Activites

• 2015/04/29 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T8-0122/2015 summary

    The European Parliament decided by 669 votes to 13, with 5 abstentions, to postpone its decision on granting the Secretary-General of the Council discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Council and of the Council for the financial year 2013. In a parallel resolution, Parliament recalled by 642 votes to 40, with 7 abstentions that all Union institutions ought to be transparent and fully accountable to the citizens of the Union for the funds entrusted to them as Union institutions. On the reasons for postponing the discharge, Parliament stressed that the Council must take part fully and in good faith in the annual discharge procedure, just as the other institutions do. It regretted the difficulties encountered in the discharge procedures to date. It took note, nonetheless, of the interest shown by the current Presidency of the Union in reconciling positions, regarding actively tangible measures to reach a ʽmodus vivendiʼ to improve the capacity for dialogue between the two institutions. Greater cooperation: Parliament reiterated that it was only possible to implement effective budgetary control with the cooperation of Parliament and the Council, the main elements of which must comprise of formal meetings between representatives of the Council and Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control, answering questions asked by the committee’s members.  Without the cooperation of the Council, Parliament was not in the position to make an informed decision on granting discharge. In this regard, Parliament agreed with the Commission's views in its letter of 23 January 2014 to Parliament that it was desirable for Parliament to continue to give, postpone or refuse discharge to the other institutions – including the Council – as has been the case up until now. It endorsed the view that all institutions should cooperate to ensure the smooth functioning of the discharge procedure in full respect of the relevant provisions in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the relevant secondary law. It regretted that Parliament repeatedly encountered problems in receiving answers from the Council. Recalling the relevant Treaty provisions on discharge, Parliament stated that granting or not granting discharge was a duty Parliament had towards the Union citizens and considered that the discharge-related legal framework of the Union should be revised in order to clarify the discharge making process. In general, Parliament felt that the Council could do more on matters related to transparency. Internal management of the Council and the European Council: Parliament noted that in 2013, the European Council and the Council had an overall budget of EUR 535 511 300 with an implementation of 86.7%. It took note that EUR 71 376 244 of commitments were cancelled in 2013 due to underspending and a reduction in the use of facilities. Parliament was surprised to learn that EUR 5 million committed for the acquisition of the 'Europa' building was carried over to 2014 for actual payment. This balance, in addition to other appropriations carried over, went against the principles of annuality and sound financial management of the Financial Regulation. As regards building policy, Parliament took note that some of the audit recommendations on the 'Europa' building project are still lagging behind execution. It reiterated its call for the Council to provide a thorough written explanation detailing the total amount of appropriations used in the purchase of the building. A separate budget for the two institutions: Parliament reiterated that the budget of the European Council and the Council should be separated in order to contribute to the transparency of the financial management of the institutions and to improve the accountability of both institutions. It called on the European Council and the Council to send Parliament their annual activity report with a comprehensive overview of all human resources available to both institutions, broken down by category, grade, sex, nationality and vocational training. Parliament went on to make a series of observations on the costs of translation in Council (which shows some disparity with other institutions) and asked for a unified methodology of presenting translation costs and better practice on translation issues. Lastly, it considered that at a time of crisis and budgetary cuts in general, the cost of ʽaway daysʼ for staff at the Union institutions had to be reduced and that these should take place, where possible, on the institutions’ own premises as the added value derived from these away days did not justify such high costs.

• 2015/04/28 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2015/03/31 Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
  • A8-0116/2015 summary

