V. whereas the European political parties spend on average almost half of their budgets on centralised administration (staff, rent, etc.) and another quarter on meetings of (statutory and non-statutory) party bodies, the rest being spent on election campaigns and support for affiliated organisations,

V. whereas the European political parties spend on average almost half of their budgets on centralised administration (staff, rent, etc.) and another quarter on meetings of (statutory and non-statutory) party bodies, the rest being spent on election campaigns and support for affiliated organisations,

Today, the European Commission decided that the transfer of pension obligations for Belgacom's statutory employees to the Belgian State does not involve State aid.

In that connection, it should be borne in mind that, by excluding the application of Article 283 EC which gives the Council the authority to lay down the provisions of the Staff Regulations of Officials and the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Communities, the Statute of the EIB confers on it functional autonomy as regards the arrangements applying to its staff, which it exercises in opting for a contractual system rather than a system governed by public service regulations, so that the provisions of the Staff Regulations cannot be applied as such to employment relationships between the EIB and its staff.

carry out a restructuring of personnel using more flexible, ad hoc recruitment rules, enabling experienced staff to be taken on and more responsibility to be given to staff not covered by the staff regulations,

- payments in respect of retirement pensions for permanent staff, and other employers' payments (family allowances, employers' health insurance contributions, accident insurance premiums, contributions to pension schemes for staff other than permanent staff, etc.);