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BackLast week, the Committee on Budgets of the European Parliament froze part of the budget for expert groups of the EU Commission. The reason for this lies above all in the imbalanced composition of these external advisory committees. In doing so, the European Parliament follows the demand of AK and ÖGB to guarantee more internal transparency and less dominance of Big Business within the expert groups.
Funds were already frozen in 2011
As early as November 2011, the European Parliament had frozen the budget for the Commission’s groups of experts due to widespread abuse. A year later, the funds were released again; however, only under the condition that concrete terms for improvement would be fulfilled. As a result, the Commission had to promise not only to staff groups of experts in a more balanced manner and to put vacancies out to tender; it also had to guarantee more transparency with regard to what went on in the meetings.
Commission would not change its appointment practice
However, as was demonstrated by the study “A year of broken promises”, which had been published by AK, ÖGB and Alter-EU in 2013, the situation a year after the release of funds was still unchanged and enterprise-related experts continued to dominate important advisory groups. It was also due to the constant pressure of AK, trade unions and lobby transparency groups that European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly initiated an investigation into the groups of experts and carried out a public consultation on this subject.
AK and ÖGB maintained pressure on Commission
Within the scope of a discussion event in the Permanent Representation of Austria to the EU in Brussels, AK and ÖGB were able to discuss the subject matter in from of a broad audience public. A joint letter of European trade unions and NGOs was also sent to the MEPs in the Committee on Budgets, in which we firmly outlined our position in respect of freezing the budget for the expert groups again.
Clear political scolding
The decision to freeze the budget is very rare in this form and shows how bad the situation is with regard to filling positions in the expert groups. This “budget freeze” can be regarded as a clear political scolding, which is even more effective because it is supported by a broad majority of Social Democrats, Greens, Left, Liberals and Conservatives. The resolution of the Committee on Budgets has still to be passed in the plenum, however, due to the broad support this should amount to nothing more than a pro forma matter.
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Study of AK, ÖGB and Alter-EU: „A Year of Broken Promises“As early as November 2011, the European Parliament had frozen the budget for the Commission’s groups of experts due to widespread abuse. A year later, the funds were released again; however, only under the condition that concrete terms for improvement would be fulfilled. As a result, the Commission had to promise not only to staff groups of experts in a more balanced manner and to put vacancies out to tender; it also had to guarantee more transparency with regard to what went on in the meetings.
Commission would not change its appointment practice
However, as was demonstrated by the study “A year of broken promises”, which had been published by AK, ÖGB and Alter-EU in 2013, the situation a year after the release of funds was still unchanged and enterprise-related experts continued to dominate important advisory groups. It was also due to the constant pressure of AK, trade unions and lobby transparency groups that European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly initiated an investigation into the groups of experts and carried out a public consultation on this subject.
AK and ÖGB maintained pressure on Commission
Within the scope of a discussion event in the Permanent Representation of Austria to the EU in Brussels, AK and ÖGB were able to discuss the subject matter in from of a broad audience public. A joint letter of European trade unions and NGOs was also sent to the MEPs in the Committee on Budgets, in which we firmly outlined our position in respect of freezing the budget for the expert groups again.
Clear political scolding
The decision to freeze the budget is very rare in this form and shows how bad the situation is with regard to filling positions in the expert groups. This “budget freeze” can be regarded as a clear political scolding, which is even more effective because it is supported by a broad majority of Social Democrats, Greens, Left, Liberals and Conservatives. The resolution of the Committee on Budgets has still to be passed in the plenum, however, due to the broad support this should amount to nothing more than a pro forma matter.
External Links: