“The Assembly shall fix the amount of its expenditure, the annual increment being determined by agreement between the Committee of Ministers and the Assembly.
The Assembly shall be consulted by the Committee of Ministers before the latter fixes the amount of the overall budget of the Council of Europe for the coming year. This consultation shall take place at the earliest possible stage in order to allow the Assembly to take it into account in its opinion on the budget.”
Appended to this opinion are:
i. a table of the requests for 2007 compared with the estimated expenditure for 2006, presented according to the results-based (RBB) budgeting method which has led the secretariat of the Assembly to divide the budget into two activity sectors:
Expenditure is similarly itemised in each sector:
ii. a brief explanation of the various items of expenditure;
iii. a table on the adjustments made for 2007 as compared to the estimated expenditure for 2006;
iv. a table setting out the Assembly’s work programme according to the RBB method
| Vote III of the ordinary budget – Expenditure of the Assembly | Appropriations for 2007 € | Expenditure foreseen for 2006 € |
|---|---|---|
| Head 0310 – Plenary sessions | ||
| Staff expenditure | ||
| Sub-heads | ||
| 0000001 – Remuneration of staff recruited on established posts | 1 421 500 | 1 421 500 |
| 0000003 – Remuneration and accessory charges of temporary staff | ||
| 817 900 | 817 900 | |
| 0000005 – Salary, allowances and social charges of the Secretary General of the Assembly | 65 900 | 65 900 |
| 0000007 – Overtime – statutory and other allowances | 21 300 | 21 300 |
| Supplies, services and other operational expenditure | ||
| Sub-heads | ||
| 0000080 – Official journeys | p.m. | p.m. |
| 0000095 – Representational expenditure, other official expenditure and travelling expenses of members of the Assembly | 29 400 | 29 400 |
| 0000115 – Interpretation | 1 040 000 | 1 040 000 |
| 0000116 – Translation | 165 600 | 175 700 |
| 0000124 – Publishing and printing | 495 000 | 510 000 |
| 0000125 – Outsourced production of documents | 28 000 | 28 000 |
| 0000129 – Consultation of experts | 125 400 | 125 400 |
| 0000166 – Expenses for inviting guests of the Parliamentary Assembly | 3 500 | 3 500 |
| 0000204 – Modernisation of the Assembly’s equipment | p.m. | p.m. |
| 0000206 – Operating and maintenance costs of the electronic voting system | 42 000 | 42 000 |
| 0000250 – Co-operation and monitoring programme | p.m. | p.m. |
| 0000392 – Other expenditure not specifically provided for in this vote | 15 000 | 15 000 |
| Total head 0310 | 4 270 500 | 4 295 600 |
| Head 0311 – Functioning of the Assembly’s various bodies | ||
| Staff expenditure | ||
| Sub-heads | ||
| 0000001 – Remuneration of staff recruited on established posts | 6 441 300 | 6 441 300 |
| 0000003 – Remuneration and accessory charges of temporary staff …00 | 403 900 | 403 900 |
| 0000005 – Salary, allowances and social charges of the Secretary General of the Assembly | 153 800 | 153 800 |
| 0000013 – Secondment of national civil servants to the Assembly | 61 000 | 61 000 |
| 0000016 – Recruitment, arrival and departure expenses – Home leave | 30 500 | 40 000 |
| Supplies, services and other operational expenditure | ||
| Sub-heads | ||
| 0000080 – Official journeys | 380 000 | 420 000 |
| 0000095 – Representational expenditure, other official expenditure and travelling expenses of members of the Assembly | 158 000 | 158 000 |
| 0000115 – Interpretation | 1 068 900 | 1 068 900 |
| 0000116 – Translation | 346 000 | 366 000 |
| 0000124 – Publishing and printing | 152 000 | 162 500 |
| 0000125 – Outsourced production of documents | 10 600 | 13 200 |
| 0000129 – Consultation of experts | 60 000 | 60 000 |
| 0000162 – Expenditure pertaining to the Private Office of the President of the Assembly | 108 200 | 108 200 |
| 0000163 – Official expenses of the President of the Assembly | 121 000 | 121 000 |
| 0000166 – Expenses for inviting guests of the Parliamentary Assembly | p.m. | p.m. |
| 0000171 – Organisation of ad hoc conferences | 110 000 | 110 000 |
| 0000203 – Forum for the Future of Democracy | 21 100 | 21 100 |
| 0000204 – Modernisation of the Assembly’s equipment | p.m. | p.m. |
| 0000205 – European prizes | 78 400 | 78 400 |
| 0000250 – Co-operation and monitoring programme | 710 000 | 710 000 |
| 0000370 – Allocation to Assembly’s political groups | 685 500 | 685 500 |
| 0000392 – Other expenditure not specifically provided for in this vote | 59 300 | 59 300 |
| Total head 0303 | 11 159 500 | 11 242 100 |
| Total vote III | 15 430 000 | 15 537 700 |
These heads cover the basic salaries, allowances (non-recurring and periodic) and social cover of the permanent staff of the secretariat of the Assembly (87 posts), as well as those of temporary staff. Expenditure on staff is shown for the Assembly’s two activity sectors, namely the holding of plenary sessions and the functioning of the Assembly’s various bodies.
