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opinion parliamentary committee draft, 10 November 2025

On discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2024, Section III – Commission and executive agencies

Document CULT-PA-779570 · (2025/2145(DEC))

Committee on Culture and Education · Rapporteur: Hélder Sousa Silva

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AI:In short

This draft opinion on the 2024 EU budget discharge for the Commission and executive agencies notes budget execution improvements, welcomes IT progress, and calls for further simplification and support for Ukraine. It highlights errors in ineligible costs, regrets missed interim evaluations, and notes high demand for DiscoverEU and Creative Europe despite budget constraints.

Position. The Committee on Culture and Education calls on the Committee on Budgetary Control to incorporate these points into its motion for a resolution.

Key points

  1. Notes the significant acceleration of budget execution for DG EAC programmes in 2024, confirming capacity to absorb additional funding, but regrets that Erasmus+ pandemic recoveries are largely transferred to repay recovery instruments.
  2. Welcomes IT improvements in DG EAC and EACEA, calls for further optimisation and simplification to ensure accessibility for smaller organisations and persons with fewer opportunities, respecting data protection and cybersecurity.
  3. Approves EACEA's performance across its five KPIs, including complete budget execution (100% transactions), reduced estimated risk at closure (0.49%), and increased Higher Education Institutions in European University alliances from 436 to 571.
  4. Draws attention to errors concerning ineligible costs in Commission-managed transactions, including overstated personnel costs in Creative Europe and Erasmus+.
  5. Regrets that DG EAC and DG CONNECT did not perform interim evaluations of Erasmus+, European Solidarity Corps, and Creative Europe before the legal deadline; stresses evaluations should inform current programming period decisions.
  6. Welcomes DG EAC's support to Ukraine, including inclusion of displaced children, support for learners and researchers, financial support to Ukrainian artists, and safeguarding cultural heritage; supports continuing and broadening aid.
  7. Notes DiscoverEU's popularity in 2024 with budget fully absorbed and over 70000 travel passes issued, but less than 25% of valid applications received.
  8. Notes strong demand for Creative Europe, with European Cooperation call receiving almost 1000 proposals (twice as many as 2021), but budget did not rise, leading to lower success rates and need to safeguard access and diversity.

Who is affected

  • DG EAC and EACEA: face calls for further IT simplification and must address errors and missed evaluations.
  • Smaller organisations and persons with fewer opportunities: should benefit from more accessible IT tools.
  • Ukraine and its citizens: continue to receive support through EU programmes.
  • Young people applying for DiscoverEU: high demand but limited passes.
  • Cultural and creative sectors: face lower success rates due to budget constraints.

Figures and deadlines

  • 100% transactions of the operational budget executed by EACEA.
  • Estimated risk at closure down to 0.49%, below the 2% materiality threshold.
  • Higher Education Institutions in European University alliances increased from 436 in 2023 to 571 in 2024.
  • More than 70000 young people received a DiscoverEU travel pass in 2024.
  • DiscoverEU passes made up less than 25% of valid applications.
  • European Cooperation call received almost 1000 proposals, twice as many as in 2021.

Written by AI from the full text · every figure comes from the text · ¶ opens the paragraph · 4 Sept 2026 · Report a problem

Full text

Opinion 9 paragraphs

The Committee on Culture and Education calls on the Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following into its motion for a resolution:

1.Notes the significant acceleration of the budget execution of the programmes implemented by DG EAC in 2024 as compared to the initial years of the MFF; confirms that this demonstrates a capacity to absorb additional funding, regretting that Erasmus+ recoveries from the pandemic are largely transferred to the margin of sub-heading 2b to repay the recovery instruments, instead of being reinjected into the programme;

2.Welcomes the improvements in the IT landscape of DG EAC and the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), enabling more efficient processing of applications and grants; calls for further optimisation and simplification of the IT tools and processes, ensuring accessibility for smaller organisations and persons with fewer opportunities, while respecting the data protection and cybersecurity principles;

3.Notes with approval EACEA’s excellent performance across its five KPIs, including a complete budget execution (100% transactions of the operational budget), a reduced estimated risk at closure (down to 0.49%, well below the 2% materiality threshold), and particularly the Erasmus+ indicator, with an increase of Higher Education Institutions participating in the European University alliances from 436 in 2023 to 571 in 2024;

4.Draws attention to the errors concerning ineligible costs related to transactions managed by the Commission, as listed in the ECA Annual report, including overstated personnel costs detected in actions funded under Creative Europe and Erasmus+;

5.Regrets that DG EAC and DG CONNECT had not performed interim evaluations of the flagship programmes Erasmus+, European Solidarity Corps, and Creative Europe before the legally defined deadline; stresses that evaluations should inform the decision-making still for the current programming period, not only for the future one;

6.Welcomes the positive examples of DG EAC’s continued support to Ukraine through its programmes and policy initiatives, such as inclusion of displaced children from Ukraine in the EU education systems, supporting learners and researchers fleeing from Ukraine, providing financial support to Ukrainian artist and cultural organisations, as well as safeguarding Ukrainian cultural heritage; supports the Commission in continuing and broadening aid for Ukraine and its citizens;

7.Is pleased to learn that in 2024 the popularity of the DiscoverEU initiative, which originated as a preparatory action proposed by the EP, has reached an all-time high, with the budget fully absorbed, and more than 70000 young people receiving a travel pass, noting, however, that this makes up less than 25% of valid applications received;

8.Is pleased to see the strong demand for Creative Europe in 2024, in particular that the European Cooperation call received almost 1000 proposals, twice as many as in 2021; yet notes that the budget did not rise accordingly, leading to lower success rates and a stronger need to safeguard access and diversity in the cultural and creative sectors.