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REPORT (2025/2149(DEC))

On discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2024, Section V – Court of Auditors

A-10-2026-0052

Committee on Budgetary Control · Rapporteur: Pasquale Tridico

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The European Parliament grants discharge to the Secretary-General of the Court of Auditors for the implementation of its budget for the financial year 2024, and sets out observations in a resolution. The resolution notes the Court's budget and audit findings, and makes numerous calls on the Court and other institutions regarding transparency, access to data, staffing, ethics, and other matters.

Committee position. The Committee on Budgetary Control proposes to grant discharge to the Secretary-General of the Court of Auditors for the 2024 financial year, with observations in the accompanying resolution.

Key points

  1. Grants discharge to the Secretary-General of the Court of Auditors for the implementation of the Court's budget for the financial year 2024.
  2. Notes that the Court's budget under MFF heading 7 was approximately EUR 0.2 billion, representing about 1.5% of total Union administrative expenditure.
  3. Notes that in its 2024 annual report the Court examined 70 administrative transactions, found 16 with errors, and estimated the error level below materiality.
  4. Calls on the Court to provide detailed assessments of spillover effects of Union-funded programmes on Member States, including economic, social and territorial impacts.
  5. Calls on the Commission to grant the Court full, systematic and real-time access to all relevant databases, including ARACHNE and FENIX, and to remedy delays.
  6. Regrets gender imbalance among Court staff and members, and calls on Member States to consider gender balance in nominations.
  7. Notes increased burnout cases and calls on the Court to analyse reasons and integrate findings into human-resources planning.
  8. Urges the Court to clarify criteria for decisions on EPPO requests and ensure immunity is not invoked to hinder judicial proceedings.
  9. Reiterates call for the Court to join the Transparency Register, and for a single system for use of service cars across institutions.
  10. Calls on the Court to develop indicators for AI-supported audit tools and report regularly on their impact.
  11. Calls for granting the Court a mandate to audit operations financed with the European Investment Bank's own funds.
  12. Encourages the Court to prepare a special report on Union funding to NGOs in the Gaza context and organisations involved in Palestinian school textbooks.

Who is affected

  • The Court of Auditors: receives discharge and is subject to numerous recommendations on management, transparency, and staffing.
  • The Commission: called on to grant the Court full access to databases and to adopt the Court's error-rate methodology.
  • Member States: called on to nominate more women to the Court and to consider gender balance.
  • The European Investment Bank: called on to be subject to a public audit mandate for its own funds.
  • The Council: criticised for nominating members rejected by Parliament; called on to revise the nomination procedure.

Figures and deadlines

  • EUR 13,3 billion: total MFF heading 7 budget in 2024.
  • EUR 0,2 billion: Court's budget, about 1.5% of total administrative expenditure.
  • 70 transactions examined; 16 (23%) contained errors.
  • EUR 185 655 890: Court's overall budget for 2024, up 6.05% from 2023.
  • 97.30% utilisation rate for appropriations; 94.81% payments as share of commitments.
  • EUR 4.4 million: cancelled appropriations at year-end 2024.
  • 3 176 days spent in Member States and outside the Union in 2024.
  • 93% of 19 recommendations from 2020 annual report implemented; 88% of 186 from special reports.

Legal basis: Article 287 and Article 314(10) and Articles 317, 318 and 319 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.