The European Parliament,

–  having regard to Article 314 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and to Article 106a of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community,

–  having regard to Council Decision 2007/436/EC, Euratom of 7 June 2007 on the system of the European Communities' own resources(1),

–  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(2),

–  having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 17 May 2006 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and sound financial management(3),

–  having regard to its resolution of 25 March 2010 on priorities for the 2011 budget - Section III - Commission(4),

–  having regard to its resolution of 15 June 2010 on mandate for the trilogue on the 2011 draft budget(5),

–  having regard to the Draft general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2011 which the Commission presented on 27 April 2010 (COM(2010)0300),

–  having regard to the Position on the Draft budget of the European Union adopted by the Council on 12 August 2010 (12699/2010 - C7-0202/2010),

–  having regard to Letter of Amendment No 1/2011 to the Draft general Budget of the European Union for the financial year 2011 presented by the Commission on 15 September 2010,

–  having regard to Rule 75b of its Rules of Procedure,

–  having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets and the opinions of the other committees concerned (A7-0284/2010),

SECTION III
Key issues and priorities for the 2011 budget

1.  Is firmly convinced that the budgetary procedure under the new Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) requires full and high-level political involvement of all institutions concerned; underlines that the conciliation procedure aims at reconciling the views of both branches of the budgetary authority and that the Joint Text on Budget 2011 will still have to be approved by both branches according to their own rules and Article 314(7) TFEU;

2.  Considers the written procedure for the adoption of the Council's position to be particularly inappropriate for the budgetary procedure, and questionable in the absence of public and clear political endorsement by the Council at ministerial level of an essential piece of EU legislation;

3.  Is moreover rather concerned about how to assess Council's position on Draft budget (DB) 2011 since the cuts adopted do not correspond to clearly defined objectives and seem, on the contrary, to be distributed randomly and radically throughout the whole budget; considers arbitrary reductions in appropriations not to be in line with sound budgeting;

4.  Considers that following the entry into force of the TFEU, which strengthens EU policies and creates new fields of competence – notably Common Foreign and Security Policy, competitiveness and innovation, space, energy policy, tourism, the fight against climate change, sport and youth, social policy, justice and home affairs – and which implies a ‘lisbonisation’ of the budget, the European Union should be endowed with the necessary financial means to attain its objectives and therefore requires both branches of the budgetary authority to be coherent and consistent as regards increased financial capacities;

5.  Recalls that, despite consecutive Treaty changes and increased responsibilities transferred at Union level, the EU budget amounts to a modest 1% of GNI; opposes consequently the severe cuts adopted by the Council;

6.  Understands the concern expressed by some delegations in the Council that the pressures on Member States' budgets are particularly heavy for the financial year 2011 and that savings are all the more necessary, but nevertheless considers arbitrary reductions in payments appropriations not to be in line with sound budgeting considers moreover that arbitrary reductions in commitments appropriations jeopardise the implementation of Union policies and programmes already agreed;

7.  Reminds both the Council and the Commission, moreover, of its resolution of 29 March 2007 on the future of the European Union's own resources(6) in which Parliament underlined that the current system of EU own resources - where 70 % of the Union's revenue comes directly from national budgets - results in the contribution to the European Union being perceived as an additional burden on national budgets; is deeply convinced that all EU institutions should agree on a clear and binding timetable in order to agree on a new system of own resources before the entry into force of the next post-2013 MFF; expresses its willingness to explore all possible avenues in that respect;

8.  Recalls, once more, that the EU budget should in no way be perceived and evaluated as a simple financial item added as a burden to national budgets but, on the contrary, is to be understood as an opportunity to gear up those initiatives and investments that are of interest and of added value to the EU as a whole, most of them co-decided by Parliament and the Council and thus legitimised also at national level; calls on the EU institutions to define a proper mechanism to evaluate and assess the ‘cost of non Europe’ which would highlight the savings in national budgets generated by the pooling of resources;

9.  Reiterates that the complementary nature of the EU budget to national budgets and the impetus it creates should not be checked and curbed by arbitrary reductions that represent an infinitesimal share (less than 0,02%) compared to cumulated budgets of the 27 Member States;

10.  Recalls that youth-, education- and mobility-related policies have been identified by Parliament as one of its most important priorities, among others as mentioned in Parliament's resolution for the mandate of the trilogue, adopted in June 2010, for the 2011 budget since they are essential and necessary parts of the EU strategy for the economic recovery and the Europe 2020 strategy; emphasises that the proposed increase in appropriations for a selected number of budget items serves both short- and long-term strategies for the future of the EU;

11.  Reiterates its firm conviction that, in a context of scarce funds and global economic slowdown, the financing of EU policies should be closely monitored in order to avoid any expenditure which is not driven by a clear and identifiable objective, bearing in mind the European added value of the EU budget, since it is an expression of solidarity and efficiency by pooling together financial resources otherwise dispersed at national, regional and local level; emphasises as well that an overwhelming part of EU budget expenditures supports long-term investments necessary to stimulate EU economic growth;

12.  Points out that the margins stemming from the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) do not allow real room for manoeuvre, especially in subheadings 1a and 3b and heading 4, and reduce the capacity of the EU to react to policy changes and unforeseen needs while maintaining its priorities; points out that the scope of the challenges the EU faces, would require means well beyond the current ceilings of the MFF; recalls, in that respect, that a substantial budget review is absolutely needed and that an immediate revision of the ceilings of the current MFF as well as some provisions of the Interinstitutional Agreement (IIA) of 17 May 2006 on budgetary discipline and sound financial management has been rendered unavoidable by the various challenges and new priorities that have arisen;

13.  Urges the Council to take full account of the clear conditions set out in its resolution of 22 September 2010 on the proposal for a Council regulation laying down the multiannual financial framework for the years 2007-2013 (COM(2010)0072 - 2010/0048(APP))(7) on the basis of which Parliament will give its consent to the new MFF regulation, as provided for by the TFEU;

14.  Recalls that the financing of its priorities and of the new policies stemming from the entry into force of the TFEU is rendered impossible by the ceilings of the MFF; stresses that, in order to ease the negotiation on the 2011 budget within the Conciliation Committee, it has, at the price of severe compromises, proposed the financing of these policies within the ceilings; points out, nevertheless, that this can only be managed through the decrease of appropriations on other, specific and carefully chosen, budget lines;

15.  Strongly support the creation of a guarantee fund in the EU budget linked to the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism; insists that both arms of the budgetary authority be involved in decisions concerning the activation of this mechanism; requests that any possible budgetary needs linked to this mechanism should be financed through an ad-hoc revision of the current MFF 2007-13 or the IIA of 17 May 2006 to ensure that sufficient involvement of the budgetary authority is guaranteed on time;

16.  As regards payment appropriations, refuses to consider an overall figure of the Council's position as a final target arrived at by decreasing or increasing expenditure on different lines without in-depth assessments of the real needs;

17.  Recalls that this practice of the Council may impact on the execution rate for commitments for the same year, by slowing down the rate of signing new contracts, especially in the final quarter, therefore disturbing multiannual life cycles of the EU programmes;

18.  Takes the general position that administrative expenditure supporting EU programmes should not be cut, as a matter of guaranteeing the swift implementation of the latter as well as its quality and adequate monitoring; therefore restores all of the Council's cuts in respect of the administrative management lines of those programmes;

On sub-heading 1a

19.  Recalls that, as EP horizontal priorities for the 2011 budget, youth, education and mobility require, under the various policies, cross-sectoral targeted investment as a means to foster EU growth and development; states, therefore, its will to increase appropriations for all Programmes related to those priorities, namely Lifelong Learning, People and Erasmus Mundus;

20.  Considers, in particular, that youth employment mobility is a key instrument to ensure the development of a competitive and dynamic job market in Europe and, as such, needs to be boosted; is therefore in favour of increasing appropriations for the European Employment Service and strongly supports to this end the launch of the Preparatory action ‘Your first EURES Job’, which aims to help young people enter the job market or access specialised jobs in another Member State, as a first step towards a specific non-academic youth mobility programme;

21.  Acknowledges the added value represented by EU-financed research which creates a momentum among separate national efforts and investments in the field of research, and especially research related to energy, including the field of renewable energy, and the central role played by SMEs in European growth and employment rate; reiterates accordingly its support to the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework programme and especially the Entrepreneurship & Innovation and Intelligent Energy programmes, by increasing commitment and payment appropriations on a selected number of lines; notes that the smooth implementation of the R&D programmes should be guaranteed in order to avoid the transfer of the appropriations at the end of the budgetary period away from their intended use;

22.  Is extremely concerned by the insufficiency of resources available for the financing of policies at the core of competitiveness for growth and employment and by the worsening of this situation due to the upcoming financing of the Europe 2020 strategy; recalls that investment in policies such as education, research, innovation, transport (in particular TEN-Ts) and tourism has a crucial role to play in driving forward growth and employment;

23.  Believes it to be of utmost importance that the newly founded European Financial Authorities be funded from the beginning in a proper and sufficient way which allows them to contribute to the stability of the European and international financial system;

24.  Is convinced that the financing of the Euratom-Joint Undertaking for ITER should be reconsidered in the light of the Commission proposal on the financing of ITER for the years 2012 and 2013; is not ready to accept redeployment within the existing 7th framework programme for research to finance increasing financial needs that are no longer in line with the original proposal; considers therefore that, in the light of the implementation delays, and in order to launch negotiations with the Council on the future financing of ITER, a reduction by EUR 47 million in commitment and payment appropriations on line 08 20 02 is the most suitable budgetary option;

25.  Supports the Commission's proposal to introduce payment appropriations under the heading on the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, in order to simplify the financial procedures relating to applications approved by the two arms of the budgetary authority; consequently restores the default value, noting that it can be insufficient for the needs of 2011;

26.Is convinced that a strategic perspective on the European energy situation is needed; notes that the Commission has established a Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan which is still in unclear finance conditions; has therefore created p.m. lines for several fields of the SET-plan which should become active soon;
On subheading 1b

27.  Notes that Council's position does not modify Commission's proposal in respect of commitments, and stresses that this position on commitment appropriations is well in line with the allocations set out in the MFF, taking into account the technical adjustment to the financial framework for 2011, as provided for in point 17 of the IIA of 17 June 2006;

28.  Deplores Council's restrictive approach on payments, which were cut by EUR 1 075 million (half of which for the completion of the 2006-2010 programming period) as compared to Commission's forecasts of payment needs for 2011; stresses that the latter were already assessed by the European Parliament as possibly having been underestimated and that Council's approach may put at risk the necessary catching up of programme implementation after its slow start at the beginning of the 2007-2013 period, as well as the recent legislative modifications agreed between Parliament and the Council in the frame of the European Economic Recovery Plan;

29.  Therefore restores Council's cuts in payment appropriations to the level of DB, while sticking to its initial position that Commission and Council should present and adopt swiftly an amending budget in case payment appropriations happen not to be sufficient to cover the needs; welcomes Council's declaration in this respect;

30.  Recalls that the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region Action Plan states that the proposed actions should, as far as possible, be funded from existing sources, including Structural and Cohesion funds; points out that the Council conclusions on the EUSBSR state that the Strategy relies on more efficient use of existing EU instruments and funds, as well as other existing resources and financial instruments; underlines that this Strategy must be given appropriate recognition and funding;

On heading 2

31.  Points out that the CAP's primary goal should be to provide market stability, food security, fair prices revenues for farmers, including protection of the environment and landscapes, and therefore calls on the Commission to provide in the 2011 budget a financial buffer for the means necessary to make access to funding uncomplicated, should the market experience volatility in 2011;

32.  Recognises the benefit of the EUR 300 million in exceptional funding for the dairy sector that was provided for in Budget 2010; supports the creation of a new budget line to act as a dairy fund to provide support for modernisation, diversification and restructuring and to improve marketing and the bargaining position of dairy farmers in order to respond to growing market power of processors and retailers in the food chain; points out that the Commission has already approved the dairy fund;

33.  Considers that the national support programme for the wine sector should be maintained, albeit at a reduced level; points out that, at the time of the reform of the wine market regime, the Commission explicitly stated that this reform should be budget neutral;

34.  Recognises that the School Fruit Scheme and the School Milk Scheme are important programmes in terms of encouraging healthy diet amongst children; welcomes the Commission's proposed increase in funding for theses two schemes and decides to increase further their appropriations; stresses the importance of the programme for deprived persons, and decides to increase its appropriations, but recalls that it must be implemented in the light of proceedings before the General Court;

