The European
Parliament adopted by 587 votes to 57, with 11 abstentions, a decision to grant
discharge to the Secretary-General of the Council in respect of the
implementation of the Council's budget for the financial year 2007.
Parliament
adopted a resolution containing observations which constitute an integral
part of the discharge decision.
Parliament emphasises
that it has obtained satisfaction from the Council on the three most
important requests it made in its resolution of 23 April 2009, namely:
- a meeting on
24 September 2009 of the Chairman, the rapporteur and the co-ordinators
of Parliament's competent committee with representatives of the Swedish
Presidency and of the General Secretariat of the Council to discuss the
Council's budget implementation for 2007;
- written
answers to Parliament's questions concerning the Council's budget
implementation for 2007;
- publication
on the Council's website of relevant documents concerning the Council's
budget implementation, including the answers to Parliament's specific
questions.
Parliament
considers that it has carried out its duty to guarantee the maximum possible
transparency and accountability concerning the use of taxpayers' money.
It
nevertheless invites:
- the Council to continue to further improve
cooperation with its competent committees on the basis of its recent
practice;
- the institutions to
formulate and include in the IIA an
annex specifically dealing with the discharge procedure for the Council;
- Parliament's competent
committee, in the context of the next discharge procedure for the
Council, to verify progress on the following matters: (i) the closing of
all its extra-budgetary accounts in accordance with the recommendations
of its internal auditor; (ii) the improvement of the verification of
invoices following its internal auditor's recommendations; (iii) the
publication of all administrative decisions when they are used as the
legal basis for budget items; (iv) the transmission to Parliament and
its competent committee of its annual activity report, required to be
drawn up by the Financial Regulation, in accordance with the practice
now adopted by all other EU institutions; (v) a full explanation of the
need to transfer money from one item to another within its budget; (vi)
the provision of written answers to relevant questions asked by its
competent committee and its rapporteur; (vii) the availability and
willingness of the Council to provide an oral explanation to its
competent committee, on the basis of these written answers, should they
require further clarification.
Parliament
renews its request made in its resolution of 23 April 2009 to the
European Court of Auditors to pay special attention, in its forthcoming
Annual Reports, to the Council's budget implementation.