Parliament unhappy with the lack of transparency of the CFSP/ESDP budget
(B2) The call to order is clear. The European Parliament's Budgetary Control Committee decided yesterday to postpone the vote on the discharge of Council expenditure. A gesture of "bad humor" intended to show the Secretary General of the Council, Javier Solana, that the parliamentarians are not (at all) happy with the attitude of the Council of the European Union. It should be stressed that the refusal to vote for the discharge is the supreme weapon of the European Parliament, as the budget control authority. We are not there. But the postponement of the vote is a very negative sign for the Council, which will now have to react. At least before Parliament's plenary meeting in April.
Object of this dissatisfaction, according to the Danish MEP Soren Bo Sondergaard (left group GUE): the refusal of the Council to give certain financial information, and in particular the annual report, and thus to ensure a certain transparency of the expenditure.
What does the European Parliament want?
1° Publication of an annual report (on website and delivery to Parliament). The Council argues, in rejecting this report, of a gentleman's agreement dating from... 1970 (specifying that the two institutions do not control their respective sections of the budget, a text of which the Parliament apparently does not have the original). Parliament replies that the expenditure financed under the administrative budget of the Council is in fact "ever more operational expenditure". The ransom of success in a way...
2° The ability to control spending. Whether it be "in the area of foreign affairs, security and defense policy and justice and home affairs", Parliament therefore wants to be able to exercise its right of control, totally. Already, in 2002 (during the 2000 discharge), Parliament had denounced the fact "that a proper assessment of the financial implications for the EU budget has been hampered by a lack of proactive information from the Council".
3° More precise budget lines. The creation of a budget line for ESDP/CFSP travel. A substantial part (up to 66%) has been transferred from the item relating to interpretation costs to the item covering travel costs in the field of ESDP/CFSP, notes the Parliament. This for a non-negligible sum - 12,6 million euros in 2006. Parliament therefore wants "to be informed of the amount of this line for 2007.
4° An evaluation - a posteriori - individual missions carried out within the framework of the ESDP.
5° The transparency ofthe expenses of the Counter-Terrorism Coordinator.
Download the Parliament's draft report.