The Assembly currently has 10 committees, 9 of which have 83 members (with 83 alternates), while the 10th has 51 (with 51 alternates). The secretariat comprises 87 posts, broken down as shown below:
1 A7 - 2 B6 - 1 C4
2 A6 - 5 B5
11 A5 - 16 B4
10 A4 - 12 B3
19 A2/A3 - 8 B2
Experience in the last few years has shown that, to be fully operational, each of the nine 83-member committees needs four A-grade staff members (one A5 Head of Secretariat, one A4 Secretary and two A2/A3 co-secretaries), one B4 administrative assistant and one B2/B3 official. The 51-member committee needs two A-grade staff members (one A4 Secretary and one A2/A3 co-secretary), one B4 administrative assistant and one B2/B3 official. This structure means that the 10 Assembly committees should have a total of 58 members of staff (38 A-grades and 20 B-grades).
At present, the secretariat of the Assembly is organised so that the 10 Assembly committees have 49 staff members (29 A-grade and 20 B-grade) working for them. Thus there is a shortfall of 9 A-grade staff for these committees.
The remaining 38 staff members work for the Bureau of the Assembly, the Private Office of the President of the Assembly, the Table Office and the Interparliamentary Co-operation, Administration and Finance, Communication, Information Technology and Research Units.
The current establishment table, however, does not allow the Secretary General of the Assembly to redeploy the Assembly’s permanent staff in order to achieve the desired structure. In fact, some of the hardest-worked committees and units have experienced difficulties caused by the increased tasks and responsibilities resulting from their enlarged membership or heavier workload.
The Assembly would like to draw the Committee of Ministers’ attention to Opinion No. 257 (2005) on its expenditure for 2006, in which it had already referred to the shortfall in administrative officer posts needed in order to be fully operational, and would like to state that this request remains valid.
The Assembly, aware of the current budgetary constraints, will not request the creation of new posts, but would like the Secretary General to give kind consideration to any requests that it might make for posts at A2/A3 level to be redeployed to the secretariat of the Assembly.
Since 1975, following a decision by the Committee of Ministers, the allocations under these heads have been voted in the form of a single appropriation, which continues to be divided into sub-heads. If the Assembly wishes to change the relative amounts in the package at a later date, either because of an overall reduction or for any other reason dictated by the implementation of the budget, such a change is effected by the Secretary General at the Assembly’s request and in accordance with Article 31 of the Financial Regulations. Since 2005, and the adoption for the entire Organisation of a results-based budget, which has no effect at all on the above-mentioned decision, all operational expenditure of the Assembly, namely co-operation and monitoring programmes, publications, interpretation, translation, official journeys, experts, conferences, European prizes, etc., has been set out under Heads 0310 and 0311, corresponding to the new sector-based presentation of the Parliamentary Assembly’s activities. The first activity sector comprises expenditure related to the four Assembly part-sessions, while the second covers the operational expenditure of the Assembly’s various bodies.
The reduction in appropriations for 2007 will concern neither monitoring and election observation missions in member states, which are part of the Assembly’s interparliamentary co-operation programme, nor the implementation of that part of the programme devoted to the training of officials from parliaments in the countries of the southern Caucasus and in Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Moldova. Moreover, the co-operation programme intended to provide support to the parliamentary institutions of Serbia and Montenegro will be continued until 30 November 2007 (this is 90% financed by the European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR) and 10% by a Council of Europe contribution).
Furthermore, in response to Resolution 1420 (2005) on prospects for peace in the Middle East and to the decision taken by the Bureau of the Assembly at its meeting on 18 March 2005, the Sub-Committee on the Middle East of the Political Affairs Committee will continue its co-operation with representatives of the Knesset and the Palestinian Legislative Council.
