2015 discharge: EU general budget, European External Action Service (EEAS)

Based on the observations contained in the report by the Court of Auditors, the Council called on the European Parliament to grant discharge to all of the EU institutions in respect of the implementation of their respective budgets for the financial year 2015.

The Council welcomed that the administrative and related expenditure of the EU institutions remained free from material error with an estimated level of error of 0.6 %, which is well below the materiality threshold. It noted with satisfaction that no serious weaknesses were identified by the Court in the supervisory and control systems and in the examined annual activity reports.

The Council took note of a limited number of errors detected by the Court, notably in the recruitment and procurement procedures and in the management of staff allowances.

The Council also regretted the shortcomings observed by the Court in the European External Action Service, notably concerning the procurement procedures for low value contracts under the responsibility of delegations.

It regretted that supervisory and control systems in delegations are not yet fully sound and reliable. It called on the European External Action Service to reinforce its guidance on the design, coordination and execution of procurement and selection procedures in delegations and to provide more training opportunities to its staff in delegations to avoid similar weaknesses in the future.