BETA


2016/2158(DEC) 2015 discharge: EU general budget, European Ombudsman

Progress: Procedure completed

RoleCommitteeRapporteurShadows
Lead CONT JÁVOR Benedek (icon: Verts/ALE Verts/ALE) MARINESCU Marian-Jean (icon: PPE PPE), IVAN Cătălin Sorin (icon: S&D S&D), CZARNECKI Ryszard (icon: ECR ECR), THEURER Michael (icon: ALDE ALDE), VALLI Marco (icon: EFDD EFDD), KAPPEL Barbara (icon: ENF ENF)
Committee Opinion PETI
Committee Opinion REGI
Committee Opinion AFCO
Committee Opinion DEVE
Committee Opinion CULT
Committee Opinion AFET
Committee Opinion PECH
Committee Opinion AGRI
Committee Opinion ENVI
Committee Opinion EMPL
Committee Opinion BUDG
Committee Opinion ITRE
Committee Opinion JURI
Committee Opinion ECON
Committee Opinion LIBE
Committee Opinion INTA
Committee Opinion IMCO
Committee Opinion TRAN
Committee Opinion FEMM
Lead committee dossier:

Events

2017/09/29
   Final act published in Official Journal
Details

PURPOSE: to grant discharge to the European Ombudsman for the financial year 2015.

NON-LEGISLATIVE ACT: Decision (EU) 2017/1626 of the European Parliament on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2015, Section VIII — European Ombudsman.

CONTENT: with the present decision, the European Parliament grants the European Ombudsman discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Ombudsman for the financial year 2015.

This decision is in line with the European Parliament's resolution adopted on 27 April 2017 and comprises a series of observations that form an integral part of the discharge decision (please refer to the summary of the opinion of 27 April 2017).

Amongst Parliament’s main observations in the resolution accompanying the discharge decision, the latter called for further improvement of the transparency of recruitment conditions and processes. It welcomed the continuation of the Ombudsman's investigations into ‘revolving door’ cases in the Commission.

As regards the process of introducing internal rules for the protection of whistleblowers, Parliament asked the Ombudsman to monitor the implementation of those rules on an ongoing basis and to evaluate whether they provide appropriate protection for Parliament's accredited parliamentary assistants .

The clear geographic imbalance at middle and senior management level should also be remedied according to Parliament.

2017/04/27
   EP - Results of vote in Parliament
2017/04/27
   EP - Decision by Parliament
Details

The European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the European Ombudsman in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Ombudsman for the financial year 2015.

In its resolution accompanying the decision on discharge, adopted by 529 votes to 91 with 12 abstentions, Parliament welcomed the fact that the Court of Auditors observed that no significant weaknesses had been identified in respect of the audited topics relating to human resources and procurement for the Ombudsman.

The payments as a whole for the year ended on 31 December 2015 for administrative expenditure were free from material error .

Financial and budgetary management : the Ombudsman’s budget amounted in 2015 to EUR 10 346 105 (EUR 9 857 002 in 2014). The total appropriations, 92.32 % were committed (compared to 97.87 % in 2014) and 86.19 % paid (compared to 93.96 % in 2014).

The utilisation rate continued to decrease in 2015 . The lowering of the utilisation rate in 2015 influenced the Ombudsman’s decision to reduce several budget lines, namely, those for missions, representation expenses and publications, and translations.

Ombudsman’s actions : Members welcomed the efficient implementation of the annual management plan in 2015 within the strategy towards 2019. The large majority of the targets settled by the Ombudsman to assess its performance through key performance indicators were reached.

Members made a series of observations and recommendations on the management of the Ombudsman:

extend the scope of the concept of performance-based budgeting (PBB) in its daily activities: this concept should not apply only to the Ombudsman’s budget as a whole but should also include the setting of specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-based (SMART) targets to individual departments, units and staffs’ annual plans; improve the transparency of recruitment conditions and processes; ensure that an updated version of its organisational chart is available on its website; analyse the situation and to work out rules in order to avoid conflicts of interests if it considers it to be necessary; monitor the implementation of internal rules for the protection of whistleblowers on an ongoing basis and to evaluate whether they provide appropriate protection for Parliament’s accredited parliamentary assistants; inform the discharge authority regularly about the impact of its inquiries; interpret maladministration as widely as possible when performing its duties and to develop closer cooperation with Parliament’s Committee on budgetary control in its strategic work.

As regards the handling of complaints , Parliament welcomed the fact that the Union institutions complied with the Ombudsman's proposals at a rate of 90 %. The Ombudsman is called upon to provide a breakdown of compliance of the Union institutions with its proposals in its annual activity reports.

While welcoming the fact that gender balance was achieved at management level in 2015, Members called on the Ombudsman to correct the geographic imbalance at middle and senior management level, and, in particular, the overrepresentation of managers emanating from the Member State of which the Ombudsman is a national.

Lastly, Members welcomed the provision of exhaustive information on all the human resources at the Ombudsman’s disposal, broken down according to grade, sex and nationality. That information be automatically included in the Ombudsman’s annual activity report.

Documents
2017/04/27
   EP - End of procedure in Parliament
2017/04/26
   EP - Debate in Parliament
2017/03/31
   EP - Committee report tabled for plenary
Details

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Benedek JÁVOR (Greens/EFA, HU) calling on the European Parliament to give discharge to the European Ombudsman in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Ombudsman for the financial year 2015.

It welcomed the fact that the Court of Auditors observed that no significant weaknesses had been identified in respect of the audited topics relating to human resources and procurement for the Ombudsman. The Court concluded that the payments as a whole for the year ended on 31 December 2015 for administrative and other expenditure of the institutions and bodies were free from material error .

Financial and budgetary management : the Ombudsman’s budget is purely administrative and amounted in 2015 to EUR 10 346 105 (EUR 9 857 002 in 2014). The total appropriations, 92.32 % were committed (compared to 97.87 % in 2014) and 86.19 % paid (compared to 93.96 % in 2014), with a utilisation rate of 92.32 % (compared to 97.87 % in 2014). The utilisation rate continued to decrease in 2015 . The lowering of the utilisation rate in 2015 influenced the Ombudsman’s decision to reduce several budget lines, namely, those for missions, representation expenses and publications, and translations.

Ombudsman’s actions : Members made a series of observations and recommendations on the management of the Ombudsman:

extend the scope of the concept of performance-based budgeting (PBB) in its daily activities: this concept should not apply only to the Ombudsman’s budget as a whole but should also include the setting of specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-based (SMART) targets to individual departments, units and staffs’ annual plans; improve the transparency of recruitment conditions and processes; ensure that an updated version of its organisational chart is available on its website; analyse the situation and to work out rules in order to avoid conflicts of interests if it considers it to be necessary; monitor the implementation of internal rules for the protection of whistleblowers on an ongoing basis and to evaluate whether they provide appropriate protection for Parliament’s accredited parliamentary assistants interpret maladministration as widely as possible when performing its duties and to develop closer cooperation with Parliament’s Committee on budgetary control in its strategic work.

The report noted that the results achieved in the complaints handling in 2015 and welcomed the fact that the Union institutions complied with the Ombudsman's proposals at a rate of 90 %. The Ombudsman is called upon to provide a breakdown of compliance of the Union institutions with its proposals in its annual activity reports.

Members welcomed the achievement of gender balance at management level in 2015 but called on the Ombudsman to correct this geographic imbalance at middle and senior management level, and, in particular, the overrepresentation of managers emanating from the Member State of which the Ombudsman is a national.

Lastly, Members welcomed the provision of exhaustive information on all the human resources at the Ombudsman’s disposal, broken down according to grade, sex and nationality. That information be automatically included in the Ombudsman’s annual activity report. They expected the Ombudsman to continue to strive for consistent quality in its annual activity report.

Documents
2017/03/22
   EP - Vote in committee
2017/03/07
   EP - Amendments tabled in committee
Documents
2017/02/17
   CSL - Supplementary non-legislative basic document
Details

Based on the observations contained in the report by the Court of Auditors, the Council called on the European Parliament to grant discharge to all of the EU institutions in respect of the implementation of their respective budgets for the financial year 2015 .

The Council welcomed that the administrative and related expenditure of the EU institutions remained free from material error with an estimated level of error of 0.6 %, which is well below the materiality threshold. It noted with satisfaction that no serious weaknesses were identified by the Court in the supervisory and control systems and in the examined annual activity reports.

The Council took note of a limited number of errors detected by the Court, notably in the recruitment and procurement procedures and in the management of staff allowances .

Documents
2017/02/07
   EP - Committee draft report
Documents
2016/10/04
   EP - Committee referral announced in Parliament
2016/08/08
   EP - JÁVOR Benedek (Verts/ALE) appointed as rapporteur in CONT
2016/07/11
   EC - Non-legislative basic document
Details

PURPOSE: presentation by the Commission of the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2015, as part of the 2015 discharge procedure.

Analysis of the accounts of the EU Institutions: European Ombudsman .

Legal reminder : the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the year 2015 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.

(1) Governance and budgetary principles : the organisational governance of the EU consists of institutions, agencies and other EU bodies. The main institutions in the sense of being responsible for drafting policies and taking decisions are the EP, the European Council, the Council and the Commission.

The EU Budget finances a wide range of policies and programmes throughout the EU. In accordance with the priorities set by the European Parliament and the Council in the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), the Commission carries out specific programmes, activities and projects in the field.

The budget is prepared by the Commission and usually agreed in mid-December by the Parliament and the Council, based on the procedure of Art. 314 TFEU.

According to the principle of budget equilibrium, the total revenue must equal total expenditure (payment appropriations) for a given financial year.

EU revenues : the EU has two main categories of funding: own resources revenues and sundry revenues. Own resources can be divided into traditional own resources (such as custom levies), the own resource based on value added tax (VAT) and the resource based on gross national income (GNI). Sundry revenues arising from the activities of the EU (e.g. competition fines) normally represent less than 10 % of total revenue. Own resources revenue make up the vast majority of EU funding.

Expenditure of the EU institutions : the EU's operational expenditure of these institutions takes different forms, depending on how the money is paid out and managed.

From 2014 onwards, the Commission classifies its expenditure as follows:

Direct management : the budget is implemented directly by the Commission services. Indirect management : the Commission confers tasks of implementation of the budget to bodies of EU law or national law, such as the EU agencies. Shared management : under this method of budget implementation tasks are delegated to Member States. About 80 % of the expenditure falls under this management mode covering such areas as agricultural spending and structural actions.

Consolidated annual accounts of the EU : this Commission document concerns the EU's consolidated accounts for the year 2015 and details how spending by the EU institutions and bodies was carried out. The consolidated annual accounts of the EU provide financial information on the activities of the institutions, agencies and other bodies of the EU from an accrual accounting and budgetary perspective.

It also presents the accounting principles applicable to the European budget (in particular, consolidation).

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.

Audit and discharge : the EU’s annual accounts and resource management are audited by the European Court of Auditors, its external auditor, which as part of its activities draws up for the European Parliament and the Council:

an annual report on the activities financed from the general budget, detailing its observations on the annual accounts and underlying transactions; an opinion, based on its audits and given in the annual report in the form of a statement of assurance, on (i) the reliability of the accounts and (ii) the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions involving both revenue collected from taxable persons and payments to final beneficiaries.

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 (and other EU bodies) from its responsibility for management of a given budget by marking the end of that budget's existence. This discharge procedure may produce three outcomes: (i) the granting; (ii) postponement; (iii) or the refusal of the discharge.

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 Ombudsman’s appropriations for the financial year 2015 : the document comprises a series of detailed annexes, the most important concerning the implementation of the budget. As regards the Ombudsman’s expenditure, the document stated that the available appropriations in 2015 amounted to EUR 11 million , with an implementation rate of payments of 86.37%.

As regards the implementation of the Ombudsman’s budget, the 2015 Annual Activity Report stated that the Ombudsman concentrated on the three way strategy to improve the impact, relevance and visibility of the office.

This year was characterised by the following:

conducting strategic inquiries into problems in EU institutions (17 033 complaints of which 2007 were handled and 1060 requested were replied to by the Ombudsman – 261 inquiries were opened on the basis of complaints and 277 were closed); enhancing transparency in EU-US trade negotiations, for example, the Commission made great strides in proactively publishing many Transatlantic and Trade Investment (TTIP) documents; combating against ‘revolving door’ cases (to prevent former officials being hired by private organisations to put pressure on the Commission through lobbying); strengthening the transparency of activities of the European Central Bank and Frontex (to ensure that the fundamental rights of migrants who are forcibly returned from the EU are respected).

2015 also saw the launch of reform proposals for the European Network of Ombudsmen (ENO), such as conducting parallel inquiries at the national and European level.

2016/07/10
   EC - Non-legislative basic document published
Details

PURPOSE: presentation by the Commission of the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2015, as part of the 2015 discharge procedure.

