2004 discharge: Eurojust

Having examined Eurojust’s revenue and expenditure account and the observations made by the Court of Auditors, the Council recommends the European Parliament to give a discharge to the Administrative Director of Eurojust in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2004.

In doing so, the Council confirms that EUR 0.85 million (67%) of the EUR 1.26 million in appropriations carried forward from the financial year 2003 to the financial year 2004 have been used. In addition, EUR 0.87 million in appropriations have been forwarded from the financial year 2004 to the financial year 2005 and EUR 0.16 million have been cancelled.

In parallel, the Council makes accompanying comments on the discharge which should be followed up. In particular, it:

§         takes note that Eurojust is waiting for the Commission's opinion and consent before adopting its own Financial Regulation. It expects an adoption and an implementation of the Financial Regulation as soon as possible;

§         regrets the fact that Eurojust did not submit an amending budget when entering the appropriations needed for enlargement, hence contravening the provisions in force, and calls on Eurojust, for the future, to comply with the appropriate procedure each time it has to modify its budget;

§         points out the fundamental nature of the principle of the segregation of the duties of authorising officer and accounting officer, and welcomes the fact that Eurojust has completed a recruitment procedure for an accountant, therefore putting an end to a conflicting situation, where one member of the staff covered the two functions at the same time.