Appendix – Expenditure needs of the Assembly
1. Staff expenditure
1. The budget of the Parliamentary Assembly covers basic
salaries, allowances (both non-recurrent and periodical) and social
insurance for staff of the secretariat of the Assembly.
2. In accordance with the 2024-2025 Programme and Budget, as
adjusted for 2025, as of 1 January 2025, the secretariat of the
Assembly has 84 jobs (including 47 A-grade jobs, 36 B-grade jobs
and 1 specially appointed official, that of the Secretary General
of the Parliamentary Assembly). It is underlined that, thanks to additional
resources granted to the Assembly secretariat for the 2024-2025
biennium, 3 A-grade jobs of committee secretaries and 1 B-grade
job of committee assistant have been created. Moreover, the Assembly secretariat
benefits from the expertise of two seconded officials: an experienced
lawyer from the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights and
an experienced national civil servant from the French National Assembly.
3. The Assembly secretariat is organised around two directorates,
namely “Democracy and Rule of Law” (Directorate I) and “Inclusive
and Sustainable Societies and Co-operation” (Directorate II), the
Table Office, the Information Management and Events Department and
the Administration and Central Services Department.
4. With a view to fully permitting a robust parliamentary dimension
to the implementation of the Reykjavik Declaration, the readjusted
political priorities, as laid down in the present Resolution, call
for a reinforcement of the secretariat. Thanks to gains in efficiency,
the secretariat of the Assembly intends to redeploy resources allocated
to the organisation of part-sessions to priority sectors, namely
communication, visibility and co-operation. The new activities relating
to the implementation of the New Pact for Democracy in Europe, the enhancement
of the Assembly’s interaction with young people in all its work
(including through the implementation of the PACE-Youth Participation
Mechanism), the setting-up of a parliamentary network supporting
the implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights,
the strengthening of the Assembly’s integrity framework, as well
as the launching of new co-operation activities which require specific expertise
(use of artificial intelligence in parliamentary practices) will
require additional resources, namely two administrator (A-grade)
jobs and two support staff (B-grade, including one junior professional
officer) jobs.
2. Operational expenditure
5. Thanks to the modernisation efforts,
the Assembly secretariat has managed to considerably reduce the operational
expenditure relating to the organisation of part-sessions. Gains
generated thanks to efficiency have been reinvested into the upgrading
of information technology (IT) tools.
6. For the 2026-2027 period, in line with its readjusted political
priorities and to respond to the needs in an adaptable and flexible
manner, the Assembly intends to sunset or pause, where appropriate,
certain sub-committees; different structures and working methods,
such as limited-period networks or follow-up to reports, will be
further developed using the operational savings thus generated.
7. Moreover, thanks to gains generated by the development of
IT tools and the integration of artificial intelligence-powered
technology, new co-operation activities will be launched to allow
parliaments to study and share good practices in the use of artificial
intelligence in parliamentary activities.
8. Thanks to inflation adjustment of the envelope for operational
activities, the secretariat of the Assembly has managed to cope
with the increase in travel and subsistence expenses of parliamentarians
and staff accompanying them.
9. To further optimise costs, the secretariat is considering,
whenever possible, auditioning experts online. This allows the Assembly
to benefit from top-level international expertise while at the same
time improving cost-effectiveness and reducing the carbon impact,
especially when experts have to travel long distances to attend an
Assembly meeting in person.
10. During 2024 and 2025, the Assembly continued to develop its
targeted co-operation activities. In particular, as a result of
the reorganisation of the Directorate General of Democracy and Human
Dignity of the Secretariat General of the Council of Europe, the
secretariat of the Assembly integrated, as from 1 January 2024,
the co-operation activities in the field of democratic elections.
Thus, at the moment of the adoption of the present Resolution, the
Assembly is implementing five projects in the field of elections,
in particular in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, the Republic
of Moldova and Ukraine, with a budget of more than €4 million, funded
by extra-budgetary resources. During 2026 and 2027, these activities
will continue and expand further in line with new requests from
member States; they also form part of the Council of Europe’s “electoral
cycle”, which aims to ensure a coherent and “end-to-end” co-ordination
of all election-related activities throughout the Secretariat of
the Organisation.
11. Ongoing parliamentary co-operation projects will be further
strengthened, notably to support the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine,
address the situation of the children of Ukraine, support the activities
of parliamentary platforms and networks (Parliamentary Platform
for the rights of LGBTI persons in Europe, Parliamentary Network
Women Free from Violence, the No Hate Parliamentary Alliance, the
Parliamentary Network for a healthy environment) and engage with
and support dialogue with the democratic forces and civil society
from Belarus and from the Russian Federation that share the Council
of Europe’s values and principles. New initiatives will be launched
in the field of artificial intelligence and sport. Whenever possible,
country-specific parliamentary co-operation activities will be integrated
into action plans.
12. The Assembly will continue to observe parliamentary and presidential
elections in countries under its monitoring procedure or engaged
in post-monitoring dialogue, in close collaboration with the European Commission
for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) and the Assembly’s
international partners (the Office for Democratic Institutions and
Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
(OSCE/ODIHR), the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary
Assembly of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the
European Parliament) within the framework of international election observation
missions.
13. The Assembly secretariat will continue to support its political
groups through a budgetary allowance, calculated on a lump-sum basis
for each group that covers administrative assistance plus an additional
per capita allowance which varies depending on the number of members
of each group. Following on from the harmonisation of the legal
status and terms of employment of group secretaries and assistants
to better align them with the new Council of Europe Staff Regulations,
the budgetary envelope dedicated to the functioning of political
groups should be regularly adjusted to inflation, in line with existing
rules and methodology.
