Ministers' Deputies
Notes on the Agenda

Notes(2000)165 24 February 2000

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700 Meeting, 1 March 2000
11 Administrative Questions

11.1 Rapporteur Group on Administrative and Budgetary Questions
Report of the Chair

Reference documents

CM/Del/Dec(2000)696/11.1
CM(2000)10
GR-AB(2000)CB2
GR-AB(2000)6


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Action

The Deputies are invited to take note of the work of the GR-AB referred to in the synopsis of the meeting of 10 February 2000 (GR-AB(2000)CB2) and accordingly to consider the appended draft decisions.

DRAFT DECISIONS

(CM/Del/Dec(2000)696/11.1, CM(2000)10, GR-AB(2000)CB2, GR-AB(2000)6)

The Deputies, having been informed of the GR-AB's discussion concerning the report of the ad hoc Committee of Experts on Buildings (CAHB) on the building needs of the Council of Europe (CM(2000)10),

1. thanked the CAHB and the Secretariat for work done so far on this subject;

2. noted the climate of financial stringency in many capitals, which means that any request to Governments for substantial new expenditure on buildings would need exhaustive justification;

3. invited the CAHB to carry out a further detailed analysis, without prior assumptions, of the accommodation needs of the Secretariat and to advise, by the end of April 2000:

a. whether the current Secretariat can be accommodated in existing buildings, and if so, how best this can be done (no solution, however innovatory, need be excluded);

b. on the status of the Boecklin site, on the state of the buildings currently on this site, and the costs, if any, of extending their life-span;

c. on the practical value of the EPIC building, in relation to its anticipated cost;

d. if new accommodation is needed, how this can be provided at minimum cost;

e. on the detailed estimated cost of all options the CAHB may propose.

B. Budgetary allocation of the 1999 salary adjustment at the charge of the Pensions Budget

The Deputies authorised the Secretariat, in derogation of the provisions of Article 6 of the Financial Regulations, to charge the cost of the retroactive adjustment of pension benefits for the period January-December 1999 to the 1999 Pensions Budget.

The Deputies took note of the budgetary calendar for 2001 presented by the Secretary General, as it appears at Appendix … to the present volume of Decisions. <see Appendix to document GR-AB(2000)6>