Finally, in Opinion No. 257 (2005), the Assembly put forward several investment priorities for inclusion in future Council of Europe investment planning:
The Assembly notes that none of its three priorities has been taken into consideration for the 2006-2010 investment plan, and that these investments remain in the category of projects not financed. The Assembly further notes that provision is made in the 2006 budget for improvements to the anti-intruder measures in Council of Europe buildings, and this it welcomes.
On the other hand, it wishes to alter its priorities and would like particular attention to be given first and foremost to the replacement of the vote display panels on either side of the official rostrum, facing the Chamber, by two large-format video walls. The setting up of two large screens in place of the current vote display panels would be beneficial to the Organisation, increasing the Chamber’s potential for other uses, with facilities for videoconferencing or other large-screen presentations. The Assembly hopes that its request will be able to be taken into account in the revised investment proposals for 2007-2011.
The other two investment priorities, namely the setting up of a permanent television camera system remotely controlled and managed by technicians and the fitting of a reliable new voting system, the present system now being obsolete and increasingly costly to maintain, may wait longer in view of the budgetary constraints imposed. The Assembly would also like it to be borne in mind that there is a need for complete refurbishment of the President’s desk and the rostrum, which are old-fashioned and no longer suited to the Assembly’s needs.
The allocation to the political groups is based on a lump sum for secretarial assistance to each of the existing groups and an additional per capita allocation according to membership.
The appropriations which appear in Heads 0310 and 0311 below show anticipated expenditure per sub-head, accompanied by comments relating to the adjustments made for 2007 as compared to the estimated expenditure for 2006.
| Article | Description | Head 0310 Plenary sessions | Head 0311 Functioning of the Assembly’s various bodies | Comments | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 € | Reductions as compared with expenditure foreseen in 2006 € | 2007 € | Reductions as compared with expenditure foreseen in 2006 € | |||
| 0000001 | Remuneration of permanent staff | 1 421 500 | 6 441 300 | |||
| 0000003 | Remuneration of temporary staff engaged for Assembly sessions (around 150 persons for a global cost of €200 000, per session), meetings of Assembly bodies, ad hoc conferences and colloquies | 817 900 | 403 900 | |||
| 0000005 | Remuneration of the Secretary General of the Assembly (basic salary, allowances and social charges) | 65 900 | 153 800 | |||
| 0000007 | Overtime payments to permanent staff of the Council of Europe entitled to such payment for work during the sessions of the Assembly (e.g. payments to drivers, messengers, etc.) | 21 300 | ||||
| 0000013 | Allowances and travel expenses paid to civil servants from national parliaments who are on secondment to the Assembly | 61 000 | ||||
| 0000016 | Recruitment costs for staff members of the Assembly on arrival and departure, expenses in respect of paid home leave | 30 500 | 9 500 | Reduction of the expenditure foreseen in 2007 to the level of 2005 | ||
| 0000080 | Official travel (missions) by the staff of the secretariat of the Assembly required to attend meetings of the Assembly (bodies) and other organisations | 380 000 | 40 000 | Reduction of official staff journeys by 10% (390 official staff journeys instead of 430 in 2005) | ||
| 0000095 | Hospitality expenses incurred during visits by important personalities visiting the Assembly, travel expenses and subsistence allowances of members of the Assembly representing it at meetings of certain Council of Europe bodies (other than sessions of the Assembly and meetings of the Assembly committees), accident insurance premiums for official travelling | 29 400 | 158 000 | |||
| 0000115 | Interpretation costs from and into official and working languages of the Assembly (interpretation in the five official languages – French, English, German, Italian and Russian – for each plenary session (the cost of one week session is approx. €260 000) and for the plenary meetings of committees, interpretation in two languages for the meetings of sub-committees) | 1 040 000 | 1 068 900 | |||
| 0000116 | Translation costs into official and working languages as well as non-official languages. The appropriations cover the translation of 23 915 pages at €21.35 per page. | 165 600 | 10 100 | 346 000 | 20 000 | 670 fewer pages translated than in 2005 |
| 0000124 | Printing and mailing expenses | 495 000 | 15 000 | 152 000 | 10 500 | Reduction of the expenditure foreseen in 2007 by 4% as compared with that of 2005 |
| 0000125 | Outsourced production of documents | 28 000 | 10 600 | 2 600 | Reduction of the expenditure foreseen to cover the cost of outsourced production of documents | |
| 0000129 | Fees, travel and subsistence expenses for experts asked to carry out technical work or called in for consultation by the Assembly bodies | 125 400 | 60 000 | |||
