Reference date for determining the budgetary allocation to the Assembly’s political groups and the allocation of Committee chairmanships, of seats on the Monitoring Committee and establishing the order of speakers in debates

Parliamentary Assembly
Assembl�e parlementaire

Reference date for determining the budgetary allocation to the Assembly’s political groups and the allocation of Committee chairmanships, of seats on the Monitoring Committee and establishing the order of speakers in debates

Doc. 10066
9 February 2004

Report
Committee on Rules of Procedure and Immunities
Rapporteur: Mr. Peter Mišš�k, Slovakia, Group of the European People’s Party

For debate in the Standing Committee — see Rule 15 of the Rules of Procedure

Summary

The report proposes to move that reference date from 31 March to 30 June of the previous year to allow a more precise assessment of the number of members of political groups.

I.          Draft resolution [Link to the adopted text]

1.         The Parliamentary Assembly notes that the reference date for establishing the number of members of the Parliamentary Assembly’s political groups necessary for the final apportionment of their annual budgetary allocation is currently 31 March of the previous year. This date was fixed by the Bureau on 26 June 1995 and revised on 29 June 2001.

2.         The allocation of chairmanships of the Assembly’s general committees and of the seats on the Monitoring Committee and the establishment of the order of speakers in debates are also based on the membership of the political groups as on 31 March of the previous year (Bureau decision of 29 June 2001).

3.         The Assembly considers that, for the sake of more transparency this reference date should be explicitly fixed in its Rules of Procedure. Furthermore, the Assembly considers that it should be changed from 31 March to 30 June. This date would be closer to the opening of the Assembly’s first part-session in the next calendar year and would therefore better reflect the real strength of the political groups.

4.         Consequently, the Assembly decides to add after Rule 17.5 of its Rules of Procedure the following new paragraph:

“17.6 For each ordinary session the date of 30 June of the previous year will serve as a reference date to fix the number of members of each political group necessary for calculating their budgetary allocation, the allocation of committee chairmanships and of the seats on the Monitoring Committee and establishing the order of speakers in debates.”

5.         It also decides that this provision shall enter into force on 1 January 2005.

II.         Explanatory statement by Mr Mišš�k, Rapporteur

1.       The motion for a resolution tabled by Mr E�rsi and others rightly proposed to add a new paragraph to Rule 17 of he Rules of Procedure which is dealing with political groups.

2.       Setting a fixed date and mentioning it explicitly in the Rules of Procedure will lead to greater transparency. In such a way members will be better aware of the importance of the reference date for establishing the strength of the Assembly's political groups. This reference date is the basis for :

          - calculating the budgetary allocation to the political groups;

          - allocating committee chairmanships;

          - the distribution of seats in the Assembly's Monitoring Committee;

          - establishing the order of speakers in debates.

3.         Moving the date from 31 March to 30 June of the previous year will allow a more precise assessment of the number of members of political groups since this date is closer to the opening of the Assembly’s first part-session in the following year. This change will also clear up the situation and will better reflect the real strength of individual political groups.

4.         The new provision shall enter into force on 1 January 2005.

Committee responsible for the report: Committee on Rules of Procedure and Immunities

Reference to committee: Doc. 9860, Reference 2858 of 8.9.2003

Draft resolution adopted by the committee on 28 January 2004

Members of the committee : Mr Holovaty, (Chairperson), MM.Magnusson, Manzella, Pourgourides, (Vice-Chairpersons), MM. Ak�am, Alibeyli, Bernik, Bottomley, Budisin, Calmes, Collavini, Mrs Doktorowicz, MM. Dule, Frankenhauser, Mrs Garsdal, MM. Gedei, Gligoric, Gonzi, Mrs Grosskost, MM. Himmer, H�fer, Mrs J��teenm�ki, MM. Jung Armand, Jurgens, Kroupa, Maissen, Mrs Mintas-Hodak, MM. Mišš�k (alternate: Mrs Bauer), Monsen, Morales Monteiro, Olteanu, Pentchev, Pereira Coelho, Mrs P�tursd�ttir, MM. Rustamyan, S�laridze, Sharandin, Sileikis (alternate: Mr Cekuolis), Stepaniuc, Taliadouros, Vanhecke, Vis, Wright, Zernovski.

N.B. The names of members who took part in the vote are printed in italics.

Secretary of the committee: Mr Heinrich.