REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the follow-up to the discharge for the 2017 financial year (Summary)
Date: 2019-07-02
Institutions: Directorate-General for Budget, European Commission
Subjects: EU control, EU expenditure, audit, budgetary control, budgetary discharge, financial management, financial year, general budget (EU), management audit, multiannual financial framework

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 2.7.2019  COM(2019) 334 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the follow-up to the discharge for the 2017 financial year (Summary)  
 
 
REPORT ON THE FOLLOW-UP TO THE REQUESTS MADE BY THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT IN 
ITS DISCHARGE RESOLUTIONS AND BY THE COUNCIL IN ITS DISCHARGE RECOMMENDATION 
FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR 2017 

INTRODUCTION 

On  26  March  2019,  the  European  Parliament  -  on  a  recommendation  by  the 
Council - granted the  Commission discharge for the financial year 2017.  In its 
discharge  resolution,  the  Parliament  considered  not  only  the  financial  management 
of the 2017 budget and the performance of programmes and policies, but also took 
stock  of  the  European  Parliament’s  contributions  to  establishing  sound  financial 
management  structures  in  the  Commission  and  in  the  Member  States  during  the 
2014-2019 legislative term.  

During  this  period,  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  have  acknowledged 
significant achievements: 

-  The focus on the performance of programmes and policies has increased in 
the  European  Parliament,  the  Council,  the  European  Court  of  Auditors  and  the 
Commission. The performance framework for the EU budget has been rated by 
the  Organisation  for  Economic  Cooperation  and  Development  as  the  most 
advanced  among  its  members.  The  Commission  has  improved  its  reporting  on 
performance in its annual integrated financial and accountability reporting. This 
increased focus on performance was reflected in the discharge procedure where 
debates focused more on results delivered by the EU budget than in the past. 
-  The European Court of Auditors acknowledged a sustained improvement in 
the management of EU finances by issuing - for the second time since it began 
to provide an annual statement of assurance in 1994 - a qualified opinion rather 
than an adverse opinion on the legality and regularity of the payments. 

-  The European Court of Auditors continued to issue a  ‘clean’ audit opinion on 

the annual accounts of the EU budget as well as on revenue. 

-  The overall level of error for expenditure decreased to 2.4% for the financial 
year 2017 (compared with 3.1% for 2016, 3.8% for 2015 and 4.4% for 2014).  
-  Entitlement-based  payments  (e.g.  payments  related  to  direct  aid  to  farmers, 
Erasmus  students,  budget  support  to  third  countries  and  EU  staff  salaries) 
representing  more than half of payments from  the EU budget in 2017 were 
not materially affected by error. 

-  A new EU financial regulation was agreed, introducing inter alia simpler rules, 
a  reinforcement  of  the  single  audit  approach,  and  strengthened  accountability 
reporting. 

These  positive  developments  reflect 
the  continuous  and  constructive 
cooperation  between  the  European  Parliament,  the  Council,  the  Commission  and 
the European Court of Auditors.  

During  the  debate  in  plenary  on  26  March  2019,  the  European  Parliament’s 
rapporteur for the 2017 discharge on the EU general budget of the Commission and 
executive  agencies,  Ms  Ayala  Sender,  underlined  the  importance  of  learning 
together  in  order  to  ensure  that  the  Union  budget  is  implemented  as  intended  (in 
terms of priorities and in terms of regularity and legality).  

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The Presidency of the Council represented by Mr Ciamba noted that ‘The European 
Parliament  and  the  Council  seem,  in  general,  to  share  the  same  approach.  We 
welcome the improvements that are there for all to see, and we want to see the good 
work of Member States’ authorities, of the Commission and of the Court, sustained 
and  further  improved.  We  have  to  send  a  clear  signal  to  European  citizens  and 
taxpayers that EU funds are used in a responsible and accountable manner.’ 

The President of the European Court of Auditors Mr Lehne said that the discharge 
decisions adopted by the European Parliament are never a blank cheque  – they are 
part of a longer process of cooperation. 

