Legislative Observatory
European Parliament
Please fill in this field to find a procedure

2015 discharge: EU general budget, European Council and Council

2016/2153(DEC)

PURPOSE: to refuse discharge to the Council and the European Council for the 2015 financial year.

NON-LEGISLATIVE ACT: Decision (EU) 2017/2218 of the European Parliament of 25 October 2017 on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2015, Section II -European Council and Council.

CONTENT: with the present decision, the European Parliament refuses to grant the Secretary-General of the Council discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Council and of the Council for the financial year 2015.

This decision is in line with the European Parliament's resolution adopted on 25 October 2017 and comprises a series of observations that form an integral part of the discharge decision (please refer to the summary of the opinion of 25/10/2017).

In particular, Parliament regretted that the Council continues to be silent in relation to the remarks made by Parliament in its discharge resolution of 27 April 2017 on the trend from previous years and that the budget of the European Council and the budget of Council have not yet been separated, as recommended by Parliament in several of its recent discharge resolutions.

It also called for improvements to be made regarding:

  • the transparency of building costs;
  • the Council's whistleblowing rules which continue to be publicly unavailable;
  • the Union transparency register;
  • anti-corruption guidelines and independent policies within its structures;

Lastly, Parliament noted that failure to grant discharge has not led to consequences of any kind and that the situation should nevertheless be resolved as rapidly as possible, principally in the interests of the citizens of the Union.