Expenditure of the Parliamentary Assembly for the biennium 2022-2023

Report | Doc. 15283 | 11 May 2021

Committee

Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs

Rapporteur :

Mr Tiny KOX, Netherlands, UEL

Origin

Reference to committee: Bureau decision, Reference 4572 of 19 March 2021. 2021 - May Standing Committee

Summary

The Parliamentary Assembly has so far overcome the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on its mode of operation by adapting its procedures and working methods, at the cost of a considerable budgetary effort. The implementation within the Council of Europe of a new digital strategy will enable the Assembly to be freed from some of its budgetary constraints.

The Assembly considers that particular attention should be paid to its needs in the budget for the next budgetary cycle in order to guarantee the continuity of its action as a pan-European forum for interparliamentary dialogue and as the political driving force of the Organisation and that it should benefit from additional resources.

The Assembly fully supports the implementation of the new four-year strategic framework and will join in promoting the actions foreseen in the Council of Europe's work programme. It intends to strengthen its action in the field of standard-setting, monitoring and implementation/co-operation activities by improving synergies with monitoring or advisory mechanisms in other sectors of the Organisation. It will continue to focus on responding to the health and social challenges facing member States as a result of the pandemic and to work on the new challenges related to Artificial Intelligence and the right to a healthy environment.

Contents

ADraft resolution

Appendix – Expenditure of the Assembly

BExplanatory memorandum by Mr Tiny Kox, rapporteur

Appendix – Expenditure of the Assembly 2022-2023

A Draft resolution [(1) Draft resolution adopted by the Committee on 21 April 2021.]

1. In keeping with Committee of Ministers Resolution (53) 38 on the budget of the consultative Assembly and with Article 24 of the Financial Regulations, the Parliamentary Assembly issues an opinion on its expenditure each year. The sums allocated to the Assembly from the ordinary budget of the Council of Europe cover staff and operating costs, including those of the political groups. Since 2010 the Assembly has presented its opinion concerning its own expenses in the form of a resolution.

2. The Covid-19 pandemic made 2020 a very complicated year for the Council of Europe’s member States and their populations, and the Assembly itself had to deal with the tremendous impact of the pandemic on its own work. It managed this by adapting its procedures and working methods and modifying its Rules of Procedure by Resolution 2349 (2020) “Modification of the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure on alternative arrangements for the organisation of Parliamentary Assembly part-sessions” and Resolution 2350 (2020) “Modification of the Assembly's Rules of Procedure”, enabling it to hold meetings of its committees and enlarged Standing Committee as well as, since January 2021, its part-sessions in an alternative way.

3. The new videoconferencing technologies (in particular the KUDO platform, with interpretation in five languages) made it possible for the Assembly to carry on its activities effectively in 2020 and to overcome the numerous restrictions on its members’ movements. However, organising these long-distance meetings was a costly process for the Assembly. This additional financial burden was absorbed by savings made in other areas of the Assembly’s spending.

4. The Assembly welcomes the Committee of Ministers’ decision to implement a digital strategy to rise to the challenges thrown up by the exponential increase in requests for videoconference meetings to ensure the continuity of its own business and that of the other sectors of the Council of Europe in times of crisis.

5. The Assembly hopes that once the new digital strategy is in place it will be free of the budgetary constraints linked to the use of the KUDO platform and will have a computer technology allowing its parliamentarians to work more effectively. It has already taken steps towards technological modernisation with the online registration of members at committee meetings and part sessions, and speakers and substitutions, a secure electronic voting to elect judges of the European Court of Human Rights and the highest officials of the Organisation, and it will continue this transformation with a view to becoming a paperless Assembly.

6. Recalling its Resolution 2349 (2020) and the importance of guaranteeing its permanent role as a pan-European forum for interparliamentary dialogue, the Assembly also stresses the importance of continuing to base its work on physical meetings, which allow for rich exchanges and are indispensable for the work of a multilateral organisation. Online meetings should be regarded as complementary working methods that allow for greater flexibility, as exceptional measures in the face of exceptional circumstances.

7. 2020 also proved to be a year for serious thinking, which gave rise to the elaboration of a new strategic framework presented by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, reflecting the priorities of the Council of Europe’s mission for 2022-2025. The Assembly, for its part, adopted Resolution 2369 (2021) “The Assembly's vision on the strategic priorities for the Council of Europe” at its April 2021 part-session.

8. The Assembly is pleased that this new four-year strategic framework implements the multi-annual budgetary planning approach it called for over ten years ago in its Opinion No. 272 (2009) “Budgets of the Council of Europe for the financial year 2010”, where it argued that the Council of Europe should plan its work in the longer term. Doing this makes for better cohesion, continuity, stability, transparency and foreseeability.

9. As one of the two statutory bodies of the Council of Europe and the Organisation’s political driving force, the Assembly intends to play its role effectively, and to do this it needs additional resources, especially after years of cost cutting. That is why particular attention must be paid to the Assembly’s needs in the budget for the next budgetary period. Additional means should not be considered as additional costs but rather as an investment essential to the effectiveness of the Council of Europe’s work.

10. In this context the Assembly takes note that the renovation of the Chamber provided for in the investment plan but deferred sine die because of the Covid-19 pandemic will be carried out in the course of the biennium 2022-2023, so it should be possible for it to be used at full capacity in the 2nd half of the four-year cycle 2022-2025.

11. The Assembly’s budget should also contribute to the viability of the work done by the political groups, which are considered as the backbone of the Assembly. Discussions should take place in the Assembly on how to develop a flexible approach to the political groups’ budget and guarantee their financial viability, to make sure that any creation or disappearance of a political group does not affect the work of the existing groups. Creating one or more new political groups would increase the Assembly’s operating costs in a manner that could only be offset by an increase in the Assembly’s budget. In the meantime, other solutions should also be explored as soon as possible.

12. As a multilateral political platform, the Assembly brings together members of parliament from the 47 member States, Observer States and Partners for democracy to identify new problems and emerging challenges and develop recommendations and good practices for addressing them. In that context, it will intensify its efforts in the dynamic triangle of its normative, monitoring and implementation/co-operation activities by improving the synergies between its monitoring procedure and those of other monitoring or advisory bodies or mechanisms in other sectors of the Organisation.

13. The Assembly will continue to place the stress in its work on the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic on the lives of Europe’s citizens. The social challenges Europe’s populations are facing today as a result of the pandemic will require more attention from the Council of Europe and its Assembly to make sure that people’s economic rights and social protection continue to be guaranteed. The Assembly will also continue to focus its thinking and its work on the new challenges thrown up by the emergence of new technologies, especially artificial intelligence, to forestall any possible negative impact it could have on human rights, the rule of law and democracy. It has already provided the Committee of Ministers and the member States with a wide range of analyses, proposals and guidelines on these subjects.

14. The Assembly will also maintain its current priorities, including the implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ETS No. 5) and monitoring the execution of the Court’s judgments in all member States. It reiterates its strong support for the sustainable development goals (SDGs) defined in United Nations Agenda 2030. Referring to its Resolution 2271 (2019) and its Recommendation 2150 (2019) “Strengthening co-operation with the United Nations in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, it intends, through its ideas and proposals, to contribute to an accelerated implementation of the SDGs by the member States and the success of Agenda 2030.

15. Lastly the Assembly is fully ready to intensify the interinstitutional co-operation with the Secretary General and the Committee of Ministers and with the intergovernmental sector as a whole, and to explore every possible avenue to strengthen the global impact of the Council of Europe in its member States, as well as in those with observer and partners for democracy status.

16. Appended to this resolution is a brief explanation of the main Assembly expenditure.

Appendix – Expenditure of the Assembly

Staff expenditure

1. This head covers basic salaries, allowances (both non-recurrent and periodical) and social insurance for permanent and temporary staff of the secretariat of the Assembly.

2. The information given is based on the present structure of the Assembly composed of nine committees. On 1 April 2021 the secretariat had 82 permanent posts and positions and 1 specially appointed official (Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly), broken down by grade as follows:

Permanent posts
2 A6	6 B5
7 A5	9 B4
9 A4	17 B3
26 A2/A3	6 B2

3. At present the secretariat of the Assembly is organised in such a way that the nine committees have 43 staff members at their service (27 permanent A-grade staff and 16 permanent B-grade staff).

4. The other 39 staff members work for the Bureau of the Assembly, the Private office of the President of the Assembly, the Table Office, the Election Observation Division, the Parliamentary Projects Support Division, the Central Division, the Communication Division and the Information Technology unit.

Operational expenditure

5. The Assembly has made substantial savings in recent years by rationalising its work to reduce its operational expenditure. Since 2020 the return of zero real budget growth of the Organisation (that is, budget growth only to cover inflation) has made it possible to stabilise the resources available to the Assembly for the 2020-2021 budget period. For the next four-year budget period (biennial budgets 2022-2023 and 2024-2025) the working hypothesis must remain one of zero real growth.

