Activities of Angelika WINZIG related to 2022/2128(DEC)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2021
Amendments (18)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. NotWelcomes that the report of the Court of Auditors (the ‘Court’s report’) finds that the accounts of the Joint Undertaking for the year ended 31 December 2021 present fairly, in all material respects, its financial position at 31 December 2021, the results of its operations, its cash flows, and the changes in net assets for the year ended, in accordance with its Financial Regulation and with accounting rules adopted by the Commission’s accounting officer; notes, in addition, from the Court’s reporthighlights that the underlying transactions to the accounts are legal and regular in all material respects;
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Acknowledges that Horizon Europe envisages ambitious goals for the Joint Undertaking, that can only be achieved if effective solutions that address the weaknesses in the internal control systems and prepare for the future challenges arising from increased responsibilities, e.g. in the area of human resources management and planning, are designed and implemented; points out, in this context, that particularly complicated and burdensome calculations and reporting requirements represent a significant risk of error and calls therefore, to explore the possibilities of simplifications wherever possible and compatible with the existing legal framework;
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. NotesIs concerned that the Court categorised the risk to budget management as medium for the Joint Undertaking because of weaknesses observed in the budget planning and monitoring process and the complexity and multiannual nature of its contracts and grant actions; calls on the Joint Undertaking to address this issue in the future budget and monitoring procedures;
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Notes that, at the end of 2021, the Joint Undertaking had already committed EUR 180 million for the 50 % co-financing of Horizon 2020 research and innovation grants, which, is the minimum target in the Joint Undertaking’s founding Regulation and that the Participating States finance the remaining 50 % of the total project costs, and private members only contribute on top of the maximum eligible costs of the grant actions; noteis, however, concerned that, by this date, the private members had only reported EUR 4.2 million of in-kind contributions; notes that the Court considers that there is a high risk that the EUR 420 million of private members’ contributions, as set out in the founding Regulation, will not be achieved by the end of the implementation of the grant project;
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Notes that, in July 2021, the Council adopted the new European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC) founding Regulation, according to which the Joint Undertaking will have to implement projects amounting to EUR 7 billion, of which EUR 3.1 billion should be leveraged from the Participating States and EUR 900 million from private members in form of cash and in-kind contributions; notehighlights that this represents a significant increase compared to the previous MFF programme under which the Joint Undertaking had to implement projects of around EUR 1.4 billion; notes, and therefore, that the risk that the Joint Undertaking will not achieve the other members' contribution targets under the new founding Regulation is significantly increased;
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. NotesIs concerned that the Joint Undertaking still lacks reliable procedures for certifying and validating in-kind contributions, reported by its private members and Participating States and that it is the only Joint Undertaking that does not have a strategic implementation plan for the achievement of other members’ contributions; calls on the Joint Undertaking to inform the discharge authority on the steps taken to address the lack of such a plan;
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Notes that under the 2021-2027 MFF, the Horizon Europe and Digital Europe programmes remain the main financial resource for Joint Undertakings, with a total budget of EUR 15.1 billion for co-financing the Joint Undertakings research and innovation activities; notes and that the Joint Undertakings implement EUR 11.6 billion, representing around 12 % of the total Horizon Europe budget of EUR 95.5 billion; notwelcomes, on the other hand, that the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking and the proposed future Chips Joint Undertaking4 will implement large capacity-building, deployment and investment projects related to the European Digital Single Market strategy under the Digital Europe Programme; notes and that the Joint Undertaking and the proposed future Chips Joint Undertaking will receive EUR3.4 billion in EU funds from the Digital Europe Programme – or 39 % of the programme’s total funding of EUR 8.6 billion – to implement these activities; _________________ 4 In February 2022, the Commission proposed to transform the Key Digital Technologies into the future Chips JU. It will have the additional remit to implement capacity-building activities of the “Chips for Europe Initiative” under the 2021-2027 MFF. In this context, the JU will use budget from the Digital Europe programme to foster the development of innovative next-generation semiconductor technologies and reinforce the European chip-production capability
