CELEX: 51992PC0358
Language: en
Date: 1992-09-02
Title: Proposal for a COUNCIL REGULATION (ECSC, EC, Euratom) amending the Financial Regulation of 21 December 1977 applicable to the general budget of the European Communities

1 . 10 . 92                          Official Journal of the European Communities                              No C 254/ 5
                                                             II
                                                     (Preparatory Acts)
                                                COMMISSION
             Proposal for a Council Regulation amending the Financial Regulation of 21 December 1977
                              applicable to the general budget of the European Communities
                                                       (92/C 254/05)
                                                    COM(92) 358 final
                                    (Submitted by the Commission on 4 September 1992)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                         Financial Regulation for the principle that the budget
                                                                 shall be executed in ecu ;
Having regard to the Treaty established the European
Coal and Steel Community, and in particular Article 78h
thereof,                                                         Whereas that Treaty raises the Court of Auditors to
                                                                 institution status and confers a new task upon it; whereas
                                                                 the provisions of the Financial Regulation relating to that
Having regard to the Treaty established the European             institution   should be     adapted    and   supplemented
Economic Community, and in particular Article 209                accordingly;
thereof,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European            Whereas, since that Treaty has enhanced the role of the
Atomic Energy Community, and in particular Article 183           Economic and Social Committee and provided for a
thereof,                                                         Committee of the Regions, provisions need to be laid
                                                                 down to govern their budgetary status ;
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
                                                                 Whereas Article 89 of the Financial Regulation must be
Having regard to the opinion of the European                     amended to reflect the stronger powers of political
Parliament,                                                      control exercised by Parliament and the Council over the
                                                                 execution of the budget on the basis of reports by the
                                                                 Court of Auditors ;
Having regard to the opinion of the Court Auditors,
Whereas the conciliation provided for by the Joint               Whereas the implementation of the Agreement on the
Declaration of 4 March 1975 by the European                      European Economic Area requires that appropriate
Parliament, the Council and the Commission (1) has               provisions be inserted in the Financial Regulation to
taken place in a Conciliation Committee ;                        govern, in particular, the budgetary presentation and
                                                                 execution    of   the  additional  financial  contribution
Whereas the principle of subsidiarity is enshrined in the        resulting from financial participation by the EFTA
Treaty on European Union and must now be incor­                  countries ;
porated in the Financial Regulation of 21 December
1977 applicable to the general budget of the European
Communities (2) (hereinafter referred to as the 'Financial       Whereas appropriate provisions must be inserted in the
Regulation'), as last amended by Regulation (Euratom,            Financial Regulation to govern the financial participation
ECSC, EEC) No 610/90 (3);                                        of third parties in Community activities ;
Whereas the provisions of the Treaty on European                 Whereas it must be clearly stated that, when awarding
Union, and in particular those relating to Monetary              contracts, the institutions must comply with the same
Union, make it all the more necessary to provide in the          obligations as are incumbent on bodies in the Member
                                                                 States by virtue of the Council directives coordinating
O OJ No C 89, 22. 4. 1975, p. 1 .                                procedures for the award of public works, supply and
O OJ No L 356, 31 . 12. 1977, p. 1                               services contracts with a value equal to or higher ' than
O OJ No L 70, 16 . 3 . 1990, p. 1 .                              the thresholds established by those directives ; whereas
 ---pagebreak--- No C 254 / 6                             Official Journal of the European Communities                                    1 . 10 . 92
the provisions applicable to contracts below those thre­             7 . Article 11 is amended as follows :
sholds should at the same time be clarified and adjusted ;
                                                                         (a) at the beginning of the first subparagraph of
Whereas appropriate provisions should be added in a                          paragraph 2 the words 'The ecu is the sum of
second part of the Fiancial Regulation to improve the                        specified amounts of the currencies of the
presentation and transparency of information relating to                     Member States' are replaced by 'The ecu is
borrowing and lending activities,                                            defined as the sum of specified amounts of the
                                                                             currencies of the Member States';
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :                                            (b) the second subparagraph of paragraph 2 is
                                                                             replaced by the following : 'Any change in the
                                                                             definition of the ecu adopted by the Council in
                            Article 1                                        accordance with the EC Treaty, and in
