Today's debate and vote on discharge reports for the 2009 financial year took place in the Parliament's Strasbourg plenary session in a very particular political context with negotiations on the post-2013 multiannual financial network and a corollary recasting of the financial regulations which determine the conditions and assessment criteria for a good implementation of the budgetary procedure. This was an opportunity for the Parliament "to give a new impetus and dynamism to a procedure that has been taken much too lightly over the past years" said Jorgo CHATZIMARKAKIS (FDP, Germany), rapporteur for the 2009 discharge for the general budget managed by the Commission.

M. CHATZIMARKAKIS said: "This is the sixteenth consecutive year that the European Court of Auditors has not been able to give a statement of assurance for the implementation of the budget. The Commission's responsibility is binding and this is why we ask that the activity reports for general directors be endorsed by each Commissioner or that the president of the Commission sign a summary report himself.  Nonetheless, a large part of the EU budget is managed by the Member States. This is why we demand that the revision of the Financial Regulations oblige Finance Ministers of each Member State to fill out personally an administrative declaration taking political responsibility for use of the funds. We also expect the Commission to establish a course of action allowing for interruption of all payments to a member State as soon as there is proof of a significant deficiency in the functioning and the management of control systems"

Finally, ALDE supports remarks in the report on Parliament's discharge on the execution of its own budget, in particular the referral to the European Council so that it may fix one seat for the parliamentary activities as the cost of two seats, Brussels and Strasbourg now absorbs 9% of the Institution's budget.