2007 discharge: EU general budget, Council

2008/2277(DEC)

PURPOSE: to present the final annual accounts of the European Communities for the financial year 2007 - Other institutions: section II - Council.

Note: this summary provides a general overview of the main trends in terms of the Council’s expenditure for the financial year 2007. It does not cover the details of the implementation of the expenditure by the institution due to the unavailability of the relevant document.

However, it does cover the figures for the Council’s expenditure as presented in volume I of the consolidated annual accounts of the European Communities for the year 2007.

CONTENT: the summary of the consolidated annual accounts of the European Communities for the year 2007 show that the Council’s expenditure was as follows:

Commitment appropriations:

  • commitment appropriations authorised: EUR 650 million;
  • commitments made in 2007: EUR 532 million (implementation rate of 81.89%);
  • appropriations carried over to 2008: EUR 108 million (16.57% of total commitments);
  • appropriations lapsing: EUR 10 million (1.54% of the budget).

Payment appropriations:

  • payment appropriations authorised: EUR 741 million;
  • payments made in 2007: EUR 558 million (implementation rate of 75.21%);
  • appropriations carried over to 2008: EUR 163 million (21.98% of total payments);
  • appropriations lapsing: EUR 21 million (2.81% of the budget).

Main axes of expenditure for 2007: the main administrative objectives of the General Secretariat of the Council (GSC) for 2007 were as follows:

  1. consolidation of the organisation after the 2004 enlargement by (i) the occupying the LEX building in 2007 and leaving the Woluwe Heights and Rolin buildings;
  2. the recruitment of official to fill vacancies;
  3. the culmination in the accession of Bulgaria and Romania;
  4. continuation of the administrative modernisation process: the General Secretariat wanted to implement a programme aimed at improving the quality of its organisation, such as an integrated interinstitutional financial management project, to be implemented as of 2008.

In terms of staff, an overall increase in the establishment plan was needed to meet the challenges posed by enlargement, to take on new tasks and to convert certain temporary AST posts into permanent posts.

Note that in terms of translation units, the Council redefined its policy in order to significantly limit the large number of documents to be translated and to limit the overcapacity of its translation service. The General Secretariat of the Council also had to implement a range of new measures to ensure long-term management of human resources (including greater internal mobility) and improved interinstitutional cooperation.