Activites

• 2002/01/31 Final act published in Official Journal
  • Budget 2002/50
  • OJ L 029 31.01.2002, p. 0001
• 2001/12/13 Decision by Parliament, 2nd reading
  • T5-0689/2001
• 2001/12/11 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2001/12/10 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 2nd reading
• 2001/12/04 Vote in committee, 2nd reading
  • A5-0400/2001
• #2388
• 2001/11/22 Council Meeting
• 2001/11/22 Council amended draft budget published
  • 14341/2001 summary

    In light of the second reading of the draft 2002 budget, the Council met with a delegation from the European Parliament. Following the conciliation meeting, the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission came to an overall agreement on the 2002 budget for other institutions. Overall, they agreed that the budget for the other institutions and Community bodies should not be amended from that of the first reading of the budget by the Council. In addition, the Council took note of the European Parliament's intention to present a supplementary amending budget in 2001 on the prepayment of loans in the field of real estate. That aside, the Council has not amended any of the provisions relating to the draft budget taken by the European Parliament. �

• 2001/10/25 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T5-0561/2001 summary

    By adopting the report by Mrs Kathalijne Maria BUITENWEG (Greens/EFA, NL), the European Parliament approves the first reading of the draft general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2002 concerning all the other sections of the budget as well as on the Letter of Amendment 1/2002. The Parliament notes that the Council decided at its first reading to cut administrative expenditure by EUR 59 million, thus leaving an apparent margin of EUR 53.4 million under the ceiling. Remaining concerned at the increasingly difficult situation in heading 5 (Administrative Expenditure); the Parliament points out that new needs have emerged that were not considered in the financial perspective, such as developments concerning the second pillar (European Security and Defence Policy) and the third pillar (Eurojust; Joint Data Protection Bodies) and expenditure for the European Data Protection Supervisor, which put additional pressure on the current margin. With regard to the European Parliament, it has decided, in principle, to remain within the self-imposed 20% ceiling of heading 5 of the financial perspective. It recalls that expenditure relating to the Statute for Members, buildings and enlargement remains excluded from that ceiling and underlines the fact that Parliament's willingness to finance enlargement- related costs without exceeding EUR 1 035 million is a measure of its budgetary rigour and by no means creates a precedent for subsequent budgets. It underlines that a Statute for Members must be adopted as soon as possible, together with new rules governing Members' expenses. It has decided to make available for enlargement-related expenditure in the 2002 budget an allocation of EUR 18.78 million (of which EUR 13.06 million has been placed in the reserve) to cover a certain number of measures relating to enlargement. It considers it essential that Parliament make its voice heard in the debate on the future of Europe and agrees, therefore, to place EUR 800 000 for publications, information and participation in public events and EUR 597 000 for auxiliary staff in the reserve, pending the submission of a report on a coherent strategy for Parliament in this debate. It has also decided to increase the appropriations against Item 2723 ("Organisation and reception of groups of visitors, Euroscola and invitations to opinion multipliers from third countries") by EUR 250 000. The Parliament is of the opinion that the Court has been given the necessary resources in the 2001 and 2002 budgets to resolve the problem of the backlog in translations and to meet the expected increase in workload in the Court of First Instance and requests the Court to present a report to the budgetary authority by 1 June 2002 on the situation concerning the translation backlog and on changes in the workload of the Court, in particular on the number of cases brought before the Court of First Instance. The European Parliament endorses the efforts by the Court to modernise its auditing methods as a further way of optimising the allocation of resources. It also notes that the European Commission intends to use the same computerisation project for its internal audit; has decided, therefore, to enter EUR 296 000 for this purpose in the reserve. It agrees with the Economic and Social Committee that the legitimacy of the Members of the institution derives primarily from their own expertise and asks to reduce appropriations concerning studies, surveys and consultations of a limited nature to EUR 575 000. With regard to the Committee of the Regions, it has decided to authorise measures concerning eight upgradings. With regard to the European Ombudsman, it has decided to authorise the conversion of several permanent posts to temporary posts estimating that these measures will contribute to finding an appropriate balance between permanent and temporary posts in the Ombudsman's secretariat and will avoid further disruption in its work. Lastly, the European Parliament has decided to establish a new section for the European Data Protection Supervisor. To this end, it considers it appropriate to enter an appropriation of EUR 1.2 million in the reserve, pending further decisions to be taken; awaits additional information to be submitted to the budgetary authority on the likely workload of this new body, precise job descriptions for the posts requested and a clear demarcation in relation to tasks under the responsibility of the European Ombudsman.

