Activites

• 2002/06/17 Final act published in Official Journal
  • Decision 2000/465
  • OJ L 191 27.07.2000, p. 0001
  • Budget 2002/453
  • OJ L 158 17.06.2002, p. 0066
• 2002/04/25 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T5-0196/2002
• 2002/04/16 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A5-0113/2002
• 2002/04/10 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • A5-0094/2002
• 2002/04/09 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2002/03/20 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
• 2000/04/13 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T5-0154/2000 summary

    The European Parliament adopted its decision granting discharge in respect of the general budget of the EU for the 1998 financial year relating to the Court of Justice, Court of Auditors and the Committee of the Regions. It also adopted a resolution informing the Economic and Social Committee of the reason for the postponement of the decision concerning discharge in respect of the budget for the 1998 financial year. Parliament's Rapporteur was Ms. Heide RÜHLE (Green/EFA, D). In regard to the Court of Justice, the EP states that its assessment of the Court's buildings policy will be made in the light of the Special Report the Court of Auditors is currently drawing up concerning annexes to the Palais building. It requests the Court to submit, in time for the first reading of the 2001 draft budget, a report on ways to improve the quality of financial forecasts used for the endowment of Article 270 (Official Journal) in light of the continuous need for the topping up of its appropriations in the 1995-97 financial years. With respect to the Court of Auditors, Parliament reiterates its disapproval of the declining trend in the utilisation of appropriations earmarked for Chapter 15 (staff exchanges between Community institutions and the public and private sectors); it underlines that those exchanges can be beneficial to national civil servants and administrations and calls on the Court to submit, in time for the first reading of the 2001 budget, a report outlining its policy as regards the staff exchanges in question and the problems which have hindered full utilisation of available resources from 1997 onwards. It also notes that allocations earmarked for Article 104 (mission expenses, local travel costs and incidental expenditure) had to be topped up twice to allow Members to complete the 1998 Audit Programme; it therefore asks the Court to improve planning and forecasting in connection with that sector. The Committee of the Regions is urged to take all necessary steps to reverse the seriously declining rate of utilisation of appropriations automatically carried over from the previous financial year; in this respect, the EP asks for a report to be submitted to it by 15/06/2000 on all Section VI appropriations automatically carried over from 1997 to 1998 and from 1998 to 1999 where the rate of cancellations is greater than 10%. Parliament reiterates its request for the Committee to improve financial management of the appropriations, the implementation of which has been entrusted to it by the budgetary authority. It also insists that the Committee's latest set of rules, which entered into force in April 2000, aimed at bolstering controls relating to the refunding of travel expenses and daily subsistence and travel allowances, must be fully in line with the Court of Auditors' observations. Parliament regrets that the CoR and the Economic and Social Committee have not acted with the required diligence with regard to their relocation to the Belliard building and underlines that the current situation is detrimental to the Union's budget with expenditure on rent and associated costs being charged in connection with both the current and futurepremises of the Committees. The Economic and Social Committee is urged to take all necessary steps to reverse the declining rate of utilisation of appropriations automatically carried over from the previous financial year and, in this respect, Parliament asks for a report to be submitted to it by 15/06/2000 on all Section VI appropriations automatically carried over from 1997 to 1998 and from 1998 to 1999 where the rate of cancellations is greater than 10%. It also asks the Committee to improve financial management of the appropriations, the implementation of which has been entrusted to it by the budgetary authority. With regard to the follow-up to the 1996 Annual Report of the Court of Auditors, Parliament regrets that it took the Economic and Social Committee over 15 months to comply with the decision of the discharge authority to refer the matter to OLAF. It therefore postpones the discharge decision in respect of the 1998 financial year until it has received the conclusions of the OLAF inquiry.

• 2000/03/22 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A5-0089/2000
• 1999/07/23 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 1999/04/29 Non-legislative basic document published
  • SEC(1999)0414 summary

    PURPOSE: presentation of the revenue and expenditure account and the balance sheets with respect to budgetary operations in 1998 (other sections). CONTENT: this document draws up the amount of expenditures and the balance sheet of the other Union institutions (other than the Commission) for the 1998 financial year, as follows: - the European Parliament (and Ombudsman); - the Council; - the Court of Justice; - the Court of Auditors; - the Economic and Social Committee; - the Committee of the Regions. As far as the European Parliament is concerned, the document indicates that the appropriations shown in the budget of this institution (including the supplementary and amending budget -SAB- 1/98) amounted to 1.060.936.503 euros (a rate of increase in the EP's budget between 1997 and 1998, excluding the SAB, of 2.7%), committed to the amount of 950,205,608 euros. These appropriations were effectively paid to the amount of 788,043,887 euros. The document also shows that the implementation of the 1998 budget was affected by developments that took place in the real estate sector: the occupancy of the D3 building and the vacating of the other buildings, the delay in the availability of the IPE IV (the date of the handing over of the building to the EP's Bureau was 15.12.1998 instead of October 1997). This situation is at the origin of the partial use of the appropriations allocated for the rental and occupancy of the new buildings. It also involved the cancellation of appropriations and made recommitment necessary on the 1998 appropriations (for the fitting out of offices in Strasbourg). This financial year was also influenced by: - the adoption of an SAB of 150 million euros for the acquisition of real estate; - the entry in the reserve of the sum of 52 million euros; - an ECU/BEF conversion rate higher than the rate used in the drawing up of the budget (40.0786 instead of 40.6690). As far as the other institutions are concerned, it should be noted that: 1) with respect to the Council, the efforts made by this institution to recruit in the context of the Union's enlargement, the need for unplanned fitting work, the conversion of meeting rooms, as well as the unplanned hosting in the Justus Lipsius building of meetings on 1-3 May 1998. The Council's appropriations for 1998 amounted to 320,272,000 euros. 99.03% of them were used; 2) with respect to the Court of Justice, expenditures relating to the implementation of inter-institutional cooperation and the modernisation of equipment in the copy shop with a view to a more rational use of paper. It should also be noted that like last year the slight appreciation in the ECU in comparison with the Luxembourg franc, has resulted in the revalorisation of the budget of the institutions permitting new budgetary means to be allocated to translation and information technology. The appropriations for this institution for 1998 amounted to 120,135,700 euros. 99.03% of them were used; 3) with respect to the Court of Auditors, the request for 23 additional posts granted by the budgetary authority under the SAB 1/97 and the 25 others granted in the 1998 budget was not wholly utilised in view of the application of a standard abatement of 3%. The Court therefore had to leave between 15 and 18 posts vacant for the 1999 financial year; 4) with respect to the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, there was a reorganisation of the internal structure of these institutions following the renewal of the mandate of their respective members. In particular, it should be noted that a new management report regarding these institutions was presented following criticisms of the European Parliament on the shortcomings of the report presented at the end of the 1996 financial year. Furthermore, it should be noted that the signature of an administrative agreement between these two organisations and the European Parliament with a view to the taking charge of the rental and security costs of the Belliard I and II buildings for the period 15.10.1998 to 31.03.1999 in the context of the expenditures of the common organisational structure.�

  • DG [{'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/budget/', 'title': 'Budget'}],

Documents

• Non-legislative basic document published: SEC(1999)0414
• Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A5-0089/2000
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T5-0154/2000
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: A5-0094/2002
• Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A5-0113/2002
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T5-0196/2002
• : Decision 2000/465
• : OJ L 191 27.07.2000, p. 0001
• : Budget 2002/453
• : OJ L 158 17.06.2002, p. 0066

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)