PURPOSE : to present the Council recommendation on the discharge to be given to the other institutions in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Communities for the financial year 2004.
CONTENT : having regard to the observations made by the Court of Auditors, the Council calls on the European Parliament to give a discharge to all of the other EU institutions (other than the Commission).
If overall the observations made by the Council are positive as regards expenditure, the Council believes that the implementation of the budget calls for a series of comments on the discharge which should be followed up.
The Council welcomes the fact that the errors identified by the Court did not materially affect the legality and regularity of administrative expenditure as a whole.
It notes with satisfaction the efforts and the progress made by the Institutions to adapt their supervisory systems and controls to the new Financial Regulation, but underlines that they have not fully implemented the Internal Control Standards.
The Council takes note that the 2004 financial year has introduced specific risks resulting from the adoption of the new staff regulations, the introduction of a new system for calculating staff remuneration and the implementation of the new system in the framework of the new Financial Regulation at the same time.
In this context, the Council shares the Court's view that particular attention should be paid to the various technical weaknesses detected in the implementation of the NAP (new payroll system), to an accurate application of the staff regulations in respect of travel allowances, to the improvement of the control systems concerning the transfer of part of the staff.