CELEX: 31979D0125(01)
Language: en
Date: 1978-12-13 00:00:00
Title: Decision of the European Parliament of 13 December 1978 on the discharge to be granted to the Commission in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Communities for the 1976 financial year#Resolution embodying the comments accompanying the decisions granting a discharge on the implementation of the budget of the European Communities for the 1976 financial year

No L 18 / 16                        Official Journal of the European Communities                                    25 . 1 . 79
                                                           II
                                       (Acts whose publication is not obligatory)
                                  EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
                               DECISION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
                                                 of 13 December 1978
               on the discharge to be granted to the Commission in respect of the implementa­
                tion of the budget of the European Communities for the 1976 financial year
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT,                                       2 . Notes that :
                                                                    (a) Expenditure to be met from revenue for the
— having regard to the Treaty establishing the ECSC                       financial year totalled 7 952 574 591 u.a.,
     and in particular Article 78g thereof,
                                                                    (b) Appropriations (commitments) utilized during
— having regard to the Treaty establishing the EEC                        the financial year totalled 8 311 464 518.47 u.a. ;
     and in particular Article 206b thereof,
                                                               3 . Grants a discharge to the Commission in respect of
— having regard to the Treaty establishing the EAEC                 the following amount shown in the revenue and
     and in particular Article 180b thereof,                        expenditure accounts :
                                                                    (a) Revenue :
— having regard to the revenue and expenditure
     accounts   and  the  financial  statements   for the
                                                                         — Entitlement for the 1976 financial year :
     accountancy procedures in respect of the budget                          7 993 217 897-32 u.a ,
     for the 1976 financial year,
                                                                          — Entitlement       collected  at  31     December
— having regard to the report of the Audit Board on                           1976 : 7 423 870 669-15 u.a .,
     the accounts for the 1976 financial year and the
     answers of the institutions to the report (Doc .                         broken down as follows :
     132/78),
                                                                              1 . Amounts collected from the entitlement
                                                                                  for the financial year : 6 589 035 058-13
— having regard to the Council recommendation on                                  u.a .,
     the granting of a discharge to the Commission in
     respect of the implementation of the budget for                          2 . Amounts      collected  from     entitlement
     the 1976 financial year (Doc . 317/78),                                      carried forward from the preceding finan­
                                                                                  cial year : 834 835 611.02 u.a ,
— having regard to the report of the Committee on
     Budgets (Doc . 489/78),                                        (b) Expenditure (payments shown in the accounts
                                                                         for the financial year): 6 257 193 266-96 u.a.;
1 . Notes that :                                               4. Points out that the surplus of revenue ('), over
                                                                    expenditure for the financial year (2), totalling
    (a) Estimates of revenue for the 1976 financial year            40 542 573 12 u.a. is being carried forward to the
        totalled 8 509 738 961 u.a .                                 following financial year ;
    (b) Estimates of expenditure for the 1976 financial        (>) See 3 (a) first indent : 7 993 217 897.32 u.a .
        year totalled 8 470 609 608 u.a. ;                      2 ) See 2 (a) : 7 952 574 591 u.a.
 ---pagebreak--- 25 . 1 . 79                       Official Journal of the European Communities                        No L 18 / 17
5. Draws attention to its resolution embodying the           6 . Instructs its President to communicate this deci­
    comments accompanying the decision granting a                sion and the attached comments to the Commis­
    discharge and requests the institutions to report on         sion, to forward them to the other institutions and
    the measures taken following those comments in               to arrange for their publication in the Official
    accordance with Article 85 of the Financial Regula­          Journal of the European Communities, 'L' series.
    tion ;
                                      Done at Luxembourg, 13 December 1978 .
                         The Secretary-General                             The President
                              H. R. NORD                                 Emilio COLOMBO
 ---documentbreak---  No L 18 / 18                      Official Journal of the European Communities                                  25 . 1 . 79
                                                    RESOLUTION
               embodying the comments accompanying the decisions granting a discharge on
               the implementation of the budget of the European Communities for the 1976
                                                     financial year
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT,                                       imposed on them by the Community Regulations to
                                                                provide the Commission with the information it
 1.    Draws the attention of all the institutions to the      needs for the exercise of its responsibilities, and
 irregularities and aberrations noted by the Audit             stresses that it is in the interests of all concerned for
 Board, and invites them to take all measures necessary        the Commission to be able to ensure the effective
 for their eradication ;                                       operation of the system .
