On 2024 discharge: General budget of the EU - European External Action Service

OPINION

The Committee on Foreign Affairs calls on the Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following into its motion for a resolution:

1. Stresses the central role of the EEAS in diplomatic engagement and in coordinating peace efforts and humanitarian aid in an increasingly unstable international environment; acknowledges that EEAS has made strong and sustained efforts to address the lack of sufficient funds granted in the last budget exercises e.g. by cutting non-compulsory expenditure to the minimum, freezing and postponing building maintenance, infrastructure and IT projects; notes with concern that the financial situation and the budgetary constraints of the EEAS pose a major obstacle to increasing the visibility and impact of EU's external action and is deeply concerned by its serious negative consequences for the EU’s external action; underlines the need for sustainable funding solutions to support the EEAS' operations to uphold the EU's global standing;

2. Welcomes ECA's finding that EEAS’s coordination, both internally and with the Commission and Council, was mostly effective; further welcomes that EEAS has undertaken measures to ensure the application of procurement rules and has applied corrective actions; notes the remaining weaknesses in information management, staffing and reporting;

3. Welcomes the EEAS’s strengthened capacity to counter disinformation and hybrid threats, including the full operationalisation of the Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) Toolbox e.g. through Information Sharing and Analysis Centre and the EU Rapid Alert System; supports continued investment in strategic communication, independent media, and civil society partnerships, particularly in Ukraine, the Middle East, including Israel and Palestine, and neighbouring regions;

ANNEX: DECLARATION OF INPUT

The rapporteur declares under her exclusive responsibility that she did not include in her opinion input from interest representatives falling within the scope of the Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory transparency register, or from representatives of public authorities of third countries, including their diplomatic missions and embassies, to be listed in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.