11951K078OCTAVO

Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community - Title IV - General provisions - Article 78g*

* As amended by Article H(17) TEU.

1. The European Parliament, acting on a recommendation from the Council, which shall act by a qualified majority, shall give a discharge to the Commission in respect of the implementation of the administrative budget. To this end, the Council and the European Parliament in turn shall examine the accounts and the financial statement referred to in Article 78d, the annual report by the Court of Auditors together with the replies of the institutions under audit to the observations of the Court of Auditors, and any relevant special reports by the Court of Auditors.

2. Before giving a discharge to the Commission, or for any other purpose in connection with the exercise of its powers over the implementation of the administrative budget, the European Parliament may ask to hear the Commission give evidence with regard to the execution of expenditure or the operation of financial control systems. The Commission shall submit any necessary information to the European Parliament at the latter's request.

3. The Commission shall take all appropriate steps to act on the observations in the decisions giving discharge and on other observations by the European Parliament relating to the execution of expenditure, as well as on comments accompanying the recommendations on discharge adopted by the Council.

At the request of the European Parliament or the Council, the Commission shall report on the measures taken in the light of these observations andcomments and in particular on the instructions given to the departments which are responsible for the implementation of the administrative budget. These reports shall also be forwarded to the Court of Auditors.