By Nicola Smith and Bruno Waterfield - 20th April 2004
MEPs have sidelined a row over fraud at Eurostat and signed off the EU's books for 2002 - giving a clean run for the current European Commission.
The European Parliament voted on 21 April by a large majority to close the EU's accounts.
The vote was welcomed by the commission after an easy ride at the hands of MEPs.
Brussels has really never recovered from the 1999 collapse of the Santer commission amid widespread financial irregularities.
The EU executive was forced to resign after the parliament refused to approve the EU's 1996 accounts.
Romano Prodi's outgoing administration, pledged to reform the EU finances, is proud to have signed off its last set of accounts without a storm.
"During the mandate of the Prodi commission, the parliament has been able every year to give discharge for the budget implementation," said EU budget chief, Michaele Schreyer.
"It proves that our reform actions have been convincing and I want to thank the European Parliament for this support," commissioner Schreyer said.
Although a budget 2002 report by Spanish MEP Juan Jose Bayona de Perogordo is highly critical of the management of agricultural and structural funds, he places much of the blame on the shoulders of the 15 EU member states.
More than 80 per cent of the EU budget is implemented by national governments.
A parallel attempt by 65 MEPs to push forward a motion of censure against the commission over its handling of the Eurostat fraud scandal looks set to fail.
Leader of the initiative, Danish MEP Jens-Peter Bonde, said the censure was not about apportioning blame but about making commissioners accept responsibility for financial management of the budget.
"This is not a personal vendetta, it is a basic principle of parliamentary democracy," he said.
But debate of the issue has been relegated to the 9pm graveyard slot this evening, with the actual vote due to be held in May.
The censure, which would require the support of a two thirds majority, is expected to be backed only by around 100 MEPs.
And even the traditionally eurosceptic UK Conservatives are removing their names from the initiative under pressure from the party leadership.
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