Report from the Commission to the European Parliament on the follow-up to 2006 Discharge Decisions (Summary) - European Parliament Resolutions drafted pursuant to Article 276(3) of the EC Treaty and Article 180b of the Euratom Treaty, Article 147 of the Financial Regulation, Article 119(5) of the EDF Financial Regulation and similar provisions in the former ad hoc EDF Financial Regulation {SEC(2008)2579}
Date: 2008-10-15
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: budgetary discharge, financial year, general budget (EU), implementation of the budget

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COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 15.10.2008 
COM(2008) 629 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

on the follow-up to 2006 Discharge Decisions (Summary) - European Parliament Resolutions 
drafted pursuant to Article 276(3) of the EC Treaty and Article 180b of the Euratom Treaty, 
Article 147 of the Financial Regulation, Article 119(5) of the EDF Financial Regulation and 
similar provisions in the former ad hoc EDF Financial Regulation 

{SEC(2008)2579} 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT  
on the follow-up to 2006 Discharge Decisions (Summary) - European Parliament Resolutions 
{SEC(2008)}.............................................................................Error! Bookmark not defined. 

PREAMBLE ...............................................................................................................................3 

I - COMMISSION RESPONSES TO THE RECOMMENDATIONS MADE BY THE 
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT IN THE GENERAL BUDGET DISCHARGE 
RESOLUTION .............................................................................................................4 

a) Horizontal issues.....................................................................................................................4 

b) Sectoral issues.........................................................................................................................7 

c) Special Reports issued by the Court of Auditors ..................................................................10 

II - EP DISCHARGE ON EDF.................................................................................................11 

III – Recommendations in the resolutions concerning individual agencies and  

the European Court of Justice.....................................................................................11 

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PREAMBLE 

Due  to  translation  and  time  constraints,  the  Commission's  report  on  the  follow-up  to  European 
Parliament (EP)  discharge given for the 2006 financial year1 is being published in all EU official 
languages  in  this  summarised  form.  The  Commission's  full  answers  to  each  specific  Parliament 
recommendation are available in a Commission working document2 which is published in English, 
French and German. Both these follow-up reports relate to the Resolutions adopted by the European 
Parliament on 22 April 2008. 

Each  chapter3  of  this  summary  report  includes  cross-references  to  the  relevant  recommendation 
numbers  in  the  full  Commission  working  document  mentioned  above.  These  references  will  help 
readers to find in the working document all recommendations (and action planned or already taken 
by the Commission) which relate to a given chapter or are of particular interest to them.  

In the discharge decisions for the general budget, the EDF and the agencies, the Commission has 
identified  a  total  of  208  recommendations  made  by  the  European  Parliament  to  the  Commission. 
The  Commission  considers  that  for  100  recommendations  the  required  action  has  already  been 
taken,  though  in  some  cases  results  of  the  actions  will  need  to  be  examined.  For  another  99 
recommendations the Commission agrees to take the action recommended by Parliament. Finally, 
the  Commission  cannot  accept  9  recommendations  and  will  therefore  not  be  taking  the  requested 
action4. 

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2006 General Budget Discharge, 2006 EDF Discharge, 2006 Agencies Discharge. 
Commission Staff Working Paper, Annex to the Report from the Commission to the European Parliament on 
the follow-up to the 2006 Discharge Decisions. 
Both the present summarised report and the full working document follow as closely as possible the structure 
of the resolutions containing the recommendations of the European Parliament. 
See recommendations 2, 25, 29, 39, 58, 63, 133, 151 and 202. 

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I - COMMISSION RESPONSES TO THE RECOMMENDATIONS MADE BY THE 
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT IN THE GENERAL BUDGET DISCHARGE 
RESOLUTION 

The  following  is  a  summary  of  the  Commission's  replies  to  the  specific  requests  made  by 
Parliament  in  its  2006  Discharge  Resolutions.  The  issues  related  to  national  management 
declarations,  Structural  Funds  and  external  actions  raised  by  the  European  Parliament  in  its 
main conclusions are addressed below under the respective points. 

A) HORIZONTAL ISSUES 

Statement of assurance (Commission working document, points 14-17) 

The Commission has continued to improve its accounting practices through efforts such as the 
Accounting Quality Project, in particular concerning  the cut-off  exercise.  On 30  April 2008 
the  Commission  provided  the  COCOBU  with  the  required  report  on  pre-financing  as  at  31 
December 2007. 

