B4-0061/94

Resolution on the implementation of the Community budget for the financial year 1994

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the data contained in the Commission's report on the implementation of the budget of the European Communities as at 31 May 1994 (SEC(94)1003), and implementation figures for all budget items as at 31 August 1994,

-having regard to the Commission's statement in reply to the questionnaire of the Committee on Budgetary Control on the implementation of the European Communities' budget for the 1994 financial year,

Own resources

1.Calls on the Commission and the Council, in their different capacities, to take all possible action to ensure that own resources income in any given year is sufficient to cover the payment appropriations included in the budget;

Agricultural expenditure

2.Observes that forecasts of agricultural expenditure by the Member States remain very inaccurate, and that the reform of the CAP has not improved the situation; notes once again the Commission's assurances that forecasting will improve next year;

3.Calls on the Commission and the Council, in agreement with the European Parliament, to use the current reform of the clearance of accounts procedure to ensure that future clearance of accounts decisions are transparent and politically accountable; considers this reform indispensable to avoid the serious political difficulties caused by the Commission's 1989 and 1990 clearance of accounts decisions;

4.Calls on the Council, notwithstanding some recent moves in the right direction, to accept the Commission's repeated proposal that the limit on the operation of the stabiliser in the cotton sector, which has caused severe budgetary overspends in this sector for the last three years, be completely abolished in the 1995 financial year;

5.Notes that the Commission did not answer the question asking which Member States were underspending on which fraud control measures under line B1-360, and that the Commission, to take account of 'chronic under-consumption by the Member States', has committed only half the ECU 20 million allocated for such controls; asks the Commission again to provide a breakdown of underspending by measure and by Member State as well as details of its efforts to encourage greater take-up of this funding;

6.Deplores the near-nil take-up of funds under the other main anti-fraud line (B2-511) and expresses its surprise that the Commission attributes this mainly to uncertainty relating to the Council proposal for reform of the common organization of the wine market, since the sums in question were entered on the budgetary line and not in the reserve; calls on the Commission to clarify this point;

Structural Funds

7.Expresses serious concern that about ECU 725 million of Social Fund commitment appropriations adopted by the budgetary authority in the 1994 budget will not be used for their intended purpose; notes that this is the third year running to see substantial under-use of the Social Fund; notes that this is mainly due to lack of take-up by Member States of Social Fund resources; finds the situation particularly reprehensible at a time when fighting unemployment is an express priority of all Member States;

8.Calls on the Commission to examine means, possibly within the context of the current negotiations on the operational programmes for the new Community Initiatives, of ensuring that the Community's priorities and objectives in the social field, as expressed in the budget, are not undermined by Member States' evident reluctance to draw on Social Fund resources;

9.Calls on the Commission henceforth to supply Parliament, through its Committee on Budgetary Control, with detailed quarterly figures on the implementation of the Structural Funds according to (i) Fund, (ii) Objective and (iii) Community Support Framework, showing in all cases the relative performance of each Member State;

Internal policies

10.Calls on the Commission, within the context of its six-monthly report on the borrowing and lending activities of the European Community, to report on the utilisation and impact on job creation of the European Investment Fund and the interest rate subsidies made available from budget article B5-322;

11.Instructs its own committees, within the context of the budget procedure, to review all budget items falling under their responsibility in order to assess whether the objectives for expenditure are sufficiently clear, quantifiable and precisely defined to allow Parliament to reach conclusions concerning their effectiveness and usefulness;

12.Re-emphasises the importance of the Community being seen to respect the commitments given at the Rio conference both in its internal policies and measures financed outside the European Union;

External relations

13.Welcomes the important role played by NGOs in the implementation of the budget for development and cooperation; notes nonetheless that problems continue to occur as a result of conflicting administrative cultures; re-emphasises therefore the continuing need for administrative procedures and demands to be simplified as much as possible in this area;

14.Welcomes the fact that the bulk of the new assistance connected with the Israel/PLO peace accord is being routed through the new Palestinian administration; calls on the Commission, in the light of previous difficulties in providing assistance to this region and the low implementation rate of payment appropriations so far this year, to provide all possible technical assistance to the Palestinian administration to enable it to implement Community aid effectively;

15.Deplores a development whereby CFSP expenditure - such as funding to set up a PLO police force - is financed, for reasons of urgency, out of Community funds, and urges the Commission to withstand Council pressure to use the ordinary Community budget for CFSP purposes;

16.Continues to attach great importance to the full implementation of assistance to the Palestinian population of the West Bank and Gaza under budget article B7-701; expects the rate of implementation of this assistance now to improve dramatically from the lamentably low level of recent years;

17.Awaits a full report from the Commission on the use of budgetary funds in support of the South African election process;

18.Asks the Commission to learn the appropriate lessons from the successful decentralisation of the management of the PHARE Programme for other technical assistance programmes, including the new one in South Africa; stresses the importance of assistance being provided in a form agreed in advance with the local administration and other relevant organisations;

19.Calls on the Commission to pursue contacts at the highest level to resolve the differences between the Commission and the United Nations Secretariat regarding the application of the Commission's requirements for the auditing of UN management of Community funding, and to report back to Parliament by 15 October 1994;

20.Calls on the Commission to take all possible measures to monitor expenditure made locally in PHARE and TACIS beneficiary states to ensure that it is not subject to fraud, particularly that perpetrated by organised crime networks;

Administrative expenditure

21.Asks the Commission to provide Parliament by 31 December 1994 with a full status report on all the "satellite" bodies agreed by the Brussels European Council, to include a summary of all the costs in 1994 related to their establishment or re-location and functioning;

22.Deplores the fact that, nearly one year after the decision to transfer CEDEFOP to Thessaloniki, practical arrangements have made so little headway; calls upon the Commission to present the necessary proposals, including measures for staff, without delay to prevent further disruption to the smooth running of the Centre;

23.Notes that the Commission has run 25 financial control seminars away from Brussels over the last four years and that these have often attracted heavy Commission manpower; draws attention to the fact that the Directorate-General for Financial Control is both manager and controller of the funds under the budgetary line concerned; asks the Commission to present a report on these seminars and the Court of Auditors to carry out an audit with particular reference to value for money;

Anti-fraud appropriations

24.Deplores the continuing delays in the implementation of the budget items intended to assist Member States in the fight against fraud, and the apparent lack of interest on the part of some Member States in using the resources made available for this purpose; reminds the Commission in this context that it is under an obligation to publish details of take-up of these budgetary items by Member State and control measure, and insists that the Commission find a way of reporting quarterly on this issue during the financial year concerned;

25.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission and the Court of Auditors.