| 0000162 | Official journeys by Private Office staff and/or staff travelling at the President’s request, fees, travel and subsistence expenses of experts called by the President | 108 200 | ||||
| 0000163 | Representational, travel and subsistence expenses incurred by the President in the exercise of his functions | 121 000 | ||||
| 0000166 | Expenditure arising from the Assembly’s external relations (reception of guests, travel and subsistence expenses of invited delegations of non-member states) | 3 500 | ||||
| 0000171 | Expenditure arising from the organisation of conferences, symposia or seminars (travel and subsistence expenses of participants, publishing, hospitality) | 110 000 | ||||
| 0000203 | Expenses for parliamentary participation to the Forum for the Future of Democracy | 21 100 | ||||
| 0000204 | Modernisation of the Assembly’s equipment | |||||
| 0000205 | European prizes (Europe Prize: €7 600, Council of Europe Museum Prize: €5 000, expenditure incurred in connection with presentation of prizes, annual meeting of the Selection Committee of the Museum Prize) | 78 400 | ||||
| 0000206 | Operating and maintenance costs of the electronic voting system | 42 000 | ||||
| 0000250 | Expenditure relating to the observation of elections and within the framework of the Assembly monitoring procedure, information seminars for parliamentarians and training for parliamentary staff, official journeys by staff, legislative, statutory and technical assistance to national parliaments | 710 000 | ||||
| 0000370 | Allocation to the political groups | 685 500 | ||||
| 0000392 | Expenditure in connection with the financial contribution of the Assembly to the activities of international, interparliamentary, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations and its visibility | 15 000 | 59 300 | |||
| Total | 4 270 500 | 25 100 | 11 159 500 | 82 600 |
| Plenary sessions | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Intervention logic | Performance indicators | Sources of verification | Assumptions |
| Activity area objective | |||
| The Parliamentary Assembly is able to fulfil its statutory tasks | |||
| Expected Result 1 The preparatory work of part-sessions is ensured | The part-session order of business as well as the reports are sent out two weeks before the session For each debate, the date and the time for the tabling of amendments are specified | Part-session calendar Feedback from MPs | Administrative support from secretaries of national delegations and political groups |
| Expected Result 2 The efficient conduct of proceedings is ensured by the Table Office | Amendments are published in the 2 official languages within 4 hours after being deposited. Adopted texts are published in the 2 official languages within 4 hours of their adoption. A minimum of 50% of registered speakers have the floor. | Part-session calendar Availability of texts and amendments in the distribution room for each debate Reports of debates List of speakers Feedback from MPs | Administrative support from secretaries of national delegations and political groups |
| Expected Result 3 Adopted texts are transmitted to the organs concerned | Proposals for the follow-up of adopted texts are ready and submitted to the Bureau of the Assembly for its meeting on the last day of the part-session | Minutes of the Bureau Transmission of letters to the organs concerned |
| Functioning of the Assembly’s various bodies | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Intervention logic | Performance indicators | Sources of verification | Assumptions |
| Activity area objective The smooth functioning of the Assembly’s various bodies is ensured | |||
| Expected Result 1 Committee meetings, seminars and conferences are efficiently organised | Meeting agendas, relevant documents and reports are ready for distribution on time | Minutes of committee meetings Proceedings of seminars and conferences | Ongoing political support from members of relevant committees |
| Expected Result 2 Efficient and effective assistance to the President of the Assembly is provided | Number of speeches, press releases and official visits prepared for the President | List of speeches, press releases and official visits | |
| Expected Result 3 Co-operation with national parliaments is further developed. | Level of satisfaction of beneficiary national parliaments Quality of the co-operation offered | Annual report prepared by the Secretariat and submitted for endorsement to the Bureau of the Assembly | Satisfaction of basic political standards necessary for establishing co-operation |
| Expected Result 4 Financial resources to the Assembly’s 5 political groups are provided | Timely provision of financial resources | Annual report by the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development on the use of the appropriations by the Assembly’s 5 political groups | Annual financial statements are submitted by the Assembly’s 5 political groups |
| Expected Result 5 The Assembly’s external profile is raised | Media coverage of the Assembly’s activities Number of visitors to the Assembly’s website | International and European press and news media The Assembly’s website |