Further  efforts  are  needed  to  resolve  a  number  of  weaknesses  in  supervisory  and  control 
systems,  in  particular  those  highlighted  in  the  reservations  of  the  delegated  authorising 
officers, and in relation to budget areas that were not considered satisfactory by the European 
Court  of  Auditors.  The  Commission  will  take  vigorous  action  to  address  the  causes  of 
reservations in the 2007 Annual Activity Reports and will closely monitor progress. 

Budgetary management (Commission working document, points 18-19) 

The Commission is acting to ensure an effective winding-up procedure concerning the 2000-
2006 programme period for the Structural Funds, through audits of winding-up bodies, raising 
awareness of the closure guidelines, issued in 2006, and finalising internal procedures. After 
closures,  the  Commission  will  carry  out  audits  to  verify  the  level  of  residual  error,  and  if 
necessary will apply further financial corrections. 

Structural Funds payments to EU-10 Member States in 2007 caught up with those in EU-15 
countries  at  the  corresponding  point  in  the  programme  cycle.  Cohesion  Fund  payments  in 
2007 were still somewhat below forecasts in certain Member States, and at the end of 2007 
outstanding commitments overall stood at approximately three years of payments. However, 
most Cohesion Fund projects can incur expenditure until the end of 2010. 

National  management  declarations  and  point  44  of  the  IIA  (Commission  working 
document, points 1-3 and 20-22)  

In  line  with  Action  8  of  its  Action  Plan  towards  an  integrated  control  framework,  the 
Commission  supports  the  Member  States  which  decide  to  issue  a  national  declaration  on  a 
voluntary basis through the provision of financial reports from its accounting system and by 
responding  to  information  requests  from  national  authorities,  though  there  is  no  legal 
obligation to do so.  

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In the Inter-Institutional Agreement (paragraph 44), the three institutions agreed that Member 
States should be required to produce annual summaries of available audits and declarations. 
This provision was included in the revised Financial Regulation and the summaries were due 
for  the  first  time  in  February  2008.  The  Commission  is  focussing  its  attention  on  rigorous 
implementation  of  the  provisions  for  "annual  summaries".  Overall  the  outcome  of  the  first 
round  of  annual  summaries  has  been  positive  and  the  Commission  considers  this  a  success 
that  it  can  build  on.  The  formal  submission  of  summaries  by  a  central  body  reinforces  the 
accountability of Member States for their use of funds. The Commission services responsible 
will provide feedback and guidance to Member States aimed at improving the quality of the 
summaries  for  the  next  round  and  enhancing  their  contribution  to  the  internal  control 
framework for Community programmes.  

Governance (Commission working document, points 23-29)  

The Commission's governance model5 respects the provisions of Articles 211-219 and 274 of 
the Treaty and those of the Financial Regulation adopted unanimously by Member States in 
Council  after  consultation  of  the  European  Parliament  (EC  Treaty  Article  279)  and 
concertation under  the 1975 Joint Declaration on acts with important financial implications. 
Directors-General  and  Heads  of  Service  are  assigned  management  responsibility  for  the 
resources  that  each  are  allocated  by  the  budgetary  authority.  Each  prepares  an  end-of-year 
report  and  declaration  giving  assurance  on  the  use  of  the  resources,  if  necessary  with 
reservations (annual activity report and declaration). 

The Commission as a college assumes "responsibility for the implementation of the budget as 
provided  for  in  the  Treaty"  (Article  274)  when  adopting  the  Synthesis  Report  on  the 
Commission's management achievements, taking account also of the annual report on political 
achievements (Article 212). It exercises its political responsibility by analysing the services' 
annual activity reports and their declarations and by adopting a position on major horizontal 
issues, including appropriate actions for issues requiring remedy at Commission level. 

The Commission considers that adding further formal declarations of the Secretary-General or 
the Director-General for Budget would make the lines of responsibility less clear as it would 
blur  the  responsibilities  of  Directors-General  and  lead  to  potential  interference  between  the 
central services and the operational services.  

The  IAS'  Charter  adopted  by  the  Commission on 24  January 2008 specifies that starting no 
later  than  for  2009  the  IAS  should  issue  an  overall  opinion  on  the  state  of  control  in  the 
Commission. 

The Commission has insight on funds whose management is shared with the Member States. 
The governance architecture is clear on the share of responsibilities: the Member States have 
the primary responsibility to take all measures necessary to ensure that the funds are used in 
accordance with the applicable rules, including the setting-up of efficient control mechanisms. 
The  Commission  must  supervise  the  whole  system  and  verify  that  the  Member  States  are 
carrying out the tasks entrusted to them correctly. Where it concludes that this is not the case, 
it  must  use  the  available  mechanisms  to  suspend  payments  and  apply  financial  corrections. 