6. The functioning of the Assembly includes the following tasks:

• the holding of the ordinary session, divided into four part-sessions (held in January, April, June and September/October each year);
• the meetings of the Standing Committee, held three times a year between the part-sessions of the Assembly;
• meetings held outside the four part-sessions of the Assembly by each of the nine general committees, sub-committees and ad hoc committees of the Assembly or the Bureau;
• committee and sub-committee meetings held elsewhere than in Strasbourg or Paris;
• conferences, symposiums, seminars and parliamentary hearings;
• activities connected with the Assembly’s interparliamentary co-operation programme;
• visits by rapporteurs to prepare reports, including visits in countries under the procedure to monitor the obligations and commitments of member States, or for post-monitoring dialogue;
• election observation;

as well as modernising its working methods with a view to become a paperless Assembly.

3. In 2022-2025 the Assembly will continue to carry out its priority missions and pursue its goals in keeping with its Resolution 2277 (2019) “Role and mission of the Parliamentary Assembly: main challenges for the future”, and Resolution 2369 (2021) “The Assembly’s view regarding the strategic priorities of the Council of Europe”, in particular by:

• continuing to be the political engine of the Organisation, addressing the challenges of human rights, the rule of law and democracy at both the national and regional levels, giving priority to measures to guarantee the smooth functioning of democracies under the rule of law;
• helping to effectively implement several new standards of the Council of Europe at the national level, inter alia through public awareness;
• ensuring the participation of parliamentarians in the promotion and implementation of the Council of Europe’s key texts, including the Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (CETS No. 210) and the Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse ( CETS No. 201);
• helping to implement the UN’s Agenda 2030 sustainable development programme;
• helping to implement various multi-annual cross-sectoral strategies of the Council of Europe (for example in the fields of children’s rights, gender equality and internet governance);
• participating in the Council of Europe’s 2018-2023 gender equality strategy, including within the Assembly, with particular emphasis on human rights and the gender dimension and the elimination of violence against women;
• helping the national parliaments to better monitor their countries’ legislation, in conformity with the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights (ETS No. 5), and reinforcing their capacity to monitor that the judgments of the Court are properly executed.

4. Where interparliamentary co-operation is concerned the Assembly will continue to implement the different assistance and co-operation programmes adapted to the needs of the parliamentary institutions, in close collaboration with its committee secretariats. It is worth noting here that it is engaged in a joint co-operation programme with the European Union specifically concerning the Parliament of Morocco (which is an Assembly Partner for democracy), the aim of which is to strengthen its role as a guarantor of parliamentary democracy.

5. The Assembly warmly thanks the member States and their parliaments (particularly Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Georgia, Luxembourg, Portugal and Switzerland), who made it possible, through their contributions, for the Assembly to finance its activities in 2020-2021, and also the Government of the Czech Republic, the Václav Havel Library and the Charter 77 Foundation for their generous contribution to the renown of the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize.

6. In addition, over the next four-year period the Assembly will continue its search for funding for important specific projects to be carried out by some of its committees:

• parliamentary action to promote public health and to empower and protect children;
• the parliamentary network for the right of women to live without violence;
• the No Hate Parliamentary Alliance and its five priority themes: hate speech, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, anti-Gypsyism and transphobia.

7. Concerning the electoral process, the Assembly will continue to observe parliamentary and presidential elections in countries under its monitoring procedure, in close collaboration with the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission).

8. Lastly, the Assembly will continue to support its political groups through their budgetary allowance, calculated on a lump-sum basis for each group for administrative assistance plus an additional per capita allowance which varies with the membership of the group. The Assembly should give thought to means of moving towards a flexible approach to the political groups’ budget and ensuring their financial viability, so that the creation or disappearance of a group does not affect the functioning of the existing groups. The creation of one or more new political groups would mean a supplementary burden on the Assembly’s operational budget which could only be covered by increasing the Assembly’s budget.

B Explanatory memorandum by Mr Tiny Kox, rapporteur

1. The purpose of this report is to give an exhaustive picture of the expenditure of the Parliamentary Assembly for the budget years 2022-2025. The Assembly’s expenditure appears under the “Democracy” head of the ordinary budget of the Council of Europe. It covers all the Assembly’s operating costs, including staff and the operating costs of the political groups. It does not, however, include the cost of telephone communications, office supplies and other consumables, which are shared by the Organisation as a whole.

