Budget
1. Estimates of all revenue and expenditure for the Authority shall be prepared each financial year, corresponding to the calendar year, and shall be shown in the Authority’s budget.
2. The Authority’s budget shall be balanced in terms of revenue and expenditure.
3. Without prejudice to other resources, the Authority’s revenue shall consist of a combination of the following:
(a)
a contribution from the Union entered in the general budget of the Union;
(b)
the fees paid by the selected and non-selected obliged entities in accordance with Article 77, for the tasks mentioned in Article 5(2), points (a), (b) and (c), and Article 5(3), points (a) to (d), (f) and (g);
(c)
any voluntary financial contribution from the Member States;
(d)
agreed charges for publications, and for training and any other services provided by the Authority where they have been specifically requested by one or more FIUs or their counterparts in third countries or by non-AML/CFT authorities;
(e)
possible Union funding in the form of contribution agreements or ad hoc grants in accordance with the Authority’s financial rules referred to in Article 81 and with the provisions of the relevant instruments supporting the policies of the Union.
The amount and origin of any revenue referred to in the first subparagraph, points (b), (c), (d) and (e), of this paragraph shall be included in the annual accounts of the Authority and clearly detailed in the annual report on the Authority’s budgetary and financial management referred to in Article 80(2).
4. The expenditure of the Authority shall include staff remuneration, administrative and infrastructure expenses and operating costs.
Fees levied on selected and non-selected obliged entities
1. The Authority shall levy an annual supervisory fee on all selected obliged entities referred to in Article 13 and on the non-selected obliged entities that meet the criteria set out in Article 12(1). The fees shall cover expenditure incurred by the Authority in relation to the tasks related to supervision and referred to in Chapter II, Sections 3 and 4. Those fees shall not exceed the expenditure relating to those tasks. Where those criteria are not fully respected in any given year, the necessary adjustments shall be made when calculating the fees for the two following years.
2. The amount of the fee levied on each obliged entity referred to in paragraph 1 shall be calculated in accordance with the arrangements established in the delegated act referred to in paragraph 6.
3. The fees shall be calculated at the highest level of consolidation in the Union in accordance with applicable accounting standards.
4. The basis for calculating the annual supervisory fee for a given calendar year shall be the expenditure relating to the direct and indirect supervision of the selected and non-selected obliged entities subject to fees in that year. The Authority may require advance payments in respect of the annual supervisory fee, which shall be based on a reasonable estimate. The Authority shall communicate with the relevant financial supervisor before deciding on the final fee level so as to ensure that supervision remains cost-effective and reasonable for all obliged entities in the financial sector. The Authority shall communicate to the obliged entities concerned the basis for the calculation of the annual supervisory fee. Member States shall ensure that the obligation to pay the fees specified in this Article is enforceable under national law, and that due fees are fully paid.
5. This Article is without prejudice to the right of financial supervisors to levy fees in accordance with national law, to the extent supervisory tasks have not been conferred on the Authority, or in respect of costs of cooperating with and assisting the Authority and acting on its instructions, in accordance with applicable Union law.
6. The Commission is empowered to adopt a delegated act in accordance with Article 100 to supplement this Regulation by specifying the methodology for calculating the amount of the fee levied on each selected and non-selected obliged entity subject to fees in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article, and the procedure for collecting those fees. When developing the methodology for determining the individual amount of fees, the Commission shall take into account the following:
(a)
the total annual turnover or the corresponding type of income of the obliged entities at the highest level of consolidation in the Union in accordance with applicable accounting standards;
(b)
whether the obliged entity has qualified for direct supervision;
(c)
the ML/TF risk profile classification of the obliged entities in accordance with the methodology referred to in Article 12(7), point (b);
(d)
the importance of the obliged entity to the stability of the financial system or to the economy of one or more Member States or of the Union;
(e)
that the amount of the fee to be collected from non-selected obliged entities in proportion to their income or turnover referred to in point (a) shall not exceed 20 % of the amount of the fee to be collected from selected obliged entities with the same level of income or turnover.
The Commission shall adopt the delegated acts referred to in the first subparagraph by 1 January 2027.
Establishment of the budget
1. Each year, the Executive Director shall draw up a draft statement of estimates of the Authority’s revenue and expenditure for the following financial year, including the establishment plan, and send it to the Executive Board.
2. The Executive Board shall, on the basis of that draft, adopt a provisional draft estimate of the Authority’s revenue and expenditure for the following financial year.
3. The final draft estimate of the Authority’s revenue and expenditure shall be sent to the Commission by 31 January of each year.
4. The Commission shall send the statement of estimates to the budgetary authority together with the draft general budget of the Union.
5. On the basis of the statement of estimates, the Commission shall enter in the draft general budget of the Union the estimates it considers necessary for the establishment plan and the amount of the subsidy to be charged to the general budget, which it shall place before the budgetary authority in accordance with Articles 313 and 314 TFEU.
6. The budgetary authority shall authorise the appropriations for the contribution to the Authority.
7. The budgetary authority shall adopt the Authority’s establishment plan.
8. The Authority’s budget shall be adopted by the Executive Board. It shall become final following the final adoption of the general budget of the Union. Where necessary, it shall be adjusted accordingly.
