A4-0058/96

Resolution giving discharge to the Commission in respect of the EAGGF clearance of accounts for the 1991 financial year

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community and in particular Article 206 thereof,

- having regard to Article 89 of the Financial Regulation,

- having regard to the budget for the 1991 financial year,

- having regard to the revenue and expenditure accounts and the financial statement of the European Communities for the 1991 financial year (SEC(92)507-510),

- having regard to the Commission's clearance of accounts decisions for the 1991 financial year of 29 April 1994 ((OJ L 120, 11.5.1994, p. 59. )) and 21 December 1994 ((OJ L 352, 31.12.1994, p. 82. )),

- having regard to the opinion 6/95 of the Court of Auditors on the Commission's clearance of accounts decisions for the 1991 financial year, and the replies of the Commission (C4-0591/95) ((OJ C 10, 15.1.1996. )),

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A4- 0058/96),

A. whereas the discharge procedure for any given financial year cannot be considered complete until the European Parliament has examined the relevant clearance of accounts decisions making financial corrections to expenditure implemented during the year in question,

B. whereas the European Parliament and the European Commission have agreed to institute a procedure whereby the former shall examine the latter's decisions on clearance of accounts and shall reach a decision complementary to its discharge decision for the relevant financial year, while the Commission forwards to Parliament the relevant documents,

1. Supports strongly the concept of the clearance of accounts system as one which allows the Commission to recover, on behalf of the Community budget, expenditure not in conformity with the applicable regulations;

2. Accepts the use of flat-rate financial corrections as a legitimate means of recovering funds from Member States on condition that they are used as an objective assessment of the actual loss to the Community budget owing to ineligible or irregular expenditure in the Member States;

3. Deplores the practice, apparent in the 1991 clearance of accounts procedure, of treating the amounts of financial corrections as negotiable on the basis of criteria other than objective evidence of the actual loss borne by the Community budget; calls therefore on the Commission to cease this practice immediately in order not to be confronted with a possible negative decision on future clearance of accounts decisions;

4. Considers that any such negotiation of the amounts of financial corrections transforms a supposedly technical procedure into a political one; believes that revisions of financial corrections on any other than technical grounds amount to a budgetary decision which must therefore receive the prior assent of the budgetary authority; urges the Commission therefore to inform and consult the budgetary authority on any ruling which is not or not entirely based on objective evidence before a final decision is taken;

5. Observes that the most extreme example of a negotiable financial correction was provided by the case of the corrections made under the 1991 procedure relating to the application of milk quotas in certain Member States, which led, in the first instance, to a massive loss to the Community budget;

6. Notes that the first tranche of the amounts to be recovered in connection with the milk quotas case has been received; notes also, however, that the means of repayment employed is in breach of budgetary regulations, and in particular the principle of annuality;

7. Agrees with the Commission that the staff available to it for clearance of accounts work is insufficient; calls on the Commission therefore to increase the strength of the relevant department by 15 posts by redeployment within the directorate-general, or, if this is not possible, to come forward to the budgetary authority with an appropriate proposal;

8. Welcomes the creation of the EAGGF Conciliation Body as a forum where the Commission and Member States can establish in a spirit of cooperation the amount due to be repaid to the Community budget; warns, however, against its use as a forum for political negotiation or as a test bed for possible recourse to the Court of Justice, and will therefore give special attention to the annual reports from the Commission on the Conciliation Body;

9. Asks the Commission to consider methods by which some form of binding conciliation procedure could be introduced for the resolution of disputes relating to financial corrections under the clearance of accounts procedure, without prejudice to the legal rights and obligations of both Commission and Member States;

10. Points out that the great majority of the defects apparent in the clearance of accounts procedure ultimately owe their existence to the nature of the Common Agricultural Policy itself, and in particular the excessively complex legislation which characterises it; believes therefore that the effectiveness of reform of the clearance of accounts procedure depends on radical simplification and reform of the CAP itself;

11. Subject to the above comments, gives a positive decision on the 1991 clearance of accounts as a complement to its discharge decision for the 1991 financial year;

12. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission and the Council.