2. 2020 was a very complicated year for our member States and their populations because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Almost every effort had to focus on responding to the pandemic and its consequences on people’s everyday lives and the fundamental aspects of our societies. The Assembly itself had to deal with the tremendous impact of the pandemic on its own work, and it succeeded.

3. After the first part-session, because of the pandemic it was impossible for the Assembly to carry on as usual. New working methods had to be invented and implemented. On 30 April 2020 the Bureau of the Assembly approved a memorandum on the decision-making framework of the committees, authorising them to hold their meetings remotely. On 7 May 2020 it approved a second memorandum setting rules for holding remote committee meetings, arrangements which applied mutatis mutandis to its own remote meetings. In addition, on 20 November 2020 the Assembly adopted Resolution 2349 (2020) “Modification of the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure on alternative arrangements for the organisation of Parliamentary Assembly part-sessions”, and Resolution 2350 (2020) “Modification of the Assembly's Rules of Procedure”.

4. However, it should be noted that remote meetings generate high costs for the Assembly (particularly the cost of interpretation and the renting of equipment for the meeting rooms and the Chamber). That financial burden is currently being covered by savings made in other areas of Assembly spending (official journeys of staff and parliamentarians, scaled back co-operation activities, few or no invitations to experts for hearings, etc.)

5. We can also welcome the decision of the Committee of Ministers accepting the proposal by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe to implement a digital strategy to address the challenges linked to the exponential increase in requests for videoconference meetings to ensure business continuity for the Council of Europe (and the Assembly) in times of crisis. Once the new digital strategy is in place the Assembly will be free of the current budgetary constraints linked to the use of the KUDO platform and will hopefully have its own computer technology allowing its members to work more effectively.

6. At the same time there is general agreement in the Council of Europe on the importance of continuing to base the Organisation’s work on physical meetings, which allow for rich exchanges and are indispensable for the work of a multilateral organisation. Online meetings should be regarded as complementary working methods that allow for greater flexibility, as exceptional measures in response to exceptional circumstances.

7. As noted in Resolution 2349 (2020), “the Assembly must ensure its continuity of action as a pan-European forum for interparliamentary dialogue, which is based on its capacity to be the privileged forum for bilateral and multilateral exchanges in greater Europe. As one of the two statutory organs of the Council of Europe with decision-making power, it intends to affirm its willingness to restore its normal mode of operation as soon as possible and to hold its ordinary sessions in the physical presence of its members, thus being better able to fully guarantee the deliberative nature of its functions. The Assembly therefore urges the governments of the Council of Europe member States to facilitate, as far as possible, the travel of its members in order to enable them to fulfil their parliamentary obligations”.

8. But 2020 was also a year for some serious thinking, which led to the elaboration by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe of a new strategic framework reflecting the priorities of the Council of Europe’s mission for 2022-2025, instead of a biennial plan. The idea of multi-annual planning is not a new one as such. Years ago, the Assembly was already proposing that the Council of Europe plan its work for a longer period than its annual budgets (see Opinion No. 272 (2009) “Budgets of the Council of Europe for the financial year 2010”).

9. As the Committee of Ministers prepares to examine and set the strategic priorities of the Council of Europe for the years to come, in its April 2021 part-session the Assembly adopted Resolution 2369 (2021) “The Assembly's vision on the strategic priorities for the Council of Europe”.

10. Thanks to this four-year strategic framework the Council of Europe will be taking another step towards the multi-annual planning of its activities, which we should welcome as it will bring greater cohesion, continuity, stability, transparency and foreseeability.

11. Multi-annual planning should also go hand in hand with securing the Organisation’s budget for the period concerned. In Opinion No. 297 (2019) “Budget and priorities of the Council of Europe for the biennium 2020-2021” the Assembly invited the Committee of Ministers “to make a firm commitment to ensure real budget growth for the Council of Europe for five years... It considers that such a decision would be a clear sign of support from the member States to the future Secretary General, giving the Organisation a more stable budgetary framework for the five years of his or her mandate.”

12. The Assembly is one of the two statutory bodies of the Council of Europe. If it is to do its job effectively it also needs additional means, especially after years of cost cutting. The very idea of an ambitious Assembly and Council of Europe is inconceivable without an increase in the budget. For a number of years, the Assembly has made the efforts requested of it to function within the limits of a zero nominal growth budget.

