OBJECTIVE: granting of discharge for implementing the EU’s general budget for 2003 - European Food Safety Authority

LEGISLATIVE ACT: Decision 2005/549/EC of the European Parliament concerning the discharge for implementing the general budget of the EU for the 2003 financial year – European Food Safety Authority.

CONTENT: With this Decision, the European Parliament grants discharge to the Director of the European Food Safety Authority for the implementation of the budget for the 2003 financial year.

This decision is in line with the European Parliament’s resolution adopted on 12 April 2005 and comprises a series of observations that form an integral part of the discharge decision (please refer to the summary of the opinion of 12/04/2005).

The European Parliament adopted the report by Inés AYALA SENDER (PES, ES) and Carl SCHLYTER (Greens/EFA, SE) giving discharge to the Director of the European Food Safety Authority for the 2003 financial year.

In its accompanying comments, the committee made a number of general points addressed to the Commission, the Agencies and the Court of Auditors (ECA):

General points addressed to the Commission and the Agencies: Parliament n otes the Commission's position with regard to delegating responsibility for the execution of tasks to bodies, including agencies, other than the Commission's core administration and it takes the view that this does not answer Parliament's call for in-depth consideration at inter-institutional level of the structure of existing agencies. It therefore invites the Commission to provide clarification on this point and on the future overall inter-institutional agreement related to the new arrangements to be set up within or in parallel with the Financial Perspective and invites the Commission to organise and perform in the medium term, e.g. on a standard three-year cycle, a cross-cutting analysis of the evaluations carried out on individual Agencies in order to:

- reach conclusions with regard to the coherence of Agency activity with EU policies in general and as regards the synergies existing or to be developed between the agencies and Commission departments and the avoidance of overlapping between them;

- make an assessment of the broader European added value of the Agencies' outputs in their respective area of activity and of the relevance, efficiency and effectiveness of the Agency model in implementing or contributing to EU policies;

- determine and enhance the impact of the Agencies" actions in terms of the proximity, accessibility and visibility of the EU to its citizens.

In addition, Parliament calls on the Commission, in parallel with this exercise, to present by the end of 2005 at the latest, proposals for changes to be made in the existing Agencies" Constituent Acts with a view, inter alia, to optimising its relationship with the Agencies.

General points addressed to the Agencies: Parliament e xpects to receive from now on, from each of the Agencies, the report summarising information on the audits carried out by the Internal Auditor. It invites the Agencies to make further efforts to apply correctly the staff regulations and rules applicable to other civil servants with regard to their staff (recruitment procedures and relevant decisions taken, personal files, calculation of remuneration and other entitlements, promotions policy, percentage of vacant posts, quotas for respecting gender equality, etc.). Moreover, the Parliament expects the Agencies, in response to the relevant observations of the ECA, to comply fully with the budgetary principles as set out in the Financial Regulation, in particular those of unity and budgetary accuracy.

Parliament invites the Agencies to develop a comprehensive strategy of communication addressing the need to make available, in the appropriate form, the results of their work to the general public beyond the presentation of such results to the Institutions, Member States" competent services, specialists, partners or specific beneficiaries.

General points addressed to the ECA and the Agencies : Parliament w elcomes the ECA's initiative to add a table to its specific reports on the Agencies presenting summary information on the competences, governance, resources available and products/output of the particular agency.

The European Parliament adopted the report by Inés AYALA SENDER (PES, ES) and Carl SCHLYTER (Greens/EFA, SE) giving discharge to the Director of the European Food Safety Authority for the 2003 financial year.

In its accompanying comments, the committee made a number of general points addressed to the Commission, the Agencies and the Court of Auditors (ECA):

General points addressed to the Commission and the Agencies: Parliament n otes the Commission's position with regard to delegating responsibility for the execution of tasks to bodies, including agencies, other than the Commission's core administration and it takes the view that this does not answer Parliament's call for in-depth consideration at inter-institutional level of the structure of existing agencies. It therefore invites the Commission to provide clarification on this point and on the future overall inter-institutional agreement related to the new arrangements to be set up within or in parallel with the Financial Perspective and invites the Commission to organise and perform in the medium term, e.g. on a standard three-year cycle, a cross-cutting analysis of the evaluations carried out on individual Agencies in order to:

- reach conclusions with regard to the coherence of Agency activity with EU policies in general and as regards the synergies existing or to be developed between the agencies and Commission departments and the avoidance of overlapping between them;

- make an assessment of the broader European added value of the Agencies' outputs in their respective area of activity and of the relevance, efficiency and effectiveness of the Agency model in implementing or contributing to EU policies;

- determine and enhance the impact of the Agencies" actions in terms of the proximity, accessibility and visibility of the EU to its citizens.

In addition, Parliament calls on the Commission, in parallel with this exercise, to present by the end of 2005 at the latest, proposals for changes to be made in the existing Agencies" Constituent Acts with a view, inter alia, to optimising its relationship with the Agencies.

General points addressed to the Agencies: Parliament e xpects to receive from now on, from each of the Agencies, the report summarising information on the audits carried out by the Internal Auditor. It invites the Agencies to make further efforts to apply correctly the staff regulations and rules applicable to other civil servants with regard to their staff (recruitment procedures and relevant decisions taken, personal files, calculation of remuneration and other entitlements, promotions policy, percentage of vacant posts, quotas for respecting gender equality, etc.). Moreover, the Parliament expects the Agencies, in response to the relevant observations of the ECA, to comply fully with the budgetary principles as set out in the Financial Regulation, in particular those of unity and budgetary accuracy.

Parliament invites the Agencies to develop a comprehensive strategy of communication addressing the need to make available, in the appropriate form, the results of their work to the general public beyond the presentation of such results to the Institutions, Member States" competent services, specialists, partners or specific beneficiaries.

General points addressed to the ECA and the Agencies : Parliament w elcomes the ECA's initiative to add a table to its specific reports on the Agencies presenting summary information on the competences, governance, resources available and products/output of the particular agency.

EP: decision of committee responsible, 1st reading/single reading

The committee adopted the report by Inés AYALA SENDER (PES, ES) and Carl SCHLYTER (Greens/EFA, SE) giving discharge to the Director of the European Food Safety Authority for the 2003 financial year.

In its accompanying comments, the committee made a number of general points addressed to the Commission, the Agencies and the Court of Auditors (ECA):

- before the Commission defines the framework conditions for the use of regulatory agencies, an interinstitutional agreement should spell out common guidelines;

- the Commission should carry out a cross-cutting analysis, on a standard three-year cycle, of the coherence of agency activity with EU policy in general. It should also assess "the broader European added value" of the Agencies' work in their respective fields. Before any decision is taken to propose the creation of a new agency, the need for such an agency should be carefully evaluated, bearing in mind existing structures and the principles of subsidiarity, budgetary austerity and simplification of procedures;

- the Agencies were urged to comply fully with the budgetary principles set out in the Financial Regulation, further strengthen their internal management and control procedures and pay "special attention" to procedures for the award and management of contracts. They should also step up cooperation with each other, avoid duplication of work and develop a comprehensive strategy for making the results of their work available to the general public;

- the ECA and the Agencies were urged to strengthen their cooperation and establish a methodology "that prepares the ground for a positive budget discharge from the start of the process".

Having examined the revenue and expenditure account for the financial year 2003 and the balance sheet of revenue and expenditure at 31 December 2003 of the European Food Safety Authority and the Court of Auditors' report on the annual accounts of the Authority, the Council recommends that the European Parliament give a discharge to the Executive Director of the Authority in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2003.

To recall, EUR 0.2 million (50%) of the EUR 0.4 million in appropriations carried over from the financial year 2002 to the financial year 2003, have been used. EUR 4.2 million in appropriations have been carried forward from the financial year 2003 to the financial year 2004 and EUR 2.9 million have been cancelled.

Observations in the Court of Auditors' report in relation to the financial year 2003 call for certain comments by the Council, which are annexed to this Recommendation.

