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 Banking
Authority (EBA).
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
Banking Authority (EBA), 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 EBA.
The European Banking Authority: the EBA, which is located in London (UK), was
established by Regulation
(EU) No 1093/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council
and has the aim of protecting the public interest and contributing
to the stability and efficiency of the banking system in the short,
medium and long term for the economy of the European
Union.
As regards the accounts,
the EBA budget execution in 2016 was 96.8%. The EBA considered this
an acceptable result as 2016 was a difficult year for its budget
management, principally due to the UK referendum on EU membership.
The political uncertainty also negatively impacted the EBA
recruitment plans and thus expenditure on staff.
Commitment appropriations:
- available: EUR 36 million;
- made: EUR 35 million.
Payment appropriations:
- available: EUR 40 million;
- paid: EUR 35 million.
For further details on
expenditure, please refer to the 2016
consolidated annual accounts of the European Banking
Authority.