Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-02-25-Speech-3-112"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20040225.8.3-112"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to present the guidelines for other sections and the European Parliament's preliminary draft estimates for 2005.
Finally, as regards the Economic and Social Committee (Section VI) and the Committee of the Regions (Section VII), we ask both committees to pursue budgetary rigour in their estimates, especially in staff requests and building projects, and to improve the cooperation as regards the joint services to fully benefit from the new joint premises. We expect that the move to the Belliard building and the vacation of the current buildings will take place as foreseen.
A few points did not make it through the vote in the Committee on Budgets. We present again to the House only the most important of these, on which I would ask for your support.
My intention is that the guidelines should deal with the essentials and be kept very concise. Details and the consideration of specific measures will be left for the motion on the estimates. Please allow me now to touch briefly on some aspects of this year’s guidelines.
The exceptional feature of the budget year 2005 is that it will be the first full budgetary year for the European Union of 25 Member States, the first full year of activity for the newly-elected European Parliament, the newly-appointed Commission, and the first full year of implementation of the new Staff Regulations. Technical adjustment will reduce the ceiling of the financial perspectives of heading 5 for 2005 by EUR 94 million at current prices. On the basis of these budgetary constraints for 2005, new entities such as the European School of Administration may have to be delayed unless savings are made by launching such bodies. The amount of staff in most of the institutions has been increasing rapidly to cater for the needs of the enlargement. The main bulk of these additional needs related to the enlargement are covered in the 2002-2004 budgets, even if a number of measures remain to be taken.
In view of the delays in recruitment procedures, a thorough assessment will be made of the situation in view of the 2005 budget. We are assuming that the financial impact of expanding the institutions' premises will occur mainly after 2005. A key question for the 2005 budgetary procedure will continue to be the administrative reforms of the institutions.
That brings me to Parliament (Section I), where several uncertainties relating to the drawing up of Parliament's budget for 2005 need to be considered, such as the current lack of agreement on a Members’ Statute, the actual outcome of the enlargement-related recruitments in 2004, and developments of several building projects. At this stage, therefore, we reserve our position regarding the limit of 20% of the expenditure under heading 5. It is regrettable that the Member States have not yet been able to agree on a Members’ Statute and it is hoped that progress will be made on this during the course of 2004. The same also applies to the Statute for Members’ assistants. As far as the financing of the European Political Parties is concerned, I think we agree that this expenditure should in principle remain outside Parliament’s self-imposed ceiling of 20% of heading 5 as it is not an administrative expenditure of the institution but an operational one. However, I am ready to compromise on this particular point and accept the text of Mrs Buitenweg’s Amendment No 8, which leaves open the option of including this expenditure within the 20% ceiling. In view of the delays in recruitment procedures for staff from the new Member States and difficulties encountered in recruiting especially linguistic staff from certain new Member States, we consider that a decision on making appropriations available for additional enlargement-related staff can only be taken at the first reading of the 2005 budget. A mid-term plan for building projects is necessary in order to define the level of Parliament's budget in 2005 in view of possible capital injections needed to pursue the property policy.
As regards the functioning of the car service, we need to re-evaluate it to see if it provides a satisfactory service to Members while guaranteeing value for money.
Moving on to Council (Section II), the Council is asked to consider presenting its estimates with the Preliminary Draft Budget instead of its first reading to increase transparency. Parliament will also continue to monitor the Council operational budget, while respecting the Gentlemen's Agreement as regards the administrative expenditure.
As for the Court of Justice (Section IV), here we note that this institution has, in the last couple of years, experienced higher growth rates in staff than most other institutions.
With regard to the Court of Auditors (Section V), we mention that the Court of Auditors has distributed its enlargement-related staff increase over the 2004 and 2005 budgets."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples