Brussels, 22/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - Adopting the report by Eluned Morgan (British Labour MEP), the Budgetary Control Committee decided by a narrow margin (10 to 9 with one abstention) to ask Parliament at its April plenary to postpone the decision to give the Council discharge of its implementation of the 2000 Budget. The Committee is thereby sending the Council two political messages viz 1) it is criticising the Council for failing to properly reply to the Committee's questions about budgetary aspects of the CFSP; and 2) given the increased volume of administrative expenditure and the ever more operational nature of expenditure at the Council, particularly in foreign affairs, security and defence policy and Justice and Home Affairs, it expresses the Committee's desire to end the era of the "gentleman's agreement" whereby in the past Parliament and Council refrained from scrutinising each other's budgets.
Michiel van Hulten (PES, the Netherlands) explained to EUROP E that the Committee had taken this line (which is unlikely to be accepted by the EP, Ed) after asking the Council to respond to questions sent in December 2001 about administrative expenditure in general and specific aspects of the Council's operating costs. Mr van Hulten said the Council had only responded very laconically to the EP's concerns. It didn't answer the questions about all of the institutions (on the independent internal audit system, refusing the Financial Controller's authorisation, harmonising pension calculations, etc) and for the other questions, it referred the Committee back to the conclusions of the Court of Auditors' last Annual Report. The Committee noted that it would not be granting the Council a discharge unless a satisfactory answer were received by 15 May 2002 to the Committee's questions.
Travel allowances for 96 and 97 still under scrutiny
The Committee decided to refuse discharge to the Economic and Social Committee (ESC) for the implementation of its budgets for 1996 and 1997. It believes that it has not been sufficiently informed about the results of the OLAF investigation into irregularities concerning the payment of ESC Members' travel expenses in 1995-1996. It has pointed out that last year the Belgian legal authorities decided to not take action because the facts disclosed were so old as to be time-barred under the Belgian statute of limitations. The Committee decided to recommend granting discharge to the ESC for the implementation of the budgets for 1998, 1999 and 2000 in recognition of the administrative reforms made by the ESC. The Committee also recommended granting discharge to the Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, the Committee of the Regions and the Ombudsman for the implementation of their budgets in 2000.