Brussels, 23/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - In its adoption of the second report by Tamás Deutsch (EPP, Hungary) on Monday 22 September, the budgetary control committee of the European Parliament recommended that the EP refuse to grant discharge to the Secretary General of the Council on the execution of the budget of the European Council and the Council of Ministers for the financial year 2012. The European Parliament will debate and vote on this dossier in October.
In April 2014, the European Parliament decided to postpone the granting of its discharge on the 2012 budget of the European Council and the Council of Ministers and on the 2012 budget of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC).
In its vote on Monday, the budgetary control committee decided to grant discharge to the management committee of BEREC on the execution of its budget for 2012, on the strength of progress made.
As regards the budget of the Council, the budget committee has refused to sign it off. The budgetary control committee regrets the systematic problems it has faced so far in the discharge procedures, which it puts down to the Council's lack of cooperation. It also shares the opinion of the Court of Auditors that the authorising officers of the European Council and Council of Ministers should improve the conception, coordination and application of the procedures for awarding contracts, by means of appropriate controls and better guidelines. Additionally, the EP has requested information in vain about the costs of the new “Europa” building of the European Council and the modernisation work on the “Résidence Palace”.
The EP argues that the Parliament and Council could start by defining a modus vivendi procedure, featuring a list of documents to be exchanged in order to exercise their respective roles in the discharge procedure. The EP has refused to grant discharge on the Council's budget every year since 2011. (LC)