35.  Supports, in line with its priorities, the creation of a pilot project aiming at promoting the exchange of best practices between young farmers, in particular in relation to the challenges facing the European agricultural sector;

36.  Is convinced that LIFE+ (Financial instrument for the environment 2007-2013) should be strengthened further in order to comply with the additional measures; emphasises that environmental concerns are a priority in environmental and agricultural policy and that an increase in funding is pivotal in preserving nature and biodiversity; considers that in addition to LIFE+, sustainable development criteria should be mainstreamed across all relevant EU instruments;

On subheading 3a

37.  Considers several programmes, such as the Prevention, preparedness and consequence management of terrorism to be essential for the implementation of the Stockholm programme, and reiterates its support for the Daphne programme - Fight against violence, under which programmes worthy of financing cannot be funded due to the shortage of appropriations, and Drugs prevention and information; in this context, places particular emphasis on the fight against violence perpetrated against women, including through coercive abortion, female genital mutilation, forced sterilisation or any other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment;

38.  Due to the poor level of information on the next steps of the SIS II project presented to Parliament, considers a reserve for appropriations to be the most appropriate means of obtaining the requested information on necessary improvements;

39.  Considers the planning set out in the Commission staff working document of 21 September 2010 insufficient to satisfy Parliament's requests for information on necessary improvements and a full overview of the SIS II budgeting;

On subheading 3b

40.  Recalls that heading 3b includes policies which have a direct impact on the daily lives of European citizens and is totally convinced that the actual potential of this heading cannot be fully released with the limited margin fixed by the current MFF; highlights that the proposed financing of these instruments by the Council does not match the core priorities covered by this heading, and underlines in particular that the extremely high implementation rates of youth-related programmes so far prove that they deserve a much stronger investment;

41.  Reiterates its intention to increase appropriations for the Youth in Action Programme, the World Special Olympic Summer Games, the Information outlets and the ongoing Preparatory Action in the field of sport; takes note of the initiative of the Council to present a new Preparatory action on commemorative sites in Europe and is of the opinion that this preparatory action could promote EU citizenship by preserving and facilitating access to historical sites of shared European memory;

42.  Considers it necessary for the Commission to present a comprehensive strategy on improved communication with EU citizens and on the creation of a European public sphere, in line with the Interinstitutional Joint Declaration ‘Communicating Europe in Partnership’ of October 2008;

On heading 4

43.  Is absolutely convinced that the role of the EU as a global player cannot be properly financed within the margins provided for by the MFF, and that this shortage of means should not be addressed by the two branches of the budgetary authority through last-minute compromises without proper reflection on medium-term needs; recalls that a review of the MFF and the revision of the ceiling of heading 4 to take into account the needs that have arisen and which could not have been foreseen in 2006 is a condition sine qua non for the manageability and sustainability of this heading;

44.  Is of the opinion that, in the context of extremely narrow room for manoeuvre within this heading and in the struggle to make savings initiated by the Council, the financing of priorities can only be guaranteed through selected decreases of appropriations on a limited number of budget lines; considers the appropriations envisaged for assistance to rehabilitation of Afghanistan and for Macro Financial Assistance could be partially reduced without substantially adversely affecting operations; in the same spirit, decides to restore appropriations for the Common and Foreign Security Policy at the level of Budget 2010, as allowed by point 42 of the IIA;

45.  Reiterates its commitment not to reduce arbitrarily appropriations for assistance to Palestine, the peace process and UNRWA; reiterates nevertheless its firm conviction that the discrepancy between its global financial assistance - the EU as a whole being the first donor - and its limited influence on the Peace process is neither justified nor comprehensible and needs to be addressed thoroughly, especially in the context of the newly created European External Action Service;

46.  Reiterates its opposition to the proposed redeployment of appropriations from several instruments and programmes to Bananas Accompanying Measures and to the Instrument for Cooperation with Industrialised Countries (ICI+), the financing of which was not foreseen at the time of the adoption of the current MFF, but reiterates nevertheless its support for these instruments; stresses that the Development Cooperation Instrument cannot be considered as a fund that could be appealed to for the financing of any new need arising in the field of heading 4, but that is has been settled and funded for a specific list of objectives that the EU has, on numerous occasions, committed itself to achieve; calls therefore on the Council to agree on a multiannual financing of these measures through all means provided for in the IIA;

