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The establishment and implementation of the budget shall comply with the principles of unity and budget accuracy, annuality, equilibrium, unit of account, universality, specification and sound financial management, which requires effective and efficient internal control and transparency as provided for in this Regulation.
The budget is the instrument which, for each financial year, forecasts and authorises the revenue and expenditure considered necessary for Europol.
The budget shall comprise: (a) own revenue consisting of all fees and charges which Europol is authorised to collect by virtue of the tasks entrusted to it, and any other revenue; (b) revenue made up of any financial contributions of the host Member State; (c) a subsidy granted by the European Communities; (d) revenue assigned to specific items of expenditure in accordance with Article 19(1); (e) the expenditure of Europol, including administrative expenditure.
1. No revenue shall be collected and no expenditure effected unless booked to a line in the budget. 2. An appropriation must not be entered in the budget if it is not for an item of expenditure considered necessary. 3. No expenditure may be committed or authorised in excess of the appropriations authorised by the budget.
The appropriations entered in the budget shall be authorised for one financial year, which shall run from 1 January to 31 December.
1. The budget shall contain non-differentiated appropriations and, where justified by operational needs, differentiated appropriations. The latter shall consist of commitment appropriations and payment appropriations. 2. Commitment appropriations shall cover the total cost of the legal commitments entered into during the current financial year. 3. Payment appropriations shall cover payments made to honour the legal commitments entered into in the current financial year and/or earlier financial years. 4. Administrative appropriations shall be non-differentiated. Administrative expenditure arising from contracts covering periods that extend beyond the financial year, either in accordance with local practice or relating to the supply of equipment, shall be charged to the budget of the financial year in which it is effected.
1. The revenue of Europol referred to in Article 5 shall be entered in the accounts for the financial year on the basis of the amounts collected during the financial year. 2. The revenue of Europol shall give rise to an equivalent amount of payment appropriations. 3. The appropriations authorised in the budget for a given year may be used solely to cover expenditure committed and paid in that financial year, and to cover amounts due against commitments from preceding financial years. 4. Commitments shall be entered in the accounts on the basis of the legal commitments entered into up to 31 December. 5. Payments shall be entered in the accounts for a financial year on the basis of the payments effected by the accounting officer by 31 December of that year at the latest.
1. Appropriations which have not been used at the end of the financial year for which they were entered shall be cancelled. However, they may, by decision of the Management Board taken not later than 15 February, be carried over to the next financial year only, in accordance with paragraphs 2 to 7. 2. Appropriations relating to staff expenditure may not be carried over. 3. Commitment appropriations and non-differentiated appropriations not yet committed at the close of the financial year may be carried over in respect of amounts corresponding to commitment appropriations for which most of the preparatory stages of the commitment procedure, to be defined in the Europol Financial Implementing Rules, have been completed by 31 December; these amounts may then be committed up to 31 March of the following year. 4. Payment appropriations may be carried over in respect of amounts needed to cover existing commitments or commitments linked to commitment appropriations carried over, when the appropriations provided for the relevant lines in the budget for the following financial year do not cover requirements. Europol shall first use the appropriations authorised for the current financial year and shall not use the appropriations carried over until the former are exhausted. 5. Non-differentiated appropriations corresponding to obligations duly contracted at the close of the financial year shall be carried over automatically to the following financial year only. 6. Appropriations carried over which have not been committed by 31 March of year n+1 shall be automatically cancelled. Appropriations carried over in this way shall be identified in the accounts. 7. The appropriations available at 31 December arising from the assigned revenue referred to in Article 19 shall be carried over automatically. The appropriations available corresponding to assigned revenue carried over must be used first. By 1 June of the year n+1 at the latest, Europol shall inform the Commission about the implementation of the assigned revenue carried over.
Where amounts are decommitted, as a result of total or partial non-implementation of the actions for which they were earmarked, in any financial year after that in which the appropriations were committed, the appropriations concerned shall be cancelled.
The appropriations entered in the budget may be committed with effect from 1 January, once the budget has become definitive.
1. As from 15 November of each year, routine administrative expenditure may be committed in advance against the appropriations provided for the following financial year. Such commitments may not, however, exceed one quarter of the appropriations decided by the Management Board on the corresponding budget line for the current financial year. They may not apply to new expenditure of a kind not yet approved in principle in the last budget duly adopted. 2. Expenditure which must be paid in advance, for example rents, may give rise to payments from 1 December onwards to be charged to the appropriations for the following financial year. In this case, the limit referred to in paragraph 1 shall not apply.
