Brussels, 05/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - the European Commission gave the first two examples of its resolve not to accept tasks for which it does not have the necessary personnel. The Commission had announced that it refused new tasks is they are not accompanied by the creation of posts, it gave a first example, by refusing the request made by the Parliament, through amendments in the Evans report, to carry out more tasks in the field of child and student mobility (see article on p.11). Another principal of the Commission reform, to abandon the small projects costly in terms of personnel to the benefit of more significant projects. Commissioner Liikanen wanted to underline that the Commission was implementing this principal in terms if sexual tourism (see previous article). The European Commission supported the two examples through a declaration by its President, which underlines that "the Commission cannot and will not accept new responsibilities, as valid as they may be, unless adequate resources are made available". A responsible public service must know how to take difficult decision", added Romano Prodi.
These first examples and declarations arrive at a time when the European Parliament and Council are discussing the granting of 400 addition posts that the Commission requested for 2001 in order to face the present duties. By presenting this demand, in the form of a letter of amendment to the draft 2001 budget, the Commission had warned that it would have to abandon certain activities (it had cited them specifically) if it did not gain these new posts. The General Affairs Council must rule on Monday, so that the position of the Member States is passed on to the Parliament before the first reading of the budget, at the end of October. On the Parliament's side, the EP's Budgets Committee last week decided to call on the EP to accept these job creations, but on condition of certain reforms.