2001 discharge: Translation Centre for the bodies of the European Union

PURPOSE : to present the Council Recommendation on the discharge to be given to the Director of the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union in respect of the implementation of the budget of the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union for the financial year 2001. CONTENT : based on the observations made by the Court of Auditors concerning the financial year 2001, the Council recommends that the Parliament grant a discharge to the Director of the Centre in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2001. Recalling that EUR 2,2 million (92%) of the EUR 2,4 million in appropriations carried forward from the financial year 2000 to the financial year 2001 have been used and that EUR 1,8 million in appropriations have been carried forward from the financial year 2001 to the financial year 2002 and EUR 8,3 million have been cancelled, the Council believes that the implementation of the Centre's budget calls for a series of certain comments to be made. In particular, the Council welcomes the fact that the Court of Auditors has been able to record a statement of assurance in respect of the reliability of the Centre's accounts for the financial year 2001, and in respect of the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions as a whole. The Council invites the Centre and the Luxembourg authorities to reach agreement swiftly reach on the rental of the Centre's offices. The Council shares the Court's opinion on the need to improve the estimates and planning of requirements for all the Centre's acquisitions. The Council encourages the Centre to continue its efforts to improve cooperation with the institutions and other Community bodies with a view to obtaining better conditions while ensuring the quality of services. The Council notes that an interinstitutional evaluation system project on the quality of external translation services is underway and it expects this system to be put in place as soon as possible.