2004 discharge: European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction

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

In doing so, the Council confirms that EUR 1.8 million (88 %) of the EUR 2.0 million in appropriations carried forward from the financial year 2003 to the financial year 2004 have been used. In addition, EUR 1.7 million have been carried from the financial year 2004 to the financial year 2005 and EUR 1.2 million have been cancelled.

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

In particular, it:

§         shares the Court's view on the excessive transfer of appropriations and urges the Centre to take all necessary measures to apply the necessary rigour to comply with the budgetary principle of specification;

§         shares the Court’s concern on the need to strengthen internal control procedures and facilitate reconciliations between bank balances and the Centre's accounts, in order to avoid errors in the amounts to be paid.