Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-07-04-Speech-2-254"
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"en.20000704.10.2-254"2
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"Mr President, draft supplementary and amending budget no. 2/2000 contains appropriations for the Council and for Parliament. The Council’s budget is EUR 6.635 million. This is going towards the needs of a common foreign and security and defence policy. EUR 5.877 million are estimated to be required for renting, renovating and furnishing a new building. This building will be for the needs of the staff required to implement the policy. EU military staff will be posted there, for example, including military experts who have been transferred from Member States. They may be around 45 at first, but that number may later grow to 60 or even 90. Their pay will amount to EUR 758 000 by the end of the year. Under the old gentleman’s agreement, neither institution – neither the Council nor Parliament – has become involved in the other’s draft budget.
The draft supplementary and amending budget for the European Parliament contains an appropriation of EUR 15 million for an additional prepayment for office space in Brussels. This will reduce annual interest by EUR 2.2 million over a ten-year period. This will leave a margin in the financial perspectives of EUR 69.1 million.
The Committee on Budgets transferred EUR 38 million of unused funds this year by means of a C6/2000 to fund this office space, the Spinelli building. As the President has also been able to transfer funds for this purpose, altogether at this stage we can use around EUR 58 million for accelerated payments, which will lessen annual payments over the ten-year period by around EUR 8 to 9 million for Parliament, which is a great relief. It is only reasonable that the European Parliament should pay for its office space ahead of time. In that way interest payments are saved and, at the same time, we have a little room for manoeuvre in the budget for the years to come. We shall need this, as, with eastward enlargement, Parliament’s other expenses will increase.
Parliament’s share of Category 5 expenses, or administrative expenses, in supplementary and amending budget no. 2/2000 will now rise to 20.41%, which is just over the 20% ceiling that Parliament itself set. Originally, when the budget was being drafted, the share of administrative expenses was to remain below 20%. As it is very likely that a considerable portion of the appropriations set aside for members’ regulations, for example, (which amount to EUR 60 million), will remain unspent, and as more than half the year has now gone by, this ceiling may be reviewed at the end of the year. On the other hand we must realise that Parliament is saving money, as the investment it is making is a most prudent one.
The Council’s budget is interesting, as there are appropriations in it for the first time for a common security and defence policy. Structures are being created for the Council for the defence dimension to be tied more tightly to the work of the EU, in accordance with the conclusions of the Helsinki Summit. This will be an extremely difficult issue for the small, non-aligned countries, such as Finland, for example. The scars left behind in Kosovo, after the crisis management operation, are frightening. How justified is humanitarian military action, and what are its limits? A big problem will be future budget technology. Article 28 of the Treaty is unclear, particularly regarding a common security, defence and military policy. Administrative expenditure is part of the EU budget, but the Council has discretionary powers with regard to operational expenses. What then is to be the practice in future, and how much of this expenditure will we try to place under Category 4. – External Action – which is already now overburdened? In future talks, the classification of expenditure must be made clearer and executed more effectively, to comply with Parliament’s wishes."@en1
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