PURPOSE: to grant discharge to the European Commission for the financial year 2011.
NON-LEGISLATIVE ACT: Decision 2013/537/EU, Euratom of the European Parliament on discharge in respect of the implementation of the European Unions General Budget, section III Commission and executive agencies, for the financial year 2011.
CONTENT: with the present decision, the European Parliament grants discharge to the Commission in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2011.
The parallel decision 2013/544/EU, Euratom approves the closure of the accounts for the financial year in question.
In its resolution annexed to the discharge decision, the European Parliament welcomed the fact that the annual accounts of the Union for the financial year 2011 present fairly, and in all material respects, the position of the Union as at 31 December 2011, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the then completed year. Parliament deeply regretted that payments remain materially affected by error (3.9%). It noted with concern that the policy groups agriculture; market and direct support; rural development, environment, fisheries and health; regional policy, energy and transport; employment and social affairs, as well as research and other internal policies, are materially affected by error. It is dismayed about this increase compared to 2010.
Parliament considered that certain priority actions need to be taken in order to improve the implementation of the budget:
Parliament also makes a series of other observations in a resolution annexed to the discharge decision. For further details concerning these observations, please refer to the summary of the opinion dated 17 April 2013.
It should also be noted that with Decisions 2013/538/EU, Euratom, 2013/539/EU, Euratom; 2013/540/EU, Euratom, 2013/541/EU, Euratom, 2013/542/EU, Euratom, and 2013/543/EU, Euratom, the European Parliament also grants discharge to the directors of the executive agencies Education, Audiovisual and Culture, Competitiveness and Innovation, Health and Consumers, Trans-European Networks For Transport, European Research Council and, lastly, Research in respect of the implementation of their respective budgets for the financial year 2011.