Awaiting committee decision
Next event: Indicative plenary sitting date, 1st reading/single reading 2014/04/02
Role | Committee | Rapporteur | Shadows |
---|---|---|---|
Opinion | AFCO | ||
Opinion | AFET | ||
Opinion | AGRI | ||
Opinion | BUDG | ||
Lead | CONT | SONIK Bogusław (EPP) | LIBERADZKI Bogusław (S&D), MULDER Jan (ALDE), STAES Bart (Verts/ALE), ANDREASEN Marta (ECR), SØNDERGAARD Søren Bo (GUE/NGL), VANHECKE Frank (EFD), EHRENHAUSER Martin (NI) |
Opinion | CULT | ||
Opinion | DEVE | ||
Opinion | ECON | ||
Opinion | EMPL | ||
Opinion | ENVI | ||
Opinion | FEMM | ||
Opinion | IMCO | ||
Opinion | INTA | ||
Opinion | ITRE | ||
Opinion | JURI | ||
Opinion | LIBE | ||
Opinion | PECH | ||
Opinion | PETI | ||
Opinion | REGI | ||
Opinion | TRAN |
Activites
-
2014/04/02
Indicative plenary sitting date, 1st reading/single reading
-
2013/10/22
Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
-
2013/07/26
Non-legislative basic document published
-
COM(2013)0570
summary
PURPOSE: presentation by the Commission of the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2012, as part of the 2012 discharge procedure. Analysis of the accounts of the EU Institutions: Section II – Council. Legal reminder: the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the year 2012 have been prepared on the basis of the information presented by the institutions and bodies under Article 129.2 of the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Union. They were prepared in accordance with Title VII of this Financial Regulation and with the accounting principles, rules and methods set out in the notes to the financial statements. The objective of the financial statements is to provide information about the financial position, performance and cashflow of an entity that is useful to a wide range of users. The objective is to provide information useful for decision making, and to demonstrate the accountability of the entity for the resources entrusted to it. 1) Purpose: the document helps to bring insight into the EU budget mechanism and the way in which the budget has been managed and spent in 2012. It recalls that the European Union's operational expenditure covers the various headings of the financial framework and takes different forms, depending on how the money is paid out and managed. In accordance with the Financial Regulation, the Commission implements the general budget using the following methods: direct or indirect centralised management (by means of bodies or agencies of public law or other); decentralised management where the Commission delegates certain tasks for the implementation of the budget to third countries; and, thirdly, shared management where budget implementation tasks are delegated to Member States, in areas such as agricultural expenditure and structural actions. The document also presents the different financial actors involved in the budget process (accounting officers, internal officers and authorising officers) and recalls their respective roles in the context of the tasks of sound financial management. Amongst the other legal elements relating to the implementation of the EU budget presented in this document, the paper focuses on the following issues: accounting principles applicable to the management of EU spending (business continuity, consistency of accounting methods, comparability of information ...); consolidation methods of figures for all major controlled entities (the consolidated financial statements of the EU comprise all significant controlled entities –institutions, organisations and agencies); the recognition of financial assets in the EU (tangible and intangible assets, financial assets and other miscellaneous investments); the way in which EU public expenditure is committed and spent, including pre-financing (cash advances intended for the benefit of an EU organ); the means of recovery following irregularities detected; the modus operandi of the accounting system; the audit process followed by the European Parliament's granting of the discharge. To recap, the final control is the discharge of the budget for a given financial year. The discharge represents the political aspect of the external control of budget implementation and is the decision by which the European Parliament, acting on a Council recommendation, "releases" the Commission from its responsibility for management of a given budget by marking the end of that budget's existence. When granting the discharge, Parliament may highlight some observations that it considers important, often by recommending that the Commission takes action on the aspects in question. The document also details specific expenditure of the institutions, in particular: i) pensions of former Members and officials of institutions; ii) joint sickness insurance scheme and iii) buildings. Lastly, the document presents a series of tables and detailed technical indicators on (i) the balance sheet; (ii) the economic outturn account; (iii) cashflow tables; (iv) technical annexes concerning the financial statements. 