1999/323/EC: Council Decision of 3 May 1999 on the establishment of a Financial Regulation governing the budgetary aspects of the management by the Secretary- General of the Council, of contracts concluded in his name, on behalf of certain Member States, relating to the installation and the functioning of the Help Desk Server of the Management Unit and of the Sirene Network Phase II
Date: 1999-05-03
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: Council of the European Union, Secretary General of an Institution, contractual liability, financial management, financial regulation, implementation of the budget

13. 5. 1999

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Official Journal of the European Communities

L 123/51

COUNCIL DECISION

of 3 May 1999

on the establishment of a Financial Regulation governing the budgetary aspects
of the management by the Secretary-General of the Council, of contracts
concluded in his name, on behalf of certain Member States, relating to the
installation and the functioning of the ‘Help Desk Server' of the Management
Unit and of the Sirene Network Phase II

(1999/323/EC)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the first sentence of the second subpara-
graph of Article 2(1) of the Protocol annexed to the Treaty
on European Union and to the Treaty establishing the
European Community, integrating the Schengen acquis
into the framework of the European Union,

(1) Whereas the Secretary General of the Council was
authorised by the Council Decision 1999/322/EC
of 3 May 1999 to act, in the context of the integra-
tion of the Schengen acquis within the European
Union, as representative of certain Member States
for the purposes of concluding contracts relating to
the installation and the functioning of the ‘Help
Desk Server' of the Management Unit and of the
Sirene Network Phase II and to manage such
contracts (1);

(2) Whereas the financial obligations arising under
those contracts are not borne by the budget of the
European Communities; whereas,
the
provisions of
the Financial Regulation of 21
December 1977 applicable to the general budget of
the European Communities (2) do not apply;

therefore,

(3) Whereas

it

is

therefore necessary to establish
specific rules to define the detailed procedures for
establishing and implementing the budget required
those
to meet
contracts, for recovering the contributions to be
paid by the States concerned and for the presenta-
tion and auditing of the accounts,

the obligations

arising under

expenditure required to meet
the obligations arising
under the contracts referred to in the Council Decision of
3 May 1999.

Article 2

This Financial Regulation lays down the detailed rules for
the establishment and implementation of the budget.

Article 3

referred to in Article 1(1) of

The budget shall be subdivided into titles according
1.
to the contracts to be managed. The title concerning the
contract
the Council
Decision of 3 May 1999 shall be subdivided into chapters
covering the installation budget and the operating budget
for the Sirene Network Phase II respectively. If necessary,
each chapter shall be subdivided into articles.

Appropriations opened under each title may not be

2.
assigned to other expenditure titles.

HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:

CHAPTER I

General principles

Article 1

For the purposes of this Financial Regulation, the ‘budget'
is the instrument which sets out forecasts of, and author-
ises in advance, for each financial year, the revenue and

(1) See page 49 of this Official Journal.
(2) OJ L 356, 31.12.1977, p. 1.

Article 4

1.
All revenue and expenditure shall be entered in full
in the budget and in the accounts without any adjustment
against each other. Total revenue shall cover total expen-
diture.

The financial year shall run from 1 January to 31

2.
December.

Any budget contributions by the States referred to in
3.
Article 21 paid before the beginning of the financial year
which they concern shall be credited to the budget for
that financial year.

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The expenditure of a financial year shall be entered
4.
in the accounts for that year on the basis of expenditure
for which the financial controller received authorisation
no later than 31 December and for which the corre-
sponding payments were made by the accounting officer
before the following 15 January.

CHAPTER II

Establishment of the budget

Article 5

1.

The budget shall be drawn up in euro.

2.
The Secretary-General of the Council shall forward
the preliminary draft budget to the Schengen Information
System Working Group, hereafter referred to as the ‘SIS
Working Group', before 30 September and attach an
explanatory memorandum.

The SIS Working Group shall deliver its opinion on

3.
that preliminary draft.

The Secretary-General

4.
shall establish the draft
budget and forward it by 31 October to the States referred
to in Article 21.

