2014 discharge: EU general budget, European Parliament

On the basis of the observations made by the Court of Auditors, the Council recommended the European Parliament to give a discharge to all the Union institutions in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Union for the financial year 2014.

The Council welcomed that the administrative and related expenditure of the institutions and bodies of the EU remained free from material error and that the estimated level of error reported by the Court for this policy area decreased to 0.5 %. It noted with satisfaction that the Court did not detect any significant weaknesses in the examined systems.

However, the Council took note of the issues identified by the Court in some of the institutions and bodies audited. It invited the institutions and bodies concerned to further pursue the measures already taken and encouraged them to address the remaining weaknesses pointed out by the Court without delay.

The Council notably regretted the shortcomings observed by the Court in the European Parliament's supervision of the procurement procedures organised by European political parties and of the reimbursement of costs to their affiliated organisations. It underlined the importance of reinforcing controls in that context, as recommended by the Court.