Analysis of the accounts of the EU Institutions: European Ombudsman .

Legal reminder : the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the year 2015 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.

(1) Governance and budgetary principles : the organisational governance of the EU consists of institutions, agencies and other EU bodies. The main institutions in the sense of being responsible for drafting policies and taking decisions are the EP, the European Council, the Council and the Commission.

The EU Budget finances a wide range of policies and programmes throughout the EU. In accordance with the priorities set by the European Parliament and the Council in the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), the Commission carries out specific programmes, activities and projects in the field.

The budget is prepared by the Commission and usually agreed in mid-December by the Parliament and the Council, based on the procedure of Art. 314 TFEU.

According to the principle of budget equilibrium, the total revenue must equal total expenditure (payment appropriations) for a given financial year.

EU revenues : the EU has two main categories of funding: own resources revenues and sundry revenues. Own resources can be divided into traditional own resources (such as custom levies), the own resource based on value added tax (VAT) and the resource based on gross national income (GNI). Sundry revenues arising from the activities of the EU (e.g. competition fines) normally represent less than 10 % of total revenue. Own resources revenue make up the vast majority of EU funding.

Expenditure of the EU institutions : the EU's operational expenditure of these institutions takes different forms, depending on how the money is paid out and managed.

From 2014 onwards, the Commission classifies its expenditure as follows:

Direct management : the budget is implemented directly by the Commission services. Indirect management : the Commission confers tasks of implementation of the budget to bodies of EU law or national law, such as the EU agencies. Shared management : under this method of budget implementation tasks are delegated to Member States. About 80 % of the expenditure falls under this management mode covering such areas as agricultural spending and structural actions.

Consolidated annual accounts of the EU : this Commission document concerns the EU's consolidated accounts for the year 2015 and details how spending by the EU institutions and bodies was carried out. The consolidated annual accounts of the EU provide financial information on the activities of the institutions, agencies and other bodies of the EU from an accrual accounting and budgetary perspective.

It also presents the accounting principles applicable to the European budget (in particular, consolidation).

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.

Audit and discharge : the EU’s annual accounts and resource management are audited by the European Court of Auditors, its external auditor, which as part of its activities draws up for the European Parliament and the Council:

an annual report on the activities financed from the general budget, detailing its observations on the annual accounts and underlying transactions; an opinion, based on its audits and given in the annual report in the form of a statement of assurance, on (i) the reliability of the accounts and (ii) the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions involving both revenue collected from taxable persons and payments to final beneficiaries.

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 (and other EU bodies) from its responsibility for management of a given budget by marking the end of that budget's existence. This discharge procedure may produce three outcomes: (i) the granting; (ii) postponement; (iii) or the refusal of the discharge.

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 Ombudsman’s appropriations for the financial year 2015 : the document comprises a series of detailed annexes, the most important concerning the implementation of the budget. As regards the Ombudsman’s expenditure, the document stated that the available appropriations in 2015 amounted to EUR 11 million , with an implementation rate of payments of 86.37%.

As regards the implementation of the Ombudsman’s budget, the 2015 Annual Activity Report stated that the Ombudsman concentrated on the three way strategy to improve the impact, relevance and visibility of the office.

This year was characterised by the following:

conducting strategic inquiries into problems in EU institutions (17 033 complaints of which 2007 were handled and 1060 requested were replied to by the Ombudsman – 261 inquiries were opened on the basis of complaints and 277 were closed); enhancing transparency in EU-US trade negotiations, for example, the Commission made great strides in proactively publishing many Transatlantic and Trade Investment (TTIP) documents; combating against ‘revolving door’ cases (to prevent former officials being hired by private organisations to put pressure on the Commission through lobbying); strengthening the transparency of activities of the European Central Bank and Frontex (to ensure that the fundamental rights of migrants who are forcibly returned from the EU are respected).

2015 also saw the launch of reform proposals for the European Network of Ombudsmen (ENO), such as conducting parallel inquiries at the national and European level.

Documents

Votes

A8-0142/2017 - Benedek Jávor - Résolution #

2017/04/27 Outcome: +: 529, -: 91, 0: 12
DE IT ES FR RO BE PT HU NL SE BG CZ AT PL EL DK IE FI SI SK LT HR MT LV LU EE CY GB
Total
77
62
45
58
23
21
19
20
23
19
16
20
16
45
19
10
9
12
8
13
8
8
6
6
5
5
6
52
icon: PPE PPE
194

Denmark PPE

For (1)

1
5

Luxembourg PPE

2

Estonia PPE

For (1)

1

Cyprus PPE

1
icon: S&D S&D
153

Netherlands S&D

3

Ireland S&D

For (1)

1

Finland S&D

1

Slovenia S&D

For (1)

1

Lithuania S&D

1

Malta S&D

3

Latvia S&D

1

Luxembourg S&D

For (1)

1

Estonia S&D

For (1)

1

Cyprus S&D

2
icon: ALDE ALDE
57

Germany ALDE

2

Romania ALDE

2

Portugal ALDE

1

Sweden ALDE

2

Austria ALDE

For (1)

1

Ireland ALDE

For (1)

1

Slovenia ALDE

For (1)

1

Lithuania ALDE

2

Croatia ALDE

2

Luxembourg ALDE

For (1)

1

Estonia ALDE

2

United Kingdom ALDE

1
icon: Verts/ALE Verts/ALE
48

Italy Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Belgium Verts/ALE

2

Hungary Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Netherlands Verts/ALE

2

Austria Verts/ALE

3

Denmark Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Finland Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Slovenia Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Lithuania Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Croatia Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Latvia Verts/ALE

1

Luxembourg Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Estonia Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

United Kingdom Verts/ALE

5
icon: GUE/NGL GUE/NGL
45

Netherlands GUE/NGL

3

Sweden GUE/NGL

For (1)

1

Czechia GUE/NGL

2

Denmark GUE/NGL

For (1)

1

Ireland GUE/NGL

3

Finland GUE/NGL

For (1)

1

Cyprus GUE/NGL

Against (1)

2

United Kingdom GUE/NGL

1
icon: NI NI
13

Germany NI

2

France NI

1

Hungary NI

Abstain (1)

3

Poland NI

Against (1)

1

United Kingdom NI

Against (1)

1
icon: EFDD EFDD
36

Germany EFDD

Against (1)

1

France EFDD

Abstain (1)

1

Sweden EFDD

2

Czechia EFDD

Against (1)