The discharge procedure offers an opportunity for all stakeholders to reflect on 
past developments, identify good practices as well as weaknesses, with the aim 
of  further  improving  financial  management  and  achieving  better  results  with 
the EU budget.   

Lessons learned from the past (for example through the discharge procedures, 
the work of the European Court of Auditors and Commission evaluations) were 
fed  into  the  Commission’s  draft  proposals  for  the  next  Multiannual  Financial 
Framework  with  the  aim  of  improving  the  performance  framework,  further 
simplifying  rules, and addressing new challenges by introducing modern sources of 
funding as well as strengthening the protection of the EU budget against generalised 
deficiencies as regards the rule of law in the Member States. 

In the discharge procedure for the financial year 2017, the European Parliament and 
the Council made requests to the Commission focusing on: 

-  Performance of programmes and policies; 

-  Accountability reporting, including the methodology for calculating error rates; 

-  Absorption of European funding; 

-  Other specific issues such as conflicts of interest. 

The Commission addresses the main discharge requests in this report, which is part 
of the 2018  integrated financial and accountability  reporting. More detailed replies 
to  the  specific  2017  discharge  requests  made  by  the  European  Parliament  and  the 
Council,  including  requests  made in  relation to the special reports of the European 
Court of Auditors will be published at a later stage. 

1. 

PERFORMANCE OF PROGRAMMES AND POLICIES 

The  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  underlined  that  the  2017  EU  budget 
supported  successfully  the  implementation  of  EU  priorities  and  policies  by 
complementing the resources of Member States.  

As  mentioned  by  the  European  Parliament,  this  was  the  case  in  particular  for 
Horizon  2020,  the  European  Union  Programme  for  the  Competitiveness  of  Small 
and  Medium-sized  Enterprises  (COSME),  the  Cohesion  Fund  and  the  European 
Regional  Development  Fund,  the  Rural  Development  Programmes,  as  well  as  the 
Asylum,  Migration  and  Integration  Fund  and  humanitarian  aid  in  80  different 
countries. 

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The European Parliament and the Council called on the Commission to improve the 
reporting on how it uses the performance information.  The Commission provides 
up-to-date  performance  information  in  its  performance  reports  and  is 
increasing its focus on the quality of data and on reporting on how performance 
information  is  used.  For  example,  conclusions  of  audits  on  the  performance  of 
current  programmes,  programme monitoring and  mid-term  evaluations fed into the 
comprehensive spending review accompanying the Commission’s proposals for the 
future Multiannual Financial Framework and the sectoral programmes with the aim 
to  strengthen  the  performance  focus  of  the  future  programmes.  This  request  was 
fully  implemented  with  the  adoption  of  the  Annual  Management  and  Performance 
Report on 25 June 2019.  

Furthermore, the Commission provided comprehensive performance information for 
each  programme  in  the  Programme  Statements  accompanying  the  proposal  for  the 
Draft  EU  Budget  2020.  This  information  is  intended  to  be  used  by  the  budgetary 
authority in its decision-making.  

For the next Multiannual Financial Framework, the Commission has proposed 
to  strengthen  the  focus  on  performance  across  all  programmes,  by  setting 
clearer objectives and focusing on a smaller number of higher quality performance 
indicators.  This  will  make  it  easier  to  monitor  and  measure  results  and  to  take 
appropriate actions.  

The proposal for the next Multiannual Financial Framework is more streamlined, the 
number  of  programmes  has  been  reduced,  and  fragmented  funding  sources  are 
brought  together  into  new  integrated  programmes.  A  stronger  link  has  been 
proposed between the European Semester and Cohesion funding, and the Common 
Agricultural  Policy  will  shift  the  emphasis  from  compliance  and  rules  towards 
results  and  performance,  for  example  by  introducing  Strategic  Plans  for  Member 
States. 

The main requests made by the European Parliament and the Council concerning the 
future design of agriculture, cohesion, migration and research policies are part of the 
ongoing  negotiations  on  the  next  generation  of  the  Multiannual  Financial 
Framework programmes.  

2. 

