A4-0235/95

Resolution on the draft general budget of the European Union for the 1996 financial year - Section III - Commission

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the preliminary draft general budget submitted by the Commission (COM(95)0300),

- having regard to the draft general budget established by the Council on 24 July 1995 (C4-0300/95),

- having regard to its resolution of 5 April 1995 on the guidelines for the 1996 budgetary procedure, Section III - Commission ((OJ C 109, 1.5.1995, p. 46.)),

- having regard to the report of the interinstitutional working group on the rationalisation of administrative expenditure whose conclusions were accepted by all parties on or before 16 October 1995,

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets and the opinions of the other committees concerned (A4-0235/95),

A. whereas the Council's draft budget of 24 July 1995 has not reached the 1.22% GNP own resources ceiling in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 29 October 1993 but has been drawn up with a ceiling of 1.189% of GNP,

B. whereas some Member States have not yet ratified the own resources decision taken at the European Summit in Edinburgh in December 1992;

C. whereas the principles set out in the Treaty on European Union should be observed in budgetary matters,

D. whereas a budget should be adopted that fulfils the expectations of the citizens of the enlarged European Union, respects the commitments in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 29 October 1993 and takes account of the current economic situation in the enlarged Community;

E. whereas the EU institutions must make effective use of existing resources and get value for money in the interests of their citizens,

F. whereas the EU needs to be seen to work more effectively, democratically and transparently,

General remarks

1. Requests those countries that have not yet ratified the Edinburgh conclusions with respect to 'own resources¨ urgently to make the appropriate decisions;

2. Underlines that it has followed as closely as possible the guidelines set out in its aforementioned resolution of 5 April 1995 in its first reading decisions on the 1996 budget;

3. Has in particular begun to link closely together the implementation of the current year's budget with the proposals for the first reading; notes that conclusions have been drawn from this analysis to tighten up control on the use of funds; demands that further reflection should be given to the utilization of the reserve as well as to the blocking of funds in budgetary policy and instructs its Committee on Budgets to submit a report on this by 30 May 1996; requests the Council to reflect on the utilization of reserves for the lines under its responsibility;

4. Believes that the Commission should make available as soon as possible information concerning the estimates of the costs of enlargement of the EU to Central Europe, and the efforts required by the Union to ensure that potential future members can adapt to Community policies;

Legal bases

5. Regrets that the Commission has hardened its approach with regard to legal bases, without prior conciliation between the two arms of the budgetary authority, by arbitrarily deleting certain measures and pilot projects which had proved their usefulness; supports, however, the principle of the establishment and operation of a budget free from any constraint and considers that a viable solution can only be found through a revision of the financial provisions;

6. Furthermore in the absence of a general arrangement between the two arms of the budgetary authority, calls for an ad hoc solution to be found by means of the trialogue procedure whenever this is considered necessary and instructs its competent committee to take the appropriate steps; will decide on its position for the second reading in the light of the outcome of this;

CE/NCE

7. Reiterates the position it championed during the 1995 budgetary procedure with regard to the classification of expenditure; points out that its decision not to reinstate into the 1996 budget the remarks concerning the margin of discretion left to the Commission in the management of measures covered by certain budget lines implies no change in its position; confirms in this connection that that decision has been taken solely out of concern not to pre-empt the decisions by the Court of Justice which are expected shortly in this area;

HEADING 1

8. Notes the agreement reached on 24 July 1995 with regard to agricultural expenditure and considers it important that this year, for the first time, the Council has agreed to genuine dialogue;

9. Welcomes the submission of the letter of amendment in accordance with Article 14 of the Financial Regulation; considers it inappropriate, however, that the guideline has been increased following the technical adjustments made to the financial perspective; believes that the increase decided on after the PDB had actually been submitted infringes Article 2 of Council Decision 94/729 of 31 October 1994 ((OJ L 293, 12.11.1994, p. 14.)) on budgetary discipline and paragraph 9 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 29 October 1993;

10. Takes the view nevertheless that implementation of the ad hoc procedure provided for by that agreement makes it necessary to draw up a report in advance on expenditure entered in the PDB and regarded as compulsory by the Council; that report, submitted by the competent parliamentary committees, will be accompanied by proposed modifications and draft amendments to the lines in heading 1 of the PDB;

11. Repeats its request to the Commission to use its powers to withhold appropriations where there has clearly been a blatant misuse of funds in a particular policy area, using the new procedures agreed for implementing budgetary discipline as stated in Article 13 of Council Decision 94/729;

12. Notes that an economy of about ECU 60 million should be made in the sector of set-aside; urges the Commission to present the necessary proposals to use this amount for programmes concerning the improvement of production;

13. Notes that budget line B1-381 envisages the harmonisation of existing quality labels for agricultural products in Member States, and most notably the introduction of a European agricultural eco-label;

