Skip to content
DRAFT OPINION (2024/2019(DEC))

On discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the Commission for the financial year 2023

EMPL-PA-765076

Committee on Employment and Social Affairs · Rapporteur: Romana Tomc

Official HTML ↗ PDF DOCX
✦ In shortFull text
✦ In short · AI summary of this text, generated 4 Sept 2026

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.

The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs calls on the Committee on Budgetary Control to incorporate its opinion into the motion for a resolution on the Commission's 2023 budget discharge. It welcomes the Court of Auditors' clean opinion on the 2023 accounts, but flags record outstanding commitments, high error rates in cohesion spending, forecast decommitments, and inflation's impact on the budget. It asks the Commission to implement all outstanding Court of Auditors' recommendations as soon as possible.

Committee position. The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs proposes that the Committee on Budgetary Control incorporate these points into its motion for a resolution on the 2023 discharge.

Key points

  1. The Court of Auditors declared the 2023 consolidated accounts fair in all material respects.
  2. Total outstanding commitments reached a record EUR 543 billion by end of 2023, mainly due to shared management funds and NextGenerationEU, but are expected to decrease in 2024-2026.
  3. The error rate for MFF heading 2 'Cohesion, resilience and values' rose to 9.3% in 2023 from 6.4% in 2022; calls for urgent action to reduce it.
  4. Concerned that Commission forecast decommitments for cohesion funds, including the European Social Fund Plus, at EUR 2.2 billion for 2024-2027, five times higher than its 2022 forecast.
  5. High inflation (6.4%) continued to affect the Union budget; warns the budget could lose about 13% of its purchasing power by end of 2025.
  6. Asks the Commission to implement all outstanding Court of Auditors' recommendations as soon as possible.

Who is affected

  • The Commission, which must implement the Court of Auditors' recommendations and address the concerns raised.
  • Beneficiaries of cohesion policy funds, including the European Social Fund Plus, face potential decommitments.

Figures and deadlines

  • EUR 543 billion: total outstanding commitments by end of 2023.
  • 9.3%: error rate for MFF heading 2 in 2023, compared with 6.4% in 2022.
  • EUR 2.2 billion: forecast decommitments for cohesion funds for 2024-2027.
  • 6.4%: inflation rate affecting the Union budget.
  • 13%: potential loss of purchasing power by end of 2025.