2002 budget: other sections

PURPOSE : to present the draft for the financial year 2002, other sections. CONTENT: parallel to the draft budget for the financial year 2002 (see BUD/2000/2324), the Council has approved the draft budget for the other budgetary sections : The European Parliament, The Council, The Court of Justice, The Court of Auditors, The Economic and Social Committee, The Committee of the Regions and The Ombudsman. On the whole, the Council has cut EUR 59 million in Heading 5 (Administrative expenditure) of the financial perspective and leaves a margin of EUR 53.5 million under the ceiling, which was exceeded by EUR 5.6 million on the basis of the estimates presented by all the institutions. Council's goal as regards this Heading had been traditionally to reduce as much as possible, often without taking into account the real needs of the institutions or new requirements. This is the case in 2002, for instance, for the EC Data Protection Officer. The Council has set the administrative payment appropriations of all the institutions (including the European Parliament) at an amount of EUR 5.125,55 million, this represents an increase of 4,3% in comparison with the 2001 allocations. Appropriations for a total of 89 new permanent posts have been approved: 78 in the Commission, 5 in the Court of Auditors, 5 in the Committee of the Regions, and 1 for the Ombudsman. In addition, the Council and the European Parliament have asked the Secretaries-General of the Institutions for a report with a multiannual analysis on Category 5 for the attention of the budgetary authority, for discussion at the November Budget Council. This report should identify the economies of scale resulting from the strengthening of interinstitutional cooperation (pooling of human and material resources and means, by identifying and benchmarking the best practices of the various institutions) and the necessary proposals for savings, including in the context of preparation for enlargement, needed to respect the Category 5 ceiling. With regard to the administrative expenditure of the institutions, the Council has calculated various budgetary envelopes taking into consideration the following principles: - setting an overall budget for current operating expenditure, within which the institutions concerned may themselves determine the priorities they wish to establish; this budget was established on the basis of the planned rate of increase for staff expenditure and a rate of increase for other expenditure not as a rule exceeding inflation; - taking into account the special situations that may be encountered by institutions having to meet exceptional or unavoidable expenditure, arising in particular from the implementation of the Amsterdam Treaty, the replacement of members or the transfer of responsibilities between institutions; - acceptance of the PDB, subject to the technicaladjustments arising from the changes made to expenditure in the draft budget; - deletion of budget lines relating to the implementation of a definitive cessation regime of the functions of civil servants for other institutions other than the Commission, in the absence of a decision on this regime. �