    The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Ryszard CZARNECKI (ECR, PL) and called on Parliament to postpone its decision on granting the Secretary-General of the Council discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Council and of the Council for the financial year 2013. It recalled that all Union institutions ought to be transparent and fully accountable to the citizens of the Union for the funds entrusted to them as Union institutions. On the reasons for postponing the discharge, Members stressed that the Council must take part fully and in good faith in the annual discharge procedure, just as the other institutions do.  They regretted the difficulties encountered in the discharge procedures to date. They took note, nonetheless, of the interest shown by the current Presidency of the Union in reconciling positions, regarding actively tangible measures to reach a ʽmodus vivendiʼ to improve the capacity for dialogue between the two institutions. Greater cooperation: Members reiterated that it was only possible to implement effective budgetary control with the cooperation of Parliament and the Council, the main elements of which must comprise of formal meetings between representatives of the Council and Parliament's Committee on Budgetary Control, answering questions asked by the committee’s members.  Without the cooperation of the Council, Parliament was not in the position to make an informed decision on granting discharge. Members agreed with the Commission's views in its letter of 23 January 2014 to Parliament that it was desirable for Parliament to continue to give, postpone or refuse discharge to the other institutions – including the Council – as has been the case up until now. They endorsed the view that all institutions should cooperate to ensure the smooth functioning of the discharge procedure in full respect of the relevant provisions in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the relevant secondary law. They regretted that Parliament repeatedly encountered problems in receiving answers from the Council. Recalling the relevant Treaty provisions on discharge, Members stated that granting or not granting discharge was a duty Parliament had towards the Union citizens and considered that the discharge-related legal framework of the Union should be revised in order to clarify the discharge making process. In general, Members felt that the Council could do more on matters related to transparency. On the Council’s general management, the committee noted that in 2013, the European Council and the Council had an overall budget of EUR 535 511 300 with an implementation of 86.7 %. It took note that EUR 71 376 244 of commitments were cancelled in 2013 due to underspending and a reduction in the use of facilities. Members were surprised to learn that EUR 5 million committed for the acquisition of the 'Europa' building was carried over to 2014 for actual payment. This balance, in addition to other appropriations carried over, went against the principles of annuality and sound financial management of the Financial Regulation. Members reiterated that the budget of the European Council and the Council should be separated in order to contribute to the transparency of the financial management of the institutions and to improve the accountability of both institutions. They called on the European Council and the Council to send Parliament their annual activity report with a comprehensive overview of all human resources available to both institutions, broken down by category, grade, sex, nationality and vocational training. The committee went on to make a series of observations on the costs of translation in Council (which shows some disparity with other institutions) and asked for a unified methodology of presenting translation costs and better practice on translation issues. Lastly, it considered that at a time of crisis and budgetary cuts in general, the cost of ʽaway daysʼ for staff at the Union institutions had to be reduced and that these should take place, where possible, on the institutions’ own premises as the added value derived from these away days did not justify such high costs.

• 2015/03/23 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
• 2014/10/20 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 2014/07/30 Non-legislative basic document published
  • COM(2014)0510 summary

    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 Council/Council. 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 Council/Council’s appropriations for the financial year 2013: the document comprises a series of detailed tables, the most important concerning the implementation of the budget. Budget 2013: at the end of 2013, an amount of EUR 507 million was committed. Budget implementation: information concerning the implementation of the budget of the Council and the European Council is drawn from the Financial Activity Report 2013 (Section II - European Council and Council). The budget authority established the overall European Council/Council budget 2013 at EUR 535.5 million. This corresponds to an increase of EUR 1.6 million (0.3%) compared to the 2012. The number of posts in the establishment plan for 2013 for the EC/C was 3153. The global implementation rate of the 2013 budget is 86.7%. The difference between the final budget and implementation can be explained as follows: the total under-spending in the category of establishment plan amounts to EUR 23.6 million; the global implementation of the building related expenditure (without the Europa-Building) resulted in a saving of EUR 2.4 million; in the IT domain the budget implementation was almost 98 %. The under-spending of EUR 800 000 resulted from a smaller need for IT equipment, software and outside consultancy; the underspending in appropriations for interpretation amounts to EUR 11.2 million and EUR 2.5 million in organising meetings and conferences. The document also notes the underspending in furniture, technical equipment and transport costs. The amount available for delegations' travel expenses after transfers amounted to EUR 25.3 million. (3) Budgetary implementation - conclusions: in more general and political terms,  the implementation of the Council budget in 2013 was marked by the following: the continuous support to the President of the European Council and to the Council through an appropriate use of financial resources; the need to proceed further with the process of administrative modernisation with the objective to reinforce the quality of its organisation as well as the appropriate use of resources; 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 (Europa Building) continued in 2013 with the actual construction work including, among other things, starting to building up floors, insulation and various technical installations. In 2013, EUR 5 million was committed for the acquisition of the Europa Building. The amount has been carried over to 2014 for the actual payment.

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

Documents

• Non-legislative basic document published: COM(2014)0510
• Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A8-0116/2015
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T8-0122/2015

History

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