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

The European Parliament adopted by 612 votes to 84, with 13 abstentions, a resolution approving, unamended, the Council position on Draft amending budget No 4/2013 of the European Union for the financial year 2013, Section III – Commission, Section IV – Court of Justice of the European Union.

Parliament recalls that the Draft amending budget No 4/2013 aims at:

• modifying the establishment plans of the European GNSS Agency by adding 20 posts due to the new tasks entrusted to it,
• modifying the establishment plans of the executive agency EACEA by adding 2 temporary agents and 13 contract agents due to the extension of its mandate,
• modifying the establishment plans of the Court of Justice by adding 7 posts needed for the additional Advocate General of the Court.

The proposed reinforcements are presented as budgetary neutral;

Parliament notes with regard to the staff increase for the European GNSS Agency, that the offsetting through reductions in Commission staff will not start immediately in 2013 but will only be fully accomplished in the course of the next MFF period.

It is concerned about the misleading presentation of staff savings with regard to the Commission's establishment plan and notes that 13 contract agents and 2 posts are freed in Commission's direct services but added to the EACEA establishment plan.

Given that all executive agencies are part of Commission's administration, no removal from the Commission's budget, as presented, can be detected. Parliament intends to support the additional posts for the Court of Justice which the Commission omitted in this Draft, in the context of the annual budgetary procedure 2014.

At the same time, the European Parliament approves, unamended, the Council position on Draft amending budget No 4/2013.