The Member States

5.
referred to in Article 21,
meeting within the Council, shall adopt the budget before
the end of the year.

6.
The decision to adopt the budget, duly notified by
the Secretary-General to the States referred to in Article
21, shall mark the point at which those States’ contribu-
tions fall due.

Article 6

If the budget has not been finally adopted at the

1.
beginning of the financial year:

(cid:190) payments may be made for up to one twelfth each
month of the total appropriations authorised for each
budget title for the preceding financial year;

(cid:190) the contributions of the States referred to in Article 21
may be called up for up to one twelfth each month of
the contributions paid under the last duly adopted
budget.

2.
Each decision to use an expenditure and revenue
twelfth, up to a total of three twelfths of the amounts
entered in the last duly adopted budget, shall be taken by
the Secretary-General, who shall forward it by letter to the
States referred to in Article 21.

3.
Above the limit of three twelfths of the amounts
entered in the last duly adopted budget, any decision to
authorise payments and call up contributions shall be
taken by the Member States referred to in Article 21,
meeting within the Council.

Any measures taken pursuant to the preceding para-
4.
graphs shall be terminated immediately on final adoption
of the budget.

Article 7

1.
Any draft supplementary or amending budgets shall
be submitted, examined and adopted in the same form
and using the same procedure as the budget whose esti-
mates they are amending.

2.
An amending budget shall be submitted on an
annual basis, in the month following the closure of the
accounts as laid down in Article 25(1), with the aim of
entering the balance of
the budget outturn from the
previous financial year as revenue in the case of a positive
balance or expenditure if the balance is negative.

Article 8

The budget may be released to the public.

CHAPTER III

Implementation of the budget and accountancy

Article 9

The budget shall be implemented in accordance with the
principle that the authorising officer and the accounting
officer are different individuals. The duties of authorising
officer, accounting officer and financial controller shall be
mutually incompatible.

Article 10

1.
The task of authorising officer for revenue and
expenditure shall be carried out by a Director-General at
the General Secretariat of the Council. The authorising
officer shall implement the budget on behalf of the Secre-
tary-General and within the limits of the appropriations
allotted he may delegate his powers to a Director.

2.
The authorising officer may decide on transfers
between articles within each chapter. With the agreement
of the SIS Working Group, he may decide on transfers
between chapters within the same title. The SIS Working
Group shall give its agreement under the same conditions
as for adopting its opinion on the budget.

Article 11

The task of financial controller shall be carried out by the
Council’s Financial Controller in accordance with the
rules applicable to the latter’s duties.

Article 12

The receipt of revenue and the disbursement of expendi-
ture shall be carried out by an accounting officer from
Directorate-General A at the General Secretariat of the
Council.

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Article 13

The authorising officer may have the verifications

2.
carried out under his responsibility.

1.
For the collection of any amount owing pursuant to
Article 21, the issue of a recovery order by the authorising
shall be
officer
forwarded to the accounting officer, who shall submit
them to the financial controller for approval.

shall be required. Recovery orders

The purpose of this approval shall be to establish

2.
that:

(cid:190) the revenue has been booked to the correct budget

item,

(cid:190) the recovery order is in order and conforms to the

relevant provisions,

(cid:190) the supporting documents are in order,

(cid:190) the competent authority of

the debtor State is

correctly described,

(cid:190) the due date is indicated,

(cid:190) the amount and currency are correct.

The accounting officer shall assume responsibility

3.
for the recovery orders duly drawn up.

Article 14

1.
Any measure likely to involve expenditure against
the budget must first be the subject of a proposal for a
commitment of expenditure from the authorising officer
the
to the accounting officer, showing the purpose,
amount involved, the budget item to which the expendi-
ture is to be charged and the creditor. The proposal shall
be submitted by the accounting officer to the financial
controller for approval.

The purpose of this approval shall be to establish

2.
that:

(cid:190) the proposal for commitment has been presented in

accordance with paragraph 1,

(cid:190) the expenditure has been changed to the correct

budget item,

(cid:190) the appropriations are available in the budget,

(cid:190) the expenditure is in order and conforms to the rele-

vant provisions.

