Parliament adopted a report by Valdis DOMBROVSKIS (EPP-ED, LV) which aims to identify Parliament's financial needs for the year 2006. Proper preparation for the 2007 enlargement, as well as the consolidation of the 2004 enlargement and the reinforcement of information and linguistic services are identified as key priorities for the coming year (please refer to the summary dated 20/04/2005).

As regards the quality and efficiency of Parliament's work, Parliament takes note of the proposals by the Secretary-General to consolidate the "Raising the Game" reform of Parliament's Administration so as to improve services for Members. It calls for the proposals to be put into practise, especially those for assisting Members in their legislative work, including the setting-up of project teams. Improvements in language support for parliamentary work are also sought. An expansion in translation capacity so that Members can work on documents in their own languages has been called for. Moreover, Parliament expresses its reservations concerning the development of actions related to the transposition and implementation of legislation, falling within the competence of the Commission. It points out that citizens and media should have easy access to an improved "Legislative Observatory" on Parliament's website.

On personnel policy, it is considered essential to improve, simplify and speed up staff recruitment procedures to avoid making them exceedingly long. It stresses the need to create a truly merit-based promotion system for staff to provide accelerated promotion opportunities for the best-performing officials. Parliament is concerned about the high number of the as yet unfilled enlargement posts created in the 2004 and 2005 budgets, of which probably only 78% will be filled by the end of 2005. It finds the delays in enlargement-related recruitment procedures regrettable and requests that its Secretary-General submit a report by 1 July 2005 on the recruitment situation.

On the global level of Parliament's budget, it notes that the Secretary-General's preliminary draft estimates proposal is to set the level of the budget, at this stage, at 20% of heading 5 (Administrative expenditure) of the financial perspective, which corresponds to EUR 1 341 600 000 and represents an increase of 5.5% over the 2005 budget. It reserves its final position on the total amount for Section I until Parliament's first reading.

Parliament reiterates its position on the importance of determining the level of Parliament's budget on the basis of justified, real needs to avoid cancellation of appropriations at the end of 2006. The proposal to enter a margin of EUR 90 456 885 in the contingency reserve until the new priorities have been formulated has been noted. A more realistic margin for new priorities and unforeseen expenditure should be set aside in the contingency reserve at first reading.

Lastly, it is recalled that Parliament's policy of purchasing its main buildings has led to significant savings. An updated plan on building policy for acquisition of property in the short and medium term is called for, including options to purchase premises for Information Offices and Europe Houses.

Parliament adopted a report by Valdis DOMBROVSKIS (EPP-ED, LV) which aims to identify Parliament's financial needs for the year 2006. Proper preparation for the 2007 enlargement, as well as the consolidation of the 2004 enlargement and the reinforcement of information and linguistic services are identified as key priorities for the coming year (please refer to the summary dated 20/04/2005).

As regards the quality and efficiency of Parliament's work, Parliament takes note of the proposals by the Secretary-General to consolidate the "Raising the Game" reform of Parliament's Administration so as to improve services for Members. It calls for the proposals to be put into practise, especially those for assisting Members in their legislative work, including the setting-up of project teams. Improvements in language support for parliamentary work are also sought. An expansion in translation capacity so that Members can work on documents in their own languages has been called for. Moreover, Parliament expresses its reservations concerning the development of actions related to the transposition and implementation of legislation, falling within the competence of the Commission. It points out that citizens and media should have easy access to an improved "Legislative Observatory" on Parliament's website.

On personnel policy, it is considered essential to improve, simplify and speed up staff recruitment procedures to avoid making them exceedingly long. It stresses the need to create a truly merit-based promotion system for staff to provide accelerated promotion opportunities for the best-performing officials. Parliament is concerned about the high number of the as yet unfilled enlargement posts created in the 2004 and 2005 budgets, of which probably only 78% will be filled by the end of 2005. It finds the delays in enlargement-related recruitment procedures regrettable and requests that its Secretary-General submit a report by 1 July 2005 on the recruitment situation.

On the global level of Parliament's budget, it notes that the Secretary-General's preliminary draft estimates proposal is to set the level of the budget, at this stage, at 20% of heading 5 (Administrative expenditure) of the financial perspective, which corresponds to EUR 1 341 600 000 and represents an increase of 5.5% over the 2005 budget. It reserves its final position on the total amount for Section I until Parliament's first reading.

Parliament reiterates its position on the importance of determining the level of Parliament's budget on the basis of justified, real needs to avoid cancellation of appropriations at the end of 2006. The proposal to enter a margin of EUR 90 456 885 in the contingency reserve until the new priorities have been formulated has been noted. A more realistic margin for new priorities and unforeseen expenditure should be set aside in the contingency reserve at first reading.

Lastly, it is recalled that Parliament's policy of purchasing its main buildings has led to significant savings. An updated plan on building policy for acquisition of property in the short and medium term is called for, including options to purchase premises for Information Offices and Europe Houses.

The committee adopted the report by Valdis DOMBROVSKIS (EPP-ED, LV ) on the European Parliament's estimates for the 2006 financial year. The key priorities for the coming year were identified as: proper preparation for the 2007 enlargement, consolidation of the 2004 enlargement and the reinforcement of information and language services.

The report noted that the cost of pre-accession needs for Bulgaria and Romania had been estimated at EUR 13.8m, covering costs related to observers from the two countries as well as linguistic and support staff. It expected this amount to be "fine-tuned" at first reading. As for the 2004 enlargement, the committee expressed its concern that a high number of posts for officials of the new EU10 had still to be allocated, and regretted the delays in recruitment procedures.

Regarding Parliament's information and communication policy, MEPs noted that the Bureau of the EP was set to come up with proposals on the institution's overall communication strategy. A better link with citizens should be ensured by the EP's external offices, and the committee expected appropriations to be entered in next year's budget for external offices in Bulgaria and Romania . It also reiterated its longstanding view that the Europarl website was an important tool in Parliament's information policy, and should be made more user-friendly. It added that citizens and the media should have easy access to an improved Legislative Observatory on the EP website.

The report said that Members of the European Parliament should be given enhanced support from linguistic services to allow them to work in their own languages. Translation capacities should therefore be increased, while interpretation facilities should be available to a greater extent for political groups and working parties. Synergies with other institutions should also be explored.

The report also underscored the importance of personal assistants for the work of MEPs and called for a statute for assistants, for the sake of budgetary transparency. Lastly, it called for strict enforcement of the new rules on smoking on Parliament's premises.