47.  Decides to put part of the appropriations for environment and sustainable management of natural resources, including energy, in reserve, pending a presentation by the Commission of a politically binding document demonstrating that the ‘fast start’ climate finance package is truly additional, that it allocates EU resources to partner regions in a geographically balanced way and that it does not come at the expense of existing development cooperation programmes, as well as clear information on criteria for selection of the beneficiaries and details of agreements with the developing countries;

48.  Initiates a mainstreamed approach on EU support to Fair Trade across budgetary titles;

49.  Considers that, in line with the quadripartite negotiations on the setting up of the European External Action Service, an enhanced identification of CFSP and CDSP missions should be sought, in the interests of improved transparency and the facilitation of budgetary overview; decides, consequently, to split lines 19 03 01, 19 03 03 and 19 03 07 in order to create separate budget lines for EUMM Georgia, EULEX Kosovo and EUPOL Afghanistan, which are the major missions conducted under CFSP/CDSP for the year 2011;

50.  Wonders why payments are still being made to retired Commissioners when they subsequently have alternative employment; firmly requests the Commission to undertake a detailed review of current procedures and submit a detailed report to Parliament by 30 April 2011;

51.  Considers, in line with its resolutions on transatlantic relations, that the EU-US strategic partnership must be clearly identified via the creation of a specific budget line on ‘Cooperation with the United States’;

52.  Is convinced that a further increase of the financial envelope to support the Turkish Cypriot community is necessary in order to ensure adequate financing of the work of the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus as well as the restoration projects of the Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage; considers the work of these committees to be of paramount importance for both communities in Cyprus;

On heading 5

53.  Rejects Council's general position on heading 5 expenditure, which consists in an overall reduction of more than EUR 115 million, resulting from the non-budgeting of the 1,85% salary and pension adjustment, a global cut to European Schools' budget lines, which goes against Parliament's priorities on Youth-Education-Mobility;

54.  Stresses that such a restrictive approach, while resulting in short-term savings for the EU budget and the Member States, endangers the implementation of EU policies and programmes; further stresses that institutions should be provided with adequate resources to carry out their tasks, especially after the entry into force of the TFEU;

55.  Therefore restores generally the cuts made by the Council, while putting in reserve the amounts corresponding to the 1,85% salary adjustment pending the judgement of the Court of Justice; considers that the budgeting of such expenditure is sound and prudent budgetary management;

56.  Restores Commission's Draft budget for all other abovementioned cuts except the one in respect of conferences, meetings and committees; considers the cuts made to the budget of the European Schools to be unacceptable; wonders in addition how Council is able to estimate the possible staffing levels in the services of the Commission with more accuracy than the Commission itself;

57.  Requests the Council to adopt quickly Amending Letter No 1/2011, so that the European External Action Service can start functioning with adequate resources at the very beginning of 2011, but decides to put appropriations in reserve pending further consultation of Parliament's relevant bodies by the Vice-President of the Commission/High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy on the priorities to be realised by the resources freed by the merging of current Commission and Council structures;

58.  Sets reserves on certain administrative lines, pending specific actions, follow-up or proposals by the Commission or with a view to obtaining additional information from it; requests particularly a revision of the Code of Conduct for Commissioners and the strict application of it concerning the modalities of allocation for the pensions of former members in order to release certain of these reserves;

On agencies

59.  Endorses, as a general rule, Commission's estimates of agencies' budgetary needs and rejects the principles on which Council's position on the budgets of EU decentralised agencies as compared to 2010 was based, i.e.:

60.  Considers, however, that the EU subsidy to fee-collecting agencies should not be reduced by the amount of assigned revenue so as to give them the adequate budgetary flexibility in view of the volatility of collected fees;

61.  Further decides to increase the 2011 budget allocation to the three new financial supervision agencies in line with available estimates of the budgetary impact of the outcome of the negotiations with the Council, to set a reserve for the European Police College, pending the outcome of 2008 discharge procedure to increase EU funding to the European Training Foundation, in line with Parliament's priorities, as well as to increase the budget allocation to the Fisheries Control Agency so that it is in a position to discharge its control obligations in international waters;

