Changes from plenary report to adopted text

41. Recalls the changes in Parliament’s Rules of Procedure on 20 December 2020 allowing for remote voting and the fact that voting remotely in committee is currently not allowed unless the President establishes the existence of extraordinary circumstances; reiterates its request to the Bureau, adopted at Plenary level on several occasions, to enable Members to exercise their right to vote remotely while benefiting from maternity or paternity leave, during a long term illness or in cases of force majeure, thus capitalising on the great administrative effort and financial investment that Parliament has made in technical solutions to allow remote voting;

42. Notes that DG PRES managed to address needs that arose after the establishment of the 2022 estimates, despite the volatile sanitary situation and its impact on the level of parliamentary activity; remarks that it also generated a surplus that could be used to finance the needs of other Directorates-General arising from the high inflation in 2022;

43. Recalls that according to the Treaty on European Union, and in particular Protocol No 6 annexed to the Treaties, Parliament shall have its seat in Strasbourg, where the 12 periods of monthly plenary sessions, including the budget session, shall be held; underlines that the suspension of sessions in Strasbourg and remote participation are linked to the exceptional circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic; recalls that any change to the Treaties requires the unanimity of the Member States; recalls the support by the vast majority of Parliament for a single seat to ensure efficient spending of Union taxpayers’ money and to assume its institutional responsibility to reduce its carbon footprint; notes that permanent changes would require a Treaty change;

44. Notes that the suspension of Strasbourg part-sessions during the Covid-19 pandemic contributed to total savings of EUR 26 260 608 according to Parliament’s Secretariat, while also significantly reducing Parliament’s carbon footprint; highlights that the Court estimates that “the end of moving from Strasbourg to Brussels could generate annual savings of EUR 114 million plus a one-off saving of EUR 616 million if the Strasbourg buildings are successfully divested, or a one-off cost of EUR 40 million if they are not”; considers that given the current climate crisis, retaining the Strasbourg seat is irresponsible; calls on the Council to take Parliament’s position into account and act on it as a matter of urgency;

Directorate-General for Communication

45. Recalls that the Directorate-General for Communication (DG COMM) is a multi-site Directorate-General, with staff located in Brussels, Strasbourg and the Liaison Offices in each of the 27 Member States, as well as in London, Washington D.C. (until 1 November 2022 when the two EPLOs were transferred to the new Directorate-General for Parliamentary Democracy Partnerships), and the Jean Monnet House in Bazoches (France);

46. Notes that DG COMM’s key tasks are to collaborate with the media, to inform, explain and enhance the visibility of Parliament’s work, to increase awareness of Parliament among citizens, stakeholders and opinion leaders through the European Parliament Liaison Offices (EPLOs) located in the Member States, to foster interaction with citizens through enhanced visitor projects, events and information campaigns and its presence on social media, and to provide expertise to Members and political groups on topics such as media intelligence and public opinion monitoring; and to combat disinformation by all means, particularly in the lead-up to elections;

48. Notes that DG COMM’s final appropriations amounted to EUR 121 235 650 in 2022, representing 5,6 % of Parliament’s budget; highlights that, of that amount, a total of EUR 121 146 177 was committed; welcomes the high use of appropriations;

49. Notes the complexity of activities of the DG COMM; notes the need to increase the visibility of the work of Parliament and to increase citizens’ trust in institution of the Parliament, which would require an increase in the budget for DG COMM;

50. Highlights that during the first four months of 2022, DG COMM’s budgetary implementation was still impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular with respect to the visitor groups and visitor facilities; remarks that a large part of the surpluses caused by the suspension of activities was re-allocated to other Parliament services to fund other priorities and to tackle the effect of inflation on staff expenditure; notes that several activities of DG COMM, such as audio-visual services, were also severely impacted by substantial price increases;

51. Notes that, on 10 March 2022, the President issued a revised decision on ‘Security measures to limit the spread of COVID-19’ which meant physical presence for several activities was restored, including re-admitting visitor groups; welcomes the decision to increase the paid financial contributions for travel, accommodation, meals and minor local expenses by 10 % for the sponsored visitor groups in 2022; calls on the Bureau to reverse its decision to reduce the annual quota of sponsored visitors per member from 110 to 100 and from 55 to 50 for election years; highlights that the decision to carry over the unused quota from 2020 to 2022, 2023 and 2024 remained unchanged; insists to the Bureau that APAs be eliminated from the list of permitted heads of groups, leaving only a member of the sponsored group or a professional, such as paying agents or travel agencies, to take up the role, in order to prevent APAs from being compelled to take on the financial responsibility, which can amount to substantial sums of money;

52. Notes that following the energy crisis in the Union, prices for travel and meals have increased considerably; takes note of the planned revision of the rules with regard to the payment of subsidies to sponsored visitors groups;

53. Takes note that the progressive withdrawal of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in Member States enabled EPLOs to resume operating under normal conditions with the systematic addition of hybrid elements; highlights that a series of activities connected to the European Year of Youth were organised in EPLOs; notes that in Member States, Members are systematically invited to events and activities with media, stakeholders, civil society organisations and the youth community; notes that Liaison Offices also promote the involvement of Members in third party events and activities;

54. Notes that Members were given the opportunity to take part in plenary debates from the EPLOs in their Member States of election as a result of the exceptional measures put in place during the pandemic, this having been facilitated by the actions of DG COMM; welcomes the increased efforts made by DG COMM to make use of new technologies to facilitate the work of Members during the COVID-19 pandemic; acknowledges that the remote access for national media to the communication activities of Parliament has opened up ways to interact with Union citizens;

55. Takes note that, in 2022, DG COMM finished most of its preparatory work ahead of the 2024 European elections; notes that, in 2022, Parliament’s Bureau approved the communication strategy for the 2024 elections; notes that a pan-European call for proposals was launched in mid-2022 and resulted in the award of 19 grants, financing capacity building actions and/or citizen-engagement activities in support of the European elections;

Directorate-General for Personnel

60. Recalls that the Directorate-General for Personnel (DG PERS) is responsible for the appropriate and efficient management of human resources within Parliament and ensures that Members are supported by a highly skilled workforce to enable them to duly fulfil their mandate;

61. Notes that DG PERS’s final appropriations amounted to EUR 1 090 141 584 in 2022, representing 50,4% of Parliament’s budget; highlights that, of that amount, a total of EUR 1 087 939 413 was committed; welcomes the high use of appropriations;

62. Notes that, in 2022, Parliament recruited fewer officials from competitions organised by the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) (48 officials) than from Parliament-run internal and open competitions (139 officials); regrets that EPSO encountered various problems with the proctoring of online tests and the language regime of competitions; acknowledges the general difficulties encountered by DG PERS and other DGs in attracting and retaining talent, which has an impact on the performance of Parliament’s workforce; calls for more efficient, better targeted and shorter selection procedures that would result in increasing the attractiveness of Parliament as an employer and allow the Directorates-General to speedily recruit the specialist profiles needed to support their work;

63. Highlights that ensuring a fair geographical balance is an important part of creating a truly European public service, remarks that over the years, Parliament has taken a number of measures in that respect; notes that there is still room for improvement; notes that the Bureau has created the legal framework for the organisation of nationality-specific competitions and decided to organise the first of such competitions; highlights that competitions should always be based on professional training of the person, regardless of age, gender, faith;

64. Recalls that, on 13 January 2020, the Bureau approved new and more ambitious targets for gender balance at the senior and middle management levels of Parliament’s administration to be achieved by 2024, meaning that women should hold 50% of head of units posts, 50% of director posts and 40% of director-general posts; recalls that a gender action plan for the years 2021-2022 aimed at facilitating the implementation of these targets, as well as comprehensively mainstreaming gender into all activities of Parliament, was subsequently developed and approved by the Bureau on 6 July 2020; notes that in 2022, women held 28,6 % of director-general posts, welcomes the fact that 50,8 % of director posts, and 43,5 % of head of unit posts were held by women;

65. Acknowledges that several Directorates-General have expressed their concerns about attracting talent and specialised profiles that are essential to carry out Parliament’s core business; notes that only services that are essential may be considered for a potential internalisation exercise; highlights that some services are carried out by external service providers due to their specific nature which does not meet the conditions for internalisation; is therefore of the opinion that the services not meeting these conditions should not be considered for internalisation by the governing bodies;

66. Welcomes the work done by DG PERS with accredited parliamentary assistants (APAs); highlights that DG PERS’ Infodesk organised 85 information sessions for officials, temporary agents and contract agents as well as for APAs, in addition to six webinars on retirement, and 14 information sessions for new Members’ trainees; welcomes the work of the APA’s Front Office Unit in relation to recruitment and management of APA contracts and acting as point of contact for all related questions and procedures; notes that this unit replied to 12 405 information requests, including recruitments, contract modifications, renewals, resignations and terminations; notes with satisfaction that 100 % of contracts for APAs were produced within 10 working days;

67. Notes with satisfaction that, as requested in the 2021 discharge resolution, at its meeting of 10 July 2023, the Bureau requested to introduce the possibility for a negotiated termination of contract between a Member and their APA, for cases where it is necessary to terminate the contract of an APA for reasons other than a loss of trust;

Directorate-General for Infrastructure and Logistics

81. Recalls that the Directorate-General for Infrastructure and Logistics (DG INLO) manages facilities covering 1,3 million m2 in Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg, as well as the Liaison Offices and Europa Experience facilities in the Member States; notes that DG INLO also provides catering and transport, and manages and equips Parliament’s office and meeting spaces; notes that by 31 December 2022, there were 652 staff members, of which 267 were officials, 47 temporary staff and 338 contract staff;

82. Notes that DG INLO’s final appropriations amounted to EUR 271 191 093 in 2022, representing 12,5 % of Parliament’s budget; highlights that, of that amount, a total of EUR 269 189 287 was committed; welcomes the high use of appropriations; takes note that budget items where the consumption rate was lower than 95 % were in the areas of mobility, an unsuccessful call for tender for the purchase of vehicles, and lower than expected activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in lower internal meeting expenditure;

83. Acknowledges that Parliament’s ‘Building Strategy beyond 2019’ provides a coherent framework for decisions and contributes to consolidating Parliament’s real estate portfolio while adapting facilities to the evolution of meeting patterns, going local and closer to citizens through the gradual roll-out of Europa Experience Centres, enhancing security for Parliament’s buildings, and achieving the interconnection of its central buildings; notes that the majority of the policies and actions referred to in the current Building Strategy are either completed or well under way;

84. Emphasises the need for an effective and results-oriented facility management of Parliament’s buildings; expresses its satisfaction with the 2022 building assessment results, as communicated to the Bureau in June 2022 in the form of building passports, where the Energy Performance Indoor Environment Quality Retrofit (EPIQR) index score was only 0,1, thus testifying to their overall excellent condition and bearing witness to effective preventive and corrective maintenance and upkeep programming by Parliament’s competent services in the framework of the Integrated Facility Management Strategy focusing on the life cycle management of Parliament’s building portfolio, adopted by the Bureau on 8 March 2021;

85. Welcomes DG INLO’s commitment to putting in place environmentally sustainable solutions; notes that, in 2022, Parliament generated over 19 % of its own energy from renewable sources; welcomes the conduction of a study on on-site electricity production in Strasbourg in 2022 and the subsequent and ongoing implementation of 1 400 m2 of photovoltaic panels on the PFLIMLIN, DE MADARIAGA, and CHURCHILL buildings. Stresses that Parliament could share this energy with the city of Strasbourg when Parliament’s premises are mostly empty; calls on the Bureau to also consider renting the roofs’ surfaces to external users for the installation of solar panels and thereby use it as an additional source of income for Parliament;

86. Notes the inauguration of the East Wing of the ADENAUER building in Luxembourg on 10 May 2022, which along with the putting into service of the West Wing after the completion of its construction in 2024 will provide a single building to house all Parliament services located in Luxembourg in one place;

87. Takes note of the opening of the 15 visitor seminar rooms, a multi-purpose agora and a Sakharov Lounge in the ZWEIG building which will contribute to an enhanced visitor experience in the European Parliament in Brussels; notes the completion of the passageway connecting the ZWEIG building with the buildings of the Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee;

88. Welcomes Parliament’s efforts to encourage staff to use sustainable means of transport for commuting by putting an increased number of traditional and electric bicycles at their disposal free of charge and by reimbursing part of the cost of public transport tickets in exchange for limiting access to the car park; welcomes the new scheme offering a 90% price reduction for the Brussels seasonal public transport tickets which has led to an 26,57%increase of staff using a seasonal ticket co-funded by the Parliament;

89. Welcomes the possibility for staff to use rent standard and electric bikes during the part-time sessions in Strasbourg; welcomes the expansion of the bicycle fleet; regrets that in practice the bikes are fully booked out days in advance; calls on Parliament to examine the possibility for offering more rental bikes in Strasbourg and extending the timeframes for their pick-up to meet the demand by Members and staff and contribute to enhancing sustainable mobility;

90. Welcomes that the percentage of zero-emission or plug-in hybrid cars in the people transport service fleet has increased from 81% in 2021 to 97% in 2022;