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The  Governance  Statement  of  the  Commission  describes  the  way  the  Commission  and  its  services 
function, and in particular the responsibility and accountability mechanisms. 
See http://ec.europa.eu/atwork/synthesis/doc/governance_statement_en.pdf 

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The Commission is making the necessary checks and taking the appropriate measures so that 
it  can  fully  assume  its  responsibility  for  the  management  of  EU  funds.  There  are  however 
areas  for  improvement,  both  for  the  Commission  and  for  the  Member  States.  In  February 
2008, the Commission adopted an Action Plan aimed at further strengthening its supervisory 
role  under  shared  management  of  structural  actions  (COM(2008)  97),  see  below  under 
Structural measures.  

The Commission's internal control system (Commission working document, points 30-33) 

The  Commission  presented  in  February  2008  a  progress  report  on  the  Commission  Action 
Plan towards an integrated internal control framework (COM(2008) 110) and concluded that 
most  of  the  "gaps"  have  been  filled.  Work  will  be  completed  in  2008  and  the  first  impact 
report will be issued in early 2009. 

The Commission is completing the assessment of the costs of control in agriculture, the ERDF 
and direct centralised management. The results will form the basis of a communication by the 
Commission  in  autumn  2008  aimed  at  relaunching  the  inter-institutional  discussion  on 
tolerable risk. 

Synthesis Report (Commission working document, points 34-36) 

The Synthesis Report reflects all instances where there were qualifications to assurance on the 
legality and regularity of Commission spending; the Commission has instructed its services to 
take vigorous action to address the causes of reservations in the 2007 Annual Activity Reports 
and  the  Directorates-General  concerned  are  committed  to  dealing  with  these  weaknesses 
through clearly defined action plans. It requires that in all instances where there is a difference 
between the European Court of Auditors' opinion and that of the Director-General, the latter 
will have to explain it in his/her next year’s Annual Activity Report. 

Following  the  IAS  audit  on  Annual  Activity  Reports,  the  standing  instructions  for  the 
preparation of the annual activity reports for the year 2007 require the disclosure of delays in 
the implementation of action plans and stipulate that major issues raised by the Internal Audit 
Service are to be considered a qualitative criterion for assessing reservations. 

Political  responsibility  and  administrative  responsibility  at  the  Commission  (Commission 
working document, points 37-42)  

The Commission notes that overall progress has been made in the presentation of the Annual 
Activity  Reports.  In  2007  internal  control  templates  were  introduced,  allowing  greater 
comparability  between  the  services'  Annual  Activity  Reports.  The  standing  instructions  for 
Annual Activity Reports also set out the rules and criteria for issuing reservations and require 
the Commission services to report on major recommendations made by the European Court of 
Auditors. 

For the 2008 Annual Activity Reports exercise the Commission will provide further guidance 
on  the  treatment  of  reputational  risks  and  on  the  link  between  error  rates,  materiality  and 
reservations. 

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The Commission welcomes the positive reaction of the European Parliament to its suggestion 
to  consider  a  common  approach  to  registration  of  lobbyists.  Action  has  also  been  taken  to 
improve information on beneficiaries of EU funding and members of expert groups.  

The Commission considers that the existing code of conduct for Members of the Commission 
already  contains  comprehensive  and  appropriate  rules  on  responsibility  and  ethics.  Staff  of 
Members of the Commission are recruited in accordance with Staff Regulations. 

As  regards  ethical  rules,  an  independent  study6  concluded  that  the  European  Commission 
system is sound, and that the necessary rules and procedures are in place. 

B) SECTORAL ISSUES 

Revenue (Commission working document, point 43) 

The  reservations  on  items  in  Member  States'  annual  VAT  statements  are  placed  by  the 
Commission  in  its  control  reports.  The  Commission  will,  in  co-operation  with  the  Member 
States, continue its efforts to ensure that reservations are lifted within reasonable time frames. 
The  Commission  will,  where  necessary,  make  management  visits  designed  to  devise  -  with 
the  Member  State  concerned  -  suitable  strategies  to  resolve  long-outstanding  reservations. 
Where  progress  towards  the  lifting  of  reservations  cannot  be  shown,  the  Commission  will 
consider whether starting infringement proceedings will be beneficial. 