Article 15

The purpose of validation of expenditure by the

1.
authorising officer shall be to:

(cid:190) verify the creditor’s claim,

(cid:190) determine or verify the existence and the amount of

the sum due,

(cid:190) verify the conditions under which the payment falls

due,

(cid:190) verify that purchases or services rendered are as

ordered.

Article 16

The

authorising

1.
the
officer
accounting officer, by the issue of a payment order
(authorisation), to pay an item of expenditure which has
been validated.

authorise

shall

2.

The authorisation shall state:

(cid:190) the financial year against which the payment shall be

charged,

(cid:190) the budget title, chapter and article,
(cid:190) the amount to be paid, in figures and in words, and

the currency of payment,

(cid:190) the name and address of the creditor,
(cid:190) the purpose of the expenditure,
(cid:190) the method of payment,
(cid:190) the numbers and dates of the relevant approvals of

commitment.

The payment order shall be dated and signed by the

3.
authorising officer.

4.
The accounting officer shall submit the payment
order, together with the original supporting documents, to
the financial controller for approval.

The purpose of this approval shall be to establish

5.
that:

(cid:190) the payment order was properly issued,
(cid:190) the payment order agrees with the commitment of
expenditure and the amount thereof is correct,
(cid:190) the expenditure is charged to the correct item in the

budget,

(cid:190) the appropriations are available in the budget title or

article concerned,

(cid:190) the supporting documents are in order, and
(cid:190) the creditor is correctly named and described.

6.
Any expenditure must be covered beforehand by
contributions from the States referred to in Article 21 or,
failing those, by a bank loan. The costs of a pre-financing
loan in the event of non-payment of contributions shall
be divided among the States in default, pro rata to their
unpaid contributions and taking into account the length
of arrears.

Article 17

Payments shall be effected through a bank account specif-
ically opened for that purpose in the name of the General
the Council. Bank transfer orders shall
Secretariat of
require the joint signature of two officials nominated by
the Secretary-General, of whom one shall be the
accounting officer.

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Article 18

Should the financial controller refuse to give the approval
laid down in Articles 13, 14 or 16 and the authorising
officer maintain his proposal, the matter shall be referred
to the Secretary-General. Except in cases where the avail-
ability of appropriations is in doubt, the Secretary-General
may, in a duly reasoned decision, overrule the refusal and
confirm the recovery order, expenditure commitment or
payment order. The Secretary-General shall within one
month inform the Court of Auditors of any such decision.
The decision shall be enforceable as from the date
approval was refused.

Article 19

The liability to disciplinary action of
the authorising
officer, financial controller, and accounting officer in the
event of failure to comply with the provisions of this
Financial Regulation shall be as laid down in the Staff
Regulations of Officials of the European Communities.

Article 20

The accounts shall be kept by the double-entry method
on the basis of the calendar year. They shall show all
revenue and expenditure for the financial year.

CHAPTER IV

States’ contributions

Article 21

Budget revenue shall consist of financial contribu-
1.
tions
from the following Member States: Belgium,
Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Luxem-
bourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Finland, and
Sweden, as well as Iceland and Norway.

These States’ financial contributions shall be laid

2.
down in the budget and expressed in euro.

taking into
concerned shall be calculated annually,
account the other States’ contributions, on the basis of the
ratio of the VAT resources paid by each of those Member
States
the European
Communities, as established in the last amendment of the
budget of the Communities during the preceding finan-
cial year.

to the total VAT resources of

Article 23

The Secretary-General shall

1.
forward requests for
contributions to each State referred to in Article 21 by
letter through the national administrations whose details
have been notified to him.

The letter concerned shall contain the following

2.
information:

(cid:190) the decision to adopt the budget or, in the event of
Article 6 being invoked, the decision to call up contri-
butions by provisional twelfths,

(cid:190) the amount to be paid by each State, calculated in
euro in accordance with the scale referred to in Article
22,

(cid:190) the details necessary for paying the contribution.

Contributions shall be paid into the bank account

3.
referred to in Article 17.

4.

