Report - Main contents

Reports are issued by the European Commission to report and assess current policies. A report may provide a basis for policy development.

Area of application

Reports almost always apply to a specific piece of legislation, policy and action programmes or parts thereof. In some cases, reports are embedded in policies. Part of the EU legislation is annually reviewed and a report is made assessing the results. Budgetary reporting is a mandatory as part of the annual discharge of the budget.

Reports may lead to changes in policy. Only in rare cases is a report used to assess policy options.

In some case reports are branded as working documents of the European Commission i.

Report can be issued on policies and topics in every policy area.

Adopting reports

The European Commission, and in rare cases one of the other European institutions, issues reports and refers them to the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament.

Report as legal instrument are not mentioned in the treaties. Only the reports issued by the Court of Auditors as part of the discharge procedure i have a basis in the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union (TfEU).

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  reports in discharge procedure: part six TfEU title II chapter 4 art. 318, 319