The EPP rapporteur, Ms Ortiz, focused the discharge report for 2011 on the budget implementation for that specific year, as far as possible – as our S&D rapporteur did last year. Previous rapporteurs had tried to expand the scope of the discharge report far beyond budget implementation for the year in question.
At a time when national and European budgets are under huge pressure, scrutiny of the Parliament's budget implementation is just as necessary as scrutinising other European bodies. The report examines all areas of the Parliament's expenditure. Debate about the discharge of the Parliament is now included in the plenary agenda as a separate item, immediately before the debate on the other discharges. This was requested in last year's plenary resolution and, as in the report on the 2011 discharge, as voted in committee.