Resolution on the guidelines for the 2000 budget procedure: Section I - European Parliament, Annex: Ombudsman; Section II - Council; Section IV - Court of Justice; Section V - Court of Auditors; Section VI - Economic and Social Committee and Committee of the Regions and Joint Organisational Structure
Date: 1999-03-23
Institutions: European Parliament
Subjects: Court of Justice of the European Union, European Commission, European Committee of the Regions, European Economic and Social Committee, European Parliament, access to a profession, draft budget, general budget (EU), petrochemicals

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Tuesday 23 March 1999

22.
Asks the Board of Governors of the European Schools to inform the budgetary authority well in
advance of all plans to open new European Schools; will not accept any ‘fait accompli’, given that any new
school will have a severe budgetary impact;

23.
Calls on the Commission to carry out a thoroughgoing revision of its management methods and to
put  forward  practical  proposals  to  highlight  the  proportion  of  public  spending  on  funded  measures
accounted for by administrative costs, introducing in particular administrative management based on the
cost of the activities (activity-based budgeting); takes the view that the experience gained in connection
with the management of Subsection B6 could usefully be extended, whilst taking steps to ensure that the
distinction  drawn  between  administrative  appropriations  and  operating  appropriations  safeguards
transparency and the power of the budgetary authority;

24.
In  the  context  of  the  2000  budget  procedure,  calls  for  rigorous  checks  to  be  carried  out  on  the
allocation  of  the  human  and  financial  resources  made  available  to  the  programmes,  in  the  light  of  the
Union’s  political  priorities,  with  a  view  to  launching  a  general  political  debate  into  the  resources
earmarked  for  the  implementation  of  the  measures;  requests  the  Commission,  in  its  ongoing  work
programme of reform, to produce a report by 30 June 1999 which sets out its staffing priorities and real
staffing  requirements,  both  in  terms  of  numbers  as  well  as  nature  of  duties,  to  ensure  the  effective
operation of EU policies in the 21st century;

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the Union’s

25.
satellite agencies.

*

*

*

(b)  A4-0120/99

Resolution  on  the  guidelines  for  the  2000  budget  procedure:  Section  I  −  European  Parliament,
Annex: Ombudsman; Section II − Council; Section IV − Court of Justice; Section V − Court of
Auditors; Section VI − Economic and Social Committee and Committee of the Regions and Joint
Organisational Structure

The European Parliament,

−  having regard to the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 1999 (1),

−  having regard to the Court of Auditors’ Annual Report concerning the financial year 1997, together

with the institutions’ replies (2),

−  having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets (A4-0120/99),

A.  whereas  a  sum  of  EUR  4  502.3  million  has  been  entered  in  the  1999  budget  under  heading  5,

Administrative expenditure,

B.  whereas,  if  the  1993  interinstitutional  agreement  is  not  denounced  and  in  the  absence  of  a  new
financial perspective, the financial framework for the 2000 budget will be constituted by the 1999
financial perspective adjusted pursuant to Article 25 of the agreement, unless the denunciation of the
agreement by the Council were to entail the use of Article 203 (future Article 272) of the EC Treaty;
whereas,  at  all  events,  the  margin  for  increases  will  be  extremely  limited,  and  whereas  essential
staffing increases in individual institutions or committees will have to be offset as far as possible by
equivalent savings in other areas,

C.  having  regard  to  its  resolution  of  17  December  1998  on  the  draft  general  budget  of  the  European
Union  for  the  financial  year  1999  as  modified  by  the  Council  (all  sections)  and  on  Letter  of
Amendment  No  1/99  to  the  preliminary  draft  budget  for  1999  −  Section  III  −  Commission (3),
in which it called for reports on the financing conditions governing certain activities in the sphere of
administrative expenditure and laid down the deadlines for the submission of those reports,

(1)  OJ L 39, 12.2.1999.
(2)  OJ C 349, 17.11.1998.
(3)  Minutes of that Sitting, Part II, Item 1.

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D.  convinced  that  a  uniform  presentation  of  administrative  expenditure,  as  was  the  case  in  the  1999

budget procedure, will lead to a single reading of the draft budget,

E. 

in an effort to improve the performance of the institutions and the two committees by implementing a
competence-oriented staff policy which is capable of motivating its staff,

All institutions and the two committees

1.
Calls  on  the  administrations  of  the  institutions  and  the  two  committees,  when  presenting  their
budgets, to be guided by realisation of the Union’s medium-term objectives, including enlargement; urges
them  to  employ  a  strategy  geared  to  enhancing  efficiency  by  improving  transparency,  motivation,
mobility and further training;

2.
Calls, therefore, for due account to be taken of the requirements of detailed accounting based on cost
centres  (‘activity-based  budgeting’)  and,  experimentally,  for  them  to  be  submitted  in  annexes  in  the
preliminary draft budgets for the next financial year;

Takes  the  view  that  appropriate  staff  mobility  is  required  within  and  among  the  institutions  and
3.
committees and that further professional training, including the use of state-of-the-art technologies, should
be encouraged;

4.
Calls  on  the  institutions  and  the  two  committees  to  seek  fresh  opportunities  for  interinstitutional
cooperation, since experience has shown that savings can be generated in this way; in that connection,
thinks in particular of the testing of the synergies which can be achieved by means of cooperation among
the  Parliament  departments  in  Brussels  and  those  of  the  two  committees,  which  are  geographically
adjacent, in a number of technical areas, such as libraries, the Medical Service, the Security Service, the
sports centre, etc.;

Draws  attention  to  its  abovementioned  resolution  of  17  December  1998  and  to  its  resolution  of
5.
16 December 1998 on the Commission’s work programme for the year 1999 (1) in which Parliament calls
on the institutions and committees, in the context of interinstitutional cooperation and under the leadership
of the Commission, to adopt, mutatis mutandis, the Commission Action Plan on Sustainable Adminis-
trative Management;

Emphasises that measures are needed to make provision for officials’ pensions; assumes that such a

6.
reform must

(a)  be sustainable,

(b)  take the fullest possible account of the contributions made, and

(c)  lead to the allocation of costs to the institutions in a manner which reflects periods of service as far as
possible; calls on the Council to give its views on this matter at the first reading of the 2000 budget;

Reiterates its view that the volume of the institutions’ budgets does not represent a spending target,

7.
but rather an absolute ceiling which must not be exceeded;

8.
Calls  for  an  interinstitutional  approach  to  the  negotiations  with  the  Luxembourg  authorities  or
alternative  contractual  partners  so  that  a  coherent  buildings  policy  can  be  pursued  and  the  most
advantageous  terms  possible  secured;  calls  for  a  speedy  continuation  of  the  policy  of  purchasing
buildings; expects, prior to the purchase of buildings, detailed comparative cost schedules to be submitted
to  the  budgetary  authority;  draws  attention,  further,  to  the  need  to  prepare  in  good  time  the  smooth
handover to subsequent tenants of any buildings to be vacated and thereby avoid any situation in which
buildings stand empty;

Calls  on  the  institutions  to  submit  to  it,  along  with  the  budget  estimates,  relevant  information
9.
concerning the permanent and temporary posts which will fall vacant as a result of natural wastage during
the 1999 financial year, broken down by category, grade, activity and administrative unit plus a list of
successful competition candidates, at the respective institutions, who are suitable to fill vacant posts;

European Parliament

Notes the proposals put forward by the Secretary-General in the ‘Second Note on the Consequences
10.
of the Amsterdam Treaty’ of 25 November 1998 and calls for consideration to be given to the possibility of
further rationalising human resources by merging committee secretariats in the Directorate-General for
Committees and Delegations;

(1)  Minutes of that Sitting, Part II, Item 12.

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11.
Asks the Council to approve the proposal for a Statute for Members of the European Parliament and
the proposal for a Statute for Members’ assistants, as put forward by Parliament (1), as soon as possible
and calls on Parliament’s Secretary-General to take account of this objective in the estimates for the year
2000;

12.
Notes  that  the  mopping-up  of  outstanding  appropriations  in  the  1998  budget  (volume:  almost
EUR 62 million) has led to a reduction in the financial cost of Parliament’s buildings in 1999 of EUR 8,5
million, and urges Parliament’s Administration to continue this practice;

13.
Is of the opinion that facilities within EP buildings which are not needed in connection with the
Institution’s activities must be economically self-supporting and may not be financed with subsidies from
Parliament’s budget; any exceptions for imputed costs must be shown separately;

Ombudsman

14.