                                                                             particular Articles 109g and 109b (4) thereof,
The Financial Regulation is amended as follows :                             shall automatically apply to this provision' ;
  1 . the following heading is inserted : 'Part I. Provisions            (c) paragraph 4 is replaced by the following :
      applicable to the general budget of the European                       '4. Without prejudice to specific provisions of
      Communities' ;
                                                                             sectoral rules governing either amounts due or
                                                                             expenditure, the rights and obligations of the
  2 . the word ' Economic' is deleted form the second                        Communities shall be expressed and executed in
      indent of the second subparagraph of Article 1 ( 1 );                  ecu .';
  3 . Article 3 (2) is replaced by the following :                       (d) the following paragraph 5 is added :
                                                                             '5 . For as long as conversion between the ecu
      '2 .   For activities of an operational nature, the                    and national currencies is necessary, such
      financial   statement    shall  contain  financial  data               conversion shall, without prejudice to specific
      relating to the assessment by the legislative authority                sectoral rules, be made in accordance with the
      of the need for Community action as provided in the                    implementing measures provided for in Article
      second paragraph of Article 3b of the EEC Treaty.                       142 .';
      It shall also state why the financial instrument               8 . Article 12 is amended as follows :
      provided for is appropriate, specify how it is to be
      implemented and justify the amount proposed.';
                                                                         (a) The first paragraph is replaced by the following :
                                                                             'The European Parliament, the Council, the
  4. the introductory phrase of the second subparagraph                      Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, the
      of Article 4 (2) is replaced by the following :                        Economic     and   Social   Committee      and      the
                                                                             Committee of the Regions shall, each year
      'Notwithstanding the first subparagraph, and                           before 1 July, draw up an estimate of their
      without prejudice to the specific provisions of Title                  revenue and expenditure for the follwing year.';
      XI, certain revenues shall not be used for any other
      purpose, notably :';                                               (b) the second paragraph is deleted ;
  5. the first subparagraph of point 3 of Article 7 is               9 . the third indent of Article 13 (2) (b) is deleted ;
      replaced by the following :
                                                                    10. the first paragraph of Article 14 is replaced by the
      '3 . In the case of appropriations for which a decision            following :
           to carry over may be taken in accordance with
           point 1 (a), the Commission shall forward to the
           budgetary authority, not later than 15 February,              'The Commission may, on its own initiative or if
           the duly substantiated requests to carry over                 requested by the European Parliament, the Council,
           appropriations made by the Auditors, the                      the Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, the
           Economic and Social Committee, the Committee                  Economic and Social Commitee or the Committee
           of the Regions and the Commission itself.';                   of the Regions in respect of their section, present to
                                                                         the Council a letter of amendment to the preliminary
                                                                         draft budget necessitated by the receipt of new infor­
  6. In Article 9 ( 1 ) and 3 (b) the words 'EEC Treaty' are             mation which was not available at the time the
      replaced by 'EC Treaty';                                           preliminary draft was established.';
 ---pagebreak--- 1 . 10 . 92                                Official Journal of the European Communities                                No C 254 / 7
11 . Article 15 is amended as follows :                                        — Part B for operating expenditure, divided
                                                                                    into as many subsections as are required.';
     (a) in paragraph 2, the words 'EEC Treaty' are
           replaced by 'EC Treaty';                                       (b) paragraph 7 is deleted;
     (b) paragraph 4 is replaced by the following :
           '4. Requests for supplementary and/or                     16. point 5 of Article 20 is replaced by the following :
           amending budgets from the European
           Parliament, the Council, the Court of Justice,
           the Court of Auditors, the Economic and Social
           Committee or the Committee of the Regions
           shall be forwarded by the Commission to the                    '5. As regards borrowing and lending operations :
           budgetary authority. The Commission may
           attach a dissenting opinion .';                                    (a) in the general statement of revenue, the
                                                                                    budget headings corresponding to the
12. in the first subparagraph of Article 16 ( 1 ) the words                         relevant operations and intended to record
     'EEC Treaty' are replaced by 'EC Treaty';                                      any      reimbursements      received     from
                                                                                    beneficiaries who initially defaulted, leading
                                                                                    to activation of the performance guarantee.