13. In the course of the last ten years the percentage of the ordinary Budget of the Council of Europe allocated to the Assembly shrank from 7.2 % in 2009 to 6.5 % in 2019, and the number of posts in its Secretariat from 94 in 2009 to 84 in 2019. If we want the Assembly to be able to play its part in an ambitious Organisation with clear strategic priorities, we must avoid further budget cuts and push for real budget growth. The additional means allocated to the Council of Europe and its Assembly should not be considered as additional costs but rather as an investment essential to the Organisation’s effectiveness.

14. The functioning of the Assembly includes the following tasks:

• the holding of the ordinary session, divided into four part-sessions (held in January, April, June and September/October each year);
• the meetings of the Standing Committee, held three times a year between the part-sessions of the Assembly;
• meetings held outside the four part-sessions of the Assembly by each of the nine general committees, sub-committees and ad hoc committees of the Assembly or the Bureau;
• committee and sub-committee meetings held elsewhere than in Strasbourg or Paris;
• conferences, symposiums, seminars and parliamentary hearings;
• activities connected with the Assembly’s interparliamentary co-operation programme;
• visits by rapporteurs to prepare reports, including visits in countries under the procedure to monitor the obligations and commitments of member States, or for post-monitoring dialogue;
• election observation;

as well modernising its working methods with a view to becoming a paperless Assembly.

15. Over the next four-year budget period the Assembly will pursue the following aims in the context of its overall mission as defined in its Resolution 2277 (2019) “Role and mission of the Parliamentary Assembly: main challenges for the future”:

• continue to be the political engine of the Organisation, addressing the challenges of human rights, the rule of law and democracy at both the national and regional levels, giving priority to measures to guarantee the smooth functioning of democracies under the rule of law;
• strengthen its political relevance and focus more on those issues where it can offer added value and make a difference;
• improve the commitment of the members of the Assembly while at the same time forging greater interaction between the Assembly and the national parliaments and responding effectively to the proposals they present;
• help the national parliaments to better monitor their countries’ legislation in conformity with the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights (ETS No. 5), and reinforce their capacity to monitor that the judgments of the Court are properly executed;
• strengthen interparliamentary co-operation all over Europe, including with parliaments which have partner for democracy status, the European Parliament and the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

16. The renovation of the Chamber provided for in the investment Plan but deferred sine die because of the Covid-19 pandemic remains a priority and the renovation work should be carried out over this coming four-year period. The security of the members of the Assembly is at stake.

17. The Assembly’s budget should also contribute to the stability of the work done by the political groups, which are considered as the backbone of the Assembly. Discussions should take place in the Assembly on how to develop a flexible approach to the political groups’ budget and guarantee their effective financial viability, to make sure that any creation or disappearance of a political group does not affect the work of the existing groups. In this context, contacts have been made with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe to request an increase of 80 000 € in the Assembly's budget for the political groups.

18. A system should be set in place that would adapt to the number of political groups and cater for the needs of each group in terms of their secretariat and political activities. This would put an end to the unhealthy pressure and incitement to reduce the number of political groups at a time when the emergence of new representative parties in the member States could lead to changes in the structure of the Assembly. Increasing the incentives for members who do not belong to a political group to join or create new political groups, and decreasing the possibility for political groups to find external funding to cover their costs should be a priority if the Assembly is to be able to function correctly.

19. Looking beyond budgetary matters, as a multilateral political platform bringing together parliamentarians from 47 member States, observer States and partners for democracy, it is the role of the Assembly to make sure that these parliamentarians have a greater say in identifying emerging problems and challenges and relaying Europe-wide any promising practices developed at the national level.

20. Naturally the Assembly will have to continue to work on its current priorities, including implementing the European Convention on Human Rights and monitoring the execution of the Court’s judgments in all the member States, but also the social challenges facing Europe’s populations today because of the Covid-19 pandemic. These challenges will no doubt demand more attention from the Council of Europe and its Assembly to make sure that people’s economic rights and social protection continue to be guaranteed.

21. It will also have to ensure that the national parliaments contribute fully to the promotion and implementation of other essential Council of Europe texts to which the Assembly attaches particular importance, in particular the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (CETS No. 210). I deeply regret the decision of the Turkish authorities to withdraw from this convention, especially considering that the pandemic and the resulting confinement of populations have exacerbated the acts of violence perpetrated against women.

22. Generally speaking the work done by the Assembly should help to implement the different cross-sectoral multi-annual strategies proposed by the Secretary General and adopted by the Committee of Ministers, but also the United Nations Sustainable Development Programme, Agenda 2030, as it undertook to do when it adopted Resolution 2271 (2019) and Recommendation 2150 (2019) “Strengthening co-operation with the United Nations in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. The Assembly will continue its efforts to increase its members’ participation in this process so that the sustainable development goals translate into concrete measures at the national level and citizens see their impact on their everyday lives.