They shall be payable in euro.

Article 24

The States referred to in Article 21 shall be required
1.
to pay 25 % of their contribution by 15 February, 1 April,
1 July and 1 October at the latest.

2.
Should a State have defaulted on its financial obliga-
tions, the existing Community rules on interest charge-
able in the event of late payment of contributions to the
Community budget shall apply by analogy.

CHAPTER V

Article 22

Presenting and auditing the accounts

The States referred to in Article 21 shall supply their
financial
in
accordance with the following formula:

to the Secretary-General

contributions

The scale of contributions to be paid by the Member
States referred to in Article 21, on the one hand, and by
Iceland and Norway (‘the other States'), on the other
hand, shall be calculated annually on the basis of the
share of each Member State concerned and of the other
States in the total gross domestic product (GDP) for the
preceding year of all the States referred to in Article 21.
The scale of contributions by the Member States

Article 25

1.
The Secretary-General shall, within two months
from the end of the budget implementation period, draw
up a revenue and expenditure account and a balance sheet
and transmit them to the SIS Working Group.

The revenue and expenditure account shall cover all
2.
revenue and expenditure transactions relating to the
preceding financial year. It shall be submitted in the same
form and following the same subdivisions as the budget.

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3.

The following shall be attached to the account:

(cid:190) a statement showing the situation of each of the States
referred to in Article 21 as regards payment of its
financial contribution, and

(cid:190) an appropriation transfer statement.

4.
The balance sheet shall show the budget assets and
liabilities as at 31 December of the preceding financial
year.

Article 26

The Court of Auditors shall be asked to audit the

1.
accounts.

2.
The Secretary-General shall forward the revenue and
expenditure account and the balance sheet to the Court of
Auditors within 15 days following the period laid down in
Article 25(1).

3.
The purpose of the audit by the Court of Auditors
shall be to establish that all revenue has been received
and all expenditure incurred in a lawful and regular
manner in accordance with the contracts to be managed,
the budget and this Financial Regulation.

4.
The Secretary-General shall provide the Court of
Auditors with every facility it may consider necessary in
order to carry out its task.

Article 27

The revenue and expenditure account, balance sheet and
report by the Court of Auditors, accompanied where
appropriate by the Secretary-General’s comments, shall be
submitted by 1 July to the States referred to in Article 21.
The Member States referred to in Article 21, meeting
within the Council, shall give a discharge to the Secretary-
General in respect of the budget’s implementation.

CHAPTER VI

Final provisions

Article 28

(cid:190) readjustment of

the
States referred to in Article 21 as laid down in Article
22,

the share of contributions of

(cid:190) adjustment of the contributions of the States referred
to in Article 21 in order to establish the contribution
payable by the other State to the operation of Sirene
Stage II for the whole of the current financial year,
(cid:190) adjustment of the contributions of the States referred
to in Article 21 in order to establish the proportion of
earlier Sirene Stage II installation costs to be borne by
the other State. This percentage shall be calculated on
the basis of the ratio of the VAT resources paid by the
other State to the total VAT resources of the European
Communities for the earlier financial years in which
the necessary Sirene Stage II installation costs have
been incurred. The percentage contribution shall be
the subject of a ‘credit note' to the States referred to in
Article 21 for an amount pro rata to their share as
calculated in accordance with Article 22. The other
States may choose to allocate the amount concerned
towards their share of the operating budget or request
reimbursement.

Article 29

This Financial Regulation shall apply mutatis mutandis to
the revenue and expenditure
the implementation of
the
required to meet
contracts referred to in Article 1 of the Council Decision
of 3 May 1999 for the remaining period of the financial
year in which this Regulation enters into force.

the obligations arising under

Article 30

This Financial Regulation shall take effect imme-

1.
diately.

It shall be published in the Official Journal of the

2.
European Communities.

Done at Brussels, 3 May 1999.

the provisions of

The introduction of
the Schengen
acquis concerning the Schengen Information System for
a State other than those referred to in Article 21, hereafter
referred to as ‘other State' shall entail:

For the Council

The President

J. FISCHER