1999 discharge: EC general budget, other sections

PURPOSE: presentation of the revenue and expenditure account and the financial balance relating to the operations of the 1999 budget (other sections). CONTENT: This document establishes the level of expenditures and the financial balance of the other European Union institutions (i.e. excluding the Commission) for the 1999 financial year: - the European Parliament (and Ombudsman) (see DEC/2000/2157), - the Council, - the Court of Justice, - the Court of Auditors, - the Economic and Social Committee, - the Committee of the Regions. As far as the institutions are concerned, the following should be noted: 1) the Council: the 1999 budget amounted to 336,739,000 euros of which 99% was committed. 1999 saw the entry into force of the Amsterdam Treaty that conferred the Council's Secretariat with enhanced powers involving significantly higher expenditure. To deal with these expenditures, the Secretariat had to proceed in particular with a supplementary amending budget designed to finance the staff requirements of the High Representative and the Deputy Secretary-General of the Council, as well as the strengthening of certain other budget lines (Justice and home affairs). 2) Court of Justice: the budget amounted to 123,379,600 euros of which 99.8% was committed. 1999 was marked by the modernisation of this institution's computer system. On the immovable property front, the year saw the Court's occupation of a temporary building because of the presence of asbestos in the Palais with an over-run for the security and maintenance of the building that had not been foreseen. 3) Court of Auditors: the budget amounted to 66,015,088 euros 96.85% of which was committed, a not negligible amount of which concerns operating expenses (construction of a new building). 4) ESC and Committee of the Regions: the 1999 budget was affected like previous years by the reorganisation of the internal structure of these two institutions. In particular, the presentation of a comprehensive new annual report for these institutions with a part A for the ESC and a part B for the CoR, and for each of these institutions a sub§section dealing with the common organisational structure should be noted. Essentially, the relations between these 2 institutions appear good since it has been possible to implement a work programme to regulate the amount of work of the common services and to harmonise the practices of the two administrations following the respective moves (in particular as far as personnel management is concerned). The year 2000 will, in this regard, be a decisive year.