Implementation of the budget
1. The Executive Director shall implement the Authority’s budget, respecting the principles of economy, efficiency, effectiveness and sound financial management.
2. Each year, the Executive Director shall send to the budgetary authority all information relevant to the findings of evaluation procedures.
Presentation of accounts and discharge
1. The Authority’s accounting officer shall send the provisional accounts for the financial year (year N) to the Commission’s accounting officer and to the Court of Auditors by 1 March of the following year (year N+1).
2. By 31 March of year N+1, the Authority shall send the annual report on its budgetary and financial management to the European Parliament, the Council and the Court of Auditors.
3. By 31 March of year N+1, the Commission’s accounting officer shall send the Authority’s provisional accounts, consolidated with the Commission’s accounts, to the Court of Auditors.
4. On receipt of the Court of Auditors’ observations on the Authority’s provisional accounts pursuant to Article 246 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 41 ) , the Executive Board shall deliver an opinion on the Authority’s final accounts.
The Executive Director shall send the Court of Auditors a reply to its observations by 30 September of year N+1. The Executive Director shall also send this reply to the Executive Board.
5. The Authority’s accounting officer shall, by 1 July of year N+1, send the final accounts, to the European Parliament, the Council, the Commission and the Court of Auditors, together with the Executive Board’s opinion.
6. A link to the pages of the website containing the final accounts of the Authority shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union by 15 November of year N+1.
7. The Executive Director shall submit to the European Parliament, at the request of the European Parliament, any information required for the smooth application of the discharge procedure for the financial year concerned, in accordance with Article 261(3) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046.
8. On a recommendation from the Council acting by a qualified majority, the European Parliament shall, before 15 May of year N+2, give a discharge to the Executive Director in respect of the implementation of the budget for year N.
Financial rules
The financial rules applicable to the Authority shall be adopted by the Executive Board after consulting the Commission. They shall not depart from Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/715 unless such a departure is specifically required for the Authority’s operation and the Commission has given its prior consent.
Anti-fraud measures
1. For the purposes of combating fraud, corruption and any other illegal activity, Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 883/2013 as well as Article 86 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/715 shall apply to the Authority without any restriction.
2. The Authority shall accede to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 25 May 1999 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission concerning internal investigations by the European Anti-fraud Office (OLAF) ( 42 ) and shall immediately adopt appropriate provisions for all staff of the Authority.
3. The funding decisions, the agreements and the implementing instruments resulting from them shall expressly provide that the Court of Auditors and OLAF may, where necessary, carry out on-the-spot checks on the beneficiaries of monies disbursed by the Authority.
IT security
1. The Authority shall establish an internal IT governance at the level of the Executive Director which establishes and manages the IT budget and ensures regular reporting to the Executive Board on compliance with applicable IT security rules and standards.
2. The Authority shall ensure that a sufficient share of its IT expenditure is transparently allocated to direct IT security. The contribution to the Cybersecurity Service for the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies (CERT-EU) may be counted in that share.
3. An adequate IT security monitoring, detection and response service shall be established, using the services of CERT-EU. Major incidents shall be reported to CERT-EU and to the Commission within 24 hours of detection.
Accountability and reporting
1. The Authority shall be accountable to the European Parliament and to the Council for the implementation of this Regulation.
2. The Authority shall submit on an annual basis to the European Parliament, to the Council and to the Commission a report on the execution of the tasks conferred on it by this Regulation, including information on the planned evolution of the structure and amount of the supervisory fees referred to in Article 77. With respect to the guidelines and recommendations that the Authority has issued in accordance with Article 54, the report shall contain information on compliance with the guidelines and recommendations issued over the year covered by the report as well as any relevant updates on compliance with previously issued guidelines and recommendations. The report shall be made public and shall include any other relevant information requested by the European Parliament on an ad hoc basis. The Chair of the Authority shall present that report in public to the European Parliament.
3. At the request of the European Parliament, the Chair of the Authority shall participate in a hearing on the execution of its tasks by the competent committees of the European Parliament. A hearing shall take place at least annually. At the request of the European Parliament, the Chair of the Authority shall make a statement before the relevant committees of the European Parliament and answer any questions from their members, whenever so requested.
4. Within six weeks of each meeting of the General Board, the Authority shall at least provide the European Parliament with a comprehensive and meaningful record of the proceedings of that meeting that enables an understanding of the discussions held within that meeting, including an annotated list of decisions. Such record shall not reflect discussions within the General Board relating to individual obliged entities or discussions relating to confidential supervisory or FIU-related data, unless otherwise provided for in the legislative acts referred to in Article 1(2).
5. The Authority shall reply orally or in writing to questions put to it by the European Parliament within five weeks of their receipt.
6. Upon request, the Chair of the Authority shall hold confidential oral discussions behind closed doors with the competent committees of the European Parliament, where such discussions are required for the exercise of the European Parliament’s powers under the Treaties. All participants shall respect the requirements of professional secrecy.
7. When informing the European Parliament on matters pertaining to the Authorities’ contribution to the action of the Union in international fora, the Authority shall not disclose any information it received in the performance of that task where such information is subject to confidentiality requirements imposed by third parties.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
