Legislative Observatory
European Parliament
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2017 discharge: EU general budget, European Council and Council

2018/2168(DEC)

PURPOSE: presentation by the Commission of the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2017, as part of the 2017 discharge procedure.

Analysis of the accounts of the EU Institutions: European Council and Council.

CONTENT: the organisational governance of the EU consists of institutions, agencies and other EU bodies whose expenditure is included in the general budget of the Union.

This Commission document concerns the EU's consolidated accounts for the year 2017 and details how spending by the EU institutions and bodies was carried out. The consolidated annual accounts of the EU provide financial information on the activities of the institutions, agencies and other bodies of the EU from an accrual accounting and budgetary perspective.

It is the responsibility of the Commission's Accounting Officer to prepare the EU's consolidated annual accounts and ensure that they present fairly, in all material aspects, the financial position, the result of the operations and the cash flows of the EU institutions and bodies with a view to granting discharge.

Discharge procedure: the final step of a budget lifecycle is the discharge. It is the decision by which the European Parliament ‘releases’ the Commission from its responsibility for management of a given budget by marking the end of that budget's existence. It is granted by the European Parliament on the recommendation of the Council.

The decision is based in particular on the European Court of Auditors reports, in particular its annual report, in which the Court provides a Statement of Assurance (DAS) on the legality and regularity of transactions (payments and commitments).

The procedure results in the granting, postponement or refusal of discharge. 

The final discharge report including specific recommendations to the Commission for action is adopted in plenary by the European Parliament and are subject to an annual follow up report in which the Commission outlines the concrete actions it has taken to implement the recommendations made.

All EU institutions and other agencies, bodies and joint undertakings are subject to their own discharge procedures.

Implementation of the European Council/Council’s (EC/C) appropriations for the financial year 2017: the overall EC/C budget 2017 was set at EUR 561.6 million. This corresponds to an increase of EUR 16.5 million (+3.0 %) compared to 2016. The global implementation rate of the 2017 budget is 93.8 % (+1.9 % on top of the average of the last eight years).

Some of the main outcomes for 2017 included:

  • continuous work to consolidate positive developments after previous years’ crises. One visible result of this has been the Leaders’ Agenda which was presented by President Tusk and endorsed in the October European Council;
  • the total number of meetings organised by the GSC went up by 26 % (1 524) compared to 2016 which is explained mainly by the increased activity of the presidency of the second semester and the creation of an ad hoc working group on Brexit.