1. If the budget has not been finally adopted at the beginning of the financial year, the following rules shall apply to commitment and payment of expenditure which it has been possible to book to a specific line in the budget as part of implementation of the last budget duly adopted. 2. Commitments may be made per chapter up to a maximum of one quarter of the total appropriations authorised in the chapter in question for the previous financial year, plus one twelfth for each month which has elapsed. Payments may be made monthly per chapter up to a maximum of one twelfth of the appropriations authorised in the chapter in question for the previous financial year. The limit of the appropriations provided for in the statement of estimates of revenue and expenditure may not be exceeded. 3. At the request of the Director, if the continuity of action by Europol and management needs so require, the Management Board may simultaneously authorise two or more provisional twelfths for both commitments and payments over and above those automatically made available by the provisions of paragraphs 1 and 2. The additional twelfths shall be authorised in full and shall not be divisible.
1. The budget revenue and payment appropriations must be in balance. 2. Commitment appropriations may not exceed the amount of the Community subsidy, plus own revenue and any other revenue referred to in Article 5. 3. Europol may not raise loans. 4. Community funds paid to Europol shall constitute for its budget a balancing subsidy which shall count as pre-financing within the meaning of Article 81(1)(b)(i) of the general Financial Regulation. 5. Europol shall implement rigorous cash management, taking due account of assigned revenue in order to ensure that its cash balances are limited to duly justified requirements. With its payment requests, Europol shall submit detailed and updated forecasts on its real cash requirements throughout the year, including information on assigned revenue.
1. If the balance of the outturn account within the meaning of Article 81 is positive, it shall be repaid to the Commission up to the amount of the Community subsidy paid during the year. The part of the balance exceeding the amount of the Community subsidy paid during the year shall be entered in the budget for the following financial year as revenue. Europol shall provide, by 31 March the year n at the latest, an estimate of the operating surplus from the year n-1 , which is to be returned to the Community budget later in year n , in order to complete the information already available concerning the surplus of the year n-2 . This information shall be duly taken into account by the Commission when assessing the financial needs of Europol for the year n+1. The difference between the Community subsidy entered in the general budget and that actually paid to the body shall be cancelled. 2. If the balance of the outturn account provided for in Article 81 is negative, it shall be entered in the budget for the following financial year. 3. The revenue or payment appropriations shall be entered in the budget during the budgetary procedure using the letter of amendment procedure or, while budget implementation is under way, by means of an amending budget.
The budget shall be drawn up and implemented in euro and the accounts shall be presented in euro. However, for cash-flow purposes, the accounting officer and, in the case of imprest accounts, imprest administrators shall be authorised to carry out operations in national currencies as laid down in the Europol Financial Rules.
Total revenue shall cover total payment appropriations, subject to Article 19. All revenue and expenditure shall be entered in full without any adjustment against each other, subject to Article 21.
1. The following items of revenue shall be used to finance specific items of expenditure: (a) revenue earmarked for a specific purpose, such as income from foundations, subsidies, gifts and bequests; (b) contributions to Europol’s activities from Member States, non-member countries or miscellaneous bodies, insofar as this is provided for in the agreement concluded between Europol and the Member States, non-member countries or bodies in question; (c) revenue from third parties in respect of goods, services or work supplied at their request, with the exception of fees and charges referred to in Article 5(a); (d) proceeds from the supply of goods, services and works for Community institutions or other Community bodies; (e) revenue arising from the repayment of amounts wrongly paid; (f) proceeds from the sale of vehicles, equipment, installations, materials, and scientific and technical apparatus, which are being replaced or scrapped when the book value is fully depreciated; (g) insurance payments received; (h) revenue from payments connected with lettings; (i) revenue from the sale of publications and films, including those on an electronic medium. 1a. The basic act applicable may also assign the revenue for which it provides to specific items of expenditure. 2. All items of revenue within the meaning of paragraph 1 points (a) to (d) shall cover all direct or indirect expenditure incurred by the activity or purpose in question. 3. The budget shall carry lines to accommodate the categories of assigned revenue referred to in paragraphs 1 and 1a and wherever possible shall indicate the amount.
The Director may accept any donation made to Europol, such as foundations, subsidies, gifts and bequests, subject to the prior authorisation of the Management Board, which shall take a decision within two months of the date on which the request is submitted to it. If the Management Board fails to take a decision within that period, the donation shall be deemed accepted.
