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 Police
Office (EUROPOL).
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 Police
Office (EUROPOL), 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 EUROPOL.
EUROPOL: the European
Police Office (the Office), which is located in The Hague (NL), was
established by Council
Decision 2009/371/JHA. Europols mission is to support the
Member States in preventing and combating all forms of serious
international and organised crime and terrorism. It works closely
with law enforcement agencies in the 28 EU Member States and in
other non-EU partner states.
As regards the accounts,
the revenue of Europol was almost fully covered by the Community
subsidy, amounting to EUR 102.27 million in 2016.
The commitment implementation rate at the end of
December was 99.8%, which is similar to the rate at the same time
last year and above the target of 95%. The payment rate was 91%,
which is 2% higher than last year and above the target of 90%. The
carry forward from 2016 to 2017 amounts to EUR 8.9
million.
Commitment appropriations:
- available: EUR 122
million;
- made: EUR 115
million.
Payment appropriations:
- available: EUR 133 million;
- paid: EUR 112 million.
For further details on
expenditure, please refer to EUROPOLs
consolidated annual activity report.