On pilot projects and preparatory actions

62.  Stresses that pilot projects and preparatory actions, adopted in a limited number, have been thoroughly considered and evaluated, also in the light of the useful and constructive first assessment by the Commission in July 2010, in order to avoid duplication of actions already covered by existing EU programmes; recalls that pilot projects and preparatory actions aim at formulating political priorities and at introducing new initiatives that might turn into future EU activities and programmes;

SECTIONS I, II, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX
General Framework

63.  Recalls that the institutions should draw up their budgets on the basis of sound and efficient management and, taking into account the effects of the current economic crisis, make the necessary efforts to use resources effectively, enabling them to pursue their obligations under the Lisbon Treaty while, at the same time, looking for savings where possible;

64.  Draws attention to the ongoing case brought by the Commission before the Court of Justice concerning salary adjustments and has decided to enter appropriations in reserve, on the principle of budgetary prudence, that would cover the effects for 2011, should the Court rule in favour of the Commission on the 1,85% salary adjustment in question;

65.  Notes that the Council has cut appropriations in relation to Croatia, using a different working hypothesis on the date of accession of Croatia than the Commission; decides, in the absence of new elements that warrant a modification at this point in time, to follow the Commission's approach;

66.  Has decided, following an assessment of the requests of each institution, to restore a part of the reductions made by Council to the budget of the institutions in those cases where the specific requests of each institution are considered to be fully justified;

67.  Stresses that the Council's failure until now to reach a position on Draft amending budget No 2/2010 for the Committee of the Regions and the Economic and Social Committee, leaves no other option than to make the contents of that draft amending budget part of the discussion for the budget for 2011;

Section 1 - European Parliament
General framework

68.  Stresses that negotiations took place during two pre-conciliation meetings in March and April 2010 and that, on a large number of issues, clear results were achieved at the stage of establishing the estimates; welcomes the good will and constructive nature of these meetings; welcomes the fact that the Amending Letter adopted by the Bureau in September 2010 does not imply major changes to the estimates;

69.  Is aware that a difficult but satisfactory balance has to be struck between the needs to implement fully the tasks of the Parliament as laid down by the Lisbon Treaty, which do necessitate increasing resources, and the application of sound budgetary principles and restraint in a time of financial crisis; has therefore screened the different budget lines in detail and made some adaptations to the appropriation entered in the estimates;

70.  Points out that the overall level of its budget amounts to EUR 1 700 349 283, which is a 20,21% share of expenditure under heading 5 (administrative appropriations) of the MFF, i.e. in line with its previous resolutions to the effect that expenditure should be situated around the 20% mark;

71.  Stresses, in this respect that considerable increases of competences under the Lisbon Treaty with the resulting needs for personnel and other resources, have been absorbed into this amount;

72.  Notes that the final amount decided by the budgetary authority represents a net reduction of EUR 6 198 071 compared to the Draft budget and EUR 25 029 014 to the initial budget proposals before conciliation with the Bureau;

73.  Maintains its position that, in any event, a policy of identifying savings wherever possible and the continued pursuit of reorganisation and redeployment of existing resources are crucial elements of its budgetary policy, especially in this time of economic crisis;

Human resources

74.  Notes the strong emphasis on indirect assistance to members proposed by its Bureau and approved by its Committee on Budgets, through clearly strengthening areas such as the Parliament's research and policy analysis capacity, library services, policy departments and related areas; recalls that this is the corresponding complement, following the new and stronger role of the Parliament, to the direct assistance measures already boosted in the 2010 budget and Amending budget No 1/2010;

75.  Recalls its resolution of 18 May 2010 on the estimates of revenue and expenditure of Parliament for the financial year 2011(8) and the accompanying establishment plan; now decides to make some adjustments as described in the following paragraphs;

76.  Recalls its decision to boost the capacity of the library services, confirming 15 new posts for 2011 and transforming the 13 contractual agents into permanent posts as part of this process; decides to reduce the appropriations relating to 8 of these posts with a view to phasing in recruitments over a two-year period;

77.  Has decided to maintain in reserve the appropriations linked to the 30 posts (6 AD5 and 24 AST1) for ‘other sectors’ pending further information requested;