1

Poland EFDD

1
icon: ENF ENF
29

Romania ENF

Abstain (1)

1

Belgium ENF

Abstain (1)

1

Netherlands ENF

3

Austria ENF

Against (1)

4

Poland ENF

Against (1)

1

United Kingdom ENF

Against (1)

1
icon: ECR ECR
56

Italy ECR

2

Romania ECR

For (1)

1

Netherlands ECR

Against (1)

1

Bulgaria ECR

Against (1)

1

Czechia ECR

2

Greece ECR

Against (1)

1

Denmark ECR

For (1)

1

Finland ECR

2

Lithuania ECR

Against (1)

1

Croatia ECR

Against (1)

1

Cyprus ECR

1
AmendmentsDossier
6 2016/2158(DEC)
2017/03/07 CONT 6 amendments...
source: 600.918

History

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

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  • date: 2016-07-11T00:00:00 docs: url: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexplus!prod!DocNumber&lg=EN&type_doc=COMfinal&an_doc=2016&nu_doc=0475 title: COM(2016)0475 type: Non-legislative basic document published celexid: CELEX:52016DC0475:EN body: EC commission: DG: url: http://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/budget_en title: Budget Commissioner: GEORGIEVA Kristalina type: Non-legislative basic document published
  • date: 2016-10-04T00:00:00 body: EP type: Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading committees: body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Constitutional Affairs committee: AFCO body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Foreign Affairs committee: AFET body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Agriculture and Rural Development committee: AGRI body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Budgets committee: BUDG body: EP shadows: group: EPP name: MARINESCU Marian-Jean group: S&D name: IVAN Cătălin Sorin group: ECR name: CZARNECKI Ryszard group: ALDE name: THEURER Michael group: GUE/NGL name: DE JONG Dennis group: EFD name: VALLI Marco group: ENF name: KAPPEL Barbara responsible: True committee: CONT date: 2016-08-08T00:00:00 committee_full: Budgetary Control rapporteur: group: Verts/ALE name: JÁVOR Benedek body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Culture and Education committee: CULT body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Development committee: DEVE body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Economic and Monetary Affairs committee: ECON body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Employment and Social Affairs committee: EMPL body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Environment, Public Health and Food Safety committee: ENVI body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Women’s Rights and Gender Equality committee: FEMM body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Internal Market and Consumer Protection committee: IMCO body: EP responsible: False committee_full: International Trade committee: INTA body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Industry, Research and Energy committee: ITRE body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Legal Affairs committee: JURI body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs committee: LIBE body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Fisheries committee: PECH body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Petitions committee: PETI body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Regional Development committee: REGI body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Transport and Tourism committee: TRAN
  • date: 2017-03-22T00:00:00 body: EP type: Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading committees: body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Constitutional Affairs committee: AFCO body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Foreign Affairs committee: AFET body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Agriculture and Rural Development committee: AGRI body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Budgets committee: BUDG body: EP shadows: group: EPP name: MARINESCU Marian-Jean group: S&D name: IVAN Cătălin Sorin group: ECR name: CZARNECKI Ryszard group: ALDE name: THEURER Michael group: GUE/NGL name: DE JONG Dennis group: EFD name: VALLI Marco group: ENF name: KAPPEL Barbara responsible: True committee: CONT date: 2016-08-08T00:00:00 committee_full: Budgetary Control rapporteur: group: Verts/ALE name: JÁVOR Benedek body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Culture and Education committee: CULT body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Development committee: DEVE body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Economic and Monetary Affairs committee: ECON body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Employment and Social Affairs committee: EMPL body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Environment, Public Health and Food Safety committee: ENVI body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Women’s Rights and Gender Equality committee: FEMM body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Internal Market and Consumer Protection committee: IMCO body: EP responsible: False committee_full: International Trade committee: INTA body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Industry, Research and Energy committee: ITRE body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Legal Affairs committee: JURI body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs committee: LIBE body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Fisheries committee: PECH body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Petitions committee: PETI body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Regional Development committee: REGI body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Transport and Tourism committee: TRAN
  • date: 2017-03-31T00:00:00 docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&mode=XML&reference=A8-2017-0142&language=EN type: Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading title: A8-0142/2017 body: EP type: Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
  • date: 2017-04-26T00:00:00 docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?secondRef=TOC&language=EN&reference=20170426&type=CRE type: Debate in Parliament title: Debate in Parliament body: EP type: Debate in Parliament
  • date: 2017-04-27T00:00:00 docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/sda.do?id=29361&l=en type: Results of vote in Parliament title: Results of vote in Parliament url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&language=EN&reference=P8-TA-2017-0153 type: Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading title: T8-0153/2017 body: EP type: Results of vote in Parliament
  • date: 2017-09-29T00:00:00 type: Final act published in Official Journal
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  • date: 2017-02-07T00:00:00 docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=COMPARL&mode=XML&language=EN&reference=PE593.845 title: PE593.845 type: Committee draft report body: EP
  • date: 2017-02-17T00:00:00 docs: url: http://register.consilium.europa.eu/content/out?lang=EN&typ=SET&i=ADV&RESULTSET=1&DOC_ID=5876%2F17&DOC_LANCD=EN&ROWSPP=25&NRROWS=500&ORDERBY=DOC_DATE+DESC title: 05876/2017 summary: Based on the observations contained in the report by the Court of Auditors, the Council called on the European Parliament to grant discharge to all of the EU institutions in respect of the implementation of their respective budgets for the financial year 2015 . The Council welcomed that the administrative and related expenditure of the EU institutions remained free from material error with an estimated level of error of 0.6 %, which is well below the materiality threshold. It noted with satisfaction that no serious weaknesses were identified by the Court in the supervisory and control systems and in the examined annual activity reports. The Council took note of a limited number of errors detected by the Court, notably in the recruitment and procurement procedures and in the management of staff allowances . type: Supplementary non-legislative basic document body: CSL
  • date: 2017-03-07T00:00:00 docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=COMPARL&mode=XML&language=EN&reference=PE600.918 title: PE600.918 type: Amendments tabled in committee body: EP
events
  • date: 2016-07-11T00:00:00 type: Non-legislative basic document published body: EC docs: url: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexplus!prod!DocNumber&lg=EN&type_doc=COMfinal&an_doc=2016&nu_doc=0475 title: EUR-Lex title: COM(2016)0475 summary: PURPOSE: presentation by the Commission of the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2015, as part of the 2015 discharge procedure. Analysis of the accounts of the EU Institutions: European Ombudsman . Legal reminder : the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the year 2015 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. (1) Governance and budgetary principles : the organisational governance of the EU consists of institutions, agencies and other EU bodies. The main institutions in the sense of being responsible for drafting policies and taking decisions are the EP, the European Council, the Council and the Commission. The EU Budget finances a wide range of policies and programmes throughout the EU. In accordance with the priorities set by the European Parliament and the Council in the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), the Commission carries out specific programmes, activities and projects in the field. The budget is prepared by the Commission and usually agreed in mid-December by the Parliament and the Council, based on the procedure of Art. 314 TFEU. According to the principle of budget equilibrium, the total revenue must equal total expenditure (payment appropriations) for a given financial year. EU revenues : the EU has two main categories of funding: own resources revenues and sundry revenues. Own resources can be divided into traditional own resources (such as custom levies), the own resource based on value added tax (VAT) and the resource based on gross national income (GNI). Sundry revenues arising from the activities of the EU (e.g. competition fines) normally represent less than 10 % of total revenue. Own resources revenue make up the vast majority of EU funding. Expenditure of the EU institutions : the EU's operational expenditure of these institutions takes different forms, depending on how the money is paid out and managed. From 2014 onwards, the Commission classifies its expenditure as follows: Direct management : the budget is implemented directly by the Commission services. Indirect management : the Commission confers tasks of implementation of the budget to bodies of EU law or national law, such as the EU agencies. Shared management : under this method of budget implementation tasks are delegated to Member States. About 80 % of the expenditure falls under this management mode covering such areas as agricultural spending and structural actions. Consolidated annual accounts of the EU : this Commission document concerns the EU's consolidated accounts for the year 2015 and details how spending by the EU institutions and bodies was carried out. The consolidated annual accounts of the EU provide financial information on the activities of the institutions, agencies and other bodies of the EU from an accrual accounting and budgetary perspective. It also presents the accounting principles applicable to the European budget (in particular, consolidation). 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. Audit and discharge : the EU’s annual accounts and resource management are audited by the European Court of Auditors, its external auditor, which as part of its activities draws up for the European Parliament and the Council: an annual report on the activities financed from the general budget, detailing its observations on the annual accounts and underlying transactions; an opinion, based on its audits and given in the annual report in the form of a statement of assurance, on (i) the reliability of the accounts and (ii) the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions involving both revenue collected from taxable persons and payments to final beneficiaries. 