Brussels, 29/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - At its plenary in Brussels on Thursday 28 April, the European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the EP president, Martin Schulz, for implementation of the EP budget for the 2014 tax year.
Adopting by 480 to 149 and 19 abstentions a report by Markus Pieper (EPP, Germany) on the EP's accounts for 2014, thus endorsing them, the MEPs were critical, however, of excessive security and chauffeur expenditure and were disappointed at Martin Schulz's behaviour during the European election campaign. “Martin Schulz didn't clearly separate himself and the campaign as the European Socialists' 'Spitzenkandidat' from his mandate as President of the European Parliament”, said rapporteur Pieper.
Discharge for 2014. Adopting by 471 to, 155 and 14 abstentions an amendment lodged by the EPP and S&D groups, the EP “notes that it was difficult to differentiate fully the President's political activities from his preparation as 'Spitzenkandidat' to head his Party in the 2014 European elections, and it was also difficult to make a differentiation for other 'Spitzenkandidaten'; considers that an unequivocal distinction has not been made between the two roles; calls for a clear segregation of office holders' functions and candidacies for European election campaigns; regrets the at least indirect use of Parliament staff to help prepare the campaign and calls for action to ensure that it does not happen again in future; regrets in this regard that the President transformed the Twitter profile of the European Parliament Presidency into his personal profile and used it during the campaign”. The EP “notes that after considerable delay, internal whistleblowing rules have been adopted and are in force since January 2016; expresses concern at the lack of protection granted to whistleblowers and calls on Parliament to ensure that their rights are fully respected; calls on the Bureau to extend internal whistleblowing rules to accredited parliamentary assistants and calls for equivalent national legislation to be applied to local assistants”.
General Expenditure Allowance. The EP points out that the General Expenditure Allowance (GFA) is intended to cover expenditure in the Member State of election, such as a Member's office rent, equipment, supplies, documentation or logistical organisation of events; and takes note that a comprehensive system of control of the Member's parliamentary mandate allowance would represent 40 to 75 new administrative posts, which would go against the staff reduction scheme. Narrowly adopting an amendment lodged by the ELDD group (by 304 to 303 with 32 abstentions), the EP called for “full transparency” on the GFA “in order to allow European citizens to have an insight into the general expenditure of the Members of the European Parliament; and urges the Bureau to revise the list of expenses which may be defrayed from the GEA”.
Transparency. The EP urges Parliament to adopt rules in order to disclose all input received from lobbyists/interest representatives on draft policies, laws and amendments as a “legislative footprint”. It also asks Parliament to give MEPs who so desire the technical possibility of publishing their calendar and meetings with lobbyists on their official web page.
House of European History. The EP says it is disappointed to learn that the works on the Eastman Building, which will provide the premises for the House of European History, are still subject to delay.
LUX Prize. Adopting an amendment by the EPP group, the EP notes that the total cost of the LUX Prize for cinema was €391,506 in 2014, down on previous years (€448,000 in 2013 and €434,421 in 2012). The paragraph endorsed by the budgetary control committee talked about a rise in expenditure on the LUX Prize. The EP regrets that the results of an opinion poll on awareness and the impact of the LUX Prize, which had been requested in the 2013 discharge report, are still not available. It calls for the poll results to be made available to the public by mid-May 2016 and for them to be officially submitted to the budgetary control committee and the culture and education committee.
Personnel. The EP says that that moving from a 37.5-hour to a 40-hour working week under the changes to staff working conditions has gained the equivalent of more than 350 jobs, which in practice compensates for the 5% reduction in staff numbers over several years, as agreed as part of changes to the terms and conditions. Finally, the EP Is concerned about the proposal to bring the drivers' service in-house and the resulting additional costs, which will mean an increase of more than 50 % in 2017 compared to 2016.
Environment. Adopting an amendment lodged by the Greens/EFA group, the EP highlights the need to implement Green public procurement for all contracts and calls for tenders; calls for ambitious binding targets for green contracts, notably in the areas of food and catering, vehicles and transport, sanitary and water equipment, paper, waste management, IT and imaging equipment, lighting, cleaning, and furniture. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)