MEPs wield budget stick to direct policy

Date: 02/05/1996

By Rory Watson

IN the coming weeks, MEPs are expected to unblock an extra 17 million ecu needed to meet the running costs of EU delegations around the world. The move comes hot on the heels of last month's decision by the European Parliament to release a further 23 million ecu this year for pan-European public information campaigns.

Both incidents highlight the increasing use being made by MEPs of their budgetary powers to influence the direction of Union policy. Over the past seven years, they have blocked 5.5 billion ecu of funding, only releasing the money once they were satisfied that the changes they had demanded had been implemented.

Parliamentarians' power over the EU's purse-strings has given them crucial influence over the Commission, which has been faced with a stark choice between following MEPs' wishes or not having enough money to fund programmes and activities.

This was brought home to Commission President Jacques Santer and his colleagues late last year when the Parliament threatened to freeze the Commissioners' travel expenses of 1.7 million ecu this year unless it was given full details of any outside financial interests they might have. The pressure led to a new five-point code of conduct on Commissioners' behaviour.

The information campaign funds were only released after the Commission agreed to changes proposed by MEPs in the operation of the programmes.

Similarly, it has undertaken to carry out the first comprehensive overview of its external delegations to ensure the network is efficently managed and its limited resources properly deployed.

The disputed funds are part of the 629 million ecu which MEPs agreed last December to put in a special reserve section of this year's 85-billion-ecu budget.

“The Parliament has shown through the 1996 budget that it has been focusing on specific areas where it has put funds in reserve and laid down clear conditions for their release. These conditions must be met each time before the funds can be unblocked. It is a matter of principle,” explains British Conservative MEP James Elles who steered the Union's annual budget through the Parliament last year.

Supporters of the device argue that it is leading to better financial management in the EU, introducing greater transparency to activities, and establishing clearer policy priorities.

Dutch Liberal MEP Laurens Brinkhorst, the Parliament's rapporteur on the 1997 budget, has already indicated that he believes the “selective use of the reserve will be very helpful” in achieving the specific policy priorities sought by the Parliament.

However, some Commission officials complain that such tactics unnecessarily complicate their work and introduce financial uncertainty into the implementation of Union programmes. Even some MEPs believe the device should be used more selectively.

But new research carried out by the Parliament has revealed that the volume of funds temporarily frozen each year is not as high as critics claim. Despite the high-profile nature of some of the issues involved, less than 1&percent; of the 1996 budget was blocked by MEPs. The figure has varied over the past seven years between 339 million ecu (equivalent to 0.5&percent; of the budget) in 1992 and 2.18 billion ecu (3&percent; of expenditure) two years later.

But 1994 was an exceptional year, as MEPs used their powers to block large amounts of Phare and Tacis spending amidst widespread concern over the way the funds were being handled.

The money was later released after the then External Affairs Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan overhauled both aid programmes by introducing tighter financial controls.

The Parliament's pressure is not aimed only at the Commission. It has also used its budgetary powers to challenge decisions taken by member states.

MEPs are, for example, continuing to block the extra 200 million ecu for the Mediterranean which Union leaders agreed at last June's European summit in Cannes. Euro MPs argue that existing time constraints mean there is no way the money could be spent this year.