The president of the European Court of Auditors is scheduled to present the court’s annual report to MEPs on the budgetary control committee next Wednesday (5 November). Vítor Manuel da Silva Caldeira’s presentation launches the Parliament’s annual procedure to approve the books of the various institutions and agencies of the European Union, known as ‘discharge’.
Ingeborg Grässle, a centre-right German MEP who chairs the committee, has been tasked with drafting the committee’s position on the report.
The presentation will be attended by Kristalina Georgieva, who next week becomes vice-president of the European Commission in charge of the budget and human resources, who will give her response to the ECA’s findings. She will also present the main outlines of the final consolidated accounts for 2013, assisted by Manfred Kraff, deputy
director-general of the Commission’s budget department and the Commission’s accounting officer.
Later on Wednesday, the committee will discuss the 2013 report of the European Investment Bank and a report by Ryszard Czarnecki, a Polish member of the European Conservatives and Reformists group, on the European External Action Service. This will be followed by a discussion with Klaus Welle, the Parliament’s secretary-general, about the discharge of the Parliament’s 2012 accounts.
On Thursday (6 November), the committee will hold a hearing with Emily O’Reilly, the EU Ombudsman, on revolving-doors cases at the European Commission.
The Parliament’s budgets committee will on Tuesday (4 November) vote on its position on all outstanding changes to the 2014 annual budget proposed by the Commission. The vote on proposals that are currently blocked in the Council of Ministers paves the way for three-way talks between member states’ diplomats, MEPs and Commission representatives on the 2015 annual budget – and also negotiations on the 2014 proposals. The next three-way talks are scheduled for 6 November, ahead of a 17 November deadline.
Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, is scheduled to brief the conference of presidents – the leaders of the Parliament’s political groups – on the outcome of last week’s European Council (23-24 October). This particular meeting of the conference of presidents, scheduled for Tuesday, is open to any MEP to attend.