this end, the Council and the European Parliament in turn shall examine the accounts and the financial statement referred to in Article 179a, the annual report by the Court of Auditors together with the replies of the institutions under audit to the observations of the Court of Auditors, and any relevant special reports by the Court of Auditors. 2. Before giving a discharge to the Commission, or for any other purpose in connection with the exercise of its powers over the implementation of the budget, the European Parliament may ask to hear the Commission give evidence with regard to the execution of expenditure or the operation of financial control systems. The Commission shall submit any necessary information to the European Parliament at the latter's request. 3. The Commission shall take all appropriate steps to act on the observations in the decisions giving discharge and on the other observations by the European Parliament relating to the execution of expenditure, as well as on comments accompanying the recommendations on discharge adopted by the Council. At the request of the European Parliament or the Council, the Commission shall report on the measures taken in the light of these observations and comments and in particular of the instructions given to the departments which are responsible for the implementation of the budgets. These reports shall also be forwarded to the Court of Auditors." 24) Article 183 shall be replaced by the following: "ARTICLE 183 The Council, acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission and after consulting the European Parliament and obtaining the opinion of the Court of Auditors, shall: (a) make Financial Regulations specifying in particular the procedure to be adopted for establishing and implementing the budget and for presenting and auditing accounts; (b) determine the methods and procedure whereby the budget revenue provided under the arrangements relating to the Community's own resources shall be made available to the Commission, and determine the measures to be applied, if need be, to meet cash requirements; (c) lay down rules concerning the responsibility of financial controllers, authorizing officers and accounting officers, and concerning appropriate arrangements for inspection." 25) The following Article shall be inserted: "ARTICLE 183a Member States shall take the same measures to counter fraud affecting the financial interests of the Community as they take to counter fraud affecting their own financial interests. Without prejudice to other provisions of this Treaty, Member States shall co-ordinate their actions aimed at protecting the financial interests of the Community against fraud. To this end they shall organize, with the help of the Commission, close and regular co- operation between the competent departments of their administrations." 26) Article 198)a) shall be replaced by the following: "(a) This Treaty shall not apply to the Faroe Islands."