Text · Opinion parliamentary committee draft
On discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022 – Commission
Document EMPL-PA-752906 · 2023/2129(DEC)
- Kind
- Opinion parliamentary committee draft EMPL-PA-752906
- Date
- 13 November 2023
- Committee
- Committee on Employment and Social Affairs
- Rapporteur
- Romana Tomc
- Dossier
- 2023-2129
More facts (3)
- Formats
- Official page PDF Word
- Subject matter
- BUDG
- Reference
- 2023/2129(DEC)
In short
A summary of the text written by AI; ¶ opens the paragraph it rests on.
AI: In short Written by AI from the official text — check the source · deepseek-flash · 25 Sept 2026
The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs gives its suggestions for the discharge resolution on the 2022 EU budget, asking the Committee on Budgetary Control to include them. It is worried by record outstanding commitments of over €450 billion and by a material error rate of 4.2%, driven mainly by the 'Cohesion, resilience and values' heading. It calls for urgent action to cut errors, for Commission follow-up on all errors found by the Court, and for the Commission to implement all outstanding Court recommendations. It also asks the Commission to assess the budget impact of high inflation over several years and to protect the budget's ability to meet its legal and contractual commitments.
Position. The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs asks the Committee on Budgetary Control to incorporate its suggestions into the discharge resolution. It wants stronger action on errors, Commission follow-up on Court findings, and measures to protect the budget from inflation.
Key points
- The committee calls on the Committee on Budgetary Control to incorporate its suggestions into its motion for a resolution.
- It is worried that total outstanding commitments reached a record level of over €450 billion by the end of 2022.
- It notes that outstanding commitments should decrease during 2024 to 2027 to €314 billion.
- It welcomes that the biggest part of 2022 spending went to Heading 2 'Cohesion, resilience and values' (EUR 79.1 billion, or 40.4%).
- It stresses the importance of cohesion policy in supporting the European Pillar of Social Rights and in addressing challenges such as globalisation, unemployment, industrial change, digitalisation, up and re-skilling and lifelong learning.
- It is greatly worried that the overall error level was material at 4.2%, compared to 3.0% in 2021, driven mainly by 'Cohesion, resilience and values' (2.5%).
- It notes that most cohesion spending is high-risk, reimbursement-based and subject to complex rules, with common errors being ineligible projects and breaches of public procurement and state aid rules.
- It calls for urgent action to decrease the error rate, especially for the new funding period, and for the Commission to help agencies improve internal procedures on public procurement and state aid rules.
- It notes that inflation reduced the budget's purchasing power, with the Commission allocating an additional €0.2 billion to heading 7 – European Public Administration – in 2022.
- It says the Commission should assess the impact of high inflation continuing over several years and protect the budget's ability to meet legal and contractual commitments, such as rising financing costs.
- It calls on the Commission to follow up on all errors found by the Court and to request additional financial corrections where necessary.
- It takes note of the Commission's commitment to work with audit authorities to strengthen their capacity to prevent and correct errors, and asks it to implement all outstanding Court recommendations as soon as possible.
Who is affected
- The Commission, which must follow up on errors, request corrections, assess inflation risks and implement Court recommendations.
- EU agencies, which the Commission should help to improve internal procedures on public procurement and state aid rules.
- Member States and regions, which benefit from cohesion policy aimed at reducing development disparities.
Figures and deadlines
- over €450 billion – total outstanding commitments at the end of 2022
- €314 billion – expected level of outstanding commitments during 2024 to 2027
- EUR 79.1 billion, or 40.4% – 2022 spending on Heading 2 'Cohesion, resilience and values'
- 4.2% – overall level of error in 2022
- 3.0% – overall level of error in 2021
- 2.5% – contribution of 'Cohesion, resilience and values' to the 2022 error rate
- €0.2 billion – additional allocation to heading 7 – European Public Administration – in 2022
Text
The text as parsed from the official Word file. Every paragraph has a link (¶) and can be saved to a project as a passage.
