PURPOSE: presentation by the Commission of the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2013, as part of the 2013 discharge procedure.
Analysis of the accounts of the EU Institutions: European Ombudsman.
Legal reminder: the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the year 2013 have been prepared on the basis of the information presented by the institutions and bodies under Article 148(2) of the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Union. They were prepared in accordance with Title IX of this Financial Regulation.
(1) Purpose: the document helps to bring insight into the EU budget mechanism and the way in which the budget has been managed and spent in 2013, including the different expenses of the European institutions. It should be recalled that only the Commission budget contains administrative appropriations and operating appropriations. The other Institutions have only administrative appropriations.
The document also presents the different financial actors involved in the budget process (accounting officers, internal officers and authorising officers) and recalls their respective roles in the context of the tasks of sound financial management.
Amongst the other legal elements relating to the implementation of the EU budget presented in this document, the paper focuses on the following issues:
Discharge procedure: the final control is the discharge of the budget for a given financial year. The discharge represents the political aspect of the external control of budget implementation and is the decision by which the European Parliament, acting on a Council recommendation, "releases" the Commission from its responsibility for management of a given budget by marking the end of that budget's existence. When granting discharge, Parliament may make observations which it considers important and often recommends the Commission and the other institutions to take actions concerning these matters.
The document also details specific expenditure of the institutions, in particular: (i) pensions of former Members and officials of institutions; (ii) joint sickness insurance scheme and (iii) buildings.
The document also presents a series of tables and detailed technical indicators on (i) the balance sheet; (ii) the economic outturn account; (iii) cashflow tables; (iv) technical annexes concerning the financial statements.
(2) Implementation of the Ombudsmans appropriations for the financial year 2013: the document comprises a series of detailed annexes, the most important concerning the implementation of the budget. As regards the Ombudsmans expenditure, the information is drawn from the Report on the financial and budgetary management 2013 of the European Ombudsman.
The appropriations available for 2013 amounted to EUR 9.731 million with 98.22% (or EUR 9.556 million) committed.
(3) Budgetary implementation - conclusions: in more general and political terms, the implementation of the Ombudsmans budget in 2013 was marked by the following (see Annual Report 2013 European Ombudsman):
In total, 2354 actions were taken by the European Ombudsman on complaints received in 2013.
2013 was also marked by the election of Emily OReilly in September as the first female European Ombudsman replacing Nikiforos Diamandouros.
Other important elements in the management of resources in 2013: