The European Parliament amended 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 vote on the legislative resolution
was postponed until a later plenary session.
Definitions: Members clarified that the term ‘institution’ refers to
the European Parliament, the European Council and the Council, the European
Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court
of Auditors, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the
Regions, the European Ombudsman, the European Data Protection Supervisor and
the European External Action Service (‘EEAS’).
The European Central Bank shall not be considered as an institution of the Union.
Any reference to the ‘Union’ shall be
understood as a reference to the European Union and the European Atomic
Energy Community.
Revenue and expenditure: Parliament wants 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. The expenditure of the Union shall include:
- 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
- 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.
Protection of personal data: this Regulation is without prejudice to the requirements of
Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the
protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and
on the free movement of such data and of Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the
European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of individuals with
regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and
bodies and on the free movement of such data.
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.