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
C 177/44 EN Official Journal of the European Communities 22. 6. 1999 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. 22. 6. 1999 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 177/45 Tuesday 23 March 1999 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. C 177/46 EN Official Journal of the European Communities 22. 6. 1999 Tuesday 23 March 1999 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. 22. 6. 1999 EN Official Journal of the European Communities C 177/47 Tuesday 23 March 1999 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