Common Agricultural Policy (Commission working document, points 44-54) 

Like  the  European  Parliament,  the  Commission  welcomes  the  fact  that  the  Court  found 
general  improvements  in  the  management  of  CAP  expenditure  in  2006.  The  Commission 
continues  through  its  audits  to  monitor  the  full and  correct  application of  the  IACS  tool.  In 
case  of  deficiencies,  the  Commission  imposes  financial  corrections.  In  2008,  six  audit 
missions  on  IACS  to  new  Member  States  are  planned.  The  situation  of  IACS  in  Greece  is 
subject to a reservation in the DG AGRI Annual Activity Report and is being addressed by an 
action plan by the Greek authorities. This is being closely followed up by the Commission. 

As  regards  eligibility  conditions  for  agri-environmental  measures  in  rural  development,  the 
Member  States  are  now  under  the  obligation  to ensure  that  all  rural  development  measures, 
including  agri-environmental  measures,  are  verifiable  and  controllable  and  that  control 
arrangements at the level of the Member States provide reasonable assurance that eligibility 
criteria and other commitments are respected. The issue has been taken up also in the context 
of the rural development programming for the period 2007-2013. 

As  part  of  the  Health  Check  of  the  CAP  the  Commission  has  presented  legal  proposals  in 
order  to  prevent  agricultural  income  support  being  allocated  to  companies  and  firms  whose 
business  purpose  is  not  or  only  marginally  targeted  at  exercising  an  agricultural  activity. 
Under  this  Regulation,  if  adopted,  Member  States  may  decide  not  to  grant  them  direct 
payments. 

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Carried out by the European Institute for Public Administration in co-operation with the Utrecht School 
of Governance, the University of Helsinki and the University of Vaasa, and released by the Commission 
on 11 December 2007. 

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Structural  measures,  employment  and  social  affairs  (Commission  working  document, 
points 4-11 and 55-79) 

is  providing 

In February 2008, the Commission adopted an Action Plan aimed at further strengthening its 
supervisory  role  under  shared  management  of  structural  actions  (COM(2008)  97).  The 
Commission 
the 
implementation  of  the  Action  Plan,  including  information  on  corrections  and  recoveries 
imposed by the Commission. The first two quarterly reports were presented to the Committee 
on Budgetary Control by Mr Špidla and Mrs Hübner on 2 June 2008 and 15 July 2008. The 
Commission will provide an interim progress report on the Action Plan in October 2008 and a 
final report in January 2009. 

the  European  Parliament  with  quarterly  reports  on 

The follow-up of the error findings of the Court has been incorporated into the Action Plan. In 
line  with  its  guidelines  on  financial  corrections  for  public  procurement  irregularities,  the 
Commission  will  make  100%  corrections  for  serious  breaches  of  the  public  procurement 
rules, such as failure to advertise contracts subject to mandatory EU-wide tendering, and will 
apply flat-rate or extrapolated corrections where justified. The Commission has taken steps to 
speed  up  the  procedure  leading  to  decisions  to  suspend  payments  and  apply  financial 
corrections. It has also explained the terminology used in the area of financial corrections and 
standardised its reporting accordingly. 

The  legislation  for  both  the  2000-2006  and  the  2007-2013  programme  periods  allows  the 
Member  States  under  certain  conditions  to  re-use  EU  funding  released  from  projects  from 
which  it  is  withdrawn  for  other  eligible  expenditure.  Net  reductions  in  the  EU  funding  of  a 
programme  or  a  Cohesion  Fund  project  only  occur  when  the  correction  is  imposed  by 
Commission  decision  or  when  there  is  no  replacement  expenditure  available  that  can  be 
substituted,  for  example  at  closure  or  following  partial  closure  of  2007-2013  programmes. 
The Commission considers that even financial corrections that do not involve a net reduction 
in EU funding can act as an incentive to improve controls, given the impact on the national 
budget. 

The  Commission  informed  Parliament  of  the  initial  results  of  the  submission  of  annual 
summaries  on  22  February  2008  and  provided  a  detailed  analysis  on  25  March  and  in  the 
Annual  Activity  Reports  of  the  Directorates-General  for  Regional  Policy  and  Employment. 
The Commission provided Parliament with a further update on 21 April, and at the meeting of 
the  Budgetary  Control  Committee  on  15  July  informed  Parliament  of  the  infringement 
proceedings being brought against Germany. 

