WRITTEN QUESTION P-1616/99 by Stanislaw Tillich (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Commission staff.
Date: 1999-09-07
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Community budget, EU office or agency, European Commission, European official, contract staff, exchange of information

C 170 E/52

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

20.6.2000

will be considered in the context of the new regulation to be adopted, and in close cooperation with the
United Nations and other actors in this area. It is currently not envisaged to hold a major international
conference in the near future.

(2000/C 170 E/057)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1616/99

by Stanislaw Tillich (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(7 September 1999)

Subject: Commission staff

Can the Commission say how many auxiliary and local staff and special advisers (cid:129) in addition to the
permanent and temporary posts arising from the EU budget (cid:129) it pays out of the budget and what
amounts are involved?

Can it provide the same details on staff not governed by the Staff Regulations and employed, for example,
at the European agencies, technical assistance offices (TAOs) and international organisations (e.g. for the
Balkans)?

How many posts remain vacant in the end?

Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission

(6 October 1999)

On 31 August 1999, the Commission employed:

Statute

Number

Budget heading

1999 appropriations

Auxiliary staff

Special advisers

Local staff in the offices of the Union

Local staff in the delegations

1 310

31

192

1 696 (1)

A-7000

A-1113

A-1112

A-6001

36 310 000

165 000

6 850 000

37 550 000 (1)

(1) Out of maintenance and safety agents under local contract (estimated up to 203 persons for a total cost of approximately

€ 650 000).

(in euros)

Some local staff for technical assistance, assigned to the delegations and financed on the B7-5 chapter of
the part B of the budget, are not included in the above mentioned human resources. Their number is
approximately 150 person/year.

Agencies are given a large autonomy in relation to staff management. Their current statutory staff is
approximately 1 200 persons. At present, the Commission does not have data concerning the number of
(cid:145)non statutory(cid:146) personnel working in the agencies. This would need an ad hoc survey to each one of the
11 agencies. Meanwhile, in answer to the specific questions:

According to the results of the most recent survey on technical assistance, carried out in September/
October 1998, the cost of technical assistance offices (TAOs) working for the Commission corresponds to
approximately € 200 million. The number of person/year working in TAOs listed by the Commission was
approximately 1 000. However the number of indicated person/year does not systematically include the
support staff (secretariat, for example) employed by TAOs. Moreover, when the product of TAOs is
expressed in terms of delivery of a given service (output) and not of volume of human resources used

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Official Journal of the European Communities

C 170 E/53

(input), the number of personnel employed by TAOs does not constitute a contractual criterion and is
therefore not known by the Commission. A new report updating the data on TAOs is being finalised and
will be submitted to the budgetary authority in the near future.

At present, the Community rebuilding effort in Kosovo is coordinated by a task force of the Commission,
of approximately 35 persons, comprised mainly of officials of the Commission and local agents (statutory
personnel). It will be replaced in the future by a Kosovo rebuilding agency.

Budgetary vacant posts at 31 August 1999, are as follows:

Budget

Posts

Number

Operation (fonctionnement)

Operation (fonctionnement)

Research (Indirect actions)

permanent

temporary

permanent (administrative, scientific and
technical)

Office for Official Publications of the
European Communities

permanent

501

195

193

29

(2000/C 170 E/058)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-1618/99

by Raffaele Costa (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(7 September 1999)

Subject: MED Programmes

The resolution on the Court of Auditors Special report No 1/96 on the MED programmes (submitted
pursuant to Article 188C, paragraph 4, indent 2 of the EC Treaty) together with the Commission(cid:146)s replies
refers to serious irregularities and significant shortcomings in the management of the financial pro-
grammes (1992-1995).

The same resolution notes that the funding proposals for MED-Urbs (29 July 1992), MED-Campus
(14 October 1992, MED-Invest (14 December 1992) and MED-Media (18 May 1993) involved spending
of ECU 78 million.

Will the Commission provide a full and detailed list of all public and private bodies, undertakings,
companies, firms, individuals and organisations in Member States and other countries which have received
sums under the abovementioned programmes up to a total of ECU 78 million, giving details of the exact
amounts concerned?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(8 October 1999)

The ECU 78 million referred to in the Parliament(cid:146)s resolution of July 1996 were spent on financing
decentralised cooperation networks for the period 1992-1995, and technical assistance to them (ARTM
(agency for Trans-Mediterranean networks) (cid:129) Ismeri Europa (cid:129) FRERE Consultants (cid:129) the Council of
European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) (cid:129) and the Television trust for the environment (TVE)).

Since the resolution, the Commission has regularly kept the Committee on Budgetary Control informed of
follow-ups to the Court of Auditors(cid:146) report, and the progress of recovery orders.

The Commission has sent additional information on the financing decisions for the various networks for
the period 1992-1995 directly to the Honourable Member and to the Parliament(cid:146)s Secretariat.