Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the follow-up to the discharge for the 2013 financial year (Summary)

This is the Commission's report to the European Parliament and the Council on the follow-up to the EP discharge resolutions and the Council Recommendation for the 2013 financial year, pursuant to Article 319(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), Article 166 of the Financial Regulation (FR), and Article 119(5) of the 9th European Development Funds (EDF) Financial Regulation and Article 144 of the 10th EDF Financial Regulation.

It is the first report presented by the Commission which took up office on 1 November 2014. The new Commission is pursuing a more focused agenda according to the political priorities set out by President Juncker and attaches particular importance to the principle of sound financial management. The Commission has thoroughly examined the concerns expressed by the EP and Council in the 2013 discharge.

In the EP general discharge resolution, a certain number of issues such as necessary improvements in shared management, simplification, performance as well as other specific points are highlighted. These requests have been extensively discussed during the discharge procedure, in particular with the rapporteur and the Members of the Budgetary Control Committee (CONT). In the letter by Vice-President Georgieva, evidence was given of the Commission's formal commitment to implement fully and timely a series of actions and measures related to the issues identified.

The present communication takes into account this commitment whilst updating, where necessary, the situation as far as further actions have been taken so far. It is accompanied by two Commission Staff Working Documents (CSWD) containing replies to 319 EP and 75 Council specific discharge requests.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: SWD(2015)194: Requests from the Council http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2015:194:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2015)195: Replies to requests from the European Parliament http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2015:195:FIN

ESO: Background information: Budgetary control MEPs reject Council accounts for 2013 http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-budgetary-control-meps-reject-council-accounts-for-2013/

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