Resolution of the European Parliament containing the comments accompanying the decision concerning discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the 2001 financial year — Section VI — Economic and Social Committee
Date: 2003-04-08
Institutions: Committee on Budgetary Control, European Parliament
Subjects: European Economic and Social Committee, budgetary discharge, financial year, general budget (EU), implementation of the budget

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RESOLUTION

of the European Parliament containing the comments accompanying the decision concerning
discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the
2001 financial year — Section V — Court of Auditors

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT,

— having regard to the Revenue and Expenditure Account and Balance Sheet in respect of the

financial year 2001 (SEC(2002) 405 – C5-0245/2002),

— having regard to the annual report of the European Court of Auditors for the financial year 2001,

together with the institutions' replies (C5-0538/2002) (1),

— having regard to the Statement of Assurance as to the reliability of the accounts and the legality
and regularity of the underlying transactions provided by the European Court of Auditors pursuant
to Article 248 of the EC Treaty (C5-0538/2002),

— having regard to the Council's recommendation of 7 March 2003 (C5-0087/2003),

— having regard to Articles 272(10) and 275 of the EC Treaty,

— having regard to Article 22(2) and (3) of the Financial Regulation of 21 December 1977 (2) and

Article 50 of the Financial Regulation of 25 June 2002 (3),

— having regard to Rule 93a and Annex V of its Rules of Procedure,

— having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A5-0101/2003/rev1),

1.

2.

3.

4.

Commends the promptness of the Court of Auditors in making its public presentation of its 2001
annual report within the Committee on Budgetary Control in early November 2002, thus enabling
the members of the Committee to start work early enough in order to be able to prepare for the
debate held in plenary the following month; strongly recommends that this procedure be made the
general rule and that the non-availability of all the language versions of the report should not be
deemed an obstacle to its public presentation;

Notes the report by the independent auditor on the Court of Auditors' accounts for the financial
year 2001 (4) together with the auditor's certificate concerning the regularity and fairness of the
financial statements at 31 December 2001 and the auditor's report on the administrative and
accounting procedures, the soundness of the financial management and the internal control system;

Requests that in future chapter 7 of the annual report (administrative expenditure) be extended so
as to give the reader an overall picture of the situation within the various Institutions in this sector;
repeats its request to the Court for a separate statement of assurance for each Institution or, failing
that, a separate certificate or assessment of regularity/conformity for each Institution, possibly
reflecting the annual activity reports of the authorising officers by delegation pursuant to Article
60(7) of the new Financial Regulation;

Welcomes the efforts undertaken by the Court of Auditors to make the Statement of Assurance
(DAS) an instrument with measurable indicators allowing an assessment to be carried out of
progress in financial control and management over time; considers nevertheless that the DAS

(1) OJ C 295, 28.11.2002, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 356, 31.12.1977, p. 1.
(3) OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1.
(4) OJ C 268, 4.11.2002, p. 1.

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should allow a distinction to be made between, on the one hand, management aspects where
improvements have been noted and, on the other,
those for which action plans should be
established to rectify shortcomings; expects the reformed DAS methodology to be effective for the
2003 discharge exercise;

Notes the Court's attempt at improving the presentation of its audit observations in its reports so
as to make them more consumer-friendly by the use of more informative headings and more
clearly identified recommendations, but believes that more radical measures can be taken;

Wonders how the Court of Auditors is able to issue a positive DAS when it itself asserts that,
despite the significance of the reform of accounting systems at the Commission now under way,
the Commission has simply made a start and that there are a host of shortcomings to be rectified;

Calls on the Court of Auditors to adapt the DAS so as to make it an instrument enabling the
discharge and budgetary authorities to compare and monitor progress in financial management and
control over time, preferably in a quantified manner;

Urges the Commission and the Court of Auditors to step up collaboration in order to rectify, as far
as possible, the host of shortcomings which have emerged in the various DAS of Commission
Directorates-General, so as to enable the Court of Auditors to use them as the basis for a new
management tool for external control of the Commission;

Recalls that, with the abolition of the independent ex-ante financial controls, the basic conditions
governing the Court of Auditors' work have been radically altered and that the ensuing additional
risk to the financial interests of the Community can only be offset by increasing the number of
audits carried out by the Court; asks the Court, in the context of an action plan, to show in detail
for each area of expenditure how many budget transactions it audited in 2001 and 2002 and how
the number of budget transactions it audits can be significantly increased;

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Urges the Court to agree with the Commission on a common methodology for calculating error
rates by Directorate-General or by category of expenditure; suggests that the Court use data from
Member States resulting from obligatory controls in the field of agriculture and the Structural
Funds in order to increase the sample; notes that the Court has failed to publish a global error rate
and error rates by directorate-general or by category of expenditure as the Parliament requested in
its decision of 25 April 2002 concerning discharge for the financial year 2000 (1);

11. Welcomes the fact that, as regards Parliament's demand for ‘naming' specific Member States found
or suspected to be deficient in protecting the financial interests of the Union, the annual report for
2001 and the special reports published during the year already contain references to individual
Member States; regrets that the Court does not consider it appropriate to list in an annex to the
annual report the individual errors identified in each Member State in an easily readable way;

12.

Calls on the Court of Auditors, the Commission and the Member States to develop and introduce a
single audit model in order to further improve and rationalise audit and reporting activities;

13.

