Brussels, 22/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - In its adoption, in Brussels on Tuesday 22 September, of the second report by Ryszard Czarnecki (ECR, Poland) regarding the discharge of the execution of the 2013 budget, the committee on budgetary control of the European Parliament recommended denying discharge to the secretary general of the Council on the execution of the budget of the European Council and of the Council of the EU for the financial year 2013.
This comes as no surprise and is certainly not news. The EPP has refused to sign off the operating expenditure of the Council every year since 2009. The budgetary control committee of the EP “regrets the problems it has systematically encountered so far with the discharge procedures, which can be put down to a lack of cooperation on part of the Council”. It regrets the fact that the Council has provided no explanation for its increasing level of underspending and carry-overs of commitments in its 2013 budget. It stresses that the EP asked the Council to provide it with progress reports on building projects and the detailed ventilation of expenditure committed to date. The Council has been asked to provide a detailed written explanation of the total amount of appropriations used to purchase the building 'Residence Palace', the budget items from which those appropriations were drawn, the instalments already paid and those still to be paid.
Additionally, the budgetary control committee insists that the expenditure of the Council must be scrutinised in the same way as that of other institutions. It emphasises the fact that the EP has a prerogative to grant discharge, pursuant to articles 316, 317, 319 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, in line with current interpretation and practice, namely to grant discharge to each heading of the budget individually in order to maintain transparency and democratic accountability towards Union taxpayers.
Agencies. The EP budgetary control committee recommends that discharge be granted to the director of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology on the execution of the Institute's budget for the financial year 2013. It states that progress has been made since the EP's decision in April of this year to postpone the granting of discharge on the 2013 budget for this agency. The MEPs recognise that the Institute has remedied the problems observed in the quality of the audit certificates (relating to subsidy operations) and has improved its procedures for the award of public procurement contracts since 2013. This Budapest-based agency has tightened up its budgetary execution planning and monitoring procedures. Lastly, it recognises that the Institute has taken steps to limit its high staff turnover (the staff turnover has dropped from 20-25% over the period 2012-2013 to 12% in 2014).
The budgetary control committee recommends granting discharge to the executive director of the joint technology initiative ECSEL on the execution of the budget of the joint company Artemis for the 2013 financial year. It also grants discharge to the executive director of the joint initiative ECSEL on the execution of the budget of the joint company ENIAC for the 2013 financial year.
The EP will vote on the reports regarding discharge at the end of October. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)