Budgets and priorities of the Council of Europe for the period 2022-2025
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Text adopted by the Standing Committee,
acting on behalf of the Assembly, on 28 May 2021 (see Doc. 15282, report of the Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities
and Institutional Affairs, rapporteur: Mr Tiny Kox).
1. The Parliamentary Assembly’s Opinion
on the budget and priorities of the Council of Europe for the 2022-2025
quadrennial cycle is taking place in a particular context, when
Europe and the world have been facing the Covid-19 pandemic for
more than a year and are currently plunged into the uncertainty
linked to the multiple and complex consequences of an unprecedented
health and socio-economic crisis. For the Council of Europe, the
year 2020 has been an opportune time for in-depth reflection and
for proving the Organisation’s added value for member States.
2. The Assembly welcomes the drafting by the Secretary General
of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejčinović Burić, of a new strategic
framework, defining the priorities and concrete achievements expected
for the next four years. It recalls that it formulated the idea
of long-term planning in its
Recommendation
1812 (2007) “Political dimension of the Council of Europe
budget” and in its
Opinion
272 (2009) “Budgets of the Council of Europe for the
financial year 2010”, which already recommended that the Committee
of Ministers adopt a multiannual budgetary framework.
3. The Assembly is convinced that this new perspective of programming
and prioritising activities over a four-year period, together with
the implementation of a digital modernisation plan, will enable
the Council of Europe to continue to respond to the needs of member
States while maintaining what has been its strength for more than
70 years: its adaptability and flexibility in order to guarantee
the cohesion, continuity, stability, transparency and predictability
of its activities for the benefit of member States and their citizens.
4. The Assembly considers, however, that modern technologies,
which have been widely used for videoconferencing or teleworking
over the past year and have allowed for the continuation of the
Organisation’s core activities and greater flexibility, must be
complementary to the working methods used until now. It is important
for the Council of Europe to continue to base its activities on
face-to-face meetings, which allow for rich and often fruitful exchanges
and are essential for the efficiency of a multilateral organisation.
5. With regard to the guidelines set out in the Council of Europe’s
strategic framework, the Assembly refers to its
Resolution 2369 (2021) and
Recommendation 2199 (2021) “The
Assembly’s vision for the strategic priorities of the Council of
Europe”, adopted at its April 2021 part-session, which set out its
positions on the priority issues it considers to be of strategic
importance to the Organisation. The Covid-19 pandemic means that
we must be prepared for social challenges and a difficult future
for the people of Europe. This will undoubtedly require greater
attention from the Council of Europe and its Assembly to ensure
that the economic rights and social protection of Europeans are
guaranteed.
6. The Council of Europe has demonstrated its relevance during
the pandemic, as illustrated by the Secretary General’s toolkit
for member States entitled “Respecting democracy, rule of law and
human rights in the framework of the Covid-19 sanitary crisis”.
The Assembly has adopted several texts providing guidance on a wide
variety of issues. Several protective measures have been taken by
authorities and the Assembly has especially underlined the need
to ensure that these measures do not undermine the fundamental values
of democracy, the rule of law and human rights. The Assembly has
in particular drawn attention to the increased incidents of violence
against women and domestic violence during lockdowns.
7. Analysing the budgetary challenges for the next 2022-2023
biennium, the Assembly recognises that the current health crisis,
which has shaken the budgetary balances of member States, could
make it more difficult to adapt financial resources to the level
of the stated ambitions. Nevertheless, its
Resolution 2369 (2021) is a strong
appeal to the governments of the member States to guarantee the
Organisation's sustainability and ensure its financial viability,
so that it retains its full effectiveness and political relevance
in a global context that makes it more indispensable than ever.
8. The Assembly welcomes the commitment of member States to a
“zero real growth” policy for the current biennium while underlining
that, in concrete and practical terms, this does not mean “growth”.
It reaffirms its long-standing position that member States should
resolutely invest more in democratic security as embodied by the
Council of Europe, and therefore ensure better funding for the Organisation
by supporting a real growth budget.
9. Furthermore, the Assembly, referring to the decision adopted
by the Committee of Ministers at its 129th Session (Helsinki, 17
May 2019) entitled “A shared responsibility for democratic security
in Europe – Ensuring respect for rights and obligations, principles,
standards and values”, calls on the Committee of Ministers and the
Russian Federation to seek the basis for a mutually acceptable agreement
enabling the latter to settle the interest due to the Council of
Europe.
10. The Assembly is also aware that, in order to meet their financial
commitments, member States need to obtain tangible results from
the Organisation. This will be enhanced not only by the Secretary
General’s four-year strategic framework, but will be complemented
by the ongoing organisational reforms, of which the new human resources
strategy is an integral part and aims to ensure that staff members
have the skills, motivation and high levels of performance to achieve
the objectives set for the four-year cycle, which is conducive to enhancing
the credibility of the Organisation.
11. The Assembly hopes that this ambitious reform in the field
of human resources will be carried out in full consultation with
the Organisation’s staff, whose support is essential to its success.
Recalling its
Opinion
297 (2019) “Budget and priorities of the Council of Europe
for the biennium 2020-2021”, it expects the Council of Europe to
put in place a staff policy that is sufficiently attractive to retain
good candidates by also offering them career development prospects.
12. The alarming situation of the Pension Reserve Fund is another
challenge for the next biennium 2022-2023. The Pension Reserve Fund,
established in 2003, aims to stabilise member States’ contributions
over the medium to long term so that they can meet their obligations
under the various Council of Europe pension schemes. However, the
Pension Reserve Fund system, which was underfunded when it was set
up, has to absorb the departure of large groups at retirement age
and cope with the increase in life expectancy of retired members
of staff. Its sustainability requires higher contributions from
the States, as active staff members already sustained a sharp increase
in their own contributions in 2020.
13. In order to ensure that member States meet their obligations,
and to avoid an excessive impact on their contributions, the Assembly
had suggested to the Committee of Ministers, in its
Recommendation 2124 (2018) “Modification
of the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure: the impact of the budgetary
crisis on the list of working languages of the Assembly”, several
decisions of a budgetary and financial nature, in particular the
setting up of a compulsory reserve account financed by all or a
substantial part of the unspent balance identified at the closing
of each financial year or budget cycle. In view of the situation,
the Assembly reiterates its request and hopes that this recommendation
will be duly taken into consideration.
14. The Assembly notes with interest the proposal to implement
a results-based approach in the Council of Europe, which is one
of the central points of the Secretary General’s strategic framework.
This approach aims to match the actions envisaged with the objectives
set and should enable the Organisation to ensure that the actions
undertaken contribute to solving the problems identified. Indicators
will be put in place to assess the progress of the expected results.
The Assembly believes that such an approach should enable the Council
of Europe to demonstrate its usefulness and effectiveness and ensure
that its work has a real impact. However, it considers that the
visibility of the Organisation’s activities can only be improved
by strengthening its communication policy.
15. Finally, the Assembly calls for the work to modernise the
Chamber of the Palais de l’Europe, which was foreseen in the Capital
Master Plan and which was postponed indefinitely because of the
2017-2018 budgetary crisis and then the Covid-19 pandemic, to be
undertaken rapidly, as planned, and completed before the Assembly
sits there in full again.