 2.    Instructs its Control Subcommittee to give the           10 .   Is following with great interest the Commis­
 closest possible attention to action taken on the             sion's efforts to coordinate on-the-spot audits in the
 comments accompanying the decisions granting a                Member States ; asks that its Control Subcommittee
 discharge in respect of the 1975 financial year, and to       should be notified regularly of the results of these
 report on the matter to the Committee on Budgets ;            audits and their coordination ;
 Implementation of the budget for the 1 976 financial           11 .  Considers that the entry into force of financial
year                                                           autonomy will considerably increase the Commis­
                                                               sion's responsibilities in respect of the implementa­
3.     Notes that the pattern of expenditure in the            tion of the 'revenue' section of the budget and is in
 1976 budget bears no relation to the major factors            favour of a corresponding increase in the staff respon­
influencing economic policy during the period, such            sible for auditing and the management of revenue,
as inflation, unemployment and the impact of the               without any alteration in the present decentralized
drought on harvest yields ;                                    structure ;
4. Emphasizes that the 1976 financial year was                  12.   Notes that the current presentation of the
notable for the rapid take-off of the Regional Fund,           'revenue' section of the budget does not allow the
initial progress on the EAGGF Guidance Section and             Budgetary Authority and the Discharge Authority to
the Community campaign of solidarity on behalf of              carry out their responsibilities satisfactorily ; is, more­
the Friuli disaster victims ;                                  over, of the view that the budgetary transparency of
                                                               the section on revenue is unlikely to be markedly
5. Regrets the stagnation in food aid and research             improved except on the basis of thorough reform of
expenditure during the same period ;                           the agricultural funds and hence of the entire CAP
                                                               system ;
6.     Deplores the distortions affecting the decisions
of the Budgetary Authority, caused by an excessive
number of transfers, carryings forward, cancellations
                                                               13 . Urges the Commission to take steps in the near
and supplementary budgets, particularly since the deci­        future to promote the use of the EUA for the calcula­
sions in question were reached within the framework            tion and payment of Community fines ;
of the inter-institutional dialogue ;
                                                               14.    Instructs its Control Subcommittee to make a
                                                               detailed review of the Community's publications
Revenue                                                        policy, with particular reference to the cost of
                                                               producing these publications ;
7.     Requests the Commission to ensure that the
Community character of own resources is not called
into question by the national procedures employed for
the establishment, collection and payment of such              Operating expenditure
resources ;
                                                               15. Notes that a relatively high proportion of staff
8 . Proposes that the Commission should be                     are not covered by the Staff Regulations of officials of
provided automatically with information on these               the European Communities. Although the recruit­
procedures and their operation in order to facilitate its      ment of such staff facilitates a more flexible staff
task ;                                                         policy, it should be kept to an absolute minimum and
                                                               discrimination against other persons, who have to go
9. Calls upon the Commission to see to it that the             through the competition procedure, should be
Member States comply strictly with the obligation              avoided :
 ---pagebreak---  25 . 1 . 79                          Official Journal of the European Communities                           No L 18 / 19
 16.      Feels that recruitment procedures should be           on a national basis and which could be prosecuted
 closely coordinated between the institutions and that,         vigorously rather than diluting the Community effort
 for certain grades at least, it should be possible to use      by spreading the limited funds available over too wide
 joint reserve lists ;                                          an area with a watering can effect ;
 17 .     Calls   on   the  Commission      to  extend   the    26 .    Insists that an effective system for the gauging
 measures it has introduced to encourage staff mobility         of return on outlay be evolved, in so far as it is
 to the concept of mobility between institutions ;              realistic to arrive at value judgements about research ;
 invites the other institutions to take measures to this
 effect ;                                                       27.     Is of the view that a policy of a degree of
                                                                mobility for researchers should constitute an integral
 18 .     Considers that clear and precise conditions           part of the overall Community approach to research ;
governing ad pesonam promotion should be drawn
 up for application in all the institutions ; and will care­    28 . Draws attention to the need for maintaining
 fully monitor the course of future budgetary proce­            the appropriate balance between staff costs and expen­
 dures, the creation of ad personam posts ;                     diture on operational research ;
 Comments with regard to the European Parliament                 Euratom Supply Agency
 19. Calls on the administration of the European                29 .    Notes from the Agency's operating account that
Parliament to take the appropriate steps to conform             the budget, which was largely financed with a
with the recommendations in the Audit Board's report            Commission subsidy, amounted to 458 879 u.a. and
