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 Euratom Supply
Agency (ESA).
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 Euratom Supply
Agency (ESA), 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 the ESA.
The Euratom Supply Agency: the ESA, which is located in Luxembourg (LU), was
established by Council Decision 2008/114/EC, Euratom in order to
ensure a regular and equitable supply of nuclear fuels to EU
users.
As regards the accounts,
in 2016, the Agencys budget remained stable at EUR 125 000
(compared to 2015). Its revenue and expenditure were in
balance.
ESAs expenses consist only of administrative
costs. The Agency neither manages operational budget lines nor
provides grants. The bulk of the Agencys administrative
expenses is covered directly by the European Commission budget, and
is not acknowledged in the Agencys accounts.
ESAs financial statements from 31 December 2016
show a budget execution of EUR 117 926, or 94 % of commitment
appropriations (against 99 % in 2015). Unused amounts are returned
to the EU budget.
For further details on
expenditure, please refer to the ESAs
annual accounts