13 . in Article 17 ( 1 ) the words 'EEC Treaty' are                                 These headings shall carry a token entry and
     replaced by 'EC Treaty';                                                       be accompanied by appropriate remarks ;
14. in Article 18 the words 'EEC Treaty' are replaced by                      (b) in the Commission section :
     'EC Treaty';
                                                                                    — the budget headings containing the
15 . Article 19 is amended as follows :
                                                                                        Community's performance guarantees in
                                                                                        respect of the operations in question.
     (a) paragraph 1 is replaced by the following :                                     These headings shall carry a token entry,
                                                                                        so long as no effective charge which has
           '1.    The budget shall consist of :                                         to be covered by specific resources has
                                                                                        arisen .
           — a general statement of revenue,
           — separate sections subdivided into statements                           — remarks giving a reference to the legal
               of revenue and expenditure of the European                               basis and, where appropriate, the volume
               Parliament, the Council, the Commission,                                 of the operations envisaged and the
               the Court of Justice and the Court of                                    financial guarantee given by the
               Auditors .
                                                                                        Communities in respect of these oper­
                                                                                        ations .';
           The revenue and expenditure of the Economic
           and Social Committee and the Committee of the
           Regions shall be entered in a special section             17 . Article 22 is amended as follows :
           subdivided as follows :
                                                                          (a) paragraph 2 is replaced by the following :
           — Part A devoted to the Economic and Social
               Committee,
                                                                              '2. The Commission shall confer upon the
          — Part B devoted to the Committee of the                            European Parliament, the Council, the Court of
               Regions,                                                       Justice, the Court of Auditors, the Economic
                                                                              and Social Committee and the Committee of the
                                                                              Regions the requisite powers for the implemen­
           — Part C devoted to the common organiz­                            tation of the sections of the budget relating to
               ational structure of the two Committees .
                                                                              them.';
           The Commission section shall consist of :
                                                                          (b) paragraph 5 is replaced by the following :
          — Part A for the staff and administrative expen­
               diture of that institution.                                     '5 .    Save as otherwise provided, the Economic
                                                                               and Social Committee and the Committee of the
               The revenue and expenditure of the Office                       Regions, shall, for the purpose of this Financial
               for Official Publications of the European                       Regulation, be treated as institutions of the
               Communities shall be attached to this part,                     Communites.';
 ---pagebreak--- No C 254 / 8                               Official Journal of the European Communities                                     1 . 10 . 92
 18 . Article 26 is amended as follows :                             22 . Article 58 is renumbered Article 59 and amended as
                                                                           follows :
       (a) the second subparagraph of paragraph 2 is
             replaced by the following :                                   (a) the introductory words 'Contracts may be made
                                                                                by private treaty :' are replaced by 'Contracts
             'The Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, the                   may be made without invitation to tender in the
             Economic      and   Social  Committee     and   the                 following circumstances :';
             Committee of the Regions — the two latter
            Committees with regard to the part which relates               (b) point (a) is replaced by the following :
            to them and, by common agreement, with regard
            to the common organizational structure — may,                       '(a) where their estimated value, not including
            within their own sections of the budget, transfer                         VAT, is below the threshold set by the
            appropriations form one article to another within                         implementing measures provided for in
            each chapter. They shall inform the budgetary                             Article 142 ;'
            authority and the Commission three weeks
            before making such transfers .';                               (c) in point (b), 'Article 57' is replaced by 'Article
                                                                                58 ';
       (b) the third subparagraph of paragraph 4 is
            replaced by the following :                              23 . Article 59 is renumbered Article 62 ;
            'Proposals made by the other institutions, the           24 . Article 60 is renumbered Article 63 and in the first
            Economic      and    Social  Committee     and  the           and third paragraphs 'Article 126' is replaced by
            Committee of the Regions for transfers from the               'Article 142';
            chapter to another shall be automatically
            forwarded to the authority; the Commission may           25 . Article 61 is renumbered Article 64 and amended as
