On Wednesday 18 April, the European Parliament decided to grant the European Commission discharge on the execution of the general EU budget for 2016, thanks in part to a low error rate in payment appropriations (3.1%, the lowest level in the last ten years).
The MEPs decided to postpone the discharge for the 2016 expenditure of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) and of the budget of the Council and the European Council.
EASO is currently being investigated by the European anti-fraud office (OLAF) and the Court of Auditors of the EU has previously pointed to shortcomings in its procurement procedures.
The European Council and the Council, which have been denied discharge for the last seven years, yet again failed to submit the information Parliament needs to grant discharge.
Payments backlog. The MEPs call on the Commission to speed up the delivery of cohesion policy programmes and the related payments. Delays led to low payments in 2016 and created an all-time high of €238 billion in commitments outstanding at the end of 2016. This represents a payment backlog of nearly three years. The MEPs fear that the amounts left may not suffice to fund unexpected needs that may arise before 2020, when the current financial framework ends.
The MEPs also call on the Commission to “fundamentally review” certain agricultural aid schemes, such as support for young farmers and greening payments. They consider it unlikely that the greening of aid will provide significant benefits. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)