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 (and other EU bodies) from its responsibility for management of a given budget by marking the end of that budget's existence. This discharge procedure may produce three outcomes: (i) the granting; (ii) postponement; (iii) or the refusal of the discharge. 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 Ombudsman’s appropriations for the financial year 2015 : the document comprises a series of detailed annexes, the most important concerning the implementation of the budget. As regards the Ombudsman’s expenditure, the document stated that the available appropriations in 2015 amounted to EUR 11 million , with an implementation rate of payments of 86.37%. As regards the implementation of the Ombudsman’s budget, the 2015 Annual Activity Report stated that the Ombudsman concentrated on the three way strategy to improve the impact, relevance and visibility of the office. This year was characterised by the following: conducting strategic inquiries into problems in EU institutions (17 033 complaints of which 2007 were handled and 1060 requested were replied to by the Ombudsman – 261 inquiries were opened on the basis of complaints and 277 were closed); enhancing transparency in EU-US trade negotiations, for example, the Commission made great strides in proactively publishing many Transatlantic and Trade Investment (TTIP) documents; combating against ‘revolving door’ cases (to prevent former officials being hired by private organisations to put pressure on the Commission through lobbying); strengthening the transparency of activities of the European Central Bank and Frontex (to ensure that the fundamental rights of migrants who are forcibly returned from the EU are respected). 2015 also saw the launch of reform proposals for the European Network of Ombudsmen (ENO), such as conducting parallel inquiries at the national and European level.
  • date: 2016-10-04T00:00:00 type: Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading body: EP
  • date: 2017-03-22T00:00:00 type: Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading body: EP
  • date: 2017-03-31T00:00:00 type: Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading body: EP docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&mode=XML&reference=A8-2017-0142&language=EN title: A8-0142/2017 summary: The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Benedek JÁVOR (Greens/EFA, HU) calling on the European Parliament to give discharge to the European Ombudsman in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Ombudsman for the financial year 2015. It welcomed the fact that the Court of Auditors observed that no significant weaknesses had been identified in respect of the audited topics relating to human resources and procurement for the Ombudsman. The Court concluded that the payments as a whole for the year ended on 31 December 2015 for administrative and other expenditure of the institutions and bodies were free from material error . Financial and budgetary management : the Ombudsman’s budget is purely administrative and amounted in 2015 to EUR 10 346 105 (EUR 9 857 002 in 2014). The total appropriations, 92.32 % were committed (compared to 97.87 % in 2014) and 86.19 % paid (compared to 93.96 % in 2014), with a utilisation rate of 92.32 % (compared to 97.87 % in 2014). The utilisation rate continued to decrease in 2015 . The lowering of the utilisation rate in 2015 influenced the Ombudsman’s decision to reduce several budget lines, namely, those for missions, representation expenses and publications, and translations. Ombudsman’s actions : Members made a series of observations and recommendations on the management of the Ombudsman: extend the scope of the concept of performance-based budgeting (PBB) in its daily activities: this concept should not apply only to the Ombudsman’s budget as a whole but should also include the setting of specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-based (SMART) targets to individual departments, units and staffs’ annual plans; improve the transparency of recruitment conditions and processes; ensure that an updated version of its organisational chart is available on its website; analyse the situation and to work out rules in order to avoid conflicts of interests if it considers it to be necessary; monitor the implementation of internal rules for the protection of whistleblowers on an ongoing basis and to evaluate whether they provide appropriate protection for Parliament’s accredited parliamentary assistants interpret maladministration as widely as possible when performing its duties and to develop closer cooperation with Parliament’s Committee on budgetary control in its strategic work. The report noted that the results achieved in the complaints handling in 2015 and welcomed the fact that the Union institutions complied with the Ombudsman's proposals at a rate of 90 %. The Ombudsman is called upon to provide a breakdown of compliance of the Union institutions with its proposals in its annual activity reports. Members welcomed the achievement of gender balance at management level in 2015 but called on the Ombudsman to correct this geographic imbalance at middle and senior management level, and, in particular, the overrepresentation of managers emanating from the Member State of which the Ombudsman is a national. Lastly, Members welcomed the provision of exhaustive information on all the human resources at the Ombudsman’s disposal, broken down according to grade, sex and nationality. That information be automatically included in the Ombudsman’s annual activity report. They expected the Ombudsman to continue to strive for consistent quality in its annual activity report.
  • date: 2017-04-26T00:00:00 type: Debate in Parliament body: EP docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?secondRef=TOC&language=EN&reference=20170426&type=CRE title: Debate in Parliament
  • date: 2017-04-27T00:00:00 type: Results of vote in Parliament body: EP docs: url: https://oeil.secure.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/sda.do?id=29361&l=en title: Results of vote in Parliament
  • date: 2017-04-27T00:00:00 type: Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading body: EP docs: url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&language=EN&reference=P8-TA-2017-0153 title: T8-0153/2017 summary: The European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the European Ombudsman in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Ombudsman for the financial year 2015. In its resolution accompanying the decision on discharge, adopted by 529 votes to 91 with 12 abstentions, Parliament welcomed the fact that the Court of Auditors observed that no significant weaknesses had been identified in respect of the audited topics relating to human resources and procurement for the Ombudsman. The payments as a whole for the year ended on 31 December 2015 for administrative expenditure were free from material error . Financial and budgetary management : the Ombudsman’s budget amounted in 2015 to EUR 10 346 105 (EUR 9 857 002 in 2014). The total appropriations, 92.32 % were committed (compared to 97.87 % in 2014) and 86.19 % paid (compared to 93.96 % in 2014). The utilisation rate continued to decrease in 2015 . The lowering of the utilisation rate in 2015 influenced the Ombudsman’s decision to reduce several budget lines, namely, those for missions, representation expenses and publications, and translations. Ombudsman’s actions : Members welcomed the efficient implementation of the annual management plan in 2015 within the strategy towards 2019. The large majority of the targets settled by the Ombudsman to assess its performance through key performance indicators were reached. Members made a series of observations and recommendations on the management of the Ombudsman: extend the scope of the concept of performance-based budgeting (PBB) in its daily activities: this concept should not apply only to the Ombudsman’s budget as a whole but should also include the setting of specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-based (SMART) targets to individual departments, units and staffs’ annual plans; improve the transparency of recruitment conditions and processes; ensure that an updated version of its organisational chart is available on its website; analyse the situation and to work out rules in order to avoid conflicts of interests if it considers it to be necessary; monitor the implementation of internal rules for the protection of whistleblowers on an ongoing basis and to evaluate whether they provide appropriate protection for Parliament’s accredited parliamentary assistants; inform the discharge authority regularly about the impact of its inquiries; interpret maladministration as widely as possible when performing its duties and to develop closer cooperation with Parliament’s Committee on budgetary control in its strategic work. As regards the handling of complaints , Parliament welcomed the fact that the Union institutions complied with the Ombudsman's proposals at a rate of 90 %. The Ombudsman is called upon to provide a breakdown of compliance of the Union institutions with its proposals in its annual activity reports. While welcoming the fact that gender balance was achieved at management level in 2015, Members called on the Ombudsman to correct the geographic imbalance at middle and senior management level, and, in particular, the overrepresentation of managers emanating from the Member State of which the Ombudsman is a national. Lastly, Members welcomed the provision of exhaustive information on all the human resources at the Ombudsman’s disposal, broken down according to grade, sex and nationality. That information be automatically included in the Ombudsman’s annual activity report.
  • date: 2017-04-27T00:00:00 type: End of procedure in Parliament body: EP
  • date: 2017-09-29T00:00:00 type: Final act published in Official Journal summary: PURPOSE: to grant discharge to the European Ombudsman for the financial year 2015. NON-LEGISLATIVE ACT: Decision (EU) 2017/1626 of the European Parliament on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2015, Section VIII — European Ombudsman. CONTENT: with the present decision, the European Parliament grants the European Ombudsman discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Ombudsman for the financial year 2015. This decision is in line with the European Parliament's resolution adopted on 27 April 2017 and comprises a series of observations that form an integral part of the discharge decision (please refer to the summary of the opinion of 27 April 2017). Amongst Parliament’s main observations in the resolution accompanying the discharge decision, the latter called for further improvement of the transparency of recruitment conditions and processes. It welcomed the continuation of the Ombudsman's investigations into ‘revolving door’ cases in the Commission. As regards the process of introducing internal rules for the protection of whistleblowers, Parliament asked the Ombudsman to monitor the implementation of those rules on an ongoing basis and to evaluate whether they provide appropriate protection for Parliament's accredited parliamentary assistants . The clear geographic imbalance at middle and senior management level should also be remedied according to Parliament.
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  • body: EC dg: url: http://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/budget_en title: Budget commissioner: GEORGIEVA Kristalina
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  • The European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the European Ombudsman in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Ombudsman for the financial year 2015.

