MEPs to debate the 2007 budget discharge

Is your money well spent at EU level? Every year, in April, the EP concludes its examination of EU spending for the financial year closed 16 months previously. Its job is to make sure taxpayers' money has been used well and to call for improvements where they are needed. On Tuesday, MEPs will debate in Strasbourg whether to grant discharge for the 2007 budget. The Budgetary Control Committee said there were clear improvements in the EU budget spending.

The debate on the report concerning the Council will take exceptionally place on Wednesday in the presence of Council representatives. A vote will be held Thursday and you can watch all the debates live here online.
 
The Budgetary Control Committee voted on 16 March to postpone granting discharge in two cases, the budgets administered by the Council and police college. In the first case because of concerns that some of this expenditure was not purely administrative but also used for foreign and defence policy and thus should be subject to sufficient parliamentary scrutiny.
 
Criticisms and recommendations
 
On the wider EU budget a series of reports which will be debated today found:
 
High levels of error concerning agriculture payments with 20% of payments containing contain errors. (“Errors” can cover everything from a wrong form filled in to fraud). As over 80% of all EU expenditure is administered by member states the Parliament wants governments to sign off these budgets as well. Problems with the structural funds with at least 11% not being properly reimbursed.That the European Court of Auditors had not been able to issue a “Declaration of Assurance” - certifying that error levels in the budgetary management chain were under acceptable thresholds - for the 14th consecutive year.
However, on the overall quality of EU expenditure recommends giving discharge to the rest of the European institutions and agencies.
 
The Budgetary Control Committee - which adopted the measures on 16 March - called for the following improvements:
 
That the Commission simplify procedures as a large number of errors are caused by complicated and unclear legal requirements.National governments improve their budgetary control systems.EU members co-operate better in checking spending and recovering incorrectly spent funds as over 80% of EU expenditure is administered by the member states. 

What's the discharge?
 
The Parliament is empowered by the treaties to give the budget “discharge” (to verify the accuracy of the budgetary management) to the EU institutions and bodies for the execution of the EU budget. The discharge closes the life of an annual budget. The Parliament bases its decision on recommendations from the Council and the annual report from the European Court of Auditors.