The European Parliament adopted a decision concerning the discharge to be granted to the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) in respect of the implementation of budget for the financial year 2012.

In its resolution accompanying the decision, adopted by 521 votes to 66, with 8 abstentions, Parliament noted the conclusion of the Court of Auditors that the payments as a whole for the year ended on 31 December 2012 for administrative and other expenditure were free from material error. It also observed that no significant weaknesses had been identified in respect to the audited topics related to the human resources and procurement for the Supervisor.

Budgetary and financial management: Parliament noted that in 2012, the Supervisor had a total of EUR 7.624 million in commitment appropriations, and that the implementation rate of those appropriations was 89.69%, an increase since 2011). It found this a positive development but called for further efforts to improve the implementation rate and for the changes made to be monitored.

EDPS’s framework action: Parliament also made a series of observations on the daily management of the EDPS and called for:

·        further improvements regarding the monitoring of allowances and performance levels;

• an assessment of the financial impact of structural changes made recently and the implementation of electronic system of case management;
• continued implementation of the recommendations made by the Internal Audit Service (IAS) of the Commission;
• the inclusion of an exhaustive table of all the human resources at the Supervisor's disposal, broken down by category, grade, sex and
• the strengthening of cooperation with other institutions to develop a unified methodology of presenting the translation costs.

Parliament generally considered that the Supervisor should pay particular attention to sound financial management, namely the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which it has used its appropriations in carrying out its responsibilities.

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Bogusław SONIK (EPP, PL) in which it called on the European Parliament to grant discharge to the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) in respect of the implementation of the European Data Protection Supervisor's budget for the financial year 2012.

Members welcomed the fact that on the basis of its audit work, the Court of Auditors concluded that the payments as a whole for the year ended on 31 December 2012 for administrative and other expenditure of the institutions and bodies were free from material error. They observed that no significant weaknesses had been identified in respect of the audited topics related to human resources and procurement for the EDPS.

Budgetary and financial management: Members noted that in 2012, the Supervisor had a total of EUR 7.624 million in commitment appropriations, and that the implementation rate of those appropriations was 89.69%, an increase since 2011). They found this a positive development but called for further efforts to improve the implementation rate and for the changes made to be monitored.

EDPS’s framework action: Members also made a series of observations on the daily management of the EDPS and called for:

further improvements regarding the monitoring of allowances and performance levels;

• an assessment of the financial impact of structural changes made ​​recently and the implementation of electronic system of case management;
• continued implementation of the recommendations made by the Internal Audit Service (IAS) of the Commission;
• the inclusion of an exhaustive table of all the human resources at the Supervisor's disposal, broken down by category, grade, sex and nationality in the next annual activity report;
• the strengthening of cooperation with other institutions to develop a unified methodology of presenting the translation costs.

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 IX – European Data Protection Supervisor.

Legal reminder: the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the year 2011 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 the 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 a body that is useful to a wide range of users. The objective is to provide information that is 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.

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 IX 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 EDPS’s expenditure, the table on the financial and budgetary implementation of this institution is presented as follows (information drawn from the Budget and Financial Management Report for the 2012 financial year):

• available appropriations: EUR 7.624 million;
• commitments: EUR 7.258 million (rate of implementation: 95.21%);
• payments: EUR 6.959 million (rate of implementation 81.28%).

3) Budgetary implementation – conclusions: in more general and political terms, the EDPS’s budgetary implementation for the financial year 2012 was chiefly marked by the following activities:

• consolidation of administrative cooperation (follow-up of the technical set-up of the EDPS, cooperation with various European Commission and Parliament DGs, extended cooperation agreement for the third time for a period of two years from January 2012);
• conclusion of new cooperation agreements with the Commission’s Human Resources and Informatics DGs, as well as with the European Institute of Administration; continuation of other international agreements with the European Parliament and other institutions for the everyday management of the EDPS, with a view to reducing costs;
• impact of the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty: expanded tasks in relation to the Stockholm programme and a resulting increase in staff (2 AD in 2012).