• 2001/10/24 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2001/10/15 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A5-0329/2001
• 2001/07/20 Council draft budget published
  • 10999/2001 summary

    PURPOSE : to present the draft for the financial year 2002, other sections. CONTENT: parallel to the draft budget for the financial year 2002 (see BUD/2000/2324), the Council has approved the draft budget for the other budgetary sections : The European Parliament, The Council, The Court of Justice, The Court of Auditors, The Economic and Social Committee, The Committee of the Regions and The Ombudsman. On the whole, the Council has cut EUR 59 million in Heading 5 (Administrative expenditure) of the financial perspective and leaves a margin of EUR 53.5 million under the ceiling, which was exceeded by EUR 5.6 million on the basis of the estimates presented by all the institutions. Council's goal as regards this Heading had been traditionally to reduce as much as possible, often without taking into account the real needs of the institutions or new requirements. This is the case in 2002, for instance, for the EC Data Protection Officer. The Council has set the administrative payment appropriations of all the institutions (including the European Parliament) at an amount of EUR 5.125,55 million, this represents an increase of 4,3% in comparison with the 2001 allocations. Appropriations for a total of 89 new permanent posts have been approved: 78 in the Commission, 5 in the Court of Auditors, 5 in the Committee of the Regions, and 1 for the Ombudsman. In addition, the Council and the European Parliament have asked the Secretaries-General of the Institutions for a report with a multiannual analysis on Category 5 for the attention of the budgetary authority, for discussion at the November Budget Council. This report should identify the economies of scale resulting from the strengthening of interinstitutional cooperation (pooling of human and material resources and means, by identifying and benchmarking the best practices of the various institutions) and the necessary proposals for savings, including in the context of preparation for enlargement, needed to respect the Category 5 ceiling. With regard to the administrative expenditure of the institutions, the Council has calculated various budgetary envelopes taking into consideration the following principles: - setting an overall budget for current operating expenditure, within which the institutions concerned may themselves determine the priorities they wish to establish; this budget was established on the basis of the planned rate of increase for staff expenditure and a rate of increase for other expenditure not as a rule exceeding inflation; - taking into account the special situations that may be encountered by institutions having to meet exceptional or unavoidable expenditure, arising in particular from the implementation of the Amsterdam Treaty, the replacement of members or the transfer of responsibilities between institutions; - acceptance of the PDB, subject to the technicaladjustments arising from the changes made to expenditure in the draft budget; - deletion of budget lines relating to the implementation of a definitive cessation regime of the functions of civil servants for other institutions other than the Commission, in the absence of a decision on this regime. �

• 2001/06/14 Commission preliminary draft budget published
  • COM(2001)0285
  • DG [{'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/budget/', 'title': 'Budget'}],
• #2345
• 2001/05/07 Council Meeting
  • 2345
• 2001/04/03 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
  • T5-0173/2001 summary

    In adopting the report presented by Kathalijne Maria BUITENWEG (Greens/EFA, NL), the European Parliament approved budgetary guidelines for administrative expenditure relating to the institutions. The ceiling for administrative expenditure for 2002 stands at EUR 5,179 million but factors to be taken into account include the Kinnock staff reform, together with an early retirement scheme, the impact of enlargement especially on language services, with MEPs wanting this to be included in the 2002 budget, the Parliament's building policy and the financing of political parties. The resolution also called on Council not to include any "operational" expenditure such as the administrative cost of setting up the Rapid Reaction Force in its own estimates. It should be noted that the Parliament reiterates its support for the establishment of an Assistants' statute. �

• 2001/03/22 Preparatory budgetary report tabled for plenary
  • A5-0103/2001
• 2001/03/22 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
• #2335
• 2001/03/12 Council Meeting
  • 2335 summary

    Before the first adoption of the conclusions relating to the Council's priorities for the 2002 budget, the ministers exchanged points of view on the principal budgetary orientations for 2002. During the debate led by the Council, the ministers insisted in particular on the absolute necessity of respecting the finanical perspectives and the inter-institutionnel agreement of 6 May 1999 on budgetary discipline and the improvement of the budgetary procedure. They also discussed a certain number of key questions concerning different issues (amongst others, the fight against the BSE crisis, involvement in the Balkans, the cost of structural reforms and innovation, etc.). As regards financial issues in particular, the Council is of the opinion that the following must be given special attention in the context of the preparation of the 2002 budget: - in relation to the financial consequences of the BSE crisis, the Council recalls that with respect to the conclusions of the European Council at Nice, the financial perspectives and the Council regulation on budgetary discipline must be respected in order to deal with the consequences of BSE; - the Council indicated that it plans to stay within the limits of the reference amounts for the multi-annual programmes under heading 4; - it underlined the importance of the measures contained in the conclusions of the European Council in Lisbon; - before a proposal for a new programme or a new budgetary line is submitted to the budgetary authority, the pilot projects and the preparatory actions must be subject to a report containing an evaluation of results which conforms to the inter-institutional agreement; - concerned by the small margin of manoeuvre possible under heading 5, the Council stressed that the draft budget must leave a sufficient margin for the requirements of all the institutions and that the possibilities of re-deployment must be exhausted before the presentation of additional requirements.�

Documents

• Debate in Council: 2335
• Preparatory budgetary report tabled for plenary: A5-0103/2001
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T5-0173/2001
• Debate in Council: 2345
• Commission preliminary draft budget published: COM(2001)0285
• Council draft budget published: 10999/2001
• Budgetary report tabled for plenary, 1st reading: A5-0329/2001
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T5-0561/2001
• Council amended draft budget published: 14341/2001
• Budgetary report tabled for plenary, 2nd reading: A5-0400/2001
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 2nd reading: T5-0689/2001
• : Budget 2002/50
• : OJ L 029 31.01.2002, p. 0001

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)