8. Considers that the Joint Bureau and Committee on Budgets Working Group on the Parliament budget could, on the basis the work it began in 2012, play a useful role in this reform, by identifying possible savings and reflecting on and presenting to the Committee on Budgets ideas for improving efficiency; notes that the working group has already largely achieved the objectives established for it at the end of 2011, in particular as regards the reduction of travel expenses; ...[+++] in the light of the Group’s preliminary findings based, inter alia, on comparative studies of the European Parliament’s budget with the budgets of the US Congress and a sample of Member States’ parliaments, encourages the continuation of its work and the development of a corresponding action plan, to be presented to both the Committee on Budgets and the Bureau for consideration in the 2014 Parliament budget process; recalls its resolution of 23 October 2012 in which it expressed the expectation that these studies will ‘create long-term savings in the Parliament’s budget and present ideas for improving efficiency in 2013 and the following years’; notes that the European Parliament has lower overall spending per inhabitant than comparable Member State parliaments and the US Congress; notes further that there is a need to strengthen the scrutiny role of Parliament and to provide it with better-targeted research support so that it is able to fulfil its role in democratic representation;

1. Additional rules of a procedural nature necessary for the efficient processing of the appeals and rules necessary for the organisation of the work of the Board of Appeal, including rules concerning the allocation of cases between members, may be laid down in accordance with the procedure set out in paragraph 3.

is concerned by recent criticism of the work of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; calls on the EU Member States to support the Office, especially in the Fifth Committee of the General Assembly, so as to ensure that there is no interference with the independence of the Office and that the Office is granted all the financial resources needed to enable it to carry out its mandate; calls on EU Member States to closely monitor the current procedure for the appointment of the new High Commissioner, given that the mandate of the previous incumbent, Louise Arbor, expired in June 2008,

In November 1988 the Enlarged Bureau considered the results of the intergroup working party's activities and the subsequent procedure to be followed thereafter.

From left to right: Mr. Kevin Vickers, Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of Commons; Mr. André Gagnon, Clerk Assistant, Committees and Legislative Services Directorate; Mr. Barry Devolin, Deputy Chair of Committees of the Whole; The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada; The Most Honourable Portia Simpson Miller, O.N., M.P., Prime Minister of Jamaica; The Honourable Marjory LeBreton, Leader of the Government in the Senate; Mr. Charles Robert, Principal Clerk, Chamber Operations and Procedure Office; and, Mr. Kevin MacLeod, Usher of ...[+++]the Black Rod.

In attendance: Laura Barnett and Marcia Jones, Analysts, Parliamentary Information and Research Service, Library of Parliament; Till Heyde, Chamber Operations Clerk, Chamber Operations and Procedure Office.