The Council welcomes the fact that the Court of Auditors has been able to obtain reasonable assurance that the Authority's annual accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2003 are reliable and that the underlying transactions, taken as a whole, are legal and regular. However, some observations need to be made. The Council invites the Authority to follow the Court's remarks regarding the need that the

accounting officer validates the system laid down by the authorising officer in accordance with the

Authority's financial regulation. The Agency should also improve the checks on salary payments made to its employees and strengthen its computer system to deal with the increase of the Agency's activities.

This report from the Court of Auditors concerns the results of the audit carried out by the Court on the annual accounts of the European Food Safety Authority for the financial year ended 31 December 2003. As the Commission handled the Authority's financial management in 2002, the financial year 2003 was thus the first in which the Authority was fully responsible for its financial management. The Authority was established by Regulation 178/2002/EC of 28 January 2002.

On the whole, the Court has obtained reasonable assurance that the annual accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2003 were reliable and that the underlying transactions, taken as a whole, were legal and regular.

The report states that the final budget appropriations entered into the Authority's budget amounts to EUR 12.6 million with EUR 9.9 million being committed and EUR 5.7 million paid. EUR 4.2 million was carried over to 2004 and EUR 2.7 million cancelled.

The Court also states that there is some incoherence concerning the validation of systems to supply or justify accounting information. No such validation has taken place. Other criticisms include the Personnel Department not carrying out systematic checks on the determination of the remuneration (particularly salaries) and on the financial entitlements of newly recruited staff. The Examination of the IT system control environment showed that it needed to be strengthened in view of the planned increase in the Authority's activities.

The Authority responds point by point to the criticisms made by the Court. Firstly, it notes that the description and validation of the accounting systems will be carried out in the course of the 2004 financial year. As a result of the observations made, checks on the determination of the grades and steps attributed to newly recruited staff were validated and dated by the head of Human Resources. The data relating to the individual rights of staff were also validated.

Lastly, a start was made on strengthening the IT system in March 2004.

PURPOSE : presentation of the financial statements and balance sheets of the European Food Safety Authority for the financial year 2003.

CONTENT : this report presented by the European Food Safety Authority presents the financial statements and balance sheets of its activities in 2003 which was its first complete financial year since its creation on 28 January 2002 by Regulation 178/2002/EC.

The report highlights that the final budget amounts to EUR 12.6 million of which 99.7% is a Community contribution.

As regards the staffing policy, the Authority, whose temporary headquarters are in Brussels but are due to be transferred to Parma (Italy), has allocated 49 posts in its establishment plan. 27 posts are occupied with +36 other staff (auxiliary contracts, seconded national experts, local and temporary staff) making a total of 63 staff assigned to administrative and operational duties.

In 2003, the Authority concentrated on the following activities :

- setting up its Scientific Committee and all the Scientific Panels in June 2003. It issued 23 public opinions during the remainder of the year;

- in October the Authority held a conference in Ostende (Belgium) with its interested parties, the purpose of which was to determine how to carry out its mandate in the future;

- the Advisory Forum met six times with a view to setting up the network linking the national authorities. This led to increased exchanges of information with the Authority and between the national departments concerned.

PURPOSE : presentation of the financial statements and balance sheets of the European Food Safety Authority for the financial year 2003.

CONTENT : this report presented by the European Food Safety Authority presents the financial statements and balance sheets of its activities in 2003 which was its first complete financial year since its creation on 28 January 2002 by Regulation 178/2002/EC.

The report highlights that the final budget amounts to EUR 12.6 million of which 99.7% is a Community contribution.

As regards the staffing policy, the Authority, whose temporary headquarters are in Brussels but are due to be transferred to Parma (Italy), has allocated 49 posts in its establishment plan. 27 posts are occupied with +36 other staff (auxiliary contracts, seconded national experts, local and temporary staff) making a total of 63 staff assigned to administrative and operational duties.

In 2003, the Authority concentrated on the following activities :

- setting up its Scientific Committee and all the Scientific Panels in June 2003. It issued 23 public opinions during the remainder of the year;

- in October the Authority held a conference in Ostende (Belgium) with its interested parties, the purpose of which was to determine how to carry out its mandate in the future;

- the Advisory Forum met six times with a view to setting up the network linking the national authorities. This led to increased exchanges of information with the Authority and between the national departments concerned.