| dc.description.abstract | Legal basis Article 128 of the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities stipulates that the provisional consolidated accounts shall be accompanied by the report on budgetary and financial management during the year of each institution and body. The present report analyses the appropriations managed by the European Commission in 2008, i.e. the operational appropriations of the European Union and the administrative appropriations of the Commission (including pensions of other institutions). The Financial Regulation sets out the provisions on including a transfer summary per budget line (Article 122.2) and a list of consolidated recoveries (Article 72 together with Article 81 of the Implementation rules) to the current report. These are presented as Annexes II and III. The analysis follows the European communities' accounting rule 16 on the presentation of budget information in annual accounts, based on the International Public Sector Accounting Standard (IPSAS) 24 "Presentation of Budget Information in Financial Statements" which was issued by the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB) in December 2006. According to this rule, the comparison of budget and actual amounts shall present separately, for each financial perspective heading and policy area, the original and final budget amounts explaining all changes approved by the budgetary authority to revise the original budget and the actual implemented amounts on a comparable basis. Content of the 2008 report PART A of the report analyses the year at budgetary level including: •a summary of the Annual Policy Strategy, which sets the overall context and priorities for the Commission’s 2008 budget proposal; •a summary of the various stages of the budgetary procedure 2008, explaining how the appropriations for the 2008 financial year were arrived at during the process of budgetary negotiation and the establishment of the budget; •a description of the main adjustments to this budget during the financial year (carryovers, amending budgets, transfers), and reasons for these adjustments, leading to the final appropriations of the year; •an assessment of the evolution of the outstanding commitments (RAL - reste à liquider). PART B of the report is an analysis of implementation per Financial Framework Heading with tables and text showing the appropriations made available, their implementation and the unused amounts carried forward. Tables on outstanding commitments accompany the implementation tables. For the main current programmes, these tables are linked to a cumulative analysis of the programme with the programme allocation as defined in DG Budget's note to the Budget Authority on Financial programming 2007-2013 dated 30.01.2009, cumulative budget and cumulative implementation showing the RAL-situation of the current programme. PART C of the report is an analysis of the own resources.
iv The report contains three annexes: •Annex I a schematic table of the types of appropriations. •Annex II transfer summary •Annex III consolidated recoveries•Annex IV on unjustified RALDefinitions applied in this report.The implementation tables consist of: Final appropriations of the year: - Initial budget: appropriations voted by the Budget Authority (BA) including provisional appropriations, entered in articles 40 01 40 Administrative reserve or 40 02 41 Differentiated appropriations (in reserves for financial interventions). Their release in the course of the budget year is subject to given conditions. The unreleased appropriations at year-end are shown in a separate column, denoted as Current reserve, of the implementation tables. Even if they are put in reserve and not available, they are considered as appropriations in calculating the implementation rates. - Amending budgets (AB). - Budget Authority transfers: transfers submitted to the BA for decision or for information. - Commission transfers: transfers decided by the Commission on its own authority. - Carryover from 2007:•appropriations of the year 2007 carried over by means of a specific Commission decision (Financial Regulation Art 9) •payment appropriations automatically carried over against commitments of non-differentiated appropriations. •commitment appropriations made available again (in Structural funds). - Assigned revenue: •refunds •reimbursement of advances in Structural funds •third party appropriations •other appropriations such as Coal and Steel participation.
v In order to harmonise the presentation with the Community accounts, appropriations include assigned revenue. For the purpose of analysing the implementation, a distinction between budget appropriations and assigned revenue is relevant. The nature of the implementation of assigned revenue is different in the sense that their use may be subject to specific conditions: normally, payments are entered in the budget with an amount corresponding to the commitments, even if it is clear from the outset that payments will be implemented only in later years; furthermore, appropriations that remain unused at the end of the year will not be cancelled, but carried forward automatically. In the implementation tables, the carryover from 2007 to 2008 refers to budgetary appropriations carried forward by decision or automatically and assigned revenue is presented separately, whereas the carryover from 2008 to 2009 includes also assigned revenue in order to illustrate the actual situation of under-spending. Date of extraction The implementation data is based on the preliminary data serving as a basis for the provisional accounts at end March 2009. Unless otherwise stated, amounts are provided in € million after rounding, presented with the sign M€ (or € billion rounded with B€). AdministrationIn Chapter B.9 "Heading 5: Administration" Commission appropriations are analysed. The administrative appropriations of other institutions have only been included in the consolidated summary tables. |