Advocates a continuation of the agreement with the Ombudsman;

Takes the view that the Ombudsman’s budget should be a separate section of the general budget
15.
and,  should  the  Council  opt  not  to  draw  up  a  new  section,  intends  to  implement  this  in  line  with  the
Financial Regulation to be revised;

Invites the Council to adopt, as soon as possible, the eighth series of amendments, part B, revising

16.
the Financial Regulation, called for by Parliament and the Commission;

Court of Justice

17.
Expresses its understanding for the Court’s problems with regard to the translation service; asks the
Council, therefore, as the institution responsible, quickly to comply with the wishes of the Court of Justice
for appropriate changes to its Rules of Procedure, to be submitted by it, with a view to limiting the increase
in the workload and keeping to a minimum the allocation of new posts which would otherwise be required;

18.
Looks  to  the  Court  to  submit  an  interim  staffing  plan  with  the  aim  of  bringing  about  structural
changes, a plan which outlines a transitional solution covering the period until it has become clearer what
the  impact  of  the  structural  changes  to  the  profile  of  tasks  will  be;  states  that  no  new  posts  will  be
authorised unless such an interim plan is submitted;

Court of Auditors

19.
Calls on the Council, in connection with the appointment of eight new Members of the Court in the
year  2000,  to  avoid  duplication  of  staff  and  other  costs  over  certain  one-month  periods  and  proposes,
therefore, 29 February 2000 as the date on which outgoing Members should leave their posts and 1 March
2000 as that on which new Members should take up their duties;

The two committees

Calls on the two committees to submit a plan for the division of their Joint Organisational Structure
20.
as  soon  as  possible  and  an  action  plan  concerning  their  establishment  plans  in  good  time  prior  to  the
Council’s first reading; the plan should have legal certainty as its aim, so that the two committees can carry
out their work efficiently and on a long-term basis; emphasises that this action plan should take account of
the tasks entrusted to the committees by the Amsterdam Treaty and the modernisation and dynamisation
of the administrations referred to above;

21.
Takes the view that the allocation of the posts from the Joint Organisational Structure to the two
committees should take account of the workload of the committees and should guarantee equal treatment
for officials of the two committees as regards career development;

Economic and Social Committee

22.
Expects that, through cuts in the membership of the study groups and a reduction in the number of
meetings required to deal with requests for opinions, significant savings will be achieved against budget
Item S6-A250 (Meetings in general);

(1)  Minutes of Sitting of 3.12.1998, Part II, Item 1, and Minutes of Sitting of 11.3.1999, Part II, Item 4.

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Committee of the Regions

23. Welcomes  the  fact  that  the  Committee  of  the  Regions  is  introducing  new  rules  for  its  plenary
sessions structure with a view to reducing costs and points out that the system of substitutes must not lead
to additional costs;

European Central Bank

24.

Looks to the ECB to forward its budget at the same time as the other institutions and committees;

*

*

*

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to all the institutions and to all the advisory bodies

25.
concerned and the European Central Bank.

11. EAEC accession to KEDO − EU-DPRK relations

(a)  A4-0104/99

Resolution  on  the  Agreement  on  terms  and  conditions  of  the  Accession  of  the  European  Atomic
Energy  Community  to  the  Korean  Peninsula  Energy  Development  Organisation  (KEDO)  (C4-
0483/97)

The European Parliament,

−  having regard to the Agreement on terms and conditions of the Accession of the European Atomic
Energy Community to the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation (C4-0483/97),

−  having regard to the Euratom Treaty, in particular Article 101 thereof,

−  having regard to its resolution of 14 May 1998 on improvements in the functioning of the Institutions

without modification of the Treaties − making EU policies more open and democratic (1),

−  having regard to its resolution of 28 May 1998 on the role of the Union in the world (2),

−  having regard to the report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Security and Defence Policy and the
opinions of the Committee on Budgets and the Committee on Research, Technological Development
and Energy (A4-0104/99),

A.  whereas the decision for the European Union to join KEDO is an important issue of foreign policy,

which also has budgetary and energy implications,

B.  whereas the Commission and Council agreed that it was appropriate for Euratom to be the Community

which acceded to KEDO, despite its CFSP aspects,

C.  whereas the Accession Agreement is based on Article 101 of the Euratom Treaty, which does not

provide for consultation of the European Parliament,

D.  whereas the Commission and Council refused to consult Parliament on the Agreement on a voluntary

basis,

E.  whereas  the  Agreement  was  concluded  by  the  Commission  with  the  approval  of  the  Council  on

19 September 1997, without the European Parliament having delivered an opinion thereon,

(1)  OJ C 167, l.6.1998, p. 211.
(2)  OJ C 195, 22.6.1998, p. 35.