78.  Decides to approve the internalisation of the accreditation service, as suggested in the Amending Letter, and, in consequence, to create 16 new posts under the establishment plan (1 AD5 and 15 AST1) and make available the corresponding appropriations;

79.  Approves, following the Amending Letter, the following budgetary-neutral measures:

80.  Has released EUR 3 million of appropriations in the reserve relating to Croatia, in line with its previous decision on transfer C1/2010; and has transferred these funds toward the budget item for hiring contract agents;

Direct Assistance to members

81.  Subsequent to its previous in-depth debate on the assistants allowance in connection with Amending Budget No 1/2010, and the Bureau proposals for 2011 for a second tranche of reinforcement, decides to maintain these appropriations in reserve; notes the replies received by the administration but finds them inconclusive for justifying a further increase at this stage; recalls its request for information as voted in its resolution of 25 March 2010 on the guidelines for the 2011 budgetary procedure(9);

82.  Rejects the request from its Bureau to up-grade the Questors' assistants from AST 4 to AST 8;

Buildings policy

83.  Has modified the heading of budget item 2 0 0 8 in order to provide increased transparency on different building projects;

84.  Requests to be kept informed on a regular basis on new developments for building projects with a significant impact on the budget, such as eg. the KAD building and awaits the replies as regards the financial impact of possible parallel building projects in Brussels on the budget;

Communication and information policy

85.  Takes note of the reply given on the state of play as regards a Knowledge Management System, which however at this stage of the project cannot yet be evaluated as to whether it will meet the expectations raised; highlights the need for a timetable regarding the implementation of this system; recalls its request in the resolution on the Guidelines that such a system be made easily accessible for European citizens via the internet; requests information regarding how savings can be made following the implementation of the Knowledge Management System;

86.  Notes that a significant number of members have raised questions concerning the content and state of play as regards the IT mobility project, which may warrant a more profound analysis and discussion; has decided to enter appropriations relating to this project in reserve for the time being to allow for such discussion and analysis;

87.Requests to be kept informed on developments as regards Parliament's WEB TV and decides to enter EUR 1 million in reserve;
Environment-related matters

88.  Reiterates its support for effectively putting into place concrete incentives and measures to make more and better use of less polluting means of transport than airplanes and cars, such as public transport and bicycles, which may also help to identify possible future savings on budget items such as ‘vehicles’;

89.  In the same spirit, underlines the need to develop further measures to improve resource efficiency both in budgetary and environmental terms;

90.  Is satisfied that some further saving can be made on the budget item for Members' travel costs and the item for energy consumption by a total of EUR 4 million;

Multi-annual projects and other items of expenditure

91.  Concerning the House of European History, decides to enter the requested EUR 2,5 million for further studies in the reserve; notes that, pending the evaluation of the architects proposals, there is still no overview of the global cost of the project available; refers also to the other requests made in different resolutions of the Parliament to which no reply has yet been received, such as possible cooperation with other institutions and possible interested partners;

92.  Decides to adjust appropriations for a further number of budget items and to create some reserves on budget items where the exact need for appropriations is difficult to forecast and possible additional needs or, on the contrary, savings may arise in the course of the year;

93.  Recalls that, during the estimates stage and the conciliation procedure between its Committee on Budgets and the Bureau , the initial amount of EUR 1,2 million contemplated to finance the latter's decision to introduce an office holder allowance, was brought down to EUR 400 000; recalls furthermore that expenditure relating to this office holder allowance can be reimbursed only upon presentation of supporting documents fully justifying such costs; points out that other increases compared to the financial year 2010 are mainly for the renewal of the stock of representation articles for the protocol services; considers that if such stock is renewed this year, expenditure for this item can likely be reduced in coming years; stresses the need for budgetary prudence concerning mission requests, between Parliament's places of work and other missions, as well as utmost self-restraint as regards representation expenses in these times of economic crisis; would therefore warmly welcome the reduction of such expenses  in the course of the year compared to the forecast initial needs;

Section IV - Court of Justice

94.  Decides to create 29 new posts out of the 39 requested, mainly as a result of a high increase in the number of cases and resulting workload leading to an additional demand for lawyer linguists and translation (24 of the posts related to this) and a limited number of other justified increases;