23. The Assembly will also have to step up its efforts in the dynamic triangle of its normative, monitoring and implementation/co-operation activities, by improving the synergies between its monitoring procedure and those of other monitoring or advisory bodies or mechanisms in other sectors of the Organisation. Interinstitutional co-operation with the Secretary General and the Committee of Ministers and with the intergovernmental sector as a whole must also be intensified. Every possible avenue must be explored to strengthen the global impact of the Council of Europe in its member States, as well as those with observer and partner for democracy status.

24. Accordingly and taking into account its request for an increase, the Assembly wishes the draft budget for 2022 and 2023 (see appendix for detailed breakdown) amounts to:

• 2022: 15 036 300 € (16 601 500 € including contributions to the Pension budget)
• 2023: 15 022 900 € (16 570 500 € including contributions to the Pension budget)

Breakdown of spending per year:

2022		2023
9 844 300 €	Permanent and temporary staff [(2) including salary and allowances of the Secretary General of the Assembly]	9 830 900 €
4 301 600 €	Activities	4 301 600 €
810 400 € 80 000 €	Allocations to political groups Reserve for a possible new group	810 400 € 80 000 €
15 036 300 €	Total	15 022 900 €

Appendix – Expenditure of the Assembly 2022-2023

Parliamentary democracy – Expenditure of the Assembly	Estimated spending 2022 (€)	Estimated spending 2023 (€)
Functioning of the Assembly
Staff
Remuneration of staff recruited on established posts	9 012 700 €	8 999 300 €
Remuneration and accessory charges of temporary staff	459 100 €	459 100 €
Salary, allowances and social charges of the Secretary General of the Assembly	300 000 €	300 000 €
Placement of national civil servants on secondment	45 000 €	45 000 €
Arrival and departure expenses – Home leave	27 500 €	27 500 €
Contribution to the Pension budget	1 565 200 €	1 547 600 €
Total staff expenditure	11 409 500 €	11 378 500 €
Committees and session
General operating costs
Equipment – telecommunication costs	15 000 €	15 000 €
Official journeys	180 700 €	180 700 €
Representational expenditure, other official travelling expenses of members of the Assembly	140 300 €	140 300 €
Election procedure for ECHR judges	pm	pm
Prepress	25 000 €	25 000 €
Interpretation for Committees	800 000 €	800 000 €
KUDO (hybrid and videoconference)	80 000 €	80 000 €
Translation	410 000 €	410 000 €
Publishing and printing	110 000 €	110 000 €
Outsourced production of documents	0 €	0 €
Fees for expertise	10 000 €	10 000 €
Organisation of ad hoc conferences	45 000 €	45 000 €
Other expenditure not specifically provided for in this vote	7 500 €	7 500 €
Expenses linked to the session
Expenses linked to part-sessions	196 800 €	196 800 €
Interpretation linked to part-sessions	1 440 000 €	1 440 000 €
KUDO (hybrid and videoconference)	40 000 €	40 000 €
Operating and maintenance costs of the electronic voting system	32 400 €	32 400 €
Expenditure of the Presidency
Expenditure pertaining to the Private Office of the President of the Assembly	96 000 €	96 000 €
Official expenses of the President of the Assembly	73 800 €	73 800 €
Political Groups
Allocation to the Assembly’s political groups	810 400 €	810 400 €
Reserve for a possible new group	80 000 €	80 000 €
European prizes
European prizes expenditure	109 000 €	109 000 €

Parliamentary Democracy – Expenditure of the Assembly	Estimated Expenditure 2022 (€)	Estimated expenditure 2023 (€)
Co-operation
Co-operation activities	111 000 €	111 000 €
Official journeys	20 700 €	20 700 €
Interpretation	21 100 €	21 100 €
Observation elections
Observation elections	129 900 €	129 900 €
Official journeys	60 300 €	60 300 €
Communication expenses
Translation	12 800 €	12 800 €
Official journeys	14 700 €	14 700 €
General Management expenditure
Staff missions	50 000 €	50 000 €
Information Technology	84 600 €	84 600 €
Total supplies, services and other operational expenditure	5 192 000 €	5 192 000 €
Total Expenditure of the Parliamentary Assembly	16 601 500 €	16 570 500 €