PURPOSE: presentation by the Commission of the
consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the
financial year 2013, as part of the 2013 discharge
procedure.
Analysis of the accounts of the EU Institutions:
European Parliament.
Legal reminder: the
consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the year
2013 have been prepared on the basis of the information presented
by the institutions and bodies under Article 148(2) of the
Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the
European Union. They were prepared in accordance with Title IX of
this Financial Regulation.
(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
2013, including the different expenses of the European
institutions. It should be recalled that only the Commission budget
contains administrative appropriations and operating
appropriations. The other Institutions have only administrative
appropriations.
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.
Discharge procedure: 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 discharge, Parliament may make
observations which it considers important and often recommends the
Commission and the other institutions to take actions concerning
these matters.
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.
The document also 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 the European Parliament’s
appropriations for the financial year 2013: the document comprises a series of detailed annexes,
the most important concerning the implementation of the budget. As
regards the expenditure of the European Parliament, the table on
the financial and budgetary management of this institution states
that the final appropriations amounted to EUR 1.857 billion,
committed to 98.6%. Further information concerning the
implementation of the European Parliament’s budget is drawn
from the Report on the budgetary and financial
management of the European Parliament for
2013.
(3) Budgetary implementation -
conclusions: in more general and
political terms, the implementation of the Parliament’s budget
in 2013 was marked by the continuation of action, begun in 2011, to
bring about structural improvements in order to give Parliament all
the resources it needs to play its role in the legislative process
to the full and enable it to capitalise to the full on the enhanced
powers conferred on it by the Treaty of Lisbon.
The institution also continued to implement
multiannual programmes to rationalise and modernise key sectors of
its administration, particularly in the field of security, and
undertook significant development of its information and
communication policy with a view to the 2014
elections.
The document highlighted that the institutional
changes arising from Croatia’s accession were completed
without any significant difficulties.
More technically, the major projects implemented by
Parliament in 2013 may be summarised as follows:
- continuation of institutional changes related to the
Lisbon Treaty, including: (i) support
for research; (ii) knowledge management; (iii) issues relating to
external policy co-decision procedure and consent; (iv) improving
plenary sitting services;
- communications strategy and preparing for the 2014
elections: (i) centrally organised
activities in EP and decentralised activities in the Member States;
(ii) EYE (European Youth Event to raise awareness of European
identity); (iii) the continuation of the House of European History
project; (iv) improving services to visitors;
- further institutional changes arising from the
accession of Croatia;
- continuing to implement the multiannual programmes to
rationalise and modernise key parts of Parliament’s
Administration: (i) building/property
policy (planning permission granted for the construction of Trebel
building in Brussels, continuing work on the Konrad Adenauer
building in Luxembourg, negotiations for a new building in Sofia
(BG); temporary closure of zone A of the Paul-Henri Spaak in
Brussels following the discovery of cracks in three of the ceiling
beams in the Chamber roof during inspections in September 2012 as
part of the new policy on maintenance and renovation; (ii)
environmental policy; (iii) catering policy with a revision of
costing of meals in restaurants and canteens; (iv) modernisation of
information technologies/security; (iv) relations with national
parliaments; (v) further restructuring of the security
services;
- other technical modernisation measures
(in particular assistance to Members and archive
management).