            attach its own opinion to such proposals .';                  follows :
19 . Article 56 is renumbered Article 58 and amended as                   (a) in the first paragraph 'Article 60' is replaced by
      follows :                                                                 'Article 63';
      (a) in the first subparagraph of paragraph 1 the                    (b) in the second paragraph, the words 'choice of
            words 'either by the automatic public tendering                     supplier' are replaced by 'selection of tenderer' ;
            procedure or the discretionary tendering
            procedure' are deleted ;                                 26. the following new Article 61 is inserted :
      (b) the second subparagraph of paragraph 1 is                        !Article 61
            replaced by the following :
                                                                          Articles 62 to 64a shall apply to the award of
            'However, contracts may be made without a                     contracts for the purchase or hiring of goods,
            tendering procedure in the circumstances                      furniture or equipment, for the provision of services
            referred to in Article 59.';                                  or for the performance of works.';
      (c) in the third subparagraph of paragraph 1 ,                 27 . Article 62 is renumbered Article 64a and amended as
            'Article 63' is replaced by 'Article 60';                     follows :
      (d) the following paragraph 3 is added :                            (a) in the first and third paragraphs, 'Article 126' is
                                                                                replaced by 'Article 142';
            '3 .   Tendering procedures shall be laid down
           by the implementing measures provided for in                   (b) in the third paragraph, the words 'for works
           Article 142 .';                                                      contracts' are inserted after 'obligatory';
                                                                     28 . Article 63 is renumbered Article 60 and 'Article 126'
20 . Article 57 is deleted ;
                                                                          is replaced by 'Article 142';
21 . the following new Article 57 is inserted :                      29. Article 64 is renumbered Article 56 and replaced by
                                                                          the following :
       !Article 57
                                                                           !Article 56
      The provisions of Articles 58 , 59 and 60 shall be
      applicable to contracts other than those referred to                When concluding contracts for which the amount
      in Article 56 .';                                                   involved is equal to or higher than the threshold
 ---pagebreak--- 1 . 10 . 92                             Official Journal of the European Communities                              No C 254 /9
     provided for by the Council directives on the coordi­            shall inform the Commission of the reasons for the
     nation of procedures for the award of public works,              postponement.
     supplies and services contracts, each institution shall
     comply with the same obligations as are imposed
     upon bodies in the Member States by those                        If the European Parliament postpones the decision
     directives .                                                     giving a discharge, the Commission shall make every
                                                                      effort to take measures, as soon as possible, to
     The implementing measures provided for in Article                facilitate removal of the obstacles to that decision.
      142 shall include appropriate provisions to that end.';
                                                                      5 . The discharge decision shall cover the accounts
30. point 5 of Article 78 is deleted ;                                of all the Community's revenue and expenditure, the
                                                                      resulting balance and the assets and liabilities of the
31 . the following Article 87a is added :                             Community shown in the balance sheet. It shall
                                                                      include an assessment of the responsibility of the
      !Article 87a                                                    Commission's budgetary management over the past
                                                                      financial year.
     The Court of Auditors shall provide the European
     Parliament and the Council with a statement of                   6.    The financial controller shall take account of
     assurance as to the reliability of the accounts and the          the comments in the decisions giving discharge.
     legality and regularity of the underlying trans­
     actions .';
                                                                      7. The institutions shall take all appropriate steps
32 . Article 88 is amended as follows :                               to act on the observations accompanying the
                                                                      discharge decisions and on other observations by the
     in the introductory sentence, the words 'in Article 78           European Parliament relating to the implementation
     of the ECSC Treaty, Article 206a of the EEC Treaty               of expenditure, and on the comments accompanying
     and Article 180a of the Euratom Treaty' are                      the recommendations for discharge adopted by the
                                                                      Council .
     replaced by 'in Article 45c of the ECSC Treaty,
     Article 188c of the EC Treaty and Article 160c of
     the Euratom Treaty';
                                                                      8 . At the request of the European Parliament or
                                                                      the Council, the institutions shall report on the
33. Article 89 is replaced by the following :                         measures taken in the light of these observations and
                                                                      comments, and, in particular, on the instructions
      :Article 89                                                     given to those of their departments which are
                                                                      responsible for the implementation of the budget.