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Notes that, under the planned CMFC system, each Participating State can opt to pay to the Joint Undertaking its respective financial contributions at project level for beneficiaries established in its state and during this process, each Participating State also has a right of veto on all issues concerning the use of its own national financial contributions paid to the Joint Undertaking for applicants established in its state, in line with the EU’s financial and competition rules, allowing a Participating State to decide, on the basis of national strategic priorities, whether or not to support a national beneficiary of a selected and approved research and innovation project; notes, on the other hand, that the Joint Undertaking will have to execute the co-financing payments for all Participating States that chose to entrust it with their financial contributions; notes that it will have to manage and monitor two alternative processes of supporting administrative agreements with Participating States; Notes that each Participating State’s National Funding Authority (NFA) has to sign an agreement with the Joint Undertaking, to either entrust it with the payment of national contributions, or to coordinate national transfer of funds agreements for the payments to beneficiaries and reporting on contributions; notes that, according to the Joint Undertaking’s time line, the agreements should be signed before the Joint Undertaking signs its first model grant agreements for calls launched under the new MFF in late 2022; calls on the Joint Undertaking to explore simplifications for this burdensome procedure and to inform the discharge authority about possible solutions;
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. NoteHighlights that the Court assessed the risk for contract expenditure and public procurement procedures as medium for the Joint Undertaking, due to the complex procurement procedures for high-value contracts;
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. NoteRegrets that the main concerns identified by the ECA isare related to the fact that the Joint Undertaking has been understaffed; notes and that the lack of sufficient statutory staff, has led to increased use of interim staff, which can lead to weaknesses in financial, budgetary and staff management, and may pose risks in terms of continuity of activities, retention of key competences and lack of sufficient internal controls; notwelcomes that, under the new regulation, the Joint Undertaking is able to take steps to rectify this issue and has initiated the recruitment process while prioritising essential positions which relate to key functions of the Joint Undertaking and risk mitigation, such the Internal Auditor positions;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Notes that the Joint Undertaking is working with DG BUDG to clarify the situation on the Joint Undertaking’s staff pension contributions, in line with the recommendations of the European Court of Auditors made in late 2021; calls on the Joint Undertaking not to wait for the final calculation of outstanding contributions, but to consider this obligation when planning its future budget e.g. through a corresponding accrual for pension contributions;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. NotWelcomes that thirteen consortia signed agreements with the Joint Undertaking in 2021 and began to work in April 2021; notes that the projects cover the three topics of the call ‘Towards Extreme Scale Technologies and Applications’, and use up more than the 70% of the designated funding available under Europe 2020;
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. NoteHighlights that the different consortia will work on research and innovation activities that will help Europe to become globally competitive in the field of supercomputing; notes and that ten (10) of these projects will address EuroHPC-01- 2019 ‘Extreme scale computing and data driven technologies’ and that another two projects, MICROCARD and REGALE, will focus topic EuroHPC-02-2019 on ‘HPC and data centric environments and application platforms’;
Amendment 20 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Notes, moreover, that the exaFOAM project will concentrate on topic EuroHPC-03-2019 on ‘Industrial software codes for extreme scale computing’.2 The EuroHPC JU launched a call covering the call “Training and Education on High Performance Computing” for the design and delivery of a European Master programme in HPC, the call was launched early in the year and by October the Joint Undertaking was able to announce that the project would go ahead as lead by the University of Luxembourg and in collaboration with 7 other European universities:; is convinced that this initiative will facilitate the education and professional development of high potentials who are pivotal for the success of the Joint Undertaking;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. NotWelcomes that, in 2020, the Joint Undertaking developed an action plan to implement the remaining actions of the 17 internal control principles of the Commission's internal control framework in 2021, notes, however,and that due to the absence of key administrative staff (as such, head of finance and administration and head of internal audit capability), the Joint Undertaking had not yet approved several important internal control actions within the 2021 deadlines set in its action plan;
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Notes, from the Joint Undertaking Annual Activity Report,Welcomes that the Joint Undertaking has developed a comprehensive set of rules and procedures for its staff to have a clear framework in which to work; notes and that these rules are effective across the entire governance structure of the JU, and that the conflict of interest procedures are in place for the members of both the Governing Body and the advisory bodies;
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30
Paragraph 30
30. NoAppreciates, in addition, that specific measures have been implemented for the prevention and management of conflicts of interest of experts in charge of the evaluation of grant applications and of the review of projects and tenders;
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31
Paragraph 31
31. NoteHighlights that the Joint Undertaking adopted and started to implement the common Research Anti- Fraud Strategy; notes, furthermore, and that, for areas of expenditure other than grants, the Joint Undertaking applies mutatis mutandis and by analogy, the anti-fraud strategy approved by DG Communications Networks, Content and Technology Risk management (DG CNECT).