Suggestions
The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs calls on the Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution:
–having regard to the European Court of Auditors’ Annual report on the implementation of the EU budget for the 2022 financial year;
–having regard to the European Court of Auditors’ Annual report on EU agencies for the financial year 2022;
1.Is worried by the fact that by the end of 2022, total outstanding commitments reached a record level of over €450 billion; takes note, however, that, according to the Commission, after a further increase to some €460 billion in 2023, the outstanding commitments should decrease during 2024 to 2027 to €314 billion;
2.Expresses satisfaction that the biggest part of the Union budget spending in 2022 went to the Heading 2 “Cohesion, resilience and values” (EUR 79.1 billion, or 40.4 %);
3.Recalls that spending under the subheading “Economic, social and territorial cohesion” (Subheading 2a) focuses on reducing development disparities between the different Member States and regions of the EU; stresses the importance of EU cohesion policy in supporting the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights and assisting Member States and regions to harness new opportunities and address challenges, such as globalisation, unemployment, industrial change, digitalisation and supporting up and re-skilling and lifelong learning;
4.Is greatly worried that the overall level of error was material at 4.2 %, compared to 3.0 % in 2021; and is particularly worried that the level of error is mainly driven by ‘Cohesion, resilience and values’, which was the biggest contributor to this rate (2.5 %); recognises that the majority of spending in this area is deemed high-risk expenditure as mainly reimbursement-based and often subject to complex rules; notes that the most common errors under the Cohesion heading were ineligible projects and infringements of internal market rules, in particular non-compliance with public procurement and state aid rules; calls for urgent action to decrease the error rate in the future, especially for the new funding period, and calls on the Commission to assist the agencies to improve their internal procedures in order to ensure compliance with applicable public procurement and state aid rules;
5.Notes that the EU budget’s loss of purchasing power will affect its expenditure to differing degrees, as parts of the EU budget are fixed costs and they typically correlate with inflation, and these budget items will thus increase more than had been expected at the start of the MFF period; acknowledges that a key example of this is administration costs, which are impacted by inflation; notes that in 2022, the Commission already had to allocate an additional €0.2 billion to heading 7 – European Public Administration – because of rising inflation and energy prices;
6.Stresses that the Commission should assess the impact on the EU budget of high inflation continuing over several years and identify tools to mitigate resulting key risks; is of the opinion that in this regard, the Commission should protect the EU budget’s ability to meet its legal and contractual commitments, such as rising financing costs;
7.Calls on the Commission to follow up and take necessary action with regards to all errors found by the Court and to request additional financial corrections, where deemed necessary;
8.Takes note of the Commission’s commitment to continue its close work with the audit authorities in order to strengthen their capacity to prevent and correct errors, to better document their audit work and therefore to contribute to the assurance process;
Connections
The dossier, the decisions on this text and its other versions.
No connections found for this item.
Sources & citation
Where the facts on this page come from, and how to cite it.
- Data source
- Licensed CC BY 4.0.
- Retrieved
- 25 September 2026
Cite as
European Parliament (2023). “DRAFT OPINION on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022 – Commission”. Text, 13 November 2023. docId EMPL-PA-752906. EU Parl Watch Research. https://news.eu-parl.st-solutions.dev/texts/EMPL-PA-752906 (retrieved 25 September 2026). Data: EP Open Data API: document record, https://data.europarl.europa.eu/api/v2/documents/EMPL-PA-752906 (CC BY 4.0).
BibTeX
@misc{epw-text-empl-pa-752906,
author = {{European Parliament}},
title = {{DRAFT OPINION on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022 – Commission}},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-11-13},
howpublished = {\url{https://news.eu-parl.st-solutions.dev/texts/EMPL-PA-752906}},
url = {https://news.eu-parl.st-solutions.dev/texts/EMPL-PA-752906},
urldate = {2026-09-25},
publisher = {EU Parl Watch Research},
note = {Text. docId EMPL-PA-752906. Data: EP Open Data API: document record (CC BY 4.0)}
}