Brussels, 25/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - In Brussels on Thursday, the European Parliament adopted the new report by Eluned Morgan (British Labour) that discharges the institutions (other than the Commission and the EP) for the execution of budget 2000. With 239 in favour, 225 against and 15 abstentions, Parliament managed a small majority to grant discharge to the Economic and Social Committee (ESC) for the controversial budgets 1996 and 1997, thereby confirming the stance defined within the Committee on Budgetary Control (Cocobu: for details, see EUROPE of 18 April, 14). Parliament showed itself to be "grateful" for the latest answers provided by the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper) regarding the budgetary aspects the common foreign and security policy (CFSP) and thus respected the practice that dispenses the two branches of the budgetary authority from examining their respective expenses.
The previous Morgan report, which was returned to committee at the April plenary session in Strasbourg was much more severe regarding the ESC's budgets 96 and 97 and had even proposed postponing the vote on the discharge of the Council's budget. The EP also discharged: - the ESC for the execution of the budgets 1998, 1999 and 2000; - the Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, the Committee of the Regions and the Ombudsman on the execution of their budgets 2000.