2003 discharge: EC general budget, Court of Justice

PURPOSE : to present the revenue and expenditure account and the balance sheet concerning the activities of the budget for the financial year 2003 (Court of Justice).

CONTENT : this document sets out the amount of expenditure and the balance sheet for the other institutions of the Union (except the Commission) for the financial year 2003, in particular, the Court of Justice.

The document states that the Court’s 2003 budget amounted to EUR 149 598 960 committed to the height of 99.3%, an increase of 3.6% compared to 2002.

It is marked by the following elements

1) staff expenses on active duty : in the framework of pre-accession, the budget authority approved 53 permanent posts for the translation service. However, it was decided to employ the new personnel as auxiliary agents which created a deficit in the posts allocated to auxiliary staff. This sector was also marked by the superfluous expenditure for expatriation for the 53 people (amounts which revealed to be unnecessary because the agents were employed as auxiliary staff and not as statutory staff);

2) reception costs, representation and other associated costs : these costs have decreased in comparison to 2002. Medical infrastructure costs and other costs concerning missions have all been reduced;

3) real estate expenditure : this chapter was subjected to important amendments in comparison with the initial allocation : the indemnities of the leasing option of annexes A, B and C of the Court’s Palace have been increased by EUR 774 000 : it concerns a budgetary anticipation policy in which all the surplus appropriations identified at the end of the year were transferred to this post to anticipate the purchasing of these buildings by the Court;

4) costs associated with the organisation of student visits, journalists meetings, etc has risen by 8.1%;

5) expenses of certain institutions and bodies where Title 3 of the Court’s budget increases by 37% compared with 2002 to cover the lawyers fees assigned to the institution for free legal assistance.