on administrative expenditure for 1976 ;                        welcomes the fact that no major irregularities were
                                                                found by the Audit Board ;
20. Notes that as regards transfers of sums abroad
                                                                30 .    Instructs the Committee on Budgets to
by officials, the total amount remained relatively insig­
                                                                continue to study, together with the Commission , the
nificant and did not exceed a certain percentage of
staff salaries, and that these transfers will, in any case,     financial management of the Euratom Supply Agency
cease to bring any exchange profits after introduction          at the time of the audit for the next financial year ;
of the European unit of account for administrative
expenditure ;                                                   Social Fund
21 .      Instructs its Subcommittee, following receipt of      31 . Notes that, once again , payments made in the
preliminary studies, to formulate recommendations to
                                                                1976 financial year on the basis of appropriations for
rationalize acquisitions policy, substituting purchasing        the financial year were insignificant ( 1-81 % ) ; that the
for renting where appropriate ;                                 total of cancelled appropriations from the 1974 and
                                                                1975 financial years amounted to 90 million u.a. and
                                                                that this fugure rose still higher, to 227 million u.a., in
Expenditure on research and investment                          the 1977 financial year ;
22.      Has noted the efforts of the Commission to             32 .    Endorses the Control Subcommittee 's view that
enhance the clarity and transparency of the presenta­           the Commission's internal implementing procedures
tion of the research and investment appropriations ;            and administrative practices should be revised so as to
                                                                reduce the delays observed in the making of
                                                                payments ;
23 . Considers that the tendering system should be
used as widely as possible and insists that invitations         33 .    Refers in this connection to the discussions
to tender should be issued only after a detailed exami­         held within the framework of the budgetary procedure
nation of requirements and after careful planning ;             for the 1979 financial year, and to the efforts to find
                                                                new procedures such as will improve the flow of
24.      Notes that delays in decision-making in the            appropriations and to develop new ideas on coopera­
case of JET caused an avoidable loss of several million         tion with the Member States ;
EUA to the Community and urges simplification of
the decision-making procedures to avoid recurrence of           34.     Invites the Commission to submit proposals to
such regrettable situations ;                                   this end ;
25.      Believes that careful attention should be paid to      35.     Instructs its Control Subcommittee to give
the desirability of concentrating Community research            close attention, particularly during the discharge proce­
efforts on a limited number of lines which dovetail             dure for the 1977 financial year, to such of these
and synchronize with existing programmes, conducted             problems as remain unresolved ;
 ---pagebreak--- No L 18 /20                        Official Journal of the European Communities                                25. 1 . 79
European Regional Development Fund                           46. Expresses its surprise at the relatively few cases
                                                             of irregularities reported by several Member States
                                                             under Regulation (EEC) No 283/72, particularly in the
36 .    Notes that the rate of utilization of commit­
                                                             beef and dairy products sectors ;
ment and payment appropriations has been satisfac­
tory but nevertheless invites the Commission to urge
the Member States to accelerate implementation of            47.      Deplores the fact that the Commission should
the operations for which they are responsible ;               find itself obliged to point out that (a) it is sometimes
                                                              necessary to remind Member States of the deadlines
37. Requests the Commission to see to it that more            for reporting irregularities and (b) the data received
                                                              tends to omit details ;
uniform use is made of the appropriations within the
quotas allocated to each Member State ;
                                                              48 . Fears that the complexity of Community Regu­
38 .    Notes that no major irregularity was reported         lations may be rendering the detection of irregularities
during the financial year ;                                   more difficult and therefore calls for a simplification
                                                              of these Regulations ;
39 .    Nevertheless calls upon the Commission to
examine with all due stringency all applications for          49 . Is concerned at the slow rate of recovery of the
assistance    so  as  to  ensure   the   effectiveness of     amounts involved in those irregularities which come
financing in terms of the objectives pursued, and also        to light and recommends a speeding up of recovery
to avoid harming the prestige of the Community's              procedures ;
activities ;
                                                              50 . Considers the work of the Special Audit
EAGGF — Guarantee
                                                              Mission to be particularly positive and useful and
                                                              recommends that it be extended and intensified ;
40 . Considers that it is appropriate to look at the
guarantee and guidance aspects of the EAGGF jointly
when examining the impact of money spent in the               51 .    Notes that, in its final report, the Audit Board
context of the common agricultural policy ;                   'was unable to conclude that financial management in