    In its resolution accompanying the decision on discharge, adopted by 529 votes to 91 with 12 abstentions, Parliament welcomed the fact that the Court of Auditors observed that no significant weaknesses had been identified in respect of the audited topics relating to human resources and procurement for the Ombudsman. 

    The payments as a whole for the year ended on 31 December 2015 for administrative expenditure were free from material error.

    Financial and budgetary management: the Ombudsman’s budget amounted in 2015 to EUR 10 346 105 (EUR 9 857 002 in 2014). The total appropriations, 92.32 % were committed (compared to 97.87 % in 2014) and 86.19 % paid (compared to 93.96 % in 2014).

    The utilisation rate continued to decrease in 2015. The lowering of the utilisation rate in 2015 influenced the Ombudsman’s decision to reduce several budget lines, namely, those for missions, representation expenses and publications, and translations.

    Ombudsman’s actions: Members welcomed the efficient implementation of the annual management plan in 2015 within the strategy towards 2019. The large majority of the targets settled by the Ombudsman to assess its performance through key performance indicators were reached.

    Members made a series of observations and recommendations on the management of the Ombudsman:

    • extend the scope of the concept of performance-based budgeting (PBB) in its daily activities: this concept should not apply only to the Ombudsman’s budget as a whole but should also include the setting of specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-based (SMART) targets to individual departments, units and staffs’ annual plans;
    • improve the transparency of recruitment conditions and processes;
    • ensure that an updated version of its organisational chart is available on its website;
    • analyse the situation and to work out rules in order to avoid conflicts of interests if it considers it to be necessary;
    • monitor the implementation of internal rules for the protection of whistleblowers on an ongoing basis and to evaluate whether they provide appropriate protection for Parliament’s accredited parliamentary assistants;
    • inform the discharge authority regularly about the impact of its inquiries;
    • interpret maladministration as widely as possible when performing its duties and to develop closer cooperation with Parliament’s Committee on budgetary control in its strategic work.

