Directorate for the Budget and Financial Affairs

The Directorate for the Budget and Financial Affairs is responsible for drawing up and monitoring the budget and for keeping the accounts and managing the institution's finances. The Directorate also deals with the application of the rules governing financial matters (Financial Regulation, internal control standards, etc.). It comprises two units dealing with financial assistance, the budget and verification and accounting.

As regards the annual budget of the institution, the Directorate is responsible for drawing up the draft budget and negotiating it with the budgetary authority, but also for regularly monitoring its implementation. In order to do so, the Directorate keeps the budget accounts, which enables it to draw up the annual report on the budgetary and financial management of the Court. The Directorate also coordinates the preparation of the annual activity report of the authorising officer by delegation (Registrar of the Court of Justice).

The Directorate is responsible for the coordination of contacts with the Court of Auditors and the budgetary control committee of the European Parliament in the context of the annual discharge procedure.

The tables below show how the Court's budget has evolved since 2013 and the structure of the budget by type of expenditure:

Budget of the Court of Justice:

2023 Budget - Breakdown of appropriations:

Detailed information on the Court's budget is available on EUR-Lex.

The activity of general accounting and financial management includes keeping the general accounts, preparing and presenting the institution's annual accounts, as well as management of cash-flow and the financial outcomes of budgetary operations (payment of expenditure, debt recovery and collection of revenue). To that end, the Directorate plays a central coordinating role in the updating and/or introduction of IT applications for financial, budget and accounting management. Another central task for the Directorate is advising the other services of the Court in the conduct of their budgetary and financial operations.

Lastly, the Directorate is responsible for the implementation of the Financial Regulation applicable to the European Union budget, keeping up to date the Court's internal financial regulations and also the related charters and standards (charter for authorising officers, accounting charter, minimum internal control standards). It also manages the sub-delegations of authorising officer powers.

As part of ensuring proper application of the rules governing financial matters, the Directorate has especially strengthened its role as advisor and coordinator in respect of public procurement (standard documents, central data base for contracts, the Court's statutory publication obligations).