Budgetary resources of the Council of Europe

Recommendation 1039 (1986)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

See Doc. 5582, report of the Committee on the Budget and the Intergovernmental Work Programme. Text adopted by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of the Assembly, on 3 July 1986.

Thesaurus

The Assembly,

1. Welcoming the Committee of Ministers' desire to make full use of the Council of Europe, as expressed in several of the resolutions it has adopted since 1984, relating in particular to the strengthening of the political dialogue of the Twenty-one (Resolution (84) 21), development of co-operation with the European Community (Resolution (85) 5), the strengthening of European cultural identity (Resolution (85) 6), and to European cultural co-operation (Resolution (86) 3) ;

2. Regretting the fact that, despite these positive developments and the renewal of interest in the Council of Europe emphasised on several occasions by the heads of state and of government, the Organisation's budget has remained stagnant, the very small increases in real terms (0,15% in 1982 ; 0,35% in 1983 ; 0,51% in 1984 ; 0,95% in 1985 ; 0,75% in 1986) having been largely absorbed by the inevitable increase in the operational expenditure of the bodies set up under the European Convention on Human Rights ;

3. Considering that in any event the volume of resources allocated to the Council of Europe in the budgets and public spending of member states is marginal ;

4. Emphasising that co-operation between democratic European states will not make headway unless the competent institutions have adequate resources,

5. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers :

a grant the Council of Europe the budgetary resources essential for it to carry out its tasks effectively and to play the role assigned to it ;

b re-examine the Financial Regulations of the Council of Europe and their supplementary provisions, particularly with a view to :

5.2.1 broadening the Secretary General's scope for transferring appropriations from one vote of the budget to another ;

5.2.2 preparing a supplementary budget for the non-recurring investment expenditure of the Council of Europe ;

5.2.3 providing for the possibility of joint activities by the Council of Europe and member states, financed by the latter in proportion to their interest in such activities ;

5.2.4 making it possible for advertising and other forms of sponsorship to be accepted in the periodical publications of the Council of Europe ;

c make greater use of the provisions of the Financial Regulations relating to :

5.3.1 the setting up of funds (for example, the establishment of a special Council of Europe publications fund) and the acceptance of subsidies and funds from outside the Council (Articles 4, 13 and 22 of the Regulations) ;

5.3.2 the possibility of carrying over to the following budgets any balances from each financial year (Article 6 of the Regulations) with a view to theirbeing earmarked for investment or for any other expenditure which the Assembly or the Secretary General may propose ;

d remind the governments of member states, and their specialised ministries in particular, of the possibility of voluntary financial contributions to specific activities of the Council of Europe and to the conferences, colloquies and campaigns that it organises ;

e work out balanced methods of financing joint projects of the European Community and the Council of Europe ;

f invite the governments to recognise the overriding importance of European co-operation by grouping together their contributions to European institutions under a special heading separate from ‘‘Contributions to international organisations'', where this was not already being done.