    As regards the handling of complaints, Parliament welcomed the fact that the Union institutions complied with the Ombudsman's proposals at a rate of 90 %. The Ombudsman is called upon to provide a breakdown of compliance of the Union institutions with its proposals in its annual activity reports.

    While welcoming the fact that gender balance was achieved at management level in 2015, Members called on the Ombudsman to correct the geographic imbalance at middle and senior management level, and, in particular, the overrepresentation of managers emanating from the Member State of which the Ombudsman is a national.

    Lastly, Members welcomed the provision of exhaustive information on all the human resources at the Ombudsman’s disposal, broken down according to grade, sex and nationality. That information be automatically included in the Ombudsman’s annual activity report.

activities/5
date
2017-04-27T00:00:00
docs
url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&language=EN&reference=P8-TA-2017-0153 type: Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading title: T8-0153/2017
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activities/4/docs
  • url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?secondRef=TOC&language=EN&reference=20170426&type=CRE type: Debate in Parliament title: Debate in Parliament
activities/5
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2017-04-27T00:00:00
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EP
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  • The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Benedek JÁVOR (Greens/EFA, HU) calling on the European Parliament to give discharge to the European Ombudsman in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Ombudsman for the financial year 2015.

    It welcomed the fact that the Court of Auditors observed that no significant weaknesses had been identified in respect of the audited topics relating to human resources and procurement for the Ombudsman. The Court concluded that the payments as a whole for the year ended on 31 December 2015 for administrative and other expenditure of the institutions and bodies were free from material error.

    Financial and budgetary management: the Ombudsman’s budget is purely administrative and amounted in 2015 to EUR 10 346 105 (EUR 9 857 002 in 2014). The total appropriations, 92.32 % were committed (compared to 97.87 % in 2014) and 86.19 % paid (compared to 93.96 % in 2014), with a utilisation rate of 92.32 % (compared to 97.87 % in 2014). The utilisation rate continued to decrease in 2015. The lowering of the utilisation rate in 2015 influenced the Ombudsman’s decision to reduce several budget lines, namely, those for missions, representation expenses and publications, and translations.

    Ombudsman’s actions: Members made a series of observations and recommendations on the management of the Ombudsman:

    • extend the scope of the concept of performance-based budgeting (PBB) in its daily activities: this concept should not apply only to the Ombudsman’s budget as a whole but should also include the setting of specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-based (SMART) targets to individual departments, units and staffs’ annual plans;
    • improve the transparency of recruitment conditions and processes;
    • ensure that an updated version of its organisational chart is available on its website;
    • analyse the situation and to work out rules in order to avoid conflicts of interests if it considers it to be necessary;
    • monitor the implementation of internal rules for the protection of whistleblowers on an ongoing basis and to evaluate whether they provide appropriate protection for Parliament’s accredited parliamentary assistants
    • interpret maladministration as widely as possible when performing its duties and to develop closer cooperation with Parliament’s Committee on budgetary control in its strategic work.

    The report noted that the results achieved in the complaints handling in 2015 and welcomed the fact that the Union institutions complied with the Ombudsman's proposals at a rate of 90 %. The Ombudsman is called upon to provide a breakdown of compliance of the Union institutions with its proposals in its annual activity reports.

    Members welcomed the achievement of gender balance at management level in 2015 but called on the Ombudsman to correct this geographic imbalance at middle and senior management level, and, in particular, the overrepresentation of managers emanating from the Member State of which the Ombudsman is a national.

    Lastly, Members welcomed the provision of exhaustive information on all the human resources at the Ombudsman’s disposal, broken down according to grade, sex and nationality. That information be automatically included in the Ombudsman’s annual activity report. They expected the Ombudsman to continue to strive for consistent quality in its annual activity report.

activities/3/docs
  • url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&mode=XML&reference=A8-2017-0142&language=EN type: Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading title: A8-0142/2017
activities/3
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2017-03-31T00:00:00
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EP
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Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
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  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Constitutional Affairs committee: AFCO
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Foreign Affairs committee: AFET
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Agriculture and Rural Development committee: AGRI
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Budgets committee: BUDG
  • body: EP shadows: group: EPP name: MARINESCU Marian-Jean group: S&D name: IVAN Cătălin Sorin group: ECR name: CZARNECKI Ryszard group: ALDE name: THEURER Michael group: GUE/NGL name: DE JONG Dennis group: EFD name: VALLI Marco group: ENF name: KAPPEL Barbara responsible: True committee: CONT date: 2016-08-08T00:00:00 committee_full: Budgetary Control rapporteur: group: Verts/ALE name: JÁVOR Benedek
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Culture and Education committee: CULT
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Development committee: DEVE
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Economic and Monetary Affairs committee: ECON
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Employment and Social Affairs committee: EMPL
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Environment, Public Health and Food Safety committee: ENVI
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Women’s Rights and Gender Equality committee: FEMM
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Internal Market and Consumer Protection committee: IMCO
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: International Trade committee: INTA
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Industry, Research and Energy committee: ITRE
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Legal Affairs committee: JURI
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs committee: LIBE
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Fisheries committee: PECH
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Petitions committee: PETI
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Regional Development committee: REGI
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Transport and Tourism committee: TRAN
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2017-03-23T00:00:00
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2017-03-22T00:00:00
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Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament EP 150
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2017-04-26T00:00:00
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EP
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CELEX:52016DC0475:EN
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CELEX:52016DC0475:EN
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http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/budget/
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http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/budget/
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activities/0/docs/0/text
  • PURPOSE: presentation by the Commission of the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2015, as part of the 2015 discharge procedure.

    Analysis of the accounts of the EU Institutions: European Ombudsman.

    Legal reminder: the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the year 2015 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.

    (1) Governance and budgetary principles: the organisational governance of the EU consists of institutions, agencies and other EU bodies. The main institutions in the sense of being responsible for drafting policies and taking decisions are the EP, the European Council, the Council and the Commission.

    The EU Budget finances a wide range of policies and programmes throughout the EU. In accordance with the priorities set by the European Parliament and the Council in the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), the Commission carries out specific programmes, activities and projects in the field.

    The budget is prepared by the Commission and usually agreed in mid-December by the Parliament and the Council, based on the procedure of Art. 314 TFEU.

