1995 budget: other sections

The Committee on Budgets completed the vote on the amendments and adopted the proposals for a resolution on the budget for the other institutions. In adopting the report the Committee on Budgets recalled that the objective was to maintain budgetary discipline while at the same time applying a rational and efficient management of human resources, the aim being to ensure the smooth operation of EU institutions. As regards the budget of the European Parliament in particular (693 million ecus compared with the 665 million inscribed for 1994), the DANKERT report advocated that savings be made on expenditure for meetings to be held outside the three normal places of work. It was proposed that the measure adopted in 1994, namely no external meetings, should also be employed for 1999 - the year of the elections. For the years 1995 and 1998 it was left to the Parliamentary committees, as part of an overall financial envelope, to opt either for an external 'plenary' meeting, or for sending four delegations each composed of five members. In the same spirit of ensuring the frugal use of taxpayers' money, the Committee on Budgets made provision that taxi fares would no longer be reimbursed to MEPs, except for journeys to and from airports and railway stations, and declared itself in favour of freezing kilometre-based travelling expenses at the 1994 rates. �