The Council of Europe is at the centre of major political changes whose institutional effects need to be taken into account. It was in this spirit that the Assembly, in Recommendation 1139 (1991) on the institutional role of the Council of Europe in a continent aspiring to greater unity, recommended that the Committee of Ministers ‘‘consider urgently in 1991 (that is to say during the chairmanship of Spain and Sweden), together with the Parliamentary Assembly, all steps necessary, including the revision of the 1949 Statute, to ensure that the Council of Europe will be in a position to assume fully its responsibilities in the institutional framework emerging on the European continent''.
The budgetary powers conferred on the Assembly by current texts and practice are not in keeping either with its nature as an organ of national parliamentarians or with the political role it has succeeded in playing in the face of the recent, far-reaching shifts in European balances.
Each year the Assembly is asked to provide two opinions (on the Council of Europe's general budget and on its own budget) relating to the following financial year without either having seen the draft budget submitted to the Committee of Ministers by the Secretary General or being aware of the positions of the bodies involved in the budgetary process (Ministers' Deputies, Budget Committee).
In respect of the Organisation's general budget, it would be appropriate to improve and expand the consultation of the Assembly by altering both the procedure and the timetable.
As far as its own budget is concerned, the Assembly should enjoy a certain amount of independence in keeping with its dignity as an organ made up of members of national parliaments as well as with its concern to make its action more efficient. For these reasons, the Assembly makes the following recommendations to the Committee of Ministers :