    According to the principle of budget equilibrium, the total revenue must equal total expenditure (payment appropriations) for a given financial year.

    EU revenues: the EU has two main categories of funding: own resources revenues and sundry revenues. Own resources can be divided into traditional own resources (such as custom levies), the own resource based on value added tax (VAT) and the resource based on gross national income (GNI). Sundry revenues arising from the activities of the EU (e.g. competition fines) normally represent less than 10 % of total revenue. Own resources revenue make up the vast majority of EU funding.

    Expenditure of the EU institutions: the EU's operational expenditure of these institutions takes different forms, depending on how the money is paid out and managed.

    From 2014 onwards, the Commission classifies its expenditure as follows:

    • Direct management: the budget is implemented directly by the Commission services.
    • Indirect management: the Commission confers tasks of implementation of the budget to bodies of EU law or national law, such as the EU agencies.
    • Shared management: under this method of budget implementation tasks are delegated to Member States. About 80 % of the expenditure falls under this management mode covering such areas as agricultural spending and structural actions.

    Consolidated annual accounts of the EU: this Commission document concerns the EU's consolidated accounts for the year 2015 and details how spending by the EU institutions and bodies was carried out. The consolidated annual accounts of the EU provide financial information on the activities of the institutions, agencies and other bodies of the EU from an accrual accounting and budgetary perspective.

    It also presents the accounting principles applicable to the European budget (in particular, consolidation).

    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.

    Audit and discharge: the EU’s annual accounts and resource management are audited by the European Court of Auditors, its external auditor, which as part of its activities draws up for the European Parliament and the Council:

    • an annual report on the activities financed from the general budget, detailing its observations on the annual accounts and underlying transactions;
    • an opinion, based on its audits and given in the annual report in the form of a statement of assurance, on (i) the reliability of the accounts and (ii) the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions involving both revenue collected from taxable persons and payments to final beneficiaries.

    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 (and other EU bodies) from its responsibility for management of a given budget by marking the end of that budget's existence. This discharge procedure may produce three outcomes: (i) the granting; (ii) postponement; (iii) or the refusal of the discharge.

    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 Ombudsman’s appropriations for the financial year 2015: the document comprises a series of detailed annexes, the most important concerning the implementation of the budget. As regards the Ombudsman’s expenditure, the document stated that the available appropriations in 2015 amounted to EUR 11 million, with an implementation rate of payments of 86.37%.

    As regards the implementation of the Ombudsman’s budget, the 2015 Annual Activity Report stated that the Ombudsman concentrated on the three way strategy to improve the impact, relevance and visibility of the office.

    This year was characterised by the following:

    • conducting strategic inquiries into problems in EU institutions (17 033 complaints of which 2007 were handled and 1060 requested were replied to by the Ombudsman – 261 inquiries were opened on the basis of complaints and 277 were closed);
    • enhancing transparency in EU-US trade negotiations, for example, the Commission made great strides in proactively publishing many Transatlantic and Trade Investment (TTIP) documents;
    • combating against ‘revolving door’ cases (to prevent former officials being hired by private organisations to put pressure on the Commission through lobbying);
    • strengthening the transparency of activities of the European Central Bank and Frontex (to ensure that the fundamental rights of migrants who are forcibly returned from the EU are respected).

    2015 also saw the launch of reform proposals for the European Network of Ombudsmen (ENO), such as conducting parallel inquiries at the national and European level.

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  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Constitutional Affairs committee: AFCO
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Foreign Affairs committee: AFET
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Agriculture and Rural Development committee: AGRI
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Budgets committee: BUDG
  • body: EP shadows: group: S&D name: IVAN Cătălin Sorin group: GUE/NGL name: DE JONG Dennis responsible: True committee: CONT date: 2016-08-08T00:00:00 committee_full: Budgetary Control rapporteur: group: Verts/ALE name: ŠOLTES Igor
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Culture and Education committee: CULT
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Development committee: DEVE
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Economic and Monetary Affairs committee: ECON
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Employment and Social Affairs committee: EMPL
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Environment, Public Health and Food Safety committee: ENVI
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Women’s Rights and Gender Equality committee: FEMM
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Internal Market and Consumer Protection committee: IMCO
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: International Trade committee: INTA
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Industry, Research and Energy committee: ITRE
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Legal Affairs committee: JURI
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs committee: LIBE
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Fisheries committee: PECH
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Petitions committee: PETI
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Regional Development committee: REGI
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Transport and Tourism committee: TRAN
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2016-10-04T00:00:00
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2017-03-23T00:00:00
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ŠOLTES Igor
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JÁVOR Benedek
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MARINESCU Marian-Jean
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CZARNECKI Ryszard
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THEURER Michael
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VALLI Marco
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activities
  • date: 2016-07-11T00:00:00 docs: url: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexplus!prod!DocNumber&lg=EN&type_doc=COMfinal&an_doc=2016&nu_doc=0475 title: COM(2016)0475 type: Non-legislative basic document published celexid: CELEX:52016DC0475:EN body: EC commission: DG: url: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/budget/ title: Budget Commissioner: GEORGIEVA Kristalina type: Non-legislative basic document published
committees
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Constitutional Affairs committee: AFCO
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Foreign Affairs committee: AFET
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Agriculture and Rural Development committee: AGRI
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Budgets committee: BUDG
  • body: EP shadows: group: S&D name: IVAN Cătălin Sorin group: GUE/NGL name: DE JONG Dennis responsible: True committee: CONT date: 2016-08-08T00:00:00 committee_full: Budgetary Control rapporteur: group: Verts/ALE name: ŠOLTES Igor
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Culture and Education committee: CULT
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Development committee: DEVE
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Economic and Monetary Affairs committee: ECON
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Employment and Social Affairs committee: EMPL
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Environment, Public Health and Food Safety committee: ENVI
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Women’s Rights and Gender Equality committee: FEMM
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Internal Market and Consumer Protection committee: IMCO
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: International Trade committee: INTA
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Industry, Research and Energy committee: ITRE
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Legal Affairs committee: JURI
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs committee: LIBE
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Fisheries committee: PECH
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Petitions committee: PETI
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Regional Development committee: REGI
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Transport and Tourism committee: TRAN
links
other
  • body: EC dg: url: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/budget/ title: Budget commissioner: GEORGIEVA Kristalina
procedure
stage_reached
Preparatory phase in Parliament
subject
8.70.03.05 2015 discharge
type
DEC - Discharge procedure
reference
2016/2158(DEC)
title
2015 discharge: EU general budget, European Ombudsman