Current budget (17 months)
Annex: The Minister's detailed breakdown and
analysis of the budget
"The budget was initially calculated at €530,000.
When compared like-for-like with last year's 17 month budget,
this represented a 15% increase. The UK was the only EU Member
State pushing for reductions in this budget, and was therefore
the Member State instrumental in driving down costs. The re-published
budget now stands at €506,500, which represents a saving
of €23,500 and reduces the increase on last year's budget
to 10%.
"Some of the increase in costs is accounted
for by the increase in office contributions, by €13,000.
This increase has been unavoidable due to the separate horizontal
agreement in Brussels on IT costs shared between EU Special Representatives
and EU Delegations overseas, which created set costs for terrestrial
and satellite communications connections. As EU Special Representative
MEPP requires a satellite connection in Jerusalem, the costs have
increased in line with the horizontal agreement.
"There have also been a number of additional
costs, the case for which was difficult to reject. These include
an increase of €6000 for Family costs, as the Commission
were not aware (as they ought to have been) that the EU Special
Representative had a family when calculating last year's budget;
an increase in the wage of the local advisor in Brussels, in line
with Financial Regulations based on her experience; and an increase
in costs of smaller items such as the liability insurance.
"However, the majority of the increase was accounted
for by the additional political advisor, costing €23,500.
Originally, the Commission had also increased the budget significantly
for EU Special Representative missions to European capitals, however
the UK pushed back strongly on these increases. We argued that
last year we had only agreed to an additional political advisor
if the costs were paid for within existing budgets. There was
significant resistance to cancelling the additional political
advisor, so the UK argued that we would require cost reductions
elsewhere; in particular we highlighted the increased cost of
EU Special Representative missions to other European capitals.
"This resulted in the Commission agreeing a
reduction in the mission costs of €20,000. There was also
agreement by the Commission that Contingencies would be reduced
by a further €2350. The total reduction in costs secured
by the UK equates to €23,500.
"ITEMISED BREAKDOWN OF COSTS:
| Budget heading
|
| Proposed budget (six months)
|
| 1. Personnel costs | 744,631.20
| 331,220.06 |
| 2. Missions | 291,895
| 99,291 |
| 3. Running expenditure | 186,150
| 58,935 |
| 4. Capital expenditure | 18,000
| 2,750 |
| 5. Representation | 15,300
| 5,400 |
| Sub-total (1-5) | 1,255,976.20
| 497,596.06 |
| Contingencies | 44,023.80
| 8,903.94 |
| Total | 1,300,000
| 506,500 |
|
