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REPORT (2023/2131(DEC))

On discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section II – European Council and Council

A-9-2024-0071

Committee on Budgetary Control · Rapporteur: Luke Ming Flanagan

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Written by a language model from the full text only; every figure comes from the text. The paragraph links open the paragraph a statement rests on — check the text itself before relying on it.

Parliament postpones its decision on granting discharge to the Secretary-General of the Council for the 2022 budget, citing the Council's continued refusal to cooperate in the discharge procedure. The resolution sets out observations on the Council's budget and management, covering political priorities, budgetary and financial management, internal management, human resources, ethics, digitalisation, buildings, environment, interinstitutional cooperation, and communication.

Committee position. The Committee on Budgetary Control proposes to postpone the decision on granting discharge to the Secretary-General of the Council for the 2022 budget, and sets out observations in a resolution.

Key points

  1. Postpones discharge decision for the Council's 2022 budget due to the Council's refusal to answer Parliament's questionnaire or participate in the discharge hearing.
  2. Calls on the Council to resume negotiations with Parliament at the highest level to break the deadlock in the discharge procedure.
  3. Regrets the Council's lack of transparency in legislative processes and urges implementation of Ombudsman recommendations and Court of Justice rulings.
  4. Calls for a review of the Council's appointment prerogatives, including establishing independent expert panels to check candidates' qualifications, and addressing gender imbalance in the Court of Auditors.
  5. Urges the Council to apply qualified majority voting whenever provided by the Treaties and to strengthen the mandatory transparency register, including making participation by Permanent Representations compulsory.
  6. Calls on rotating Council presidencies to stop using corporate sponsorship and on the Council to provide a budget for presidencies.
  7. Notes the Council's budget for 2022 was EUR 611,473,556, an increase of 2.9% from 2021, and reiterates regret that the European Council and Council budgets are not separated.
  8. Requests full transparency on travels by the President of the European Council, noting that commercial planes were used on only 18 out of 112 missions.
  9. Calls for measures to achieve gender balance at all levels of the Council's staff, noting only 35% of senior management are women.
  10. Calls on the Council to provide information on gender balance, geographical distribution, and disabilities of staff, and to ensure trainees receive a salary.
  11. Encourages the Council to reduce energy consumption, report on environmental initiatives, and use open-source technologies and social media platforms.
  12. Stresses the need to revise Article 319 TFEU to explicitly empower Parliament to grant discharge to all institutions individually.

Who is affected

  • The Council and the European Council: subject to discharge procedure and called upon to cooperate with Parliament.
  • The Secretary-General of the Council: discharge decision postponed.
  • Member States' Permanent Representations: urged to participate in the transparency register.
  • Rotating Council presidencies: called to stop using corporate sponsorship.
  • The Court of Auditors: appointment procedure criticized for gender imbalance.

Figures and deadlines

  • EUR 11.6 billion: Council budget under MFF heading 7 in 2022, representing 5.9% of total Union budget.
  • EUR 0.6 billion: Council's budget, approximately 5.3% of total administrative expenditure.
  • 60 transactions examined by the Court of Auditors; 14 (23%) contained errors.
  • EUR 611,473,556: Council budget for 2022, an increase of 2.9% from 2021.
  • 64 budgetary transfers in 2022, up from 43 in 2021.
  • 4,415 official meetings in 2022, an increase of 2.9% from 4,291 in 2021.
  • 42 contracts signed for a total of EUR 123,863,392 in 2022, down from 102 contracts worth EUR 416,013,813 in 2021.
  • 3,108 staff: 1,783 women (57%) and 1,325 men (43%); 18 of 51 senior managers (35%) were women.

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