REPORT on Draft amending budget No 3/2006 of the European Union for the financial year 2006

18.9.2006 - (11297/2006 – C6‑0239/2006 –2006/2119(BUD))

Section III                –    Commission
Section VIII Part B    -    European Data-protection Supervisor
Committee on Budgets
Rapporteurs: Giovanni Pittella and Valdis Dombrovskis

MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION

on Draft amending budget No 3/2006 of the European Union for the financial year 2006, Section III – Commission, Section VIII Part B – European Data-protection Supervisor

(11297/2006 – C6‑0239/2006 – 2006/2119(BUD))

The European Parliament,

–   having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 272(4), penultimate subparagraph, thereof,

–   having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community, and in particular Article 177 thereof,

–   having regard to Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities[1], and particularly Articles 37 and 38 thereof,

–   having regard to the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2006, as finally adopted on 15 December 2005[2],

–   having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 6 May 1999 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedure[3],

–   having regard to Preliminary draft amending budget (PDAB) No 3/2006 of the European Union for the financial year 2006, which the Commission presented on 22 May 2006 (SEC(2006)0633),

–   having regard to Draft amending budget (DAB) No 3/2006, which the Council established on 11 July 2006 (11297/2006 – C6‑0239/2006),

–   having regard to Rule 69 of and Annex IV to its Rules of Procedure,

–   having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets (A6‑0283/2006),

A. whereas Amending Budget No 3/2006 comprises four different elements, namely strengthening the European GNSS Supervisory Authority, reinforcing the staff of the European Aviation Safety Agency and the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders, and increasing the appropriations for the European Data-protection Supervisor,

B.  whereas the Commission, in its PDAB No 3/2006, proposed to finance these additional needs by an increase of EUR 3 604 545 in own resources,

C. whereas the Council, in its DAB No 3/2006, has decided to cover all proposed increases exclusively through redeployment,

D. whereas, in particular, the Council wants to finance the additional needs of the European Data-protection Supervisor by reducing commitments and payments of an administrative line in the Commission section of the budget, which falls under Heading 3 of the Financial Perspective 2000-2006,

E.  whereas Parliament agrees with the Commission's Declaration on DAB No 3/2006 in that this would create a dangerous precedent for all institutions as it aims to finance, during the implementation of the budget, the administrative expenditure of one institution by taking the necessary appropriations from the budget of another institution,

1.  Supports the increases proposed by the Commission in its PDAB No 3/2006 for the European GNSS Supervisory Authority, the European Aviation Safety Agency, the European Agency for the Management of the Operational Cooperation at External Borders and the European Data-protection Supervisor;

2.  Considers it too early in the budgetary year, however, to make up at this point for the necessary increases in these lines by reducing other lines which still might be fully implemented in 2006;

3.  Rejects, therefore, Council's intention to cover the requests for additional appropriations through redeployment and, in particular, compensate for the increase asked for by the European Data-protection Supervisor by decreasing the Commission's section of the budget;

4.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and Commission.

• [1]  OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1.
• [2]  OJ L 78, 15.3.2006.
• [3]  OJ C 172, 18.6.1999, p. 1. Agreement as last amended by Decision 2005/708/EC (OJ L 269, 14.10.2005, p. 24).

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

BACKGROUND

PDAB No 3 - Commission

Preliminary Draft Amending Budget No 3 was presented by the Commission on 22 May 2005 and concerns 4 elements:

1.  giving more resources (notably staff) to the European GNSS Supervisory Authority to take account of the taking over of tasks from the Galileo Joint Undertaking

amount involved: + 3,05 million EUR in fresh money

2.  reinforcing the staff of the European Aviation Safety Agency to cover the standardisation inspections programme

amount involved: 1,114 million EUR to be taken from 06 02 03-Transport safety = budgetary neutral

3.  reinforcing the staff of the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders (FRONTEX)

amount involved: 3,786 million EUR to be transferred from Title 3 to Titles 1&2 = budgetary neutral

4.  increasing the appropriations entered in line “Translation and interpretation costs” for the European Data-protection Supervisor in order to enable him to pay the Council for translations carried out within the framework of an administrative cooperation agreement

amount involved: + 554 545 EUR in fresh money

All in all, in its PDAB the Commission proposed an additional amount of + 3 604 545 EUR in fresh money to finance these unexpected needs.

