27.7.2000 Official Journal of the European Communities L 191/1 II (Acts whose publication is not obligatory) EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT DECISION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT of 13 April 2000 granting discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the 1998 financial year: Section IV — Court of Justice; Section V — Court of Auditors; Section VI — Part B — Committee of the Regions (2000/465/EC) THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, Having regard to the revenue and expenditure account and the balance sheet for the 1998 financial year (SEC(1999) 414 — C5-0008/1999), Having regard to the Annual Report of the Court of Auditors concerning the financial year 1998 (C5-0266/1999) (1), Having regard to the Council's recommendation of 13 March 2000 (C5-0154/2000), Having regard to Article 272(10) of the EC Treaty, Having regard to Article 22(2) and (3) of the Financial Regulation, Having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A5-0089/2000), Court of Justice 1. Notes that the evacuation of the Court of Justice's main building (Palais) was made possible by those responsible, the Court of Justice and the Luxembourg authorities, four years after the first measures were taken to deal with the presence of asbestos. 2. States that its assessment of the Court of Justice's building policy will be made in the light of the Special Report the Court of Auditors is currently drawing up concerning the annexes to the Palais building. 3. Requests the Court of Justice to submit, in time for the first reading of the 2001 draft budget, a report on ways to improve the quality of financial forecasts used for the endowment of Article 270 (Official Journal) in light of the continuous need for the topping up of its appropriations in the 1995 to 1997 financial years. Court of Auditors 4. Reiterates its disapproval of the declining trend in the utilisation of appropriations earmarked for Chapter 15 (Staff exchanges between Community institutions and the public and private sectors); underlines that those exchanges can be beneficial in particular to national civil servants and administrations; calls on the Court of Auditors to submit, in time for the first reading of the 2001 budget, a report outlining its policy as regards the staff exchanges in question and the problems which have hindered full utilisation of available resources from 1997 onwards. () OJ C 349, 3.12.1999.