HEADING 2

14. Expresses its continuing concern about the weak delivery systems in certain Member States, in particular for Objective 1; calls therefore on the Commission to continue to introduce better transparency into the implementation of the Structural Funds, particularly the Social Fund;

15. Approves the decision to enter the appropriations for the Community initiative programme reserve in Chapter B0-40 pending a decision on the apportioning of the entire margin (ECU 1.6 bn); invites the Commission to submit a request for transfer as soon as Parliament has given its opinion and, in the meantime, instructs its Committee on Budgets, in association with the Committee on Budgetary Control, to submit a report on the financing of Community initiative programmes;

HEADING 3

16. Welcomes the fact that, this year, the amendments adopted to heading 3 enable resources to be concentrated on the priorities indicated by Parliament through genuine redeployment of appropriations;

Networks

17. Notes that implementation of appropriations in 1995 for cross-border networks has remained very low; confirms, moreover, its utmost attachment to establishing major cross-border networks, which will constitute progress towards building the internal market and a more integrated Europe; recalls the conclusions of the Essen European Council;

18. Approves an amount of ECU 280 million for Trans-European Networks in the area of transport infrastructure (B5-700), of which 25% is voted in the reserve. This will be released once negotiations between Parliament and Council have been concluded satisfactorily on the necessary legal basis;

Culture, Education and Media

19. Reaffirms the high priority it attaches to education, culture and media matters; welcomes the rationalization and restructuring of a number of budget lines brought about by the new consolidated action programmes such as SOCRATES and MEDIA; requests that the Commission pursue its efforts in favour of a European sports policy;

20. Calls for greater efforts to promote tolerance in European societies, on which rests not only Europe's historic responsibility but also its common future;

Information

21. Notes with satisfaction the beginnings of a process of cooperation between the two institutions' departments; approves the general guidelines contained in the joint document submitted by its own and the Commission's services; regrets, however, that the intention of setting up a new integrated interinstitutional information system is not more clearly defined, and therefore calls for the restructuring needed to create the synergies for the provision of global information primarily targeted on the Union's citizens to be carried out as soon as possible;

22. Reiterates its wish that its own and the Commission's departments combine their financial and human resources with a view to creating synergies; reconfirms its decision that the Parliament and Commission external offices in each country be grouped together under the same roof in a 'Europe House' by 1 January 2000 at the latest;

23. Approves the adoption of a budget amendment urging the institutions to give the Union's citizens specific information on what has been achieved and established by European integration (PRINCE); the appropriations intended for this programme will be allocated to the reserve, pending an agreement between the institutions on the aims of and practical arrangements for this programme, in particular on establishing an interinstitutional advisory committee;

24. Calls for an assessment of information expenditure and of overall information policy to be carried out and submitted to the budgetary authority before 30 June 1996;

Agencies

25. Confirms its continued support for the specialized agencies of the European Union; recalls, however, that all the agencies, and in particular the newly established ones, have to respect the general constraints to the budget and the principles that govern the European institutions; reaffirms that the agencies may expand their activities and budgets only after demand has been demonstrated;

26. Reminds the Commission, the Council and the agencies that the European Parliament has asked them to propose, decide and implement modifications to the regulations establishing them, in order to harmonize their respective budgetary regulations and to present their budgets in a transparent and detailed way in the general budget of the Union;

27. Asks the agencies to propose the relevant alterations to their regulations in order to be given access to the global reserve for the agencies; notes in addition that any transfer of appropriations from the specific reserves of the agencies and/or the global reserve will be subject to evaluation of the performance of the agencies;

Environment

28. Welcomes the decision to establish a procedure for ensuring that as far as possible the use of Community funds supports sustainable environmental activities, as many environmental factors do not (as yet) have monetary value and are therefore not fully budgetized;

29. Asks the Commission to present before 8 December 1995 a code of conduct aimed at securing the integration of the environmental dimension into policies and programmes supported by Community funding, as was asked for in the guidelines for this budget; asks that the code of conduct should be inspired by the following principles:

(a) the Structural and the Cohesion Funds should apply the principles of sustainable development and use of natural resources, so as to avoid long-term damage to the resource base, much higher costs for curative actions and expensive technological solutions;

(b) principally through the development of standard quantifiable environmental evaluation techniques - ex ante, in itinere and ex post - the Member States and the Commission should furnish adequate information to the budgetary authority on the environmental aspects of major projects and/or programmes respecting the current requirements of the budget decisions, and the monitoring and evaluation procedures, especially concerning the Structural and Cohesion Funds. This information shall be provided on an annual basis;

(c) new programmes shall respect the environmental principles of Community policies, such as those in the Common Agricultural Policy, the energy policy, the Trans-European Networks, the Natura 2000 Network and the Habitat Directive;

