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2004 discharge: EC general budget, European Data Protection Supervisor

2005/2208(DEC)

PURPOSE : presentation of the final annual accounts of the European Community for the financial year 2004 – Other institutions : Section VIII (B) - European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS).

CONTENT : this document sets out the amount of expenditure and the financial statement of the EDPS for 2004 and presents an analysis of its financial management. The available appropriations set out in the Supervisor’s 2004 budget amounted to roughly EUR 2 million, with a 77,5% utilisation rate.

Main axes of 2004 expenditure : the 1st institution’s budget : to recall, the EDPS was appointed for a 5 year mandate and has a threefold mission:

  1. consultation : to give advice to community bodies on all issues relating to data protection;
  2. monitoring : to monitor the processing of personal data while protecting the individuals and to examine complaints and carry out investigations;
  3. cooperation : to cooperate with national monitoring authorities and bodies to improve the coherence of data protection.

The main issues of the 2004 budget implementation can be summarised as follows:

    • setting up the EDPS in the European Parliament and the secondment of a head of unit from the Commission to set up the Secretariat;
    • establishment of a work programme and the recruitment of staff;
    • signature of an interinstitutional cooperation and administrative agreement (3 years, renewable for 2 years), with a view to setting out the terms of assistance provided by the European Parliament (essentially material), negotiation of an agreement with the Council for assistance with translation and general guidelines with the Commission for assistance in the field of human resources and budgetary execution. It is the Commission who carries out the accounting tasks of the EDPS.

DETAILED SYNTHESIS OF 2004 EXPENDITURE: this detailed synthesis analyses the breakdown of the EDPS’s expenditure for the financial year 2004. The figures mentioned can also be found in the “Final annual accounts of the European Communities - Financial year 2004 – Volume III”.

Implementation rate in 2004 :

  • Appropriations available in 2004 via 2 amending budgets (2/2004 + 10/2004) : EUR 1.942.279;
  • Appropriations committed amounted to EUR 1.505.353, a 77,5% utilisation rate;
  • Appropriations paid amounted to EUR 1.061.783,61.

Note : only 54,67% of the budget was paid in 2004 due to delayed decisions concerning the budget (the 2nd amending budget showing the final budget for the institution was adopted on 14 October 2004) which made it difficult to commit appropriations (in particular for meeting costs, training costs, studies and publications).