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having regard to the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2010 (1),

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having regard to the annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2010 (COM(2011) 473 – C7-0262/2011) (2),

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having regard to the Committee of the Regions’ annual report to the discharge authority on internal audits carried out in 2010,

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having regard to the Annual Report of the Court of Auditors on the implementation of the budget concerning the financial year 2010, together with the institutions’ replies (3),

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having regard to the statement of assurance (4) as to the reliability of the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions provided by the Court of Auditors for the financial year 2010 pursuant to Article 287 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

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having regard to Article 314(10) and Articles 317, 318 and 319 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

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having regard to Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities (5), and in particular Articles 50, 86, 145, 146 and 147 thereof,

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having regard to Rule 77 of, and Annex VI to, its Rules of Procedure,

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having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A7-0090/2012),

1.

Emphasises that in its 2010 Annual Report the Court of Auditors identified errors in relation to the recruitment of a permanent member of staff and a procurement procedure for interpreting services;

2.

Is satisfied with the explanations provided by the Committee of the Regions (CoR) regarding these errors, and with the decisions taken in order to ensure that such situations do not reoccur (improved recruitment procedure for officials from other institutions, supervision and monitoring of contract value estimates using a standard format for documentation, and enhancing the supervisory and control system for tenders by setting up a restricted-access mailbox);

3.

Welcomes the fact that the Court of Auditors has concluded, on the basis of its audit work, that the payments as a whole for the financial year ended 31 December 2010 for administrative and other expenditure of the institutions and bodies were free from material error; points out that the most likely error rate as regards administrative expenditure in general is estimated at 0,4 % (paragraphs 7.9 and 7.10);

4.

Welcomes the decision of the CoR to develop and implement a standard format for documentation of the estimates in case of negotiated procedures;

5.

Notes that in 2010 the CoR had commitment appropriations available amounting to a total of EUR 90 800 000 (EUR 88 000 000 in 2009), with an improved utilisation rate of 99,4 % for 2010 (in 2009 it stood at 98,37 %); stresses that the CoR’s budget is purely administrative, with 72 % of expenditure relating to persons working with the institution and 28 % relating to buildings, furniture, equipment and miscellaneous running costs;

6.

Calls on the CoR to limit increases of future budgets to a strict minimum and to finance new or extended activities primarily from savings and rationalisation of existing expenditure;

7.

Calls on the CoR to undertake a comprehensive spending review based on the principle of zero-based budgeting to identify savings, rather than simply adding a nominal percentage increase in line with inflation to existing budgets during each budget cycle;

8.

Is pleased to note that, in response to the call made in Parliament’s resolution of 10 May 2011 (6) on discharge for the financial year 2009, the CoR has strengthened its budgetary procedure, which now comprises four stages: preparation by the CoR’s administration, assessment of the preliminary draft by the Committee for Financial and Administrative Affairs (CAFA), decision by the CoR Bureau and Plenary Assembly on the draft budget, and a mid-term review of implementation;

9.

Welcomes the fact that the CoR and the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) finally obtained EMAS (EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) certification on 27 December 2011; asks to be informed of the total quantity of energy used which is produced from renewable sources;

10.

Is pleased with the results set out in the mid-term review of the functioning of the administrative cooperation agreement between the CoR and the EESC; notes in particular that in establishing joint services the two Committees have been able to make budget savings; would like the Committees to implement the recommendations relating to personnel (further harmonisation of rules), social and medical services and internal services; would like to be informed before the next discharge procedure on the amount of savings made;

11.

Compliments the CoR on the quality of the summary of the internal audit service’s activities; calls for the audits on the implementation of newly established rights and on budget line management to be carried out as soon as possible, and calls for the recommendations on the setting-up of internal control standards to be followed up more closely and for the adequacy of financial circuits to be strengthened;

12.

Further compliments the CoR on the improvement plan drawn up in response to the organisation management self-assessment (CAF (7): public administration self-assessment), which aims to:

asks to be kept up to date with this initiative by means of the annual activity report;

13.

Is impressed by the consistent quality of the annual activity report; hopes that the report will, in future, also include an exhaustive table of all the human resources at the CoR’s disposal, broken down by category, grade, sex, participation in professional training and nationality;

14.

Reconfirms its position that, in the interests of transparency, declarations of financial interests, including regular updates, of members of all institutions should be accessible on the internet; in this context, is pleased to note that the CoR’s Bureau decided, in December 2011, to make members’ declarations of financial interests available online, in the section of the website devoted to information on members;

15.

Notes that the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union highlights the importance of the subsidiarity principle, thus strengthening the role of the CoR; in this context, congratulates the CoR, in particular for its work on the ‘Europe 2020’ strategy and on multi-level governance;

16.

Takes the view that the CoR’s annual impact report is a useful tool for assessing its work;

17.

Calls for all opinions issued by the CoR to be attached to the relevant files.