A3-0258/94

Resolution on the Commission report on action taken in response to the observations contained in the resolution accompanying the decision giving discharge in respect of the general budget of the European Communities for the 1991 financial year

The European Parliament,

-having regard to Article 206 of the Treaty establishing the European Community,

-having regard to its resolution of 21 April 1993 containing the comments which form an integral part of the decision giving discharge to the Commission in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Communities for the 1991 financial year,

-having regard to the Commission report on action taken in response to the observations contained in the resolution accompanying the decision giving discharge in respect of the general budget of the European Communities for the 1991 financial year (SEC(94)0205),

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A3-0258/94),

1.Regrets the rather inconsistent approach taken by the Commission in response to the comments accompanying the 1991 discharge decision, insofar as responses to particular points are of greatly differing length and depth, and some key issues are passed over in silence; asks that, in future, the Commission ensure greater consistency and include in its follow-up report to the discharge an introduction giving a response to the wider political issues brought up in the discharge report;

2.Asks the Commission to provide its follow-up report to the discharge resolution jointly with its answers to the Council's recommendation on discharge and not later than six months after the adoption by Parliament of its discharge decision;

3.Welcomes the Commission's adoption of risk analysis techniques in targeting its checks and controls; urges the Member States to do likewise and the Commission to ensure that they do so;

4.Reaffirms its belief that the Commission should, as a matter of general principle, have the power unilaterally to suspend payments in all areas of Community policy where Member States fail to uphold the financial interests of the Community; calls on the Commission in this context to be rigorous in its application of its powers under the Council decision of 22 March 1994 on budgetary discipline;

5.Calls on all parties to the budgetary procedure to make cost-effectiveness the basic criterion for the inclusion of appropriations in the budget; looks forward to receiving the list of practices aimed at ensuring cost-effectiveness in the budget currently being prepared by the Commission in time for Parliament's first reading of the 1995 budget;

6.Reminds the Commission that the purpose of an early warning system is to provide early warning of specific problems; considers that the implementation figures periodically transmitted to the Parliament during the financial year do not constitute an early warning system for the entire budget insofar as they do not highlight budgetary items where the Commission is aware that difficulties will be encountered; calls on the Commission to produce proposals for a true early warning system for the budget as a whole within the context of the ongoing discussions on the revision of the Notenboom procedure;

7.Finds in the Commission's report confirmation of its own view that there remains much room for improvement in the statistics upon which the GNP and VAT own resources are based; calls therefore on the Commission to harmonise the criteria for the calculation of these statistics and to ensure their transparent presentation in the annual budget;

8.Awaits with interest the application of the Commission's "new initiatives" in the fight against "well-established fraud"; calls on the Commission to ensure a full role for the recently expanded UCLAF in its proposals;

9.Welcomes the Commission's ideas concerning reforms to the clearance of accounts procedure; expresses its doubts, however, as to the utility of these reforms in the light of the decision to overrule the Financial Controller's withholding of approval in 1993 in relation to the 1989 clearance of accounts, a decision which severely undermined the procedure;

10.Asks the Commission for further information on the use made of interest earned by Member States on Structural Fund appropriations held by them, for up to three months, whilst in transit to final beneficiaries; asks the Commission to make proposals to clarify the rules on the use of such interest:

11.Notes the Commission's optimism on the coordination between the activities of the EIB and the Structural Funds, but also observes that this coordination has in practical terms been rather ineffective; restates its belief that Parliament must have increased powers to carry out controls of the activities of the EIB in order to ensure that coordination is effective in this area;

12.Asks the Commission to report back to Parliament on the success of technical assistance provided for drawing up projects promoting equal opportunities in improving the quality of project applications; urges the Member States to follow Parliament's recommendation that equal opportunities officers be nominated on all structural fund monitoring committees;

13.Awaits submission of the Commission's report on subsidies to outside organisations from the budget in mid-May, the report to outline whether and how the Commission has respected the remarks in the budget concerning the use of the budgetary items concerned;

14.Calls on the Commission to undertake that it will henceforth use funds from the Community budget exclusively for measures which apply Community policies, are in accordance with Community legislation and have the prior approval of the budgetary authority;

15.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission and the Council.