Is pleased that, despite awarding six ad personam promotions, the Court of Auditors has decided to
limit them to very exceptional and particularly deserving cases; rejects, however, the principle of ad
personam promotions;

14.

Expects the Court of Auditors to take immediate action on the recommendations communicated by
OLAF and made public in a press release dated 11 November 2002;

(1) OJ L 158, 17.6.2002, p. 66.

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15.

therefore the Court's willingness

Recalls that the Court itself has called upon all Institutions to provide a more global analysis of
budgetary management which highlights and explains trends over time in expenditure and the
items and which offers key measures of economy and efficiency (1);
funding of major capital
welcomes
to make available to the discharge authority
management information on its performance (2) and the annual activity reports of the authorising
officers by delegation (3) required by Article 60(7) of the new Financial Regulation;
invites the
Court in future to amplify the commentary on financial management annexed to its management
account (SEC(2002)405), possibly on the basis of the annual activity reports of its authorising
officers by delegation;

16.

Asks for that information to be supplied to the discharge authority in good time before the
beginning of the discharge procedure for the 2002 financial year;

17.

18.

19.

information so that

Calls upon the Court of Auditors and all Institutions, with a view to measuring and improving
economy and efficiency in the management of major capital projects,
to improve budgetary
management
trends over time can be identified and explained, allowing
corrective action to be taken as necessary; invites the Institutions to establish a system whereby
each Institution's key administrative costs can be compared on an interinstitutional basis and in a
systematic manner (i.e. by a system of ‘benchmarking'), so that opportunities for reducing these
costs can be identified and acted upon;

Notes with satisfaction, with regard to buildings, that the Court of Auditors is currently benefiting
from the technical expertise and experience of
the Commission's Office for Logistics and
Infrastructures (4); notes further the Court's decision not to proceed for the time being with its
second extension,
the Court has
commissioned a technical study of its long-term building needs and asks to be informed of the
conclusions in due course;

reasons connected with the 2003 budget; notes that

for

Notes the difficulties experienced by the Court of Auditors in recruiting and retaining professionally
qualified staff (5) and the estimate by the Court's Secretary-General that it will require (in addition
to the posts within each of
the 10 new ‘cabinets') 60 additional auditors, 22 additional
administrative staff as well as linguistic staff (6);

20.

Notes with concern that during 2002 a total of 17 officials amongst its audit staff left the Court, in
part because of insufficient promotion possibilities (7);

21.

Notes OLAF's inquiries into the allegations made by an employee of the Court of Auditors;

22.

Asks the Court to inform the discharge authority how it intends to adapt its working methods to
the new situation obtaining after enlargement;

23.

Notes in this context that it is only possible for the Court of Auditors to operate efficiently if the
is limited; expects the European Convention to take this
number of Members of
reservation into account;

the Court

24.

Notes with satisfaction that the Court has set up the financial irregularities panel (8) required by
Article 66(4) of the new Financial Regulation with effect from 1 January 2003;

(1) Annual report 2001, paragraph 7.3.
(2) Replies to Questionnaire PE 315.844 (Q5).
(3) Replies to Questionnaire PE 315.844 (Q3).
(4) Replies to Questionnaire PE 315.844 (Q4).
(5) SEC(2002)405 and replies to questionnaire PE 315.844 (Q7).
(6) Note of 21.9.2001 on financial implications of enlargement.
(7) Replies to questionnaire PE 315.844 (Q7).
(8) Source: Letter of 7.1.2003 from Mr Fabra Vallés.

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25.

26.

27.

Notes that at its meeting of 19 December 2002 the Court of Auditors decided to lift its suspension
of the weightings in respect of transfers of its Members' emoluments (1); notes that this decision
was taken on the basis of an analysis by the Administrative Committee of the Court of Justice,
which concluded that there was a legal basis for such weightings, and the fact that budget line
A-109 specifically provides for such weightings for Members of the Institution;

Recalls the assessment of the Court of Auditors in paragraph 7.18. of its Annual report 2001 that
the rules applying to the remuneration of the Members of the Institutions do not include a specific
legal basis for such transfers; notes however that certain provisions of the Staff Regulations have
been applied by analogy for several years and that, pending clarification of the situation, the
Institutions had decided to suspend application of the weightings for the Members concerned with
effect from July 2002;

Expects the Members of the Institutions to repay the costs incurred if they use the official cars with
which they have been provided for non-official purposes; asks the Court of Auditors to forward to
Parliament by 30 June 2003 a report on the rules it has issued in this respect and on the amounts
paid by Members in 2001 and 2002;

28. Maintains the request contained in paragraph 28 of its abovementioned discharge decision of
25 April 2002 for publication of the declarations of the financial interests of Members of the Court
of Auditors;
instructs its competent committee to examine the desirability of requiring such a
declaration to be submitted (if necessary on a confidential basis) prior to the next hearings in
connection with appointments to the Court of Auditors;

29.

30.

Notes that all the Members of the Court have declared their financial interests and assets and that
these declarations have been sent to the President of the Court; requests that,
in the spirit of
transparency and to ensure objectivity and accountability, the declarations also be forwarded to the
chairman of the Committee on Budgetary Control;

Regrets that the Court's work programme for 2003 does not include a timetable indicating the
anticipated completion dates of the Court's special reports, as requested by the Parliament in
paragraph 29 of its abovementioned discharge decision of 25 April 2002.

(1) Source: letter of 7.1.2003 from Mr Fabra Vallés.