The Commission considers that a key feature of the annual summaries, which contributes to 
reinforcing  the  Member  State's  accountability  for  its  use  of  EU  funds,  is  their  formal 
submission  by  a  central  body.  The  Commission  will  present  a  revised  guidance  note  to 
Member States with recommendations to improve  the quality of their annual summaries for 
2008. 

Internal policies, including research (Commission working document, points 80-100) 

The  principal  risk  to  the  legality  and  regularity of  research  expenditure  is  that  beneficiaries 
overstate  costs  in  their  cost  statements,  and  that  this  is  not  subsequently  detected  and 
corrected  by  the  Commission.  Many  errors  affecting  legality  and  regularity  can  only  be 
detected (and therefore corrected) by performing on-the-spot checks. To address this problem, 
the Commission has shifted the focus of its control strategy towards detection and correction 

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of  errors  ex-post,  after  the  payment  has  been  made.  The  Research  DGs  have  implemented 
their  FP6  audit  strategy  consisting  of  an  increase  in  the  number  of  audits,  a  new  sampling 
strategy  and  the  correction  of  systemic  errors  if  they  have  been  repeated  by  the  same 
beneficiary  in  other,  non-audited  contracts.  The  audit  strategy  is  being  implemented  over  a 
period  of  four  years.  Because  of  its  multi-annual  nature,  the  effectiveness  of  the  Research 
DG's control strategy can only be fully measured and assessed at the final stages in the life of 
the framework programme.  

In  the  education  and  culture  area,  the  Commission  is  implementing  a  revised  supervision 
strategy  based  on  the  "integrated  control  framework"  approach.  This  includes  ex-ante 
declarations of assurance for the 2007-2013 period issued by National Authorities and annual 
ex-post  declarations  of  assurance  concerning  the  use  of  funds  during  the  previous  year. 
Follow-up of systems audit recommendations has been incorporated in the assessment process 
of  the  ex-ante  declarations  of  assurance  2007-2013  issued  by  National  Authorities  and  is 
constantly monitored. Moreover, the rules for the new programmes 2007-2013 in the area of 
education  and  culture  have  been  simplified  and  lump-sum  and  flat-rate  financing 
arrangements are largely used. 

The  Commission  continues  taking  appropriate  measures  to  comply  with  the  European 
Parliament's  recommendation  and  request  related  to  delayed  payments  to  beneficiaries  and 
thus  to  comply  with  the  time  limits  for  expenditure  operations  set  out  in  the  Financial 
Regulation. The efforts made have increased the percentage of payments made on time. The 
issue  is  being  monitored  closely  and  is  receiving  the  highest  attention  to  ensure  further 
improvement. 

The  Commission's  detailed  replies  to  the  European  Parliament's  recommendations  in  the 
specific policy areas under internal policies can be found in the attached working document. 

External actions (Commission working document, points 12-13 and 101-118) 

In keeping with the commitments made during the 2006 discharge procedure, the Commission 
will provide information on multi-donor trust funds annually and at Parliament's request. For 
Iraq and Afghanistan, the Commission provide a periodic state of play and specific websites 
are available and will be updated regularly. The Joint Visibility Guidelines were approved and 
adopted  at  the  5th  FAFA  working  group  meeting  (10-11  April  2008).  Access  for  EU 
representatives  to  carry  out  verification  missions  for  projects  under  joint  management  has 
been  confirmed.  Common  Terms  of  Reference  for  verifications  are  being  developed  by  the 
Commission  and  the  United  Nations,  which  aim  to  facilitate  the  performance  of  such 
verification missions. 

The Commission  has taken a series of actions aiming at improving  the systems designed to 
ensure  the  legality  and  regularity  of  external  actions  expenditures  at  the  level  of  project 
implementing  organisations:  standard  Terms  of  Reference  for  expenditure  verifications  for 
grants and fee-based service contracts (mandatory since February 2006), new standard Terms 
of  Reference  for  financial  and  systems  audits  (mandatory  since  October  2007),  annual 
consolidation of external audit results in a synthesis report aimed at identifying a typology of 
findings and identifying corrective actions, development of CRIS audit which would improve 
reporting on audit results. 

The European Parliament's 2006 discharge resolution also contains recommendations in areas 
such  as  pre-accession,  humanitarian  aid,  development  policy  and  external  relations.  The 

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Commission's  replies  to  these  recommendations  can  be  found  in  the  attached  working 
document under the points concerning external actions and the European Development Funds. 

