Modernising the EU accounts. Enhanced management information and greater transparency: your guide to the EU’s new financial reporting

The accounts of the European Union serve two principal purposes. First, they provide the EU budgetary authority (i.e. the European Parliament and the Council of the EU made up of Member States’ governments), as well as the general public, with a view of how the voted budget was implemented in the course of the year (cash-based budgetary accounts). Second, they present the institutions’ financial statements for the year, including the balance sheet, which describes the EU’s financial position, with all assets and liabilities, on 31 December (accrual-based general accounts).