2) Implementation of appropriations under Section II of the budget for the financial year 2012: the document comprises a series of detailed tables, the most important concerning the implementation of the budget. Concerning the Council's expenditure, the table on the financial and budgetary implementation of this institution is presented as follows (information drawn from the Financial Activity Report 2012 (Section II - European Council and Council). Budget 2012: the European Council and Council budget 2012 was established at EUR 533.9 million. At the end of 2012, an amount of EUR 489.9 million was committed whereas EUR 44 million was cancelled. Thus, the implementation rate of the EC/C budget was 91.8 %. The main reasons for the cancelled appropriations of EUR 44 million are: underspending of the delegations’ travel envelopes (EUR 14.7 million), underspending in interpretation (EUR 5.9 million), no salary adjustment (EUR 7.4 million), reduced need for the Official Journal (EUR 0.9 million), under-occupation of posts in the establishment plan and lower salary costs (EUR 6.4 million), smaller need for other staff expenditure (e.g. contractual agents, SNEs,), and missions (EUR 3 million), lower need for organising meetings, technical installations and office equipment (EUR 1.5 million), non-activation of the reserve (EUR 2 million). 3) Budgetary implementation - conclusions: in more general and political terms, The main administrative objectives of the General Secretariat of the Council for 2012 were: (i) to ensure continuous support to the President of the European Council and to the Council; (ii) to proceed further with the process of administrative modernisation with the objective to reinforce the quality of its organisation; (iii) to prepare the adaptation of its organisation to the accession of Croatia in July 2013. Building policy: the project to renovate the Residence Palace and convert it into the seat of the European Council and the Council of Ministers (Europa Building) continued in 2012 with the actual construction work including, among other things, starting to building up floors, insulation and various technical installations. Difference between the final budget and implementation: no adjustments of remuneration in 2011 and 2012: EUR 2 million of underspent appropriations mainly relate to a smaller need on entitlements as foreseen by the Staff Regulations (e.g. house hold and other allowances); other staff expenditure: almost half of the global saving (EUR 1.4 million out of EUR 3 million) in the category of other staff expenditure relates to fewer payments for contractual agents, seconded national experts and other outside services. Smaller spending in mission related costs corresponds to a saving of EUR 1.1 million; building related expenditure (excluding the Europa-Building): the global implementation of the building related expenditure resulted in a saving of EUR 0.9 million due to lower costs in water, gas and electricity as well as installation and maintenance works; underspending in appropriations for interpretation and delegations’ travel envelopes which made it possible to transfer EUR 10 million as an additional payment for the Europa Building in 2012, EUR 1.3 million for fitting out and installation works in Justus Lipsius building and EUR 0.3 million for certain meeting expenditure in Brussels; other miscellaneous expenditure concerned reduced financial need for meetings including protocol, conference, transport and furniture. The overall underspending of the budget made it possible to reallocate EUR 10 million in addition to the EUR 5 million earmarked in the budget for advance payments for the Europa Building.
- DG {'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/budget/', 'title': 'Budget'}, ŠEMETA Algirdas
-
COM(2013)0570
summary
Documents
- Non-legislative basic document published: COM(2013)0570
Amendments | Dossier |
20 |
2013/2197(DEC)
2014/02/25
CONT
20 amendments...
Amendment 1 #
Proposal for a decision 1 Paragraph 1 1.
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 14 a (new) 14 a. Wishes to receive more information on the Service Level Agreements established with the EEAS, and not only in respect of the administrative modernisation process;
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 15 a (new) 15a. Considers that the Council acted disdainfully towards Parliament by appointing a Member of the Court of Auditors, despite the fact that Parliament gave a negative opinion; urges the Council to pay attention to the opinions expressed by Parliament on the nomination of members of the Court of Auditors and to the declarations of prospective members of the Court of Auditors before they are nominated;
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution Subheading 1 Reasons
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 17 17. Considers that effective supervision of the Union’s budget implementation requires cooperation between Parliament, the European Council, and the Council through a working arrangement; regrets the difficulties repeatedly encountered in the discharge procedures up to date;
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 17 17. Considers that effective supervision of the Union’s budget implementation requires cooperation between Parliament and the Council through a working arrangement; regrets the difficulties encountered in the discharge procedures up to date; points out that Parliament refused to grant discharge to the Secretary- General of the Council for the implementation of the Council’s budget for the financial years 2009, 2010 and 2011 for the reasons set out in its resolutions of 10 May 2011, 25 October 2011, 10 May 2012 and 23 October 2012, 17 April 2013 and 9 October 2013;
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 18 18. Reiterates that it is only possible to implement effective budgetary control with the cooperation of Parliament and the Council, the main elements of which must comprise formal meetings between representatives of the Council and Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control, answering questions asked by the committee’s members on the basis of a written questionnaire and submitting documents to serve as background material for budgetary controls on request; is of the opinion that the fundamental elements of an effective budgetary control is laid down in its resolution of 23 October 2012