ACCOUNTABILITY REPORTING 

information  on 

The  integrated  financial  and  accountability  reporting  constitutes  an  important 
element  in  the  accountability  process  for  the  EU  finances.  It  brings  together 
comprehensive 
implementation,  performance,  results,  sound 
financial management and protection of the EU budget. It includes – as provided for 
in  the  2018  Financial  Regulation  -  the  final  consolidated  accounts,  the  annual 
management  and  performance  report,  the  annual  report  on  internal  audits,  a  long-
term  forecast  of  future  inflows  and  outflows  covering  the  next  five  years,  the 
evaluation on the Union’s finances based on the results achieved, and the report on 
the follow-up to the discharge. 

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The  reporting  for  the  financial  year  2018  will  address  several  requests  from  the 
European  Parliament  and  the  Council  concerning  inter  alia  long-term  forecasting, 
performance reporting, and the presentation of error rates. 

The Commission has a robust compliance system. It presents error rates for each of 
its  departments  in  annual  activity  reports  and  across  policy  areas  in  its  Annual 
Management and Performance Report. These error rates  are  calculated  following  a 
consistent  methodology  while  taking  into  account  that  the  legal  frameworks, 
management  environments  and  other  specificities  vary  between  policy  areas. 
Multiannual internal control systems are in place for the EU budget to prevent and 
detect errors before payments are made – and  make corrections if errors are found 
after payments were made. The Commission provides a full picture to stakeholders 
by presenting two indicators: risk at payment (before corrections) and risk at closure 
(after  corrections).  The  Commission’s  aim  as  a  manager  of  EU  funds  is  to  ensure 
that, once a programme is closed and all controls are carried out, the remaining level 
of error remains below 2%.  

The Commission will make further efforts to improve and streamline its reporting in 
the  annual  activity  reports  of  each  Director-General,  in  the  programme  statements 
accompanying  the  draft  budget,  and  the  Annual  Management  and  Performance 
Report adopted by the Commission. In that context, the Commission also takes into 
account recommendations made by the European Court of Auditors. 

The  Commission  is  fully  transparent  about  the  weaknesses  identified.  These  are 
clearly set out in the  reservations made by each Director-General in his/her annual 
activity report. Whenever a Director-General makes a reservation, he/she must also 
set up an action plan to address the related weaknesses. However, in the context of 
shared management it is for the Member States to set up the  action plans resulting 
from the reservations in the annual activity report of the relevant Director-General.  

The annual activity reports, programme statements and evaluation reports feed into 
the  Annual  Management  and  Performance  Report.  These  reports  are  being 
continuously  improved  based  inter  alia  on  the  feedback  from  the  Commission’s 
Internal  Audit  Service,  the  European  Court  of  Auditors,  the  European  Parliament 
and the Council.  

Finally,  the  Commission  is  in  continuous  dialogue  with  the  European  Court  of 
Auditors  on  possible  methodological 
the  estimation  and 
presentation of the error rates as well as the presentation of results achieved by the 
programmes financed by the EU budget.  

improvements 

to 

With regard to the request made by both the European Parliament  and the Council 
on contingent liabilities, the annual accounts of the EU contain detailed information 
on  the  existing  liabilities,  including  on  the  EU  budget  exposure  stemming  from 
budgetary  guarantees  and  guarantees  from  financial  asisstance  programmes. 
Furthermore, pursuant to the 2018 Financial Regulation, as of 2021 the Commission 
will  provide  in  a  dedicated  working  document  attached  to  the  draft  budget  an 
assessment of the sustainability of those  liabilities.  

To  respond  to  the  reporting  requests  by  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council 
concerning the funding related to the refugee and migration crisis and financial 
instruments,  the  Commission  transmitted  a  Report  on  the  Implementation  of 

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funding  raised  for  the  migration  and  refugee  crisis  (2015-2017)  to  the  European 
Parliament and the Council in February 2019, and will continue to do it on a regular 
basis.  

