PURPOSE: presentation by the Commission of the
consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the
financial year 2016, as part of the 2016 discharge
procedure.
Analysis of the accounts of the European Agency for
the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders
(Frontex).
CONTENT: the organisational governance of the EU
consists of institutions, agencies and other EU bodies whose
expenditure is included in the general budget of the
Union.
This Commission document concerns the EU's
consolidated accounts for the year 2016 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 is the responsibility of the Commission's
Accounting Officer to prepare the EU's consolidated annual accounts
and ensure that they present fairly, in all material aspects, the
financial position, the result of the operations and the cash flows
of the EU institutions and bodies, including the European Agency
for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External
Borders (Frontex), with a view to granting
discharge.
Discharge procedure: the
final step of a budget lifecycle is the discharge of the budget for
a given financial year. It 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. The European Parliament is the
discharge authority within the EU.
The discharge procedure may produce three outcomes:
(i) the granting; (ii) postponement or; (iii) the refusal of the
discharge.
The final discharge report including specific
recommendations to the Commission for action is adopted in plenary
by the European Parliament and are subject to an annual follow up
report in which the Commission outlines the concrete actions it has
taken to implement the recommendations made.
Each agency is subject to its own discharge procedure,
including Frontex.
FRONTEX: the Agency,
which is located in Warsaw (PL), was established by Council
Regulation (EC) No 2007/2004, amended by Regulation
(EC) No 863/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
In 2016, Frontexs mandate was boosted with the adoption of
the European
Border and Coast Guard Regulation (EU) 2016/1624. Under the new
mandate, the role and activities were significantly expanded with
its permanent staff being more than doubled. While the
European Border and Coast Guard Agency replaces the
European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation
at the External Borders of the Member States of the European
Union, it has the same legal personality and the same name:
Frontex.
As regards Frontexs accounts, these are presented in detail in the document on the
consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for
2016:
Commitment appropriations:
- available: EUR 256
million;
- made: EUR 244
million.
Payment
appropriations:
- available: EUR 300
million;
- made: EUR 199
million.
For further details on expenditure, please refer to final
accounts of Frontex.