Legislative Observatory
European Parliament
Please fill in this field to find a procedure

2009 discharge: EU general budget, Committee of the Regions

2010/2148(DEC)

The European Parliament adopted by 563 votes to 86, with 7 abstentions a decision to grant discharge to the Secretary-General of the Committee of the Regions in respect of the implementation of its budget for the financial year 2009.

Parliament also adopted by 566 votes to 78, with 10 abstentions a resolution containing a number of observations which forms an integral part of the discharge decision. The resolution recalls that, in 2009, the Committee of the Regions (CoR) had commitment appropriations available amounting to a total of EUR 88 million (2008: EUR 93 million), with a utilisation rate of 98.37%, higher than the average of the other institutions (97.69%).

Noting that the Court of Auditors had indicated, in its Annual Report, that the audit did not give rise to any significant observations, Parliament notes that, in 2009, the CoR obtained 10 more posts in 2009 (and 4 more in 2010). It welcomes the considerable increase of the CoR's training budget (12% compared to 2008).

Parliament also welcomes the fact that the CoR had:

  • updated its budget analytical-monitoring tool ("BudgetWatch"), providing more comprehensive information on the CoR's budget;
  • the Administrative Cooperation Agreement between the CoR and the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) for the period 2008 to 2014 is sufficiently implemented;
  • made efforts in the area of interinstitutional cooperation, in particular, in regard to the ongoing introduction of the staff management system 'Sysper2'.

Parliament reminds the CoR of Parliament’s request that CoR members declare their financial interests, disclosing relevant information on declarable professional activities and remunerated posts or activities and calls on the CoR to examine this matter in its Annual Activity Report.

Lastly, in an amendment adopted in plenary, Parliament calls on the CoR to undertake urgently during 2011 a comprehensive spending review of all areas of activity to ensure all expenditure is delivering value for money in order to identify possible savings which would reduce the pressure on the budget in this period of austerity.