Budgets of the Council of Europe for the financial years 1996 and 1997

Opinion 199 (1996)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

See Doc. 7702, report of the Committee on the Budget and the Intergovernmental Work Programme, rapporteur: Mr Theis. Text adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of the Assembly, on 7 November 1996.

Thesaurus

1. The Assembly took note that the ordinary budget of the Council of Europe has been adjusted satisfactorily in order to deal with the consequences of the enlargement of the Organisation which has been carried out during this year.

2. However, the Assembly regrets not being able to express an opinion on the draft budget for 1997 due to lack of information.

3. In this context, the Assembly recalls its Recommendations 1038 (1986) and 1155 (1991) on the powers of the Assembly in budgetary matters and reiterates its request to be associated with the elaboration of the budget of the Organisation for the forthcoming exercises, as well as its earlier request for the member states to create a specific heading for the Council of Europe in their national budgets.

4. Consequently,

a With regard to the 1996 budget, the Assembly:

4.1.1 welcomes adjustments in the ordinary budget which allowed the Organisation's enlargement in 1996 to be carried out more proficiently;

4.1.2 expresses concern over the modest allocation for computerisation expenditure and the insufficient human resources in the Computer and Telecommunications Division to cope with the expansion of the computer network;

4.1.3 notes that its request to the Committee of Ministers to carry out a feasibility study on the introduction of budgetary programming over several years has not been followed.

b With regard to the budget prospects for 1997, the Assembly:

4.2.1 regrets that the procedure followed for the elaboration of the budget did not enable it to possess the required information to express its opinion;

4.2.2 calls on the Committee of Ministers to reconsider this procedure in order to clarify it further and thus enable the Assembly to form its opinion on the 1998 budget by providing it with sufficient information.