2010 discharge: EU general budget, Section II - Council

Having regard to the observations made in the Court of Auditor's report, the Council calls on the European Parliament to give a discharge to all of the other institutions of the European Union in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Union for the financial year 2010.

Although the Council notes with satisfaction that, again in 2010, the administrative expenditure of EU institutions and bodies continued to remain free from material error and that their supervisory and control systems continued to be effective in ensuring compliance with the requirements of the Financial Regulation, it makes a series of case-specific comments.

As regards the Council and the European Council, the Council welcomes the remedial action already taken by the institutions concerned and encourages them to address the remaining weaknesses pointed out by the Court.

The Council takes due note of the Court's observations concerning the under-utilisation of a number of budget lines in the European Council and Council's section of the budget enabling transfers of unused amounts as advance payments for the "Résidence Palace" building project. It acknowledges that steps have been taken to address this issue in the 2012 budgetary procedure.