2022 discharge: General budget of the EU - Court of Auditors

PURPOSE: to grant discharge to the Court of Auditors for the financial year 2022.

NON-LEGISLATIVE ACT: Decision (EU) 2024/2237 of the European Parliament on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section V – Court of Auditors.

CONTENT: with the present decision, the European Parliament grants the Secretary-General of the Court of Auditors discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the Court of Auditors for the financial year 2022.

This decision is in line with the European Parliament's resolution adopted on 11 April 2024 and comprises a series of observations that form an integral part of the discharge decision (please refer to the summary of the opinion of 11 April 2024).

In this resolution, Parliament noted that the overall budget of the Court for 2022 amounted to EUR 162 141 175, equivalent to an increase of 5.5 % from EUR 153 721 727 in 2021. This increase was primarily due to salary adjustments and 20 new temporary posts related to NextGenerationEU.

In 2022, 90 % of appropriations were for its members and staff, while 10 % were for buildings, equipment and miscellaneous expenditure. Members further reiterated the importance of ensuring that the Court is provided with adequate staff in order to adequately fulfil its mandate as well as the new tasks relating to the entry into force of new financing instruments, such as the Recovery and Resilience Facility (the RFF).

The budgetary implementation rate for 2022 was 98.5 %, a slight increase compared to the previous two years.

In addition, the general mission budget of the Court declined from EUR 2 988 000 in 2021 to EUR 2 452 000 in 2022, equivalent to a reduction of 18 %, which was a result of continued travel restrictions at the beginning of 2022 and changes in working methods with a larger number of remote meetings.

The resolution also noted that Russia’s illegal and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine in various ways created budgetary pressures for the Court, including through rising inflation and salary adjustments, strongly increasing electricity and heating costs.