Amending budget 4/2013: establishment plans of the European GNSS Agency (GSA), the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) and the Court of Justice

PURPOSE : presentation of Draft Amending Budget (DAB) No 4 for the year 2013 which seeks to review Section III – Commission and Section IV – Court of Justice of the European Union – of the European Union budget.

CONTENT : this DAB 4/2013 covers the following :

• the modification of the establishment plan of the European GNSS Agency (GSA), reflecting a request for 20 additional establishment plan posts (all AD posts). The corresponding increase in the EU contribution to the GSA amounts to EUR 1 750 000, and is proposed to be financed by internal redeployment of resources within the existing budgetary envelope of the GNSS programme;
• the modification of the establishment plan of the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), reflecting a request for 2 additional establishment plan posts (both AD posts), offset by 2 freed posts in the Commission’s establishment plan. This is part of an extension of the mandate of the agency, which also entails a transfer of contract agents (13 FTE) from the Commission to the EACEA. This translates into an overall increase in the EU contribution to the running costs of the agency, amounting to EUR 1 516 000, which is proposed to be financed by a corresponding reduction of appropriations for staff and administrative support expenditure in the Commission;
• the modification of the establishment plan of the Court of Justice of the European Union, reflecting the creation of an additional Advocate General and a corresponding request for 7 additional establishment plan posts (4 AD and 3 AST posts). This is proposed to be financed by the available appropriations within the Court’s section of the budget.

These adjustments are budgetary neutral, since the proposed reinforcements of the EU contribution to the two agencies are fully offset by corresponding reductions in related expenditure in the Commission’s section of the budget, whereas the additional staff for the Court of Justice is to be financed by the available appropriations within its own section.