EU budget management: Commission and Parliament spending for 2014 approved

The European Commission managed its 2014 EU budget funds according to the rules, so Parliament should grant it a 'discharge' (i.e. approval), for that year, the Budgetary Control Committee said on Thursday. Parliament’s own management of EU funds in 2014 was also approved, in a separate vote.

EU budget focused on results

MEPs pointed out that EU budget should be result oriented; therefore it should focus on whether the programs and projects matched the intended objectives. The report underlines that Union funding must be efficient in advancing EU goals, projects should be aligned with the UE policies and better synergy should be achieved between all available resources in the fields, like neighborhood policy, external aid, and tackling the youth unemployment.

Spending errors

MEPs are concerned that lever of error for spending, under the shared management of the Commission and Member states, amounts to 4,6% which is well above the 2% threshold beneath which the European Court of Auditors could classify payments as error-free. They note that the Commission, which is legally responsible for expenditure overall, should monitor closely the implementation in the member states which in fact manage locally 80% of all EU funding.

MEPs called for more vigilant position on discharge, asking the Commission to control more frequently areas and recipients with high risk of errors, focus on ex-ante controls, collaborate with the member states to correct errors before declaring expenditure and introduce more transparency and flexibility in spending, so unused appropriations could be used for new priorities or programs.

The Commission should be fully responsible for recovery of the unduly paid funds into the EU budget, but to do so it should establish uniform principles of member state reporting, says the approved resolution.

European Parliament

Spending by the European Parliament in 2014 was also approved on Thursday, as well as spending by the European Development Funds and the European External Action Service (EEAS).

Next steps

The Budgetary Control Committee’s recommendations will be put to a vote, by Parliament as a whole, on 28 April in Brussels. Parliament will take its final decision on the postponed discharges in October.

Note to editors

In the annual “discharge” procedure, Parliament, as the EU's sole discharge authority, verifies whether EU funds were spent according to the rules. It may grant, postpone or refuse to grant a discharge, which is the seal of approval required for the formal closure of institutional accounts.

REF. : 20160407IPR21704