Opinion No 4/2007 on a draft Commission Regulation (EC) amending Regulation (EC) No 1653/2004 on a standard financial regulation for the executive agencies pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes [SEC(2007) 492 Final]
Date: 2007-07-12
Institutions: European Court of Auditors
Subjects: EU office or agency, EU programme, financial regulation, legal status, management, outsourcing

14.9.2007

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 216/1

I

(Resolutions, recommendations and opinions)

OPINIONS

COURT OF AUDITORS

OPINION No 4/2007

on a draft Commission Regulation (EC) amending Regulation (EC) No 1653/2004 on a standard
financial regulation for the executive agencies pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003
laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the
management of Community programmes [SEC(2007) 492 Final]

(2007/C 216/01)

THE COURT OF AUDITORS OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Communities,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 of
19 December 2002 laying down the statute for executive agen-
cies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of
Community programmes (1), and in particular Article 15 thereof,

regard

Having
Euratom)
to Council Regulation
No 1995/2006 of 13 December 2006 amending Regulation (EC,
Euratom) No 1605/2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable
to the general budget of the European Communities (2),

(EC,

Having regard to Commission Regulation (EC) No 1653/2004 of
21 September 2004 on a standard financial regulation for the
executive agencies pursuant
to Council Regulation (EC)
No 58/2003 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be
entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community
programmes (3),

Having regard to the proposal for a draft Commission Regulation
(EC) amending Commission Regulation (EC) No 1653/2004 on a
standard financial regulation for the executive agencies pursuant

(1) OJ L 11, 16.1.2003, p. 1.
(2) OJ L 390, 30.12.2006, p. 1.
(3) OJ L 297, 22.9.2004, p. 6.

to Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 laying down the statute
for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the
management of Community programmes (4),

Having regard to the request for an opinion submitted to the
Court of Auditors by the Commission on 25 April 2007,

HAS ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING OPINION:

1.
The objective of the draft regulation is to amend the stan-
dard financial regulation of the executive agencies (5) (hereinafter
referred to as ‘standard financial regulation’),
following the
amendments made in Council Regulation (EC, Euratom)
No 1995/2006 of 13 December 2006 to Regulation (EC, Eura-
tom) No 1605/2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the
general budget of the European Communities, and in the light of
the acquired experience of the existing executive agencies.

2.
Article 20 of the draft regulation provides that, in addition
to transmitting budgets and amending budgets for information to
the budgetary authority, the Court of Auditors and the Commis-
sion, and publishing them on the websites of the agencies

(4) SEC(2007) 492 final of 25.4.2007.
(5) Commission Regulation (EC) No 1653/2004 (OJ L 297, 22.9.2004,

p. 6).

C 216/2

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

14.9.2007

concerned, a ‘summary of the budgets and amending budgets
shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union
within three months of their adoption’. Having regard to the prin-
ciple of budgetary transparency, however, it would be appropri-
ate to specify the scope and content of the summary to be pub-
lished by the executive agencies.

3.
The first paragraph of Article 27 stipulates that ‘all finan-
cial actors (…) and any other person involved in budget implementa-
tion, management, audit or control shall be prohibited from taking any
measures of budget implementation which may bring their own interests
into conflict with those of the agency or of the Communities’. The term
‘of budget implementation’ (as in Article 52 of the Financial Regu-
lation) should be deleted or this Article redrafted, as persons

involved in auditing and control work should not take budget
implementation measures.

4.
The French version of the new Article 42(a) of the draft
standard financial regulation lays down that the Agency should
draw up a list of créances communautaires (entitlements of the
agency) stating the names of the debtors and the amount of the
debt, where the debtor has been ordered to pay by a Court deci-
sion having the force of res judicata and where no, or no signifi-
cant, payment has been made for one year following its pro-
nouncement (1). The
communautaires’
(entitlements of the agency) is excessively general; it should be
specified that the entitlements concerned are only those included
in the executive agencies’ operating budget.

expression ‘créances

This Opinion was adopted by the Court of Auditors in Luxembourg at its meeting of
12 July 2007.

For the Court of Auditors
Hubert WEBER
President

(1) There is a similar provision in the Implementing rules of the general
Financial Regulation (see Article 81(4) of the Implementing Rules).