Strasbourg, 27/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - In its adoption, in Strasbourg on Tuesday 27 October, of the second report by Ryszard Czarnecki (ECR, Poland) on discharge for the execution of the 2013 budget of the EU, the European Parliament has decided to withhold its discharge from 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.
Every year since 2009, the EP has refused to sign off the operating expenditure of the Council. The EP “regrets the difficulties it has systematically encountered in the discharge procedures and which can be put down to a lack of cooperation on the part of the Council”. It regrets the fact that this institution has provided no explanations as to the progression of the under-use of credits and carryovers of commitments in its 2013 budget. It stresses that it has invited the Council to provide it with reports on the progress of its construction project and a detailed breakdown of expenses engaged to date. The Council has been requested to provide a written explanation detailing the total amount of credits used to purchase the Residence Palace building, the budgetary posts from which this money has been taken, the repayments made to date and the repayments which remain outstanding.
The EP further stresses that the expenditure of the Council must be verified in the same way as those of all of the other institutions.
Agencies. The EP decided to grant discharge 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 takes the view that progress has been made since the EP decided in April to postpone the granting of discharge on this agency's 2013 budget. The MEPs acknowledge that the Institute has remedied the shortcomings noted in the quality of its audit certificates (on subsidy operations) and has improved its procedures for the award of tendering contracts since 2013. This agency, which is based in Budapest, has tightened up its budgetary execution planning and monitoring procedures. The EP recognises that the Institute has taken steps to tackle its high staff turnover (which has fallen from 20-25% over the period 2012-2013 to 12% in 2014). Lastly, the EP granted discharge to the Executive Director of the joint enterprise ECSEL on the execution of the budget of the joint undertaking Artemis for the financial year 2013. It also grants discharge to the Executive Director of ECSEL on the execution of the budget of the joint undertaking ENIAC for 2013. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)