Brussels, 28/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - In Brussels on Thursday 28 April, the European Parliament decided to postpone its decision on granting discharge for the execution of the 2014 budgets of three European programmes (Artemis, ENIAC and ITER).
It also decided to postpone its decision regarding the accounts of the Council and of the European Council and to grant discharge on the execution of the general 2014 budget managed by the European Commission. The Parliament will take a final decision in October 2016 on the postponed discharges.
General budget 2014. In its adoption (504 votes in favour, 144 against and 3 abstentions) of the report by Martina Dlabajová (ALDE, Czech Republic), the EP decided to grant the Commission discharge for the execution of the general budget of the EU for 2014. As regards the operational expenditure, the level of error for spending under shared management with the member states amounts to 4.6% (compared to 4.9% in 2013) “which remains at a very high level”, the EP states. It expresses concern at the fact that for the other forms of operational spending where the Commission has a leading role, the estimated level of error has rocketed up to 4.6% (from 3.7% in 2013).
The EP expresses concern regarding the data supplied by Eurodad on money laundering, in which Luxembourg and Germany ranked top for this risk (it argues that the member states should fully transpose the anti-money laundering directive of the Union and introduce a public register of the ownership of companies, including trusts).
The EP is concerned about the management of the Union's external aid in third countries, and stresses that every second Euro is paid late (805 projects at the time of the last report), that one in every three euros (610 projects) is not used for what it was intended for and that both failings apply to one in every four euros (500 projects).
In its adoption of an amendment tabled by the S&D group, the EP takes note of the funds allocated for the management of migrations and of the external borders in 2014. It calls upon the Court to consider the possibility of rapidly drafting a special report on the effectiveness of these funds, the conclusions of which would feed into the ongoing process of improving the Union's policy for migration and border control.
In its adoption of an amendment tabled by the ALDE group, the EP considers that it would be preferable for national government employees recruited to the private offices of the European Commissioner not to be responsible for relations with their own member state, unless this follows an appropriate prior examination of any possible conflict with the legitimate interests of the Commission.
The EP also adopted an amendment of the ECR group calling on the Commission to ensure that EU money is not made available to support bullfighting, either directly or indirectly. It considers that EU funding should not be used to finance activities involving animal cruelty.
During the plenary debate the day before, Dlabajová said that new elements were required in the discharge procedure. “Discharge must be objective and should not be used as a way for the member states to settle scores with each other”, she stressed.
The Commissioner for the Budget, Kristalina Georgieva, admitted that there was still much to be done. “We have stabilised the level of error, now we have to reduce it”, she stressed. She highlighted the need for the early detection of risks in order to avoid them and of continuing the work to reduce the level of error. The Commission is to present a report covering the period 2007-2013 on systemic risks in the budget.
Three joint undertakings fail the test. The EP postponed its decisions on granting discharge for the execution of the 2014 budgets of three joint undertakings. The joint undertaking ARTEMIS aims to implement a research programme for the development of central technologies for IT systems. The joint undertaking comes under fire for having failed to assess the quality of the audit report submitted by the national funding authorities on the costs of completed projects. The EP also notes that following an assessment of the audit strategies of the three national funding authorities, it was not possible to establish whether the ex-post audits are working effectively. The joint undertaking ENIAC, which aims to implement a research programme for the development of essential skills for nano-electronics, also failed the test, for similar reasons. Lastly, the EP has put off its decision on discharge for ITER (development of fusion energy). The EP takes the view that the considerable rise in the cost of the project “risks threatening the existence of other programmes also funded by the budget of the Union and could run counter to the principle of cost-effectiveness”. It urges the new Director General of the organisation ITER to publicly present the new ITER action plan, which it expects to “carefully avoid any delay or extra costs for the ITER project”.
Council and European Council. In its adoption of the report by Ryszard Czarnecki (ECR, Poland), the EP decided (633 votes in favour, 10 against and no abstentions) to postpone its decision on discharge for the Secretary General of the Council on the execution of the budget of the European Council and of the Council for the financial year 2014. The EP stresses that since 2009, the Council has refused to comply with the budgetary discharge exercise practised by the Parliament by refusing to provide the necessary information, respond to written questions or attend hearings and debates dealing with the execution of its budget. As matters stand, “more than €3 billion of European public funds were effectively executed in opacity”, the MEPs lament. The EP calls upon the Council to participate in the transparency register of the Union. It reiterates its calls on the European Council and the Council to send it their annual activity reports, including a detailed overall table of all the human resources available to the two institutions. The MEPs regret the fact that the Council has still not adopted any code of conduct and call upon it to implement the internal rules on whistleblowers without delay.
The EP granted discharge for the 2014 spending of other institutions (Parliament, European External Action Service, Court of Auditors, Committee of the Regions, etc), agencies and joint undertakings. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)