With regard to the request to provide information on the closure of the financial 
instruments for the 2007-2013 Multiannual Financial Framework, the Commission 
will  report  on  the  progress  made  with  the  closure  of  the  2007-2013  operational 
programmes in line with the legislation in force. The Commission will report on the 
final outcome of the closure for the programming period in the context of the annual 
activity  reports  of  the  respective  Directorates  General,  starting  from  the  2018 
reporting  year. This report on the closure of the programming period includes  - by 
operational  programme  -  the  amount  eligible  at  closure,  including  for  financial 
instruments  where  available.  It  also  includes  information  on  recoveries  by 
operational programme, if any.  

3. 

ABSORPTION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION FUNDS 

In its 2017 Annual Report, the European Court of Auditors focused on the ‘Reste à 
liquider’  which  subsequently  became  an  important  theme  of  the  discharge  debate. 
The ‘Reste à liquider’ is the sum of commitments made which have not yet been 
paid. It is a mechanical consequence of the fact that commitments are relatively 
evenly spread over time in a multi-annual budget, whereas, due to the fact that 
most  of  the  commitments  relate  to  investments  which  take  time  to  complete, 
payments  are  back-loaded.  With  projects  lasting  several  years  before  they  are 
completed,  it  is  normal  to  have  a  time  lag  between  the  initial  commitments  and 
actual payments. The time lag depends mainly on the length of projects financed and 
rules applied to each programme.  

The  European  Parliament  pointed  out  that  the  ‘Reste  à  liquider’    increased 
significantly  due  to  inter  alia  the  late  adoption  of  the  2014-2020  Multiannual 
Financial  Framework,  the  difficulties  in  implementing  new  requirements,  and  a 
change  in  the  de-commitment  rules  in  cohesion  policy  from  N+2  to  N+3.  These 
combined with the increased pre-financing rates contributed to a slower absorption 
of EU funds at the beginning of the current Multiannual Financial Framework. The 
Commission  considers  that  the  timely  adoption  of  the  next  Multiannual  Financial 
Framework in autumn 2019 is crucial to avoid a repetition of those past problems. 

The Council was concerned about the risk that available payment appropriations will 
be insufficient to settle all payments claims, despite the increase in the flexibility of 
the budget to address needs for the final years of the current Multiannual Financial 
Framework.  It  urged  the  Commission  to  continuously  improve  both  payment 
estimates and monitoring mechanisms in order to manage this risk, to anticipate an 
orderly  disbursement  of  payments  and  to  ensure  predictability  of  national 
contributions.  

The  Commission  is  constantly  monitoring  the  evolution  of  payment  needs  in 
view  of  improving  budget  predictability  and  managing  the  related  budgetary 
risks. Since 2015, the Commission is providing an annual forecast of the EU long-
term payment needs, which as of 2018 takes the form of an annual Forecast Report 

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on future inflows and outflows of the EU budget. This Report gives a projection of 
the  payments  necessary  to  cover  the  outstanding  commitments  the  EU  has  already 
signed (i.e. the ‘Reste à liquider’), as well as payments for new commitments yet to 
be  concluded  for  a  5-year  time  horizon,  as  required  by  the  2018  Financial 
Regulation.  

The  main  factor  for  the  reliability  and  stability  of  the  payment  forecast  is  the 
implementation of the cohesion policy, which currently constitutes roughly one third 
of  the  EU  budget  and  is  the  biggest  spending  policy  carried  out  through 
differentiated  appropriations.  As  it  is  implemented  through  shared  management 
mode, the pace of implementation and forecasting of payments is largely dependent 
on the Member States’ planning.  

its  proposal  for 

the  2021-2027  Multiannual  Financial  Framework, 

In 
the 
Commission has aimed to ensure the sufficiency of the payment ceilings, as well as 
more stable and predictable implementation of the annual budgets. In particular, the 
payment  ceilings  over  the  years  2021-2027  have  been  proposed  at  the  level 
sufficient to cover the outstanding commitments of previous years and to contain the 
growth of the ‘Reste à Liquider’,  as well as to allow for a seamless transition to the 
next  generation  of  spending  programmes.  To  contribute  to  a  more  stable  and 
predictable  evolution  of  payments,  the  Commission  has  proposed  to  adapt  specific 
implementing modalities of the cohesion  policy  (e.g.  return to  N+2 decommitment 
rule, lower pre-financing level to avoid accumulation of recoveries and to promote 
quicker implementation). 

