to constitute the 
basis for the future cabinet of the President of the Eu ropean Council. These posts 
include: 
• Head of Private Office, 
• Deputy Head of Private Office, 
• 6 administrators for the Private Office, 
• 2 press officers, 
• 12 assistants 
In addition, 10 additional security agents ar e foreseen for the personal protection of 
the President. 
Finally, the GSC proposes to reinfor ce other GSC's services, notably: DGF 
(Press/Communication), DGA2 (Protocol/Conf erences/Infrastructures), DG H (JAI), 
as well as Department for General Political Questions by a total of 28 officials. 
The result of the above mentioned modifica tions of the establishment plan is an 
increase of the budgetary appropriations by EUR 5,8 million. 
2.3 Other staff expenditure (chapter 12 and 13) 
The provisional appropriations include a ppropriations of EUR 0,4 million destined to 
finance mission expenditures related to trav el of the direct collaborators of the 
President11, as well media coverage of the meetings and organised events 
(EUR 0,2 million). A provision of EUR 0,2 million is foreseen for medical expenses. 
                                                 
9 Regulation no 422/67/EEC of 25 July 1967 modified by regulation no 1292/2004 of the Council of 
30/4/2004 
10 The President of the EP currently  has a Private Office of 37 posts, the president of the Commission of 
33. 
11 The provision for the President mission expend iture is foreseen under chapter 10 and amounts 
to EUR 0,9 million.  
 
EN 6   EN 2.4 Immovable property (chapter 20) 
An amount of EUR 2,4 million is foreseen  to cover incremental building related 
costs needed for the organisation of th e European Council notably security and 
cleaning services12. 
2.5 IT, equipments and furniture (chapter 21) 
The GSC foresees appropriations of ca 2,6 m€  for additional spending in the area of 
IT, purchase, renting and maintenance of equipment and means of transportation. 
These appropriations should cover the need for: 
• the adaptation of the existing infrastructure, 
• the incremental costs of organisation of  the European Council summits (telephone 
lines, communication equipment), 
• media coverage of the events organised by the European Council, 
• purchase and maintenance of armoured vehicle for the President. 
2.6 Operating expenditure (chapter 22) 
The GSC foresees that EUR 6,9 million will  be necessary to cover the operating 
expenditure related to the organisation of summits, and conferences with third 
countries and other meetings in the framew ork of activities of the European Council 
and its President.  
2.7 Reserve 
A significant reserve of EUR 3,5 million is fo reseen. This relatively high amount is 
necessary since it is not possible at this st age to foresee exactly how the activities of 
the European Council and its President will develop. 
                                                 
12 This amount is based on the experience from previous events.