Formulating the Management Plan. The way that the 2010 version of the Management Plan was formulated was determined by a series of processes within the DG and within the European Commission more generally. These processes are important at a pragmatic level, since they determine in a significant way the extent to which the various elements of the MP can be changed. At the same time, it should be recognised that the processes are themselves evolving and there is therefore a question of whether or not the MP is responding sufficiently to the changing demands on it from outside of the DG. Overall Commission Guidelines As has been said, the Management Plan has a significant place in communicating the policy aims of the DG within the context of the policy of the Commission as a whole. In an important sense, therefore, the starting point for the MP is the Commission’s overall policy guidance. Currently, this takes the form of the Political Guidelines set out at the beginning of the Commission’s term of office, which together with the key strategy statement on Europe 2020 provides the overall orientation, plus the more detailed Commission Work Programme (CWP). The CWP is revised annually and provides a statement of the Commission’s main policy priorities and its approach to the main issues. It is supported by a detailed listing of all the main Commission initiatives, including proposed legislation (with a particular section on the rolling programme of legislative simplification) and planned Communications, Green Papers, Strategy Statements, Staff Working Papers and reports, including evaluation reports. For the first time in 2010, the CWP provided a multiannual perspective on the work that the Commission plans to undertake in the coming years, particularly in the form of an indicative list of important initiatives for the years 2010-2014. The idea is that the multiannual strand will be adapted in the annual updates of the Work Programme. This longer term perspective is an interesting development, illustrating a tendency for the Commission to present a longer term view of its policy commitments. Budgetary Features Nonetheless, the annual budgetary cycle remains and is another important determinant of the shape of the Management Plan. In particular, the annual formulation of the Draft Budget makes use of the stated objectives of the MP and also requires that the more detailed ‘Specific Objectives’ in the Plan relate directly to the DG’s ‘activities’, as defined in the Commission’s Activity-Based Bu...