The  Commission  also  proposed  to  maintain  the  mechanisms  of  the  Global  Margin 
for  Payments  and  the  Contingency  Margin,  which  may  be  used,  within  the  overall 
Multiannual  Financial  Framework  payment  ceiling  for  the  period,  to  address 
possible peaks and troughs in payment needs. These instruments have proven their 
usefulness  for  the  management  of  payments  across  the  duration  of  the  financial 
framework already in the 2014-2020 period. 

Moreover, the Commission will continue working closely with Member States to 
ensure  the  timely  absorption  of  EU  funds  within  the  2014-2020  Multiannual 
Financial  Framework,  and  provide  substantial  support  to  Member  States  including 
technical  assistance  and  advisory  services  in  order  to  improve  their  capacity  to 
implement  the  EU  Funds.  The  lessons  learnt  from  the  Task  Force  for  Better 
Implementation (set up to improve the implementation of ESI Funds for the previous 
period) have been mainstreamed for programmes in difficulty in the current period. 
A  close  dialogue  is  in  place  with  the  concerned  Member  States  to  improve  the 
situation. 

4. 

SPECIFIC ISSUES 

4.1  REVENUE  

The European Parliament notes that for the second year in a row, DG Budget made a 
reservation on the value of Traditional Own Resources collected by the United 
Kingdom  due  to  the  country’s  failure  to  make  available  to  the  Union  budget 

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customs  duties  evaded  on  textiles  and  footwear  imports.  It  welcomes  the 
infringement procedure initiated by the Commission in March 2018 as a follow-up 
to the customs fraud case. 

After several  legal  steps and the analysis of the United Kingdom  reply  received in 
February  2018,  the  Commission  referred  the  case  to  the  Court  of  Justice  of  the 
European Union in March 2019. 

As of October 2017, the United Kingdom authorities started to gradually introduce 
some of the remedial measures requested by the Commission but still refuse to make 
available the amounts of Traditional Own Resources due to the EU budget. 

An  analysis  of  the  data  shows  a  steep  reduction  of  the  Traditional  Own  Resource 
losses in the United Kingdom since the introduction of the remedial measures.  

The  European  Parliament  also  calls  on  the  Commission  to  approach  such  cases 
reaffirming the clear need for more cooperation between custom services in the 
Member States to avoid harm to Union and national budgets and to Union product 
standards.  

The  Commission  is  taking  action  to  avoid  losses  of  customs  duties.  When  the 
Commission finds that Member States’ controls are not effective and lead to losses 
of Traditional Own Resources, the Member States are made liable for those losses, 
with very significant interest applied for belated payment. The Commission acts as 
soon as irregularities are detected. 

Responsibility  for  collecting  the  customs  duties  is  primarily  that  of  the  Member 
States.  The  Commission  is  therefore  working  closely  with  the  Member  States  to 
ensure  a  consistent  application  of  the  EU  customs  legislation  across  the  Member 
States to protect the financial interests of the Union. 

The European Parliament also calls on the Commission to improve its monitoring 
of  import  flows  and  to  review  the  existing  control  framework  and  better 
document  its  application  in  verifying  Member  States’  calculations  of  the 
weighted average rate presented by the Member States in their VAT statements. 

Regarding monitoring and data mining, as trade volumes grow and national customs 
administrations  face  financial  constraints,  Member  States  need  to  rely  more  than 
ever on automated risk analysis to target the most problematic consignments while 
facilitating legitimate trade. 

All  Member  States  already  have  access  to  the  Automated  Monitoring  Tool  on 
external  trade,  providing  them  with  regular  updates  on  the  Commission’s  ongoing 
analysis of import flows and import prices (statistical data mining). However, with a 
view to support Member States to enhance their control activities, the Commission 
will obtain more detailed data on imports in the coming years under the new Union 
Customs Code, facilitating the wider use of data mining techniques. 

