Amending budget 6/2004: section III Commission, Executive Agency for Intelligent Energy, general statement of revenue

By adopting the report by Jan MULDER (ELDR, NL), the European Parliament followed the recommendations made by the committee responsible and approved the Draft amending budget 6/2004 of the European Union for the financial year 2004 which aims to create a new budget line 06 01 04 30 for "Executive Agency for Intelligent Energy". The 2004 subsidy to the Agency is estimated to amount to EUR 2 770 000. The Parliament welcomes the fact that the Commission is engaged in informing the Parliament before the creation of any new Executive Agency and approves the Code of Conduct annexed to this resolution. This Code stipulates that : - in accordance with Council Regulation 58/2003/EC of 19 December 2002 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes and with Council Regulation 1605/2002/ EC, Euratom of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities, the Commission shall state its intention to set-up an executive agency in the explanatory memorandum of its proposal for a legal act of the programme itself; - the Commission shall decide on the establishment of an Executive Agency on the basis of its assessment of the criteria laid down in Council Regulation 58/2003/EC; - the budgetary authority shall be informed of the results of this evaluation and about costs at least 6 weeks before the Commission takes the final decision to set up the Agency. In the event of duly justified reasons being raised within this period by either branch of the budgetary authority regarding the setting up of the agency, the Commission will review its proposal; - when the Commission contemplates setting up an Executive Agency, it informs the budgetary authority in accordance with the budgetary procedure and respecting the principle of transparency. There should be a specific financial statement for the Executive Agency. It should include quantified elements where the Commission justifies the reasons why it considers appropriate to set up an Agency to assist it in the implementation of the programme concerned. It indicates in particular: - the resources in terms of appropriations and jobs required to run the Executive Agency; - the planned secondments of officials from the Commission to the Executive Agency; - administrative resources freed by transferring tasks from the Commission departments to the Executive Agency, and the re-allocation of the human resources; - consecutive redeployment within the Commission's establishment plan including the number of vacant posts; - the impact of the creation of the Agency under headings 3 [4] and 5 of the financial perspective; - the advantages of delegating implementing tasks to an Executive Agency versus direct management by the Commission services; - a draft establishment plan per grade and per category; - the part of the programme managed internally and the part delegated to an Executive Agency; - the global administrative cost of the programme including internal and management expenditure for the Executive Agency (chapter 01) should be examined case by case and proportional tothe tasks provided for in the programme concerned; - the Commission proposes, as part of the annual budget procedure, the annual subsidy to the Agency's operating budget. This subsidy is entered in the general budget of the European Union; - the establishment plan of the Executive Agency during the financial year concerned shall be approved by the budgetary authority and published in an annex to Section III (Commission) of the general budget of the European Union; - the Commission indicates regularly its forecasts (APS, PDB) for new Executive Agencies; - the Commission should provide the budgetary authority with the Executive Agency's draft operational budget and annual activity report as well as with an assessment report after 3 years.