Activities of Angelika WINZIG related to 2022/2130(DEC)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (before 30.11.2021 the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking) for the financial year 2021
Amendments (13)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. NotWelcomes that the report of the Court of Auditors (the ‘Court’s report’) on the annual accounts of the Clean Hydrogen (Clean H2) Joint Undertaking finds the 2021 annual accounts to present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Joint Undertaking at 32 December 2021, the results of its operations, its cash flows, and the changes in net assets for the year then ended, in accordance with its Financial Regulation and with and with account rules adopted by the Commission’s accounting officer; notes, furthermore, from the Court’s report and that the underlying transactions to the accounts are legal and regular in all material respects;
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 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 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Notes that compared to 2020, the 2021 appropriations decreased by 85% in terms of commitments and by 44% in terms of payments; notes that the decrease in the 2021 budget was due to the lack of calls launched in 2021; notes, in addition,underlines that no pre-financing was planned for 2021;
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Notes, from the Court’s report, that, at the end of 2021, the Joint undertaking had committed EUR 425.5 million (95%) of EUR 450 million of the maximum EU contribution for signed FP7 grants agreements of which around EUR 3.0 million (0.7%) remains to be paid in the coming years; notes that private members provided in-kind contributions at the same level; notes that the implementation rate for the Joint Undertaking’s 2021 payment budget available for FP7 projects was 97.8% (89% in 2020); in, and that in addition, that the Joint Undertaking had almost no 2021 operational commitment appropriations as it finished its last call for proposals by the end of 2014;
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Notes from the Court’s report that the level of validated private members’ in- kind contributions for operational activities of EUR 38.6 million, is due to the fact that the Joint Undertaking certifies them later in the Horizon 2020 programme, when the final payment for the projects is made and the certificates of financial statement (CFS) are due; notes, in addition,is pleased that the private members contributed a total of EUR 1 039.0 million in-kind to additional activities as at the end of 2021, significantly more than the minimum EUR 285.0 million set in founding regulation for the entire duration of the Horizon 2020;
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Notes, from the Annual Activity Report,Welcomes that the tender and contract management has been simplified as far as possible by following the interinstitutional procurement procedures launched by the European Commission and using the resulting multiannual framework contracts; notes that the Joint Undertaking cooperates with other Joint Undertakings on tendering needs in order to minimise the administrative effort; notes that, as in previous years, most of the Joint Undertaking’s contracting was carried out under existing multiannual framework contracts, except mainly for operational procurement activities;
Amendment 8 #
12. Notes, in addition,Appreciates that the JU Join Undertaking use of EU Sign, a software solution provided by DG Informatics, which allows a qualified electronic signature (QES) to be applied to documents; notes that the programme office (PO) now applies a QES on its contracts, which facilitates business processes by significantly reducing the time and cost of signing a contract in blue ink; notes, and moreover, that QESs, if applied using EU Sign, are legally binding, as they are compliant with Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 (the eIDAS regulation) for electronic transactions within the EU’s internal market and provides a higher level of technical security;
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Notes that, in February 2021, the Joint Undertaking on boarded Sysper, and that throughout the year new modules were added; notes thatmoreover appreciates the use of Mission Processing System and the feature for the staff evaluations and promotions are expected; notes thatsupports the use of the new recruitment tool, Systal, that was rolled out to the Joint Undertaking in November 2021 and the next recruitment will be done using this system and is of the opinion that such tools can help to support the necessary recruitment of highly skilled workers;
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. NoteHighlights that, in 2021, the Internal Audit Service (IAS) accepted an action plan developed by the Joint Undertaking to address two important recommendations stemming from the IAS audit on H2020 grant implementation in the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen (FCH 2) Joint Undertaking and concluded that the action plan is adequate to mitigate the risks identified;
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Notes, from the Court’s report, that for FP7 interim and final payments, the Joint Undertaking performs ex-post audits at the beneficiaries, whilst for Horizon 2020 payments, the Common Audit Service of the Commission’s DG RTD is responsible for the ex-post audits; notdeplores that, based on the ex-post audit results available at the end of 2021, the Joint undertaking reported a representative error of 2.0% (1.97% in 2020) and a residual error rate of 1.0% (1,01% for 2020) for its FP7 projects, and a representative error rate of 2.16% (same in 2020) and a residual error rate of 1.3% (1.34% for 2020) for Horizon 2020 projects (clearings and payments);
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Notes that, to assess the operational payment controls of the Joint Undertaking, the Court audited randomly sampled Horizon 2020 payments made in 2021, at the level of the final beneficiaries, to corroborate the ex-post audit error rates (regarding the grant payment transactions tested at the beneficiaries, the reporting threshold for quantifiable errors is 1% of the audited costs); noteregrets that, in one case, the Court found and quantified an error resulting from personnel costs having been over claimed due to a clerical mistake, and in another case, a systemic non- quantifiable control weakness related to the absence of the beneficiary’s validation procedure for the worked hours on the project;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. NotWelcomes that conflict of interest procedures were in place for the members of both the FCH 2 Joint Undertaking Governing Board (GB) and the advisory bodies, and were renewed in December 2021 in the scope of newly adopted rules of procedures of the GB for the Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking; notes and that, 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 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. NotesIs pleased that Joint Undertaking also ensures the implementation of the research community’s common anti-fraud strategy; notwelcomes that the main actions derived from the strategy include the organisation of awareness-raising sessions within the Joint Undertaking and cooperation with OLAF (in the case of risk-based audits conducted by the Common Audit Service or outsourced contractors).