Strasbourg, 29/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - In its adoption of the report on the 2016 budget, on Wednesday 28 October, the European Parliament recalled that the provisional budget of the Parliament for 2016 was €1.83 billion, a 1.6% increase on the 2015 budget.
According to the rapporteur, Gérard Deprez (ALDE, Belgium), this is an austerity budget. Inflation forecasts stand between 1.3% to 1.6%, meaning that in reality, the EP budget is at the same level as in 2015, he explained. There is one exception: the EP has provided an envelope of €15 million, “exceptionally, to improve security and cyber-security within the EP”.
The EP has also voted to add €1 million in favour of the Court of Justice of the EU to help it deal with its cases. The Court has built up backlogs and has been ordered to pay €27 million in fines, said rapporteur Gérard Deprez. The EP therefore took the view that in this particular context, staff levels should not be reduced in line with the 5% rule (5% reduction over five years in staffing levels within the EU institutions). There were no problems for the other institutions (Court of Auditors, Ombudsman, Committee of the Regions, etc): the EP accepted the proposals put forward by the European Commission.
The EP reiterates its intention to implement point 27 of the inter-institutional agreement and to cut its staff by 1%. It stresses that “in order to generate ongoing savings in the budget of the Union”, the Parliament and the Council must imperatively establish a roadmap for a single seat, which is called for by a vast majority of the Parliament in most of its resolutions (522 votes in favour of this paragraph, 128 against and 39 abstentions).
In its adoption of an oral amendment by the rapporteur, the EP takes the view that in order to provide the MEPs with the necessary support in the exercise of their parliamentary duties, a new balance between accredited parliamentary assistants and local assistants is required. It notes that the secretary general has notified the Bureau of a proposal to this effect. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)