EP akkoord met jaarrekening 2008 van de Europese Politie-academie (en)

Parliament voted on Thursday to close the financial accounts of the European Police College (CEPOL) for 2008, thus completing the discharge procedure for the financial year 2008.

The decision followed last week's unanimous vote in the Budgetary Control Committee. The closing of the accounts does not imply that MEPs are satisfied with the way in which CEPOL handled severe shortcomings in its financial management in 2008 and before.

Rapporteur i Véronique Mathieu i (EPP, FR) emphasised that the closure of the accounts was a technical decision needed to finalise the procedure and that it should not be taken as a late granting of discharge. "The Budgetary Control Committee had repeatedly asked for clarifications and additional information in 2010 and heard the director of CEPOL as well as the chairman of the reactivated supervisory board and the European Commission on several occasions", she said, explaining the length of the procedure.

The European Parliament's refusal to grant discharge to CEPOL, in October 2010, was unique and was supported by an overwhelming majority (618 MEPs agreed, 7 abstained and none voted against). No EU agency had ever been refused a budgetary discharge before. The underlying reason why was that MEPs found it unacceptable that CEPOL - established as an agency in 2006 - had not yet met standards of good administration and that at least four more years (until 2014), were deemed necessary to get there.

Last week, CEPOL's new Director, Ferenc Bánfi, and the Chairman of its Supervisory Board, Jozsef Boda, met the Budgetary Control Committee for the fourth time. After explaining the planned remedial measures, Mr Bánfi said: "My greatest challenge now is to regain the trust of your Parliament."