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 23 a (new) 23 a. Welcomes the efforts of the Greek presidency to reopen the negotiations between the institutions; underlines, however, that such negotiations did not bring expected results in the past;
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 24 a (new) 24 a. Recalls that a good cooperation between the Parliament and the Council is of outmost importance in ensuring a good implementation of the EU budget
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 24 a (new) 24a. Recommends organising a workshop focussing on the legal analysis of Parliament’s function of budgetary control and the Council’s duty to cooperate, as well as drafting an own initiative report focussing on possible amendments to the Treaty, as a way forward in order to prepare for the possibility of instigating legal proceedings, as well as the possibility of a change or clarification of the rules on granting discharge to other institutions stated in the Treaty;
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 25 a (new) 25a. Is perplexed about the discrepancy between Parliament’s view that the Council’s budgetary control is so seriously flawed that discharge cannot be granted in the same way as in previous years and the conclusions of the audit, in which the Court of Auditors deems the management of the policy group concerned to be free of error and the control and supervisory systems to be effective; calls on the Court of Auditors, therefore, to conduct a thorough audit of the administrative and operational activities of the European Council, the Council, and the European External Action Service, without encroaching on the powers and responsibilities laid down in the Treaties, and to report on the findings to Parliament;
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution Citation 12 a (new) - having regard to the previous discharge reports of the Parliament;
Amendment 20 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 25 a (new) 25 a. Calls on the Court of Auditors to include in its next annual report a review of the follow-up by the European Council and the Council of Parliament’s recommendations in this resolution;
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution Recital A a (new) Aa. whereas in the section of its opinion (Chapter 9) relating to the ‘Administrative and other expenditure’ policy group, which includes the European Council and the Council, the Court of Auditors concludes, as regards the financial year 2012, that ‘the most likely error present in the population is nil’ and, although it found some errors and weaknesses, believes that the supervisory and control systems examined are likely to reduce the rate of error in initial payment requests to an acceptable level and can therefore be considered effective;
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution Recital B B. Whereas in the absence of replies to Parliament’s questions and given the lack of sufficient information, Parliament
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 9 9. Acknowledges the improvement made (87 %, compared to 84 % in 2011) in monitoring the follow-up remarks made by the internal audit;
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 11 11. Takes note that the ‘E
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 11 a (new) 11a. Calls for a progress report on the Résidence Palace building project and a detailed breakdown of the costs incurred to date;
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 11 a (new) 11 a. Calls on the Council to provide an explanation of how measures from the previous period that were adopted with a view to improving the results of the ‘Europa building’ project are being implemented; calls on the Council, furthermore, to explain what added value is brought by the permanent team responsible for monitoring the execution of this project;
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 14 14. Welcomes the process of administrative modernisation within the Council; regrets, nonetheless, the lack of information on the concrete implementing measures of that process and on the anticipated impact on the Council’s budget and calls on the Council to provide the missing information as soon as possible;
source: PE-529.747
|
History
(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)
activities/2/type |
Old
Indicative plenary sitting date, 1st reading/single readingNew
Debate in plenary scheduled |
activities/3 |
|
activities/1/committees/4/shadows/1 |
|
activities/1/committees/4/shadows/3 |
|
committees/4/shadows/1 |
|
committees/4/shadows/3 |
|
activities/0/docs/0/celexid |
Old
CELEX:52013PC0570:ENNew
CELEX:52013DC0570:EN |
activities/0/docs/0/celexid |
Old
CELEX:52013DC0570:ENNew
CELEX:52013PC0570:EN |
activities/0/type |
Old
Non-legislative basic documentNew
Non-legislative basic document published |
activities/1 |
|
procedure/dossier_of_the_committee |
CONT/7/13916
|
procedure/stage_reached |
Old
Preparatory phase in ParliamentNew
Awaiting committee decision |
activities/0/docs/0/celexid |
Old
CELEX:52013PC0570:ENNew
CELEX:52013DC0570:EN |
activities/0/docs/0/celexid |
Old
CELEX:52013DC0570:ENNew
CELEX:52013PC0570:EN |
activities/0/docs/0/text |
|
activities/0/docs/0/celexid |
CELEX:52013DC0570:EN
|
activities/0/docs/0/celexid |
CELEX:52013DC0570:EN
|
activities/0/docs/0/celexid |
CELEX:52013DC0570:EN
|
activities/0/docs/0/celexid |
CELEX:52013DC0570:EN
|
activities/0/docs/0/url |
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexplus!prod!DocNumber&lg=FR&type_doc=COMfinal&an_doc=2013&nu_doc=570
|
activities |
|
committees |
|
links |
|
other |
|
procedure |
|