Brussels, 30/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - Guaranteeing the stability of operating expenditure, giving quality communication tools to the members and improving the quality of communication tools: these are the main priorities which the European Parliament set for itself, on Thursday 29 March in Brussels, for its own budget 2008. In its adoption of the report by Ville Itälä (EPP-ED, Finland) on budgetary orientations for 2008, the Parliament notes that, mainly due to enlargement, the budget of the institutions has increased by nearly 18% over the last four years. It now feels that the institutions' budget for 2008 should, “in principle, stay at a level close to that of the budget for the previous year, as no major events are in the pipeline (enlargement or new languages) to justify an increase”.
The EP believes that as co-legislator, its members should benefit from optimum working conditions “in order to make it easy for them to do their jobs and to raise the quality of Union legislation”. It also hopes that all members of the European Parliament, including new ones, will be able to enjoy better linguistic services, first and foremost during official meetings of the bodies of the Parliament. For the first time, the EP is calling for an exploration of the possibility of making meeting rooms available to all MEPs before meetings, so that the members can hold Select Committee (8 to 20 people) meetings with experts, particularly in the new buildings D4 and D5. Once again, the EP laments the geographical dispersal of its administration between three working sites, and the additional costs this brings about in terms of functioning costs, particularly for travelling between sites. It reiterates that the cost of missions for its staff between the three working premises represented €12.8 million and 71,369 days in 2005, not counting mission expenses flagged up by agents of the political groups. The administration is called upon to supply the MEPs with modern IT services “in order to reduce the negative impact of the geographical configurations of the European Parliament”, such as synchronising computers with mobile telephones, and using video-conference rooms.
The MEPs also wish to improve communication tools, in order to “make the European citizens more aware of the role of the European Parliament in the legislative and decision-making process, of its activities in the field of European policies and the activities of its MEPs and political groups”. The EP also intends to “remedy the problems with the Union's image, particularly in the run-up to the 2009 elections” and takes the view that current communication resources are not up to this task. Amongst other things, the MEPs recommend greater involvement of the local and regional media, which would be of benefit to the European cause. The administration is called upon to present an action plan for communication targeting local and regional media. By adopting an amendment tabled by the Socialist group, the EP notes that one of the priorities of the Bureau is to make the Parliament into a more visible protagonist in the field of external policy, and underlines the importance of “promoting dialogue between the cultures and promoting democracy”.
On staff, the EP hopes to get on top of job creation in the institutions. It believes that the institution has the resources necessary for its functioning and must take the time to integrate them efficiently. Furthermore, by adopting an amendment tabled by the EPP-ED group, it is calling for something to be done about the shortcomings hindering the availability and quality of the interpretation services, but also for a satisfactory balance to be achieved between their quality and their cost, in order to obtain services which are up to the level of the investment made in them. The European Parliament reiterates its decision to take position clearly in favour of the adoption of a proper status for MEPs' assistants. It is certain that this status would help to improve the quality of the MEPs' activities, and would like the Council to take a final decision on this issue in early September 2007.
The EP believes that the institutions of the Union should “set the example” in the implementation of environmentally-friendly policies and better use of energy. It points out that it has committed to apply the rules of the Environmental Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) and that it has called on the Bureau to look into ways of stemming the increase in energy consumption costs, more particularly the possibility of reducing expenditure on air-conditioning in the summer. The MEPs also support a more rational use of paper and a reduction in the volume of printed documents.
As for the other institutions of the EP, the Parliament observes that in recent years, the institutions have considerably increased their real estate expenditure and will continue to do so over the next four years. It takes the view that “it is time to suspend the increase of their building stock”. (lc)