Brussels, 28/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the EP gave the go-ahead to the funding of the operating costs of the Convention on the future of Europe for 2002 (10.5 million euro, 4 of which in the framework of a special fund) by approving: the Buijtenweg/Costas Neves report on the supplementary and amending budget No1 for 2002; the Buijtenweg report on the predictable supplementary state of revenue and expenses No.1 of the European Parliament for the fiscal year 2002 (the EP's contribution, which is one million euro). Plenary thus followed the Committee on Budgets (see EUROPE of 27 February, p.6).
The Committee on the Budgets wants the Convention to succeed: it undertook to ensure that Parliament's role was better defined and was able to defend its prerogatives, reserving a kind of right of veto for itself. This is how one of the EP rapporteurs, Dutch Green, Kathelijne Buitenweg, judged, at Wednesday's night session, the agreement reached between the three institutions. We would have preferred that the Conventions budget should have entered the normal budgetary procedure, but at least we secured that its sui generis nature, its exceptional nature, be established, she stressed. The other rapporteur, Carlos Costa Neves (Portuguese EPP-ED) shares that analysis: the temporary nature of the Convention has been taken into account, as well as its specific nature, and EP participation is assured at all stages. We also want the Convention to be a success, declared the Chair of the Committee on Budgetary Control, German Christian-Democrat Diemut Theato, she too placing emphasis on the "unique" character of the decision, and calling for clarity and transparency, especially regarding the discharge (what is it we mean when, in German, we speak of the Parliament's "Zustimmung" or "assent" in English, she wondered) and access to documents, that must be total and free. German Social-Democrat Ralf Walter, who had been "scared" by the first proposal of the Spanish Presidency, is satisfied with the result secured: but Parliament will have to ensure that its rights are respected. Dutch Rijk van Dam (Europe of Democracies and Diversities), on the contrary, considered that this decision had really been taken in a hurry, also placing emphasis on the transparency of the costs.
We managed to reach agreement quickly and its signing will allow for the implementation of totally transparent rules of procedure, "exceptionally transparent", said the Commissioner for the budget, Michaele Schreyer. It is a question of quite an extraordinary affair, she insisted, especially following initial speculations and rumours, notably regarding travel expenses. Participation of each of the three institutions in the budgetary procedure is guaranteed at each stage, including that of the discharge, and each institution will have to expressly mark its agreement, she stressed.