On discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2024, Section III – Commission and executive agencies

OPINION

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

1. Notes the significant acceleration of the budget execution of the programmes implemented by DG EAC in 2024 as compared to the initial years of the MFF; confirms that this demonstrates a capacity to absorb additional funding;

2. Notes that the increased Erasmus+ budget for 2024 was not adequately reflected in individual mobility allowances, which remained inadequate to cover living expenses for recipients, affecting in particular students and teachers, thereby exacerbating disparities in access and the exclusion of vulnerable groups; further notes that demand for mobility opportunities continues to exceed capacity across the programme;

3. Recognises the strategic importance of continued investment in European culture and sport; highlights the key role of Erasmus+ in providing opportunities for learning and skills development and reiterates that youth engagement and mobility are essential for building a cohesive European society; notes positively the continued implementation of the European Solidarity Corps and its contribution to volunteering; welcomes the high rate of inclusion of participants with fewer opportunities into all activities, reaching 57%; notes the difficulties in reaching key performance indicators regarding the number of participants in solidarity projects;

4. Welcomes the improvements in the IT landscape of DG EAC and the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), enabling more efficient processing of applications and grants; calls for further optimisation and simplification of the IT tools and processes, ensuring and assessing accessibility for smaller organisations and persons with fewer opportunities to ensure a fair, transparent and inclusive implementation of the programmes, while respecting the data protection and cybersecurity principles; notes, in this context, the central role of the European Youth Portal and encourages continued improvements to its usability, accessibility and information architecture; alongside these efforts, acknowledges the need for streamlining of application procedures, including through the lump sum approach;

5. Notes with approval EACEA’s excellent performance across its five KPIs, including a complete budget execution (100% transactions of the operational budget), a reduced estimated risk at closure (down to 0.49%, well below the 2% materiality threshold), and particularly the Erasmus+ indicator, with an increase of Higher Education Institutions participating in the European University alliances from 436 in 2023 to 571 in 2024;

6. Welcomes EACEA’s continued reduction of carry-overs to 7% for 2024, compared to 8% in 2023; further welcomes the Agency’s corrective actions addressing the irregularities identified by the Court of Auditors in its management, control systems and the processing of payment requests, including overstated personnel costs detected in actions funded under Creative Europe and Erasmus+; stresses the need for clear guidelines, as well as strengthened and systematic oversight of the management of EU funds when programme implementation is outsourced to national authorities and/or private companies;

7. Regrets that DG EAC and DG CONNECT had not performed interim evaluations of the flagship programmes Erasmus+, European Solidarity Corps, and Creative Europe before the legally defined deadline; stresses that evaluations should inform the decision-making still for the current programming period, not only for the future one;

8. Welcomes the positive examples of DG EAC’s continued support to Ukraine through its programmes and policy initiatives, such as inclusion of displaced children from Ukraine in the EU education systems, supporting learners and researchers fleeing from Ukraine, providing financial support to Ukrainian artist and cultural organisations, as well as safeguarding Ukrainian cultural heritage; supports the Commission in continuing and broadening aid for Ukraine and its citizens;

9. Is pleased to learn that in 2024 the popularity of the DiscoverEU initiative, which originated as a preparatory action proposed by the EP, has reached an all-time high, with the budget fully absorbed, and more than 70000 young people receiving a travel pass, noting, however, that this makes up less than 25% of valid applications received;

10. Is pleased to see the strong demand for Creative Europe in 2024, in particular that the European Cooperation call received almost 1000 proposals, twice as many as in 2021; yet notes that the budget did not rise accordingly, leading to lower success rates and a stronger need to safeguard access and diversity in the cultural and creative sectors.

ANNEX: DECLARATION OF INPUT

The rapporteur for opinion declares under his exclusive responsibility that he did not include in his 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.

INFORMATION ON ADOPTION BY THE COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION