Activities of Corina CREȚU related to 2023/2177(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 2022
Amendments (17)
Amendment 1 #
Proposal for a decision 1
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Grants the Executive Director of the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking discharge in respect of the implementation of the Joint Undertaking’s budget for the financial year 2022 / Postpones its decision on granting the Executive Director of the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking discharge in respect of the implementation of the Joint Undertaking’s budget for the financial year 2022;
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
B a. whereas the new work programme for 2021 and 2022 including new activities and financing as set out in the new founding Regulation were only adopted by the Joint Undertaking’s Governing Board in December 2021 and that this delayed implementation of activities, development of internal control activities and recruitment;
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas under the 2021-2027 Mmultiannual Financial Framework (MFF), the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking receives significantly more funds from the Horizon Europe, Digital Europe and Connecting Europe Facility programmes, to support the acquisition and development of high- performance computing, and quantum computers as well as the upgrading and operation of the infrastructures for supercomputers and quantum computers;
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas, to increase transparency, the Joint Undertaking should disclose in its annual accounts, relevant information regarding members’ contributions at programme level; whereas, for each programme under which they operate, the Joint Undertaking should present per member category up to the year-end, all relevant information made available by the members including the legal contribution targets set for the respective programme, the volume of contributions received, and the volume of legal commitments; suggests that the Joint Undertaking continues to improve the transparency;
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Notes that, for 20223 , the available payment budget amounted to EUR 629.9 million (EUR 348.2 million in 2021) and the available committed budget amounted to EUR 1 374.5 billion (EUR 753.4 million in 2021); notes that the available budget includes unused appropriations of previous years, which the Joint Undertaking re- entered in the budget of the current year, in line with the N+3 rules assigned revenues and reallocations to the next year; _________________ 3 Total budget includes operational budget (used for funding selected projects) and administrative (used for funding Programme Office activities) - Consolidated Annual Activity Report 2022.
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Notes that the Court categorises the risk to budget management as medium because of weaknesses observed in the budget planning and monitoring process and the complex and lengthy acquisition process for supercomputers;
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Notes with concernthat due to the length of time it takes to procure supercomputers, the low implementation of both 2022 operational - commitment and payment appropriations were at 79% and 24% respectively (2% and 47% in 2021)4 - and administrative budgets - 45% for administrative commitment appropriations and 37% of its administrative payment appropriations; _________________ 4 The very low commitment appropriations implementation of the 2021 operational budget was largely due to the delayed start of the JU under the 2021-2027 MFF and the transfer by the Commission and Participating States of EUR 700 million of funds to the JU in December 2021.
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Notes that the Court assessed the risk to programme implementation as medium due to the high risk that EuroHPC may not achieve the minimum contributions targets for their private members by the end of the Horizon 2020 programme; notes that, according to the Joint Undertaking, the lower achievement rates are explained by the involvement of Participating Stateprivate members;
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Notes that, in 2022, the JU only implemented 45% of its administrative commitment appropriations and 37 % of its administrative payment appropriations, partly due to the no achievementpartial completion of its recruitment plan for 2022 and to the no reallocation of significant amounts of unused payment appropriations of previous years when planning its 2022 budget;
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Notes that in the Joint Undertaking’s 2022 annual accounts, the amounts of contributions recognised per member category (EU and private members) differ significantly among each other, because EU cash contributions are validated and recognised when paid to the JU at the beginning of the project implementation, but members’ in-kind contributions are only recognised after validation of the costs incurred and declared for project implementation; is concerned that the gap between the recognised amount of cash contributions on the one hand and in-kind contributions on the other hand, was addressed in a suboptimal waynot sufficiently addressed in the JU’s 2022 annual accounts by notand could be improved in future years by providing information when available on the JU members’ legal commitments at year end, in terms of signed grant agreements and contracts;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Is concernedNotes that, moreover, that in its 2022 annual accounts, the JU did not disclosed important information regarding members’ contributions at programme level, that was available relevant for the complete communication of the JU’s achievements at the year-end; notes, in particular, that the JU did not compare the contributions received from each member category up to the year-end under each programme with the legal contribution targets set for the respective programme;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
Amendment 20 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Notes that, at the end of 2022, the JU fully committed the maximum EU operational contribution of EUR 526 million for signed grant agreements and contracts under the Horizon 2020 and CEF 1 programmes; takes note with concern that, of this, around EUR 266.3 million (or 50.6 %) remains to be paid in the coming years for projects yet to be completed;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Notes that, according to the new EuroHPC founding Regulation8 , the JU will have to implement projects amounting to EUR 7 billion, of which EUR 3 billion should be leveraged from the Participating States and EUR 900 million from private members, in the form of cash and in-kind contributions; welcomes this significant increase, compared to the previous MFF programme, of around EUR 1.4 billion; regrets, however, that as the Joint Undertaking’s financing arrangements remain the same for the 2021-2027 MFF, there is a high risk that the JU will not achieve the private members' contribution targets under the new founding Regulation; Calls on the Commission to re-assess the feasibility of the current contribution targets from the private members in the new founding Regulation; _________________ 8 The new founding regulation repealed the obligation for Participating States and private members to contribute to the administrative costs. Council Regulation (EU) 2021/1173 establishing the European High Performance Computing JU and repealing Regulation (EU) 2018/1488.
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Is concerned that the JU’s lengthy processrigorous process, which must be in line with the EU Financial Regulations, for the acquisition of supercomputers significantly affected the implementation of the 2022 operational budget;
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Notes with concern that, by the end of 2022, the JU had only recruited eight staff members and 20 by mid-2023, and therefore did not meet its 2022 recruitment target10 ; notes that the Court considers that this situation negatively impacted the implementation of the 2022 administrative budget; welcomes however the gender distribution of the staff in the JU in 2022; _________________ 10 According to the Consolidated Annual Activity Report 2022 - 24 full time employees including the Executive Director as of 31 December 2022.
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30
Paragraph 30
30. Regrets that the JU’s internal control systemCommission has not yet foreseen specific ex-post audits for CEF co-financed expenditure for the acquisition of supercomputers; notes, in addition, that for the Horizon Europe programme, ex-post audits have yet to be carried out, as the first interim payments are only expected in 2024; welcomes that at the end of 2022 an internal control officer was finally recruited;