(d) the Commission, in its mid-term review of programmes cited above, should furnish details of the results of its own on-going environmental controls and evaluations to the budgetary authority. Should the budgetary authority consider that adequate information on environmental aspects has not been furnished by any Member State or region, it may instruct the Commission to take appropriate measures;

30. Requests the Commission to guarantee the implementation, monitoring and assessment of the environmental aspects of programmes and projects under the agricultural funds, the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund;

HEADING 4

31. Warmly endorses the decision that ECU 35 million is to be made available in support of the reconstruction of Sarajevo as well as ECU 15 million towards reconstruction in other parts of former Yugoslavia;

32. Calls for the Commission to establish priorities in its external policies, in particular with a view to effective utilization of appropriations in Central and Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean on the basis of well prepared, specific projects; such prioritization should still allow an effective commitment to pursue EU interests in connection with global environmental protection; wishes to support the development of civil society and democracy within the partner societies of the MEDA programme with ECU 10 million, and encourage cross-border implementation of the PHARE, TACIS and INTERREG programmes; is convinced that this action cannot be realized without new budgetary resources;

33. Endorses the overall amounts proposed by the Cannes European Council for the PHARE, TACIS and MEDA programmes for the 1996-1999 period; urges that these programmes be made subject to more direct control and more effective implementation of European public funds; for this purpose, the Commission shall provide regular information, including quarterly and annual reports monitoring utilization of expenditure; in addition it will supply an interim evaluation of the programmes by 30 June 1997, to enable Parliament to decide on future appropriations after 1997; an overall evaluation report will be submitted before the end of each programme;

34. Insists that a separate chapter be retained for the CFSP and that the Council respect the EU Treaty with regard to the financing of joint actions; rejects the practice established by the Council in the case of Mostar to overrule Parliament's budgetary decisions on the release of funds for the EU Administration;

35. Confirms its support for a European development policy which has proved its value over time and to which the European Parliament has made a vital contribution both in budgetary terms and in relation to the creation and evaluation of such policy;

36. Believes that there should be a continuing financial commitment to the stability and the economic regeneration of South Africa; in particular asks the Commission to provide before 8 December 1995 detailed information about the execution of budget line B7-5070 (South Africa);

37. Notes with satisfaction that the support measures for fisheries (B7-800) will become more transparent through subdivision; has proposed the creation of new budget items for international agreements, financial protocols, contributions for fisheries organizations and a global reserve for future fisheries agreements and financial protocols;

38. Asks the Commission to consider a new procedure and to submit, when necessary, but at least twice a year, a confidential report on the financial consequences of ongoing negotiations, and to present, if need be, the appropriate requests for a transfer of appropriations;

HEADING 5

39. Decides that 10% of the funding foreseen for external delegations of the Commission will be placed in a special reserve and will be released once a clear agreement on the form and the funding from the operational budget of technical assistance staff for monitoring and evaluation in the PHARE and TACIS recipient countries is concluded between the budgetary authority and the Commission, aided by the recommendations of a reflection group of Members of the EP, the Court of Auditors and the Commission; calls on the Commission to submit a study with a view to creating inter alia the framework for external statutory staff, covering:

- the distribution of officials over the delegations, with a description of the tasks performed;

- the distribution of local agents and other staff who are not officials over the delegations, with a description of the tasks performed;

- the distribution by delegation of the different sources of expenditure, such as representation expenses, housing costs, telecommunications, travel, etc.;

- the visibility of controls (by the Commission's services and the budgetary authority);

the number and tasks of the external local staff would be agreed for each programme;

40. Underlines its commitment to reinforcing financial management in the Commission and decides to create new posts to that effect to complement the new posts promised by Parliament and Council for the anti-dumping sector during the 1995 budgetary procedure and granted this year by Parliament; supports the strategy of the fight against fraud and the protection of the financial interests of the Community and calls on the Commission to reinforce UCLAF through redeployment and/or secondment;

41. Places in the reserve the mission expenses, travel and other incidental expenses of the Commissioners (A-104) with the request that the budgetary authority be informed before the second reading of the 1996 budget of the extent to which, during the 1995 budget year, Commissioners received fees and reimbursements for participating for instance in their official capacity in events held by outside organizations, institutions and bodies which can be classified as revenues for reuse;

42. Warmly welcomes the decision to establish the GEMINI programme to encourage twinning between towns in the European Union and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and also to encourage links between the Union's peripheral, mountain and island regions, account being taken of geographical balance;

43. Notes with satisfaction that the amendments adopted concerning the nomenclature of Title A-30 of the budget help to make both transparent and visible Community action via subsidies for non-institutional structures whose impact on citizens is genuinely tangible and for which the selection criteria will in future reflect a concern for greater rationalization;

44. Welcomes the efforts made to deepen interinstitutional cooperation on the administrative part of the budget; insists that the Commission give its full support to finding economies for this process;

45. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and Commission.