Brussels, 23/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Permanent Representatives Committee (COREPER) is to have a working lunch on Thursday to discuss details of the Convention to prepare for institutional reform ahead of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) of 2004. The EU diplomats will be looking in particular at the operations budget (covering members' expense, carrying out research and organising hearings) estimated at around EUR 5 million. This expenditure currently comes under Heading 5 (Administration) of the EU Budget for 2002. Bearing expenses in kind connected with the Convention's work (secondment of officials, translation and interpreting services and provision of offices and conference rooms) - forecast at around EUR 30 million over 10 months - should not cause any problems as this sort of expenditure does not need to be covered in the budget as it will be paid from the operating budgets of the three EU institutions (Commission, Parliament and Council).
According to sources close to the Council's Secretariat General, COREPER is likely to choose a solution whereby EUR 5 million would come from Member States' budgets (as a proportion of each country's GDP) since there is not enough money left under Heading 5. The same source was keen to put the cost of organising the Convention (due to start on 28 February) into context, stressing that it cost between EUR 11 and 15 million to organise a two-day European Council; an EU Special Envoy costs between EUR 3 and 5 million a year; and the public debate on the Future of Europe in 2001 had cost EUR 4 million. The Convention's Secretariat would be staffed by 15 to 17 officials from the three institutions.
The sensitive issue of whether to pay a salary to (or meet expenses for) Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Giuliano Amato and Jean-Luc Dehaene will also be discussed by COREPER. When he visited Brussels on 23 January, Mr Giscard d'Estaing may well give more information but for the moment, none of the Community institutions would confirm rumours that he had asked to be paid.
The spokesperson for Commissioner Michaele Schreyer said that expenses estimated at around EUR 30 million had to be revised down, with the Commission preferring Community expenditure to be funded from the Community budget (referring to the EUR 5 million that still has to be found) since this would provide better guarantees of transparency and control than providing ad hoc funding (by which the spokesperson meant intergovernmental funding).