The control framework related to the Weighted Average Rate calculation is currently 
being  reviewed  to  further  harmonise  the  work  documentation  and  the  VAT 
Weighted Average Rate verification checklist. This request should be implemented 
by the end of 2019.  

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4.2 CONFLICT OF INTERESTS 

The Parliament resolution requests the Commission to follow up on a specific case 
of alleged conflict of interest in the Czech Republic, as well as to raise the issue with 
Member States in general. 

The  2018  Financial  Regulation  contains  strengthened  rules  with  respect  to  the 
preventing  and  addressing  conflicts  of  interests  that  are  in  force  since  2  August 
2018. For the first time, they apply explicitly also to Member States managing EU 
funds  under  shared  management.  The  Commission  has  provided  guidance  to 
Member  States  on  the  implementation  of  these  rules  in  a  series  of  meetings  with 
Member  States’  authorities  in  2018.  All  Member  States  shall  communicate  to  the 
Commission  the  measures  taken  to  ensure  compliance  with  the  new  rules.  A 
dedicated conference on managing conflicts of interests was organised on 10 April 
2019. The Commission continues to provide guidance.  

In  relation  to  the  specific  case  in  the  Czech  Republic,  comprehensive  audits  have 
been  carried  out  regarding  the  application  of  EU  and  national  law.  The  audit 
procedure is ongoing in full respect of the applicable rules and deadlines defined in 
the relevant regulations. In order to protect EU financial interests, as a precautionary 
measure,  no  relevant  payments  from  the  EU  budget  under  the  European  Structural 
and  Investment  Funds  are  being  made  until  the  situation  has  been  clarified.  The 
Commission will keep the European Parliament informed taking due account of the 
confidentiality requirements. 

4.3 DECENTRALISED AGENCIES 

The  Parliament  resolution  calls  on  the  Commission  to  monitor  the  agencies 
operating under Heading 3 and points to the weaknesses in the management of the 
European Asylum Support Office. 

The  Commission  is  not  directly  responsible  for  the  management  of  the  budget  of 
decentralised  agencies.  Therefore,  the  discharge  for  the  implementation  of  the 
budget is decided by the European Parliament separately, to reflect their autonomy 
as  separate  legal  entities.  However,  in  accordance  with  the  Common  Approach  on 
decentralised agencies, the Commission monitors that the agencies act in accordance 
with Union rules and interests. 

The mechanisms for exercising such monitoring have been reinforced  with the entry 
into force of the new Financial Framework Regulation in May 2019. The new rules 
oblige the agencies to apply effective internal control based on the Internal Control 
Framework  laid  down  by  the  Commission  for  its  own  departments;  to  design  the 
internal control system in order to mitigate the specific risks of activities of offices 
run away from the main seat; to include in the programming document the strategy 
for  preventing 
to  critical  audit 
recommendations;  and  to  report  on  the  efficiency  and  effectiveness  of  the  internal 
control system. As in the past, an agency shall report in its annual activity report on 
the  follow  up  to  all  recommendations  of  internal/external  audit  and  to  inform  the 
management board, where the Commission is represented. 

recurrence  of  problems 

that  have 

led 

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Other measures include the obligation for the agencies to report without delay to the 
Management Board on financial irregularities and fraud identified by the European 
Court of Auditors, the Internal Audit Service and OLAF. The  Commission has the 
right to obtain all the necessary information related to the budget. 

Concerning  the  management  of  the  European  Asylum  Support  Office,  the 
Commission has taken and continues to take the situation very seriously. 

During  2018,  the  European  Asylum  Support  Office  drew  up  an  action  plan  to 
address  the  weaknesses  in  its  management  and  control  systems  and  it  is  actively 
implementing it, regularly reporting to the European Parliament.  

The  Commission  has  supported  the  European  Asylum  Support  Office  by  offering 
advice  and  expertise  on  actions  taken  (notably  in  procurement,  budget  and 
recruitment issues). 

The Parliament has welcomed the action plan and measures taken by the Office. 