      1 . The European Parliament, upon a recommen­                   Such reports shall also be transmitted to the Court
     dation from the Council acting by a qualified                    of Auditors .
     majority, shall, before 30 April of the following year,
     give a discharge to the Commission in respect of the
     implementation of the budget.                                    9 . The institutions shall also give an account, in
                                                                      an Annex to the revenue and expenditure account
     2.     To this end the Europen Parliament shall, after           for the financial year following that of the discharge
     the Council has done so, examine the accounts, the               decision, of the measures taken in the light of the
     satement of revenue and expenditure and the balance              comments appearing in the decision giving discharge.
     sheet mentioned in Article 78d of the ECSC Treaty,
     Article 205a of the EC Treaty and Article 179a of                10 . Supporting documents pertaining to the
     the Euratom Treaty, the Annual Report made by the                accounts and the preparation of the revenue and
     Court of Auditors together with the replies of the               expenditure account and the balance sheet shall be
     institutions under audit to the observations of the
                                                                      kept for a period of five years following the date of
     Court of Auditors and any relevant special reports               the decision giving discharge in respect of the
     by the Court of Auditors.                                        implementation of the budget.
     3 . Before giving a discharge to the Commission,
     the European Parliament may question the                         However, the documents relating to transactions not
     Commission on the implementation of expenditure                  finally closed shall be kept for longer than the said
     or the operation of financial control systems. The               period, until the end of the year following the year
     Commission shall submit any necessary information                in which such transactions are finally closed .
     to the European Parliament at the latter's request.
     4. If the date provided for in paragraph 1 cannot                Each institution shall decide which department will
     be met, the European Parliament or the Council                   keep the supporting documents .';
 ---pagebreak--- No C 254 / 10                           Official Journal of the European Communities                                  1 . 10 . 92
34 . in Article 91 , the words 'VI and XII' are replaced by                Article 125 . For information purposes the
     'VI, Title XI and Part III';                                          remarks to these headings may indicate the
                                                                           estimated amounts ;
35 . in Article 92 ( 1 ) (d), the words 'Article 130 1 of the         (b) where the request for participation is made in
     EEC Treaty', 'Article 130m of the EEC Treaty',                        the course of a financial year, the Commission
     'Article 130n of the EEC Treaty', and 'Article 130o                   may, if it considers it to be in the interest of the
     of the EEC Treaty' are replaced by 'Article 130k of                   Community, propose that it be authorized by the
     the EC Treaty', 'Article 1301 of the EC Treaty',                      budgetary authority. If neither the Council,
     'Article 130m of the EC Treaty' and 'Article 130n of                  acting by qualified majority, nor the European
     the EC Treaty' respectively ;                                         Parliament, acting by an absolute majority of its
                                                                           members, rejects the proposal within a period of
                                                                           four weeks, it shall stand as approved.
36. in the first paragraph of Article 98 , the words 'and
     XII' are replaced by 'and Part III';
                                                                      Article 125
37 . Article 105 is amended as follows :                              For the purposes of implementing the budget, the
                                                                      contributions referred to in Article 124 shall lead to
                                                                      additional appropriations being made availabe as
     (a) in paragraph 1 , the words 'VI and XII' are                  follows :
         replaced by 'VI , Title XI and Part III';
                                                                      — commitment appropriations equivalent to the
     (b) in the second subparagraph of paragraph 3 , the                   entitlement due to the Community,
         words 'of Article 206a of the EEC Treaty' are
         replaced by 'of Article 188c of the EC Treaty';
                                                                      — payment        appropriations    equivalent    to     the
                                                                           amounts received .
38 . in Article 119 , the words 'Article 56 to 64' are
     replaced by 'Articles 56 to 64a';                                Article 126
                                                                      The contributions referred to in Article 124 shall
                                                                      constitute earmarked revenue in accordance with the
39 . in Article 121 , the words 'and XII' are replaced by
     'and Part III';                                                  second subparagraph of Article 4 (2).
                                                                      All necessary accounting measures shall be taken to
40. the following new Title XI is inserted :                          ensure the separate monitoring of the appropriations
                                                                      made available under Article 125 .
