WRITTEN QUESTION E-1790/96 by Gerhard Botz (PSE) to the Commission (3 July 1996)

Subject: Improvement of the Commission's administrative structures

There is continual criticism in the Member States of the European institutions' bureaucracy, and calls are being made for action to improve their efficiency and transparency.

Would the Commission answer the following questions in this connection:

1. What measures are currently being taken or planned to make the Commission's administrative structures more efficient, more transparent and hence more in tune with public opinion?

2. Is the Commission's administrative structure being analysed? If so, by whom, and on the basis of what criteria?

3. Is there a system of cost accounting within the Commission to enable administrative costs to be ascertained?

4. What studies have been made with regard to improving the efficiency of the Commission's administrative structures, and what conclusions are being drawn from them?

5. In what respect does the Commission consider that it might be possible to make internal decision-making procedures more efficient than they are at present?

Answer given by Mr Santer on behalf of the Commission (10 September 1996)

The Commission is a collegiate body and decision-making is complex. Many policies overlap and require a high degree of interaction between the services.

The Commission is very conscious of the need to ensure that European taxpayers are served in a way that is cost-effective and transparent. Its administrative and running costs account for more or less 3% of the total budget and are continually monitored to keep them to a minimum and to ensure that actions undertaken are carried out in a cost-effective way. Such analyses are carried out through programme evaluations, the dialogue within the budgetary process and internally through management audits.

Several important initiatives have been launched by the Commission recently which seek to improve performance further, notably Sem 2000. This reform package aims to develop sound and efficient management within the Commission notably through establishing annual work priorities, developing evaluation of programmes (objectives, progress and results), reinforcing the financial management structure in the services and establishing the true cost of action in both financial and human resource terms ((SEC(95) 1013; SEC(95) 1301; SEC(95) 1814 and SEC(96) 1015. )). In a third phase ((SEC(96) 388. )), to be carried out in partnership with the Member States, ways will be examined to improve the management of those Community funds which are administered nationally (and which account for 80% of the budget).

An innovation, which has facilitated policy development, is the creation of six special thematic groups at Commissioner level to advise on specific policy areas - external relations, growth competitiveness and employment, trans-European networks, cohesion, the information society and equal opportunities.

Since 1992 the Commission has taken steps to make its work more open and transparent. One particularly important measure concerns access to documents. The Commission and the Council have adopted a joint code of conduct which gives the public the right to request internal documents from both institutions. A recent review for the Commission showed that in two years of applying the code, less than 15% of requests had to be turned down as falling within the exceptions in the code of conduct.

In addition, the Commission is actively pursuing a broad publications policy addressed to the general public in which special attention is being paid to the above issues. During 1996, new brochures have been produced on the budget, organization and working procedures of the Community's institutions, and a new edition of the users' guide to access to Commission documents is currently under way.

Pertinent information concerning the Commission, including its administrative structure, has now been put on Internet (Europa), and is enjoying great success with some 58,000 hits (queries) a day.

Finally the Commission, with the collaboration of the Parliament, has identified several key themes where a particular awareness campaign should be launched and a major information action is currently under way in relation to Citizen's Europe, the Euro and the single market.