Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on the evaluation of the Union’s finances based on the results achieved

This is the first Commission report to the European Parliament (EP) and the Council on the evaluation of the Union's finances based on the results achieved, pursuant to Article 318 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

Article 318 TFEU provides that the Commission shall "submit to the European Parliament and the Council an evaluation report on the Union's finances based on the results achieved, in particular in relation to the indications given by the European Parliament and the Council pursuant to Article 319."

Article 319 TFEU provides that the European Parliament, acting on a recommendation from the Council, shall give a discharge to the Commission in respect of the implementation of the EU budget. The article also provides that, in doing so, the Council and the European Parliament examine the accounts, the financial statement and the Article 318 TFEU evaluation report, plus the annual report by the Court of Auditors and the replies of the institutions to the observations of the Court of Auditors, and the statement of assurance as to the reliability of the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions required under Article 287 TFEU.

The Commission is examining ways to align the reports required under the different procedures with due regard to the different timing and coverage of evaluation and budget discharge work and to avoid any duplication of work, as explained further in this report. This will be a progressive process, building each year on the experience of earlier years. As from the 2011 discharge procedure, the Commission will aim to adopt the evaluation report by mid-November each year.

EUR-Lex: COM(2012)040: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2012:040:FIN

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