1994 discharge: ECSC budget

Adopting the report by Mr Freddy BLAK (PSE, DK), the European Parliament gave the Commission discharge for the management of the ECSC for the 1994 financial year but made a series of observations on the following points: - as far as targeting action is concerned, it called on the Commission, given the reduction in available resources, to concentrate resources on forms of intervention not provided for under the EC Treaty (mainly social action) and to transfer other activities to the Community immediately; - noting that outstanding ECSC loans represented a potential risk to its financial security, it called on the Commission to adopt a cautious approach to risk management. It also drew attention once again to the lack of transparency with which buildings acquired by the ECSC had been transferred to the Community in exchange for "rent" and deplored such arrangements; - as far as social and readaptation aid are concerned, Parliament was in favour of the ECSC's continuing to pay direct social aid to workers in the coal and steel sectors until such time as resources were available under the ECSC's operational budget. It welcomed the finding of the Court of Auditors whereby readaptation aid had been well managed; - it acknowledged that it was not always possible or desirable to ensure that ECSC loans were equally divided between the Member States during a given financial year and congratulated the ECSC management as a whole for having presented the only set of accounts for 1994 which had received an unreserved declaration of assurance from the Court of Auditors; - finally, as far as the closure of mines in England is concerned, it admitted that the ECSC could not recover the interest rate subsidies granted in order to finance investments which, in the end, were used to close the mines and deplored the fact that the United Kingdom was not obliged to repay these funds.