The Committee on Budgets and the
Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Ingeborg GRÄSSLE
(EPP,DE) and Crescenzio RIVELLINI (EPP, IT) on the
proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on
the financial rules applicable to the annual budget of the Union
The committees recommended that the
European Parliament’s position at first reading under the ordinary
legislative procedure should be to amend the Commission proposal as follows:
The Members want to stress that all revenue and expenditure have to be included in the budget and its annexes, including,
for each financial year, forecasts and all authorised revenue and expenditure
considered necessary for the Union.
In the report, it is stipulated that the
expenditure of the Union includes:
(a) administrative expenditure, including
expenditure occasioned for the institutions by the provisions of the Treaty
on European Union relating to the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the
operating expenditure occasioned by implementation of those provisions where
this is charged to the budget; and
(b) the operational expenditure,
occasioned by implementation of those provisions where this is charged to the
budget, including related support expenditure.
Furthermore, the budget
shall record the guarantee for borrowing-and-lending operations entered into
by the Union in the management of the European Financial Stability Facility
(EFSF) and the European Financial Stability Mechanism (EFSM) and payments to
the Guarantee Fund for external actions.
Of the changes suggested by Members,
those relating to the following aspects should be mentioned in particular:
- underlining the increased role
of the European Parliament;
- the financial
rules governing the establishment and
implementation of the general budget, must
ensure sound and effective management, control and protection of the
financial interests of the Union, as well as increasing transparency;
- as regards the Union’s research
framework programmes, further simplification and harmonisation of
rules and procedures should be introduced;
- the obligation
to generate interest on pre-financing and to recover such
interest should be lifted immediately;
- certain provisions of the interinstitutional
agreement on budgetary discipline and sound financial management
need to be integrated in the Regulation;
- revenue received by non-state third
parties in the pursuit of the Union’s legitimate
aims such as the fight against smuggling and counterfeiting of
cigarettes (e.g. the ‘Phillip Morris’ agreement) should be treated as assigned revenue, in
particular where these are the results of agreements concluded in the
process of alternative dispute resolution;
- in order to assess the risk of error,
taking account of the principle of sound financial management and
appropriate controls, and to react accordingly, a management tool
showing the risk of error should be used;
- in the interest of transparency,
citizens should be able to know where and for what purpose funds are
spent by the Union. This objective should be achieved by the publication
of relevant information concerning final contractors and final
beneficiaries of Union funds. This publication should take into account
their legitimate interests of confidentiality and security and, as far
as natural persons are concerned, their rights to respect for their
private lives and the protection of their personal data;
- for very low and low-value grants,
simplified procedures in accounting and authorisation should be applied
in order to create a beneficiary-driven approach;
- grants should also be able to be
authorised in the field of basic research, where no outcome or
result can be presented in consequence of the research activity;
- given the basic control and audit
obligations of Member States where they implement the budget
indirectly in shared management should be introduced in this Regulation,
it is necessary to include provisions, setting out a coherent framework
for all policy areas concerned, on a harmonised administrative structure
at national level to allow the Member States to
accredit bodies entrusted with the implementation of Union funds. The
Member States should have the competence to determine the entity or
organisation carrying out the functions of the accrediting authority;
- it is necessary to create a coherent legislative framework which also
improves the overall legal certainty and the efficiency of
controls and remedial actions as well as the protection of the Union’s financial
interests;
- all draft proposals submitted to the
legislative authority should be suitable for the application of
user-friendly information technologies (‘egovernment’) and the
interoperability of data processed in the management of the budget
should be ensured, which should improve efficiency. Uniform data
transmission standards for data available in electronic format should be
foreseen. A transitional period of two years from the entry into force
of this Regulation should be granted for the attainment of these
targets;
- lump sums and flat rates should be used on a voluntary basis and only applied where
appropriate. The terminology in use on flat rates and lump sums should
be clarified;
- a further clarification or a reasonable
definition of eligible costs should be proposed, as it would enhance
compliance with the full cost principle, namely direct and indirect
costs, upstream and downstream of research;
- in order to close the discharge
procedure during the year following the year being audited, a
working group will be set up to make proposals aimed at shortening the
time taken by the procedure. In the context of discharge, the evaluation
report on the Union’s finances based on the results achieved should
include in particular elements on the achievements in the field of
gender aspects of staff policy;
- as regards the specific provisions
relating to the implementation of external actions, it is
necessary to propose a differentiated approach
when the European Union is required to respond to humanitarian
emergencies, international crises or third countries undergoing a
process of democratic transition;
- it is of particular importance that the
Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory
work for delegated acts, including at expert level.