2001 Budget: other sections

The Council adopted by a large majority its first reading on the preliminary draft budget for 2001 dealing with the other sections of the budget on the basis of the preparatory work done by the Budgets Committee and the Committee of Permanent Representatives. The logic followed by the Council involved the stabilisation of current expenditure at the same rate as inflation, while allocating additional sums for exceptional or unavoidable needs of the institutions, arising mainly from the implementation of the Amsterdam Treaty or the replacement of members of the institutions. The Council was also careful to respect the priorities set by the institutions themselves within the overall amounts of operating expenditures that had themselves determined. Certain sectors were the subject of particular attention, especially posts in the Court of Justice and the Anti-Fraud Office for 2001. The Council also accepted a small number of conversions or upgradings of posts as a matter of careers policy, provided that they have no particular financial impact. The total administrative appropriations for the institutions (including the European Parliament) amounts to EUR 4.825,15 million (an increase of 2.1% in comparison with 2000, including the SAB 2/2000). As far as the assessment of needs arising from the pension scheme is concerned, it was recalled that the Commission had been asked by the Council in November 1999 to present this assessment by the end of June 2000, together with a proposal to revise the scheme. A total of 127 new permanent posts shared out between the Anti Fraud Office (76), the Court of Justice (47), the ESC (2) and the Ombudsman (2) were agreed. As regards the Commission, the Committee took note of the Commission's intention to deal with human resources in a forthcoming letter of amendment and supports the effort it has made in reviewing in depth the deployment of its staff and whether staff levels are appropriate for the tasks to be performed in each area, which must as far as possible lead to redeployment within existing staff numbers. Pending the outcome of this review, no conversion or upgrading of posts has been adopted. into account the results of its work on reorganisation -Lastly, the Council left a margin of EUR 113 million under the ceiling of heading 5 on the financial perspective in order to be able to deal with any eventual new needs that might emerge, particularly pending the letter of amendment announced by the Commission.