     'TITLE XI
                                                                      Section II
     SPECIAL         PROVISIONS        APPLICABLE         TO
     FINANCIAL PARTICIPATION BY NON-MEMBER
                                                                      Provisions applicable to participation provided for
     COUNTRIES          AND       OUTSIDE      BODIES      IN
     COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES
                                                                      under the Agreement on the European Economic
                                                                      Area
     Section I
                                                                      Article 127
     General provisions                                               The budgetary structure to cover participation by the
     Article 124                                                      EFTA States shall be as follows :
     Financial participation by a non-member country or
     outside body in a Community activity shall require               (a) in the statement of revenue there shall be a
     the prior authorization of the budgetary authority,                   heading to cover the full amount of the contri­
                                                                           bution of the EFTA States for the relevant
     given according to one of the following procedures :
                                                                           financial year. The amount entered shall be "for
                                                                           information";
     (a) in the course of the budgetary procedure if
          already provided for. In such cases, the                    (b) in the statement of expenditure :
          Commission shall, in the preliminary draft
          budget, propose the appropriate budgetary
          structure and the headings to which the contri­                  — the remark relating to each heading covering
          bution shall be charged in the statement of                           Community activities involving the partici­
          revenue and under which the corresponding                             pation of the EFTA States shall indicate the
          appropriations shall be made available in the                         amount of their contribution "for infor­
          statement of expenditure, in accordance with                          mation",
 ---pagebreak--- 1 . 10 . 92                               Official Journal of the European Communities                             No C 254/ 11
           — an Annex, constituting an integral part of the              2. Point 4 of Article 7 and Article 26 (9) shall
              budget, shall contain all headings relating to             apply to the contributions referred to in paragraph 1 .
              Community activities involving the partici­
              pation of the EFTA States .
                                                                         3. In the quarterly reports provided for in Article
                                                                         34, the Commission shall give clear details of the
              The Annex shall serve as the budgetary                     state of execution of both the revenue and the
              structure for making available the appropri­               expenditure corresponding to participation by the
               ations corresponding to such contributions                EFTA States .
              by virtue of Article 128 and for implemen­
               tating expenditure.
                                                                         Article 132
     Article 128                                                         The revenue and expenditure corresponding to
      By virtue of Article 82 of the Agreement on the                    participation by the EFTA States shall be verified in
      European Economic Area, amount relating to the                     compliance with the provisions of the EC Treaty of
      annual participation of EFTA States — as confirmed                 this Regulation and of regulations applicable to
     to the Commission by the Joint Committee in                         matters covered by Articles 78 of the Agreement on
     conformity with Article 1 (5) of Protocol 32 — shall,               the European Economic Area and Protocol 31
                                                                         thereto.';
      at the beginning of the financial year, give rise to the
     full entry of the corresponding appropriations for
     commitment and appropriations for payment.                     41 . Title XI renumbered Title XII ;
     Article 129
                                                                    42 . Article 124 is renumbered Article 133 ;
      1 . If in the course of a financial year the appro­
     priations for budget headings involving the partici­
      pation of the EFTA States are increased by                    43 . the following Part II is inserted :
      amending or supplementary budgets or by transfers,
     without it being possible for the EFTA States, in the
      course of that financial year, to adjust their contri­
      bution accordingly in line with the proportionality                •SPECIAL       PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO
      factor provided for in Article 82 of the EEA                       BORROWING AND LENDING OPERATIONS
     Agreement, the Commission shall be authorized to                    BY THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
      provide provisional advance financing form its cash                Article 134
      resources for the share of the EFTA States in order
      to permid balanced implementation of expenditure                   The Commission shall, together with the preliminary
      relating to the relevant activity.                                 draft budget provided for in Article 13, present a
                                                                         document giving details of all borrowing and lending
      2 . The advance financing shall be regularized as                  operations .
      soon as possible in the budget for the following
      financial year or, at the latest, for the second
                                                                         Article 135
      following financial year.
                                                                         The document referred to in Article          134 shall
                                                                         contain :
      Article 130
      By way of derogation from Article 58 (2), as regards
      the rules governing tendering procedures, invitations              — a detailed statement on borrowing and lending
      to tender shall be published throughout all the                         policy,
      Member States and all the EFTA States whenever
      the contract entails expenditure from a budget                     — as an indication :
      heading involving participation of the EFTA States.
                                                                              — current capital operations and current debt
      Article 131
                                                                                  management,
       1.   The financial contributions of EFTA States
      shall   constitute  earmarked      revenue    within  the               — the capital operations and debt management
      meaning of the third indent of the second                                   for the financial year in question,
      subparagraph of Article 4 (2). All appropriate
      accounting measures shall accordingly be taken to
      ensure the separate monitoring both of revenue                     — an estimate of the risk borne by the general
      flowing from these contributions and of the corre­                      budget in terms of capital and interest for future
      sponding appropriations.                                                budget years.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 254 / 12                       Official Journal of the European Communities                                      1 . 10 . 92
   Article 136                                                     — compliance with the principle of sound financial
                                                                        management.