The Commission’s representative on the agency’s management board will continue 
to  monitor  that  the  agency  implements  the  action  plan  so  that  that  previous 
shortcomings are remedied and any further measures that might be needed are taken. 

4.4 EUROPEAN FUND FOR STRATEGIC INVESTMENTS (EFSI) 

The  European  Parliament  called  on  the  Commission  to  ensure  that  EFSI 
management  bodies  take  into  account  a  proper  geographical  balance  when  signing 
loan agreements and to report back to the Parliament on the progress achieved.  

EFSI is demand driven but the EFSI Investment Guidelines provide that best efforts 
shall  be  made  to  ensure  that  at  the  end  of  the  investment  period  a  wide  range  of 
regions  will  be  covered  and  excessive  geographical  concentration  is  avoided.  The 
Commission and the European Investment Bank have implemented several measures 
to  ensure  proper  geographical  balance.  These  measures  are  based  on  the  amended 
EFSI Regulation (EFSI 2.0). They include among others:   

  More  targeted  local  outreach  through  enhanced  cooperation  with  National 
Promotional  Banks  or  Institutions  including  through  the  setting  up  of 
investment  platforms  and  enhanced  cooperation  models  (e.g.  European 
Investment Fund national Promotional Institutions Equity platform). 

  Facilitation of combination of European Structural and Investment Funds and 

EFSI,  

  An  enhanced  role  of  the  Advisory  Hub  to  facilitate  project  origination  and 
development in particular in less developed regions and transition regions. 

Furthermore,  the  Commission,  the  European  Investment  Bank,  and  the  EFSI 
Steering  Board  regularly  monitor  the  geographical  distribution  of  the  EFSI 
supported  investments.  In  order  to  increase  transparency  and  accountability,  the 
monthly  public  reporting  on  operations  under  EFSI  support  and  the  annual 
implementation  reports  on  EFSI  contain 
the  geographical 
distribution. 

information  on 

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4.5 SENIOR OFFICIAL APPOINTMENTS IN THE EU INSTITUTIONS 

The  European  Parliament  calls  on  the  Commission  and  other  EU  institutions  to 
review,  where  necessary,  appointment  procedures,  and  take  additional  measures  to 
improve transparency, fairness  and equal  opportunity during these procedures. The 
inter-institutional round table organised in September 2018 was fruitful and allowed 
representatives  of  the  institutions  at  political  or  senior  management  level  to  share 
how  they  run  their  procedures.  It  confirmed  that  the  way  in  which  the  different 
institutions implement the rules is both adequate and fit for purpose and that there is 
also  much  in  the  way  of  common  best  practice.  All  the  institutions  have  the  same 
objective  –  to  recruit,  appoint  and  promote  talented  individuals,  on  the  basis  of 
skills, qualifications and experience. The Commission will take appropriate follow-
up action whilst underlining that like all institutions, it acts autonomously within the 
powers  conferred  on  it  in  the  Treaties  and  within  the  framework  of  the  applicable 
law.  This  includes  the  power  to  decide  on  its  internal  organisation,  its  rules  of 
procedure  and  the  exercise  of  its  appointing  authority  powers  under  the  Staff 
Regulations. 

5. 

CONCLUSION 

The  Commission  considers  the  discharge  procedure  of  crucial  importance  in  terms 
of accountability for the sound financial management of EU finances. 

The  Commission  will  do  its  utmost  to  contribute  to  continuous  and  constructive 
cooperation  with  the  European  Parliament,  the  Council  and  the  European  Court  of 
Auditors in relation to the management of  EU funds.  

It  is  committed  to  implementing  the  main  recommendations  and  requests  made  in 
the discharge procedure. Some have already been fully implemented and others are 
ongoing. 

The  next  Multiannual  Financial  Framework  provides  an  important  opportunity  to 
take  into  account  lessons  learned  and  inter  alia  further  simplify  rules  and  improve 
the  overall  performance  framework.  An  agreement  on  the  2021-2027  Multiannual 
Financial  Framework  in  autumn  2019  will  be  crucial  for  the  efforts  to  ensure  the 
timely start of the implementation of EU policies. 

* * * 

EN 

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