In accordance with Article 319(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the Council approved the recommendation to give a discharge to the Commission in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Union for the financial year 2011.
Breakdown of the expenditure:
Based on the observations contained in the report by the Court of Auditors, the Council calls on the European Parliament to grant discharge to the Commission in respect of the implementation of the 2011 budget. However, the Council issues a series of comments that need to be fully taken on board when granting discharge.
DAS: the Council notes that for the fifth consecutive year, the annual accounts of the EU gave a fair presentation of the financial position of the Union and the results of its operations and cash flows. It welcomes the Court's Statement of Assurance (DAS) on the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2011 and the analysis of the audit findings and conclusions provided by the Court.
Nevertheless, the Council remains concerned that, according to the Court's overall assessment, payments from the budget continued to be materially affected by error and that supervisory and control systems for payments audited by the Court remained only partially effective in ensuring the legality and regularity of transactions. It recalls the importance of better spending and sound financial management of EU funds to ensure credibility in the public perception of actions financed from the EU budget in particular under the current economic and financial circumstances.
The Council acknowledges the action taken by the Commission and Member States to put into practice the recommendations of previous years and to improve the management and control of EU Funds and programmes, however, it regrets that the error rate increased in 2011 and urges the Commission and Member States to continue their efforts to strengthen controls for the effective and efficient management of EU funds. The errors identified by the Court are again to be found in the area of public procurement for the EU budget as a whole, and in particular under shared management where national rules also apply. The Council urges the Commission and Member States to continue to put in place robust programme management structures and to envisage, where required, the timely interruption and suspension of payments and the rigorous implementation of recoveries and financial corrections.
As regards the RAL, the Council takes note of the persistent high volume of outstanding budgetary commitments under multiannual programmes. It calls on the Commission to carefully monitor the amounts of outstanding commitments, and to settle or decommit them in a timely manner and in line with the relevant rules.
The Council also makes the following remarks:
Reliability of the accounts: the Council welcomes the favourable opinion given by the Court on the reliability of the accounts for the financial year 2011. It encourages the Commission to continue to ensure that the high quality of the accounts is maintained in the forthcoming years.
Legality and regularity of the underlying transactions: the Council notes that the Court's audit findings, based on the audited sample of the underlying transactions and of supervisory and control systems, confirm the relative stability in the error rate observed in recent years. However, the Council regrets that an important share of spending continued to be affected by a material level of error and that the most likely error rate for payments as a whole increased from 3.7% in 2010 to 3.9% in 2011. It notes that 0.1% of the increase results from the inclusion for the first time of cross-compliance in the calculation of the error rate. The Council reiterates its wish to see year-on-year improvements in financial management systems and lower error rates.
Supervisory and control systems: the Council regrets the Court's conclusion that overall the supervisory and control systems examined by the Court were only partially effective and that payments relating to the policy groups "Agriculture: market and direct support", "Rural development, environment, fisheries and health", "Regional policy; energy and transport", "Employment and social affairs" and "Research and other internal policies" remained affected by material error.
Revenue: the Council welcomes with satisfaction the Court's conclusion that "Revenue" transactions were free from material error and that overall the related supervisory and control systems were assessed as effective in ensuring the regularity of transactions. It calls on the Commission to continue its work in order to ensure a correct accounting of the established customs duties and to assist Member States in enhancing appropriate control frameworks in order to collect the total amount of traditional own resources due to the Union.
The Council then returns to each of the budget areas and makes the following comments:
Conclusion: the Council urges all actors in the Commission, Member States and the Court to consider how best to develop robust mechanisms for measuring and reporting on the performance of programmes during the next multiannual programming period. It calls on the Commission, in cooperation with Member States, to ensure that timely, reliable and comparable data are made available at EU and national level. It stresses the need to define a limited number of SMART annual and multiannual objectives for each programme and action, focussing on the results achieved, notably on the impact and the added value resulting from activities at EU level. The Council underlines the importance of all actors developing a better and clearer understanding of the concept of EU added value and of taking this into account when designing the programmes for the next multiannual programming period.