Council of Europe general accounts and budgets for the years 1985, 1987 and 1988
Opinion 136
(1987)
Author(s):
Parliamentary Assembly
Origin
Assembly debate on 5 May 1987 (3rd Sitting) (see Doc. 5723, report of the Committee on the Budget and the Intergovernmental Work Programme). Text adopted by the Assembly on 5 May 1987 (3rd Sitting).
Thesaurus
The Assembly,
1. Having regard to the texts relating to the competence of the Assembly in budgetary matters ;Note
2. Having examined the Council of Europe general accounts for 1985, the last financial year for which accounts were drawn up and discharge given ;
3. Having regard to the Council of Europe budget for 1987 as adopted by the Committee of Ministers ;
4. Welcoming the interim reply by the Committee of Ministers to Recommendation 1039 (1986) of the Assembly in which the Deputies announce their intention to hold in the near future a full debate on the question of the budgetary resources of the Council of Europe, and expressing the wish that its representatives be heard in the course of this debate ;
5. Inviting governments and parliaments of member states to ensure that the Council of Europe, an organisation for co-operation between democratic European states, is treated differently from other international organisations as far as budget is concerned, in accordance with the proposal from the Colombo Commission,
6. Asks the Committee of Ministers :
a As regards the 1988 budget, to grant the necessary appropriations for :
6.1.1 the implementation of the intergovernmental programme of activities for 1988 which will take into account the new aims set out in the 3rd Medium-Term Plan (1987-91) and the proposals of the Colombo Commission ;
6.1.2 the European Public Campaign on North-South Interdependence and Solidarity ;
6.1.3 the development of computerisation and office automation in the Council of Europe ;
6.1.4 the maintenance of a European scientific network in the field of archaeology ;
b As regards the budget in general and the budgetary resources of the Council of Europe :
6.2.1 to introduce, on an experimental basis, the ECU as currency unit for the financial operations of the Council of Europe Resettlement Fund ;
6.2.2 to find methods by which the European Community could contribute financially to those Council of Europe activities with which it wishes to be associated ;
6.2.3 to invite the governments of the member states :
a to respect the financial obligations resulting from Article 39 of the Statute and the Financial Regulations for their contributions to the Council of Europe budget ;
b to abandon for the Council of Europe the zero-growth principle, and to replace it by a reference to the average annual increase in the gross domestic product of the twenty-one member states ;
c to examine the possibility of specialised ministries making financial contributions to activities of particular interest to them (for example, Partial Agreements, Cultural Fund, Sport Fund).