DAB No 3 - Council

In the ensuing meetings of Council, Member States showed themselves unwilling to mobilise any fresh funds. Council finally established its Draft Amending Budget No 3 on 11 July 2006 accordingly:

ad 1) With regard to the need for + 3,05 million EUR for the GNSS Supervisory Authority Council decreased the PDAB amount from 3,05 million to 1,60 million with the argument that due to the delays which had occurred in the meantime the full amount could not be implemented anymore. This lower amount is to be financed through re-deployment.

ad 2 + ad 3) Council accepted the Commission's PDAB.

ad 4) With regard to the need for + 554 545 EUR for the Data-protection Supervisor, and in order to avoid the need for "fresh money", Council decided to compensate the amount requested by the Data-protection supervisor through reducing commitments and payments on line 02 01 04 01 - Operation and development of the internal market, particularly in the fields of notification, certification and sectoral approximation - Expenditure on administrative management which belongs to Heading 3 of the current Financial Perspective 2000 - 2006. This decision was protested by the Commission.

ASSESSMENT

When dealing with proposals for amending budgets, it is not new that Council insists on financing unexpected budgetary needs through redeployment and redeployment only. However, in its DAB 3 Council has gone one step beyond this "traditional" attitude and has set a dangerous precedent: It has reduced an operational line in section III - Commission (Heading 3) in order to cover an increase in Section VIII - Data-protection Supervisor. This increase for the Data-protection Supervisor had become necessary in order to allow him to pay for unexpected translation costs charged to it by Council itself (according to the relevant administrative cooperation agreement, it is Council which provides translation services to the Data-protection Supervisor).

After thorough consideration, the rapporteurs have decided to go back to the Commission's PDAB regarding the proposed increases for the European GNSS Supervisory Authority, the European Aviation Safety Agency, the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders and the European Data-protection Supervisor.

The rapporteurs reject, however, all compensations proposed to make up for these increases be they made by the Commission in its PDAB, as for the Aviation Safety Agency and for FRONTEX, or, in addition, made by Council for the GNSS Supervisory Authority and the Data-protection Supervisor. Accordingly, they introduce budgetary amendments to DAB No 3 resulting in an amount of + 8 504 545 EUR in fresh money needed to finance the appropriations required.

The reasons for the rapporteurs' decision are the following:

· It is too early in the budgetary year to already introduce substantial reductions on certain operational lines (there is still nearly four months left to execute).

· The budgetary amendments presented constitute an adequately strong reaction to the Council's approach to take some money from one institution to cover the needs of another.

Once the rapporteurs' approach is supported by plenary, Council has a strict deadline to present its second reading so the entry into force of AB 3 will only be slightly delayed allowing for a second reading in October.

PROCEDURE

Title	Draft amending budget No 3/2006 of the European Union for the financial year 2006 - Section III - Commission, Section VIII Part B - European Data-protection Supervisor
References	11297/2006 – C6-0239/2006 – 2006/2119(BUD)
Legal basis	Articles 272 EC and 177 Euratom
Basis in Rules of Procedure	Rule 69 and Annex IV
Committee responsible          Date of referral	BUDG 6.9.2006
Committee(s) asked for opinion(s)          Date of referral	LIBE 6.9.2006
Not delivering opinion(s) Date of decision	LIBE 12.9.2006
Rapporteur   Date appointed	Giovanni Pittella and Valdis Dombrovskis 6.12.2004
Previous rapporteur	Salvador Garriga Polledo
Preliminary draft amending budget                Date presented by Commission	No 3/2006 – SEC(2006)0633 22.5.2006
Date draft amending budget established by the Council	11.7.2006
Date draft amending budget forwarded by the Council	12.7.2006
Discussed in committee	12.9.2006
Date adopted	12.9.2006
Result of final vote	for: 15 against: 0 abstentions: 0
Members present for the final vote	Gérard Deprez, Brigitte Douay, Hynek Fajmon, Szabolcs Fazakas, Ingeborg Gräßle, Louis Grech, Nathalie Griesbeck, Catherine Guy-Quint, Jutta D. Haug, Ville Itälä, Anne E. Jensen, Janusz Lewandowski, Vladimír Maňka, Giovanni Pittella, Esko Seppänen
Substitutes present for the final vote
Substitutes under Rule 178(2) present for the final vote
Date tabled	18.9.2006
Comments (available in one language only)	...