   In the course of the       budgetary procedure the
   Council and European       Parliament shall give an
   assessment of borrowing    and lending operations, in           2.     To enable him to exercise his functions to the
   particular in the light of the provisions of the basic          full, the financial controller of the Commission :
   acts for each of the instruments concerned.
   The Commission shall take that assessment fully into            — shall have access either manually or by computer .
   account.                                                             to all data, documents, ledgers, registers, corre­
                                                                        spondence, statements of account or computer
   Article 137                                                          files relating to borrowing and lending oper­
                                                                        ations,
   The Commission shall report to the Council and the
   European Parliament twice a year on the position
   regarding budget guarantees and risks relating                  — shall be authorized to conduct or take part in
   thereto .                                                            on-the-spot checks.';
   This information shall be sent at the same time to
   the Court of Auditors .                                    44 . Title XII is renumbered Part III and entitled 'Tran­
                                                                   sitional and financial provisions';
   Article 138
   The expenditure and revenue account and financial          45 . Article 125 is renumbered Article 141 ;
   balance sheet provided for in Articles 78 and 81 shall
   give details of capital operations and debt
   management indicating :                                    46 . Article 126 is renumbered Article 142 . References to
                                                                   this Article in Articles 22, 23 , 24, 25, 28 , 29, 36, 37,
   — the amount of loans granted,                                  38 , 41 , 45, 46, 49, 53 , 54, 65 , 66, 70, 75, 94, 97, and
                                                                   123 are adapted accordingly;
   — the amount of the repayments made on
       borrowings contracted and of the charges on
        such borrowings,                                      47 . Article 127 is renumbered Article 143 ;
   — the amount of borrowings contracted,
                                                              48 . Article 128 is renumbered Article 144 and amended
                                                                   as follows :
   — the amount of repayments of capital and
       payments of interest made on loans granted.
                                                                   (a) In the introductory phrase, 'Article 126' is
   Article 139                                                          replaced by 'Article 142' and 'Articles 58 , 60, 62,
                                                                        63' by 'Article 59, 60, 63, 64a';
   Borrowing terms shall be negotiated in the best
   interests of the Community, in the light of
   conditions on the capital market, and shall respect             (b) in the first indent, 'Article 58' is replaced by
   constraints imposed as to the duration and other                     'Article 59' and 'by private treaty' by 'without a
   terms of the corresponding requests for loans.                       tendering procedure';
   Article 140
                                                                   (c) the second indent becomes the third indent and
   1.    The financial controller of the Commission                     'Article 60' is replaced by 'Article 63';
   shall be responsible for checking the execution of
   borrowing and lending operations in accordance
   with the powers conferred on the Commission in                  (d) the third indent becomes the fourth indent,
   relation to each instrument. To this end, he shall                   'Article 62' is replaced by 'Article 64a' and the
                                                                        words 'for works contracts' are added after the
   check :
                                                                        word 'compulsory security';
   — that operations are in conformity with the basic
        rules,                                                     (e) the fourth indent becomes the second indent and
                                                                        'Article 63' is replaced by 'Article 60';
   — the assessment of risks,
   — where appropriate, the calculation of interest                (f) in the first subindent of the fifth indent, the
        rate subsidies where they are covered by the                    words 'by private treaty' are replaced by 'without
        general budget,                                                 a tendering procedure';
 ---pagebreak--- 1 . 10 . 92                               Official Journal of the European Communities                         No C 254/ 13
     (g) in the last subindent of the fifth indent, 'Article                                  Article 2
           58 ' is replaced by 'Article 59';                                      .                .                 .
                                                                    This Regulation shall enter into force on the third day
                                                                    following its publication in the Official Journal of the
49. Article 129 is renumbered Article 145 ;                         European Communities.
50. Article 130 is renumbered Article 146;                          II sha11 aPP^ from ■ • •
                                                                    This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and
51 . Article 131 is renumbered Article 147.                         directly applicable in all Member States.