95.  Notes that during its reading, the Council has cut the appropriations included in this item in a manner that does not properly reflect the high rate of occupancy of posts achieved by the Court of Justice in 2009 and during the first half of 2010; has decided therefore that the 3% cut imposed by the Council (and equivalent to raising the standard abatement rate from 2,5% to 5,5%) needs to be reduced to 1% in order to meet the necessary needs of the establishment plan and allow the Court of Justice to correctly carry out its functions;

96.  Takes a compromise position on various lines of support expenditure, granting more than the Council but less than the draft budget; makes an exception for some IT-related expenditure where, following external audit recommendations, the full amount is provided on two lines;

Section V - Court of Auditors

97.  Notes that the Court's draft budget was only marginally amended by the Council and that, overall, the resulting levels could be accepted; notes that, following an increase of 32 auditor posts in the past two years, no additional staff, although initially planned, were requested in an exercise of self restraint;

98.  Welcomes the Court's systematic commitment to reducing its administrative support costs and holding internal budget audits; wishes to further explore to what extent other Institutions can make use of the Court's expertise in this field;

Section VI - European Economic and Social Committee

99.  Decides to introduce a compromise solution concerning new posts requested as a consequence of the Lisbon Treaty, along the lines already proposed by the Spanish Presidency in the summer, consisting of the creation of 11 new posts in order to deal with increased competencies and workload as follows: 6 AD5, 3 temporary AD9 and 2 AST3;

100.  Notes that these posts are intended, inter alia, to boost the Committee's capacity in the areas of consultative work, programming and relations with civil society and that they strike an acceptable compromise position between the Committee's original requests and the Council's draft budget;

101.  Having taken note of current vacancy rates and heard the Committee on this issue, decides to apply an abatement rate of 4,5% on salaries, instead of the 5,5% suggested by the Council, in order not to hinder effective recruitment on vacant posts;

102.  Underlines the need to implement without delay the Committee's decision in principle to reimburse its Members' transport tickets on the basis of real costs and to scrap the flat-rate system currently possible; welcomes this decision in principle, has made available the appropriations relating to this change in system and will continue to follow this issue;

103.  Agrees to a limited number of increases compared to the Council's reading, while still representing a saving on the DB, as concerns various support expenditure lines;

Section VII - Committee of the Regions

104.  Decides to introduce a compromise solution concerning new posts requested as a consequence of the Lisbon Treaty, along the lines already proposed by the Spanish Presidency in the summer, consisting of the creation of 18 new posts in order to deal with increased competencies and workload as follows: 2 AD9, 5 AD7, 7 AD5, 2 AST3 and 2 AST1;

105.  Notes that these posts are intended, inter alia, to boost the Committee's capacity in the areas of subsidiarity, territorial cohesion, impact assessments, consultative work and expanded inter-regional activities;

106.  Decides to introduce a general abatement rate of 5% after hearing the Committee's arguments as regards recruitment levels and vacancy rates;

107.  Takes a compromise position between the Committee's requests and the Council's reductions on various support expenditure lines;

Section VIII - European Ombudsman

108.  Considers that the DB of this Institution as largely satisfactory and also notes that very few changes were introduced by the Council;

109.  Stresses, however, that it takes the opposite view from Council concerning the creation of 1 temporary post, with no budget impact as the same expenditure is currently paid through contracts, and therefore decides to approve it;

Section IX - European Data Protection Supervisor

110.  Taking into account the combined workload of this institution, based on previously existing obligations and on new obligations under the Lisbon Treaty, leading to increasing consultations on legislation with an impact on data protection, has decided to create 2 new posts for 2011 (1 AD6 and 1 AD9);

111.  Has taken a restrictive approach on increases asked on other lines and asks the Supervisor to manage those needs internally, within existing budgets;

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112.  Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission and to the other institutions and bodies concerned.

(1) OJ L 163, 23.6.2007, p. 17. (2) OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1. (3) OJ C 139, 14.6.2006, p. 1. (4) Texts adopted, P7_TA(2010)0086. (5) Texts adopted, P7_TA(2010)0205. (6) OJ C 27 E, 31.1.2008, p. 214. (7) Texts adopted, P7_TA(2010)0328. (8) Texts adopted, P7_TA(2010)0171. (9) Texts adopted, P7_TA(2010)0087.