1. The following deductions may be made from payment requests, invoices or statements, which shall then be passed for payment of the net amount: (a) penalties imposed on parties to procurement contracts or beneficiaries of a grant; (b) discounts, refunds and rebates on individual invoices and payment requests; (c) interest generated by pre-financing payments. 2. The cost of products or services provided to Europol shall be charged to the budget for the full ex-tax amount, where they incorporate taxes refunded: (a) either by the Member States pursuant to the Protocol on Privileges and Immunities of the European Communities, by the Host State on the basis of the Seat Agreement or on the basis of other relevant agreements; (b) or by a Member State or non-member country on the basis of other relevant agreements. Any national taxes temporarily borne by Europol under the first subparagraph shall be entered in a suspense account until they are refunded by the State concerned. 3. Any negative balance shall be entered in the budget as expenditure. 4. Adjustments may be made in respect of exchange differences occurring in the implementation of the budget. The final gain or loss shall be included in the balance for the year.
The appropriations in their entirety shall be earmarked for specific purposes by title and chapter; the chapters shall be further subdivided into articles and items.
1. The Director may make transfers from one chapter to another and from one article to another without limit and from one title to another up to a maximum of 10 % of the appropriations for the financial year shown on the line from which the transfer is made. 2. Beyond the limit referred in paragraph 1, the Director may propose to the Management Board transfers of appropriations from one title to another. The Management Board shall have three weeks in which to oppose such transfers. After this time-limit they shall be deemed to be adopted. 3. Proposals for transfers and transfers carried out under paragraphs 1 and 2 shall be accompanied by appropriate and detailed supporting documents showing the implementation of appropriations and estimates of requirements up to the end of the financial year, both for the headings to be credited and for those from which the appropriations are drawn. 4. The Director shall inform the Management Board as soon as possible of all transfers made. The Director shall inform the budgetary authority of all transfers carried out under paragraph 2.
1. Appropriations may be transferred only to budget lines for which the budget has authorised appropriations or carries a token entry (p.m.). 2. Appropriations corresponding to assigned revenue may be transferred only if they are used for the purpose to which the revenue is assigned.
1. Budget appropriations shall be used in accordance with the principle of sound financial management, that is to say, in accordance with the principles of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. 2. The principle of economy requires that the resources used by Europol for the pursuit of its activities shall be made available in due time, in appropriate quantity and quality and at the best price. The principle of efficiency is concerned with the best relationship between resources employed and results achieved. The principle of effectiveness is concerned with attaining the specific objectives set and achieving the intended results. 3. Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timed objectives shall be set for all sectors of activity covered by the budget. Achievement of those objectives shall be monitored by performance indicators for each activity and information shall be provided to the Management Board by the Director. This information shall be provided annually and at the latest in the documents accompanying the preliminary draft budget. 4. In order to improve decision-making, Europol shall regularly carry out ex ante and ex post evaluations of programmes or activities. Such evaluations shall be applied to all programmes and activities which entail significant spending and evaluation results shall be sent to the Management Board. 5. Where monitoring or reporting under this Article concerns ‘Europol operational, strategic and classified information’, the Director may provide for such information to be measured and reported on separately to the Management Board, which shall be entitled to take the final decision regarding whether or not such information should be included in any published document.
1. The budget shall be implemented in compliance with effective and efficient internal control. 2. For the purposes of the implementation of the budget, internal control is defined as a process applicable at all levels of the management and designed to provide reasonable assurance of achieving the following objectives: (a) effectiveness, efficiency and economy of operations; (b) reliability of reporting; (c) safeguarding of assets and information; (d) prevention and detection of fraud and irregularities; (e) adequate management of the risks relating to the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions, taking into account the multiannual character of programmes as well as the nature of the payments concerned.
1. The budget shall be drawn up and implemented and the accounts presented in compliance with the principle of transparency. 2. A summary of the budget and amending budgets, as finally adopted, shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union within three months of their adoption. The summary shall show the five main revenue budget lines, the main expenditure budget lines for the administrative and operational budget, the establishment plan and an estimate of the number of contract staff expressed in full-time equivalents for which appropriations are budgeted, and seconded national experts. It shall also indicate the figures for the previous year. 3. The budget including the establishment plan and amending budgets, as finally adopted, as well as an indication of the number of contract staff expressed in full-time equivalents for which appropriations are budgeted, and seconded national experts, shall be transmitted for information to the budgetary authority, the Court of Auditors and the Commission, and shall be published on Europol’s Internet site within four weeks of their adoption. 4. Europol shall make available, on its Internet site, information on the beneficiaries of funds deriving from its budget, including experts contracted pursuant to Article 74b. The published information shall be easily accessible, transparent and comprehensive. This information shall be made available with due observance of the requirements of confidentiality and security, in particular the protection of personal data laid down in Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 5 ) . Where information is published only in anonymous form, Europol shall, upon request, provide information on the beneficiaries concerned to the European Parliament in an appropriate manner.
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Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.