2004 discharge: EC general budget, section III, Commission and ECSC in liquidation

PURPOSE: to give discharge to the Commission for the implementation of the European Union general budget for the financial year 2004.

LEGISLATIVE ACTS: Decisions 2006/808/EC, Euratom and 2006/809/EC, Euratom of the European Parliament on the discharge for implementation of the European Union general budget for the financial year 2004 and the closing of the accounts of the same budget (Section III – Commission).

CONTENT: with the present decisions, the European Parliament grants a discharge to the Commission for the implementation of the general budget for 2004 and definitively closes the accounts for the year 2004. This being said, the European Parliament asks the Commission to commit itself to obtain a positive DAS as soon as possible and welcomes the initiatives taken by the Council to reinforce the responsibility of the Member States for improving the control of actions under shared management, with the aim of achieving a positive DAS, and especially the commitment by the Council to producing an annual summary at the appropriate national level of the available audits and declarations.

This decision is in line with the European Parliament’s resolution adopted on 27 April 2006 and comprises a series of observations that form an integral part of the discharge decision (please refer to the summary of the opinion of 27/04/2006).