                                                              the sectors investigated has been sound in the sense of
                                                              achieving the desired objectives at the lowest possible
41 . Reiterates its view that greater emphasis should         cost or even, in certain cases, of achieving them at all'
be laid on guidance outlay if the continued emer­             and sees in this a measure of the size of the task
gence of persistent surpluses with resultant interven­        confronting the new Court of Auditors in its work in
tion costs is to be minimized ;                               relation to the EAGGF ;
42. Believes that there is a danger that aid to agri­         52.     Reiterates its demand that a fuller breakdown of
culture by the Member States could run counter to the         intervention costs should be provided in future
objectives of the common agricultural policy by               budgets and that the Commission should provide, by
having protective effects and that such aid needs to be        the end of this year, a report on the working of the
examined carefully ;                                           intervention system ;
43.     Urges that the closing of EAGGF accounts for           53 .   Believes that longer-term projections of
 earlier financial years be expedited and recalls that it      Community production capacity and demand for agri­
 made available 37 extra posts in the 1978 budget to           cultural products are an essential adjunct to manage­
 help the Commission carry out its responsibility in           ment control of the EAGGF, from the effectiveness
 this area ;
                                                              viewpoint, and asks the Commission to put the prepa­
                                                               ration of such projections in hand ;
 44. Appreciates that it is difficult to measure
 precisely the economic effects of the agri-monetary
 system but urges the Commission to pursue its efforts         54.    Calls for wider use of the tendering system to
 at quantification in this area ;                              enable the EAGGF to operate as efficiently as
                                                               possible ;
 45.    Asks that every effort be made to measure costs,
 draft possible alternatives, and generally open up the        55 . Suggests that the Court of Auditors should
 possibility for the making of political choices in the        comment in detail, in its annual report, on the opera­
 sphere of agriculture ;                                       tion of the intervention agencies ;
 ---pagebreak--- 25 . 1 . 79                         Official Journal of the European Communities                            No L 18 /21
EAGGF — Guidance                                              Council,     Parliament   and     the   Commission      as
                                                              uniformly as possible for Title IX as a whole and that
56.      Emphasizes that the farm structures guidance         methods of management and control be harmonized ;
policy can make a decisive contribution to the reduc­
tion of social and economic imbalances within the             63 . Draws attention to the shortcomings and delays
Community ;                                                   in the budgetary management of food aid and reiter­
57. Asks, therefore, for the            appropriations in     ates its concern that the budgetary and legal relation­
respect of the activities of the       Fund to be fixed       ship between food aid and the EAGGF Guarantee
commensurately with real needs,         within the frame­
                                                              Fund could make food aid policy dependent on the
work of the budgetary procedures      ;
                                                              vicissitudes of the common agricultural policy ;
58 .     Considers, nevertheless, that to ensure that the     64. Expresses its surprise at the Commission's reluc­
funds are actually used and are channelled towards the        tance to utilize the appropriations provided for aid to
least developed regions, a simpler financing system           the non-associated developing countries without the
should be established and the Member States should            Council 's formal approval ;
be encouraged to adopt less complicated bureaucratic
procedures ;                                                  Development Fund
59 . Asks once again for an effective link to be esta­        65.     Notes the practical difficulties arising from the
blished between the instruments (particularly the             introduction of the EUA in the EDF ; will do its
Social Fund and the Regional Fund) which are                  utmost to find a solution to these difficulties ;
capable of providing a practical response to problems         considers, nevertheless, that they are not such as to
of economic development ;                                     cast doubt on the principle of the use of the EUA as
                                                              an accounting instrument, an instrument for the
60 .     Invites the Commission to take especial care to      execution of projects and a unit of currency ;
ensure that projects financed with the participation of
th EAGGF contain features of a kind that enable the           66 . Will reinforce its control over the EDF appro­
Community aspects of the Fund to be appreciated ;             priations for whose utilization the EIB is responsible ;
61 .     Urges all the relevant institutions to intensify     67. Attaches particular importance to the introduc­
their control operations to ensure that the principles        tion of mechanisms allowing for greater parliamentary
and aims described above are truly reflected in the           control over the appropriations earmarked for aid to
management of the Fund ;                                      the ACP in the context of an EDF which is incorpor­
                                                              ated in the budget ;
Development aid
                                                              68 . Will pursue its investigation , in collaboration
62. Recommends that the development aid appro­                with the relevant departments and the Court of Audi­
priations should be presented more consistently, that         tors, into the working of the delegations in the ACP
responsibilities should be divided between the                States and the effectiveness of the Stabex mechanisms .