Brussels, 08/05/2006 (Agence Europe) - As indicated in EUROPE 9181, the European Parliament has granted the Court of Justice a discharge for the implementation of its 2004 budget, but commented on transparency (rapporteur was Nils Lundgren, Independence and Democracy, Sweden). On the building programme to increase the size of the Court, the Parliament called in its resolution for a written description of the arrangements for checking invoices and auditing the project, as well as an explanation as to which of the parties will bear the risk of possible cost overruns. In 2000, costs were estimated at €296,924,590. The EP called on the Court to set up appropriate control bodies with permanent responsibility for this major building project, comprising two towers and a “ring”. The EP would also like Court of Justice judges, just like MEPs and members of the Commission, to have to declare their financial interests (share holdings, directorships etc.). Since there is currently no legal requirement, the Court should ask for binding rules of this kind to be drawn up, the resolution concludes.
Then there is the old area of disagreement between the Parliament and the Court: official cars. Parliament recalled its resolution of 27 October 2005 (the Dombrovskis report) calling on the Court to amend by 1st November 2005 its administrative decision of 31 March 2004 in such a way as to rule out the private use of official cars.