Administrative  expenditure  and  issues  concerning  the  agencies  (Commission  working 
document, points 119-125 and 191-208)  

The  European  Parliament  has  made  a  number  of  recommendations  to  the  Commission 
concerning the regulatory agencies in the discharge resolution for the general budget as well 
as in the discharge resolutions for the individual agencies7. 

On  9.7.2008  the  Commission  adopted  the  revision  of  the  framework  Financial  Regulation8, 
which  contains  provisions  reinforcing  the  agencies'  obligation  to  submit,  in  their  payment 
requests,  rigorous  forecasts  on  their  real  cash  requirements  throughout  the  year  in  order  to 
avoid unnecessary cash-flows. This should enable the Commission to follow more closely the 
cash balances of the agencies and hence should lead to more rigorous planning and increased 
transparency. 

Moreover,  a  horizontal  evaluation  is  to  be  launched  in  the  context  of  the  Commission's 
Communication "European Agencies: the way forward" of March 2008. The evaluation will 
also  assess  the  impact  of  agencies  on  the  Commission's  internal  organisation  and  activities. 
The  inter-institutional  working  group  that  the  Commission  proposes  to  set  up  with  the 
European Parliament and the Council will contribute inter alia to defining the objectives and 
the scope of this horizontal evaluation. The Commission intends to report on the results of this 
evaluation by 2009-2010.  

As  regards  the  community  buildings  policy,  a  study  was  commissioned  in  2007  from  a 
specialised company. This study provides a structured approach for the necessary works to be 
carried out over time in order to ensure sound and efficient management of the Commission's 
property investments. A second study, on the buildings in usufruct, will be launched towards 
the  end  of  2008/beginning  of  2009.  The  results  of  these  studies  will  be  used  to  support  the 
budget requests in this area and will be communicated to the competent committees. 

C) SPECIAL REPORTS ISSUED BY THE COURT OF AUDITORS 

In  its  discharge  resolution,  the  European  Parliament  included  recommendations  to  the 
Commission  concerning  seven  special  reports  published  by  the  Court  of  Auditors  in  2007. 
The  Commission's  replies  to  these  recommendations  can  be  found  in  the  Commission 
working document (points 126-175). 

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The discharge resolution for the general budget and the discharge resolutions for the individual agencies 
contain recommendations to the Commission both on horizontal matters concerning the agencies and on 
specific  issues  for  individual  agencies.  The  Commission's  replies  to  these  recommendations  can  be 
found in points 119-125 and 191-208 of the working document. 
Commission  Regulation  (EC,  Euratom)  No  652/2008  amending  Regulation  (EC,  Euratom)  No 
2343/2002 on the framework Financial Regulation for the bodies referred to in Article 185 of Council 
Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget 
of the European Communities. 

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II - EP DISCHARGE ON EDF 

The  Commission  has  taken  action  or  intends  to  act  on  almost  all  of  the  issues  raised  by 
Parliament  concerning  the  European  Development  Funds  (EDFs).  The  Financial  Regulation 
applicable  to  the  10th  EDF  was  adopted  on  18  February  2008  (OJ  L  78,  19.3.2008,  p.  1). 
Article 156 provides that most rules of the 10th EDF will apply to previous EDFs. Although, 
technically, previous EDF Financial Regulations are not abrogated and replaced by the 10th 
EDF Financial Regulation, in  practice the result will  be  the  same.  The  FR  applicable  to  the 
10th EDF will therefore greatly simplify the management of the different EDFs, all the more 
so  since  its  provisions  have  been  aligned  as  much  as  possible  on  the  FR  applicable  to  the 
General  Budget,  except  for  those  issues  which  retain  specificity  in  accordance  with  the 
revised Cotonou Agreement or the Council Internal Agreement. More detailed information on 
all recommendations is included in the Commission working document (points 176-190). 

III – RECOMMENDATIONS IN THE RESOLUTIONS CONCERNING INDIVIDUAL AGENCIES AND THE 

EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE 

The  European  Parliament  has  made  a  number  of  recommendations  to  the  Commission 
concerning the regulatory agencies in the discharge resolution for the general budget as well 
as in the discharge resolutions for the individual agencies. A summary of the Commission's 
replies  to  some  of  the  horizontal  issues  concerning  the  agencies  is  given  above  under  the 
general budget. The Commission's replies to the recommendations on other horizontal matters 
and  to  recommendations  addressed to  it  concerning  individual  agencies  can  be  found  in  the 
Commission working document (points 119-125 and 191-208). The section also includes the 
reply to a recommendation made in the discharge resolution concerning the European Court 
of Justice. 

* * * 

EN 

11 

   EN