(1)

The Community bodies set up to assume the burden of carrying out certain Community activities have legal personality and hence their own budget governed by specific financial rules.

(2)

In order to guarantee a certain degree of consistency in these rules compared with Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 (hereinafter ‘the general Financial Regulation’) and pursuant to Article 185(1) of that Regulation, this framework Financial Regulation must lay down the rules governing the establishment, implementation and scrutiny of the budget of the said Community bodies which actually receive grants charged to the Community budget (hereinafter ‘Community bodies’). It is on the basis of this framework Financial Regulation that each of those Community bodies will adopt its own financial rules, which, as indicated in the abovementioned Article 185, may depart from the framework Financial Regulation in accordance with the specific management needs of those bodies, but only with the Commission's consent.

(3)

Like the general Financial Regulation, this framework Financial Regulation confines itself to stating the broad principles and basic rules governing the whole of the budgetary sector concerned, while detailed provisions may subsequently be adopted by these bodies in order to make their financial rules easier to read.

(4)

For the purposes of establishing and implementing the budget, the four fundamental principles of budgetary law (unity, universality, specification, annuality), and the principles of equilibrium, unit of account, sound financial management and transparency must be reasserted.

(5)

It is necessary to define the powers and responsibilities of the accounting officer, the internal auditor and authorising officers. The last mentioned are fully responsible for all revenue and expenditure operations executed under their authority and must be held accountable for their actions, including, where necessary, through disciplinary proceedings.

(6)

Like the institutions, these Community bodies must not be allowed to raise loans, in accordance with Article 14 of the general Financial Regulation.

(7)

The internal audit function within the Community bodies must be performed by the Commission's internal auditor, who will therefore act as the guarantor of the overall consistency of the system and its working methods in accordance with Article 185(3) of the general Financial Regulation.

(8)

The timetable for establishing the budget, presenting the accounts and granting discharge must be aligned on the equivalent provisions of the general Financial Regulation, and the authority responsible for granting the Community bodies discharge will now be the same as for the general budget (Article 185(2) of the general Financial Regulation).

(9)

The accounting rules applied by the Community bodies must allow for consolidation with the accounts of the institutions, and to this end they must be adopted by the Commission's accounting officer in accordance with Article 133 of the new general Financial Regulation.

(10)

In accordance with Article 46 of the general Financial Regulation, the establishment plan must now be submitted to the budgetary authority for approval.

(11)

Each body could have access to the panel referred to in Article 66(4) of the general Financial Regulation set up by the Commission to examine irregularities so that a similar assessment can be made of identical cases.

(12)

Since they receive a grant charged to the Community budget, the Community bodies must strictly observe the same requirements as the institutions in the award of public contracts and grants, in so far as such contracts and grants are authorised by the Instruments setting up those bodies; in this respect a reference to the relevant provisions of the general Financial Regulation will suffice.

(13)

Like the institutions, the Community bodies may, for the performance of the tasks entrusted to them, employ external private sector bodies only where necessary and not for tasks involving any public service mission or any use of discretionary powers of judgement, in order to guarantee that each body is accountable for the implementation of its budget and adheres to the objectives assigned to it on its creation.

(14)

In support of their requests for payment of the Community subsidy, Community bodies must submit a cash-flow forecast, and the funds paid by the Communities in respect of that subsidy must bear interest for the benefit of the Communities.

(15)

There must be specific provisions organising the collection of fees and charges, which are one of the resources of these bodies.

(16)

In view of the statutory requirements arising from the instruments setting up Community bodies, the procedure for presenting the accounts should be adapted and provision made for the management board to give its opinion on the accounts.

(17)

The new budget structure adopted in the general financial regulation must also be used by the Community bodies in so far as this is justified by the nature of their activities.

(18)

The only provisions of the general Financial Regulation that must be included in this Regulation are those which are relevant to the Community bodies.

In particular this Regulation must therefore not include the provisions relating to areas of activity that have no connection with the Community bodies, the various methods of implementation embodying the concept of externalisation and the information on the budget to be sent to the European Parliament and the Council. Additionally, only some of the categories of assigned revenue in the general Financial Regulation should be taken into consideration and, finally, the procedure for transfers of appropriations and establishment of the budget must be less detailed and less complex,