PURPOSE: to grant discharge to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control for the financial year 2005.

LEGISLATIVE ACT: Decision 2008/533/EC of the European Parliament on the discharge for the implementation of the budget of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control for the financial year 2005.

CONTENT: with the present decision, the European Parliament grants discharge to the Executive Director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control for the implementation of the Authority’s budget for the financial year 2005.

This decision is in line with the European Parliament’s resolution adopted on 24 April 2007 and comprises a series of observations that form an integral part of the discharge decision (please refer to the summary of the opinion of 24/04/2007).

Budget 2008/533
OJ L 187 15.07.2008, p. 0170

SP(2007)2625/2

Results of vote in Parliament

Debate in Parliament

The European Parliament adopted a resolution drafted by Edit HERCZOG (PSE, HU), and granted the executive director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control discharge for the implementation of the Centre's budget for the financial year 2005. It then approved the closing of the accounts of the Centre for the financial year 2005.

The Parliamentary resolution is divided into two parts. The first contained general points, and concerned the majority of EU Agencies requiring individual discharge. The second part contained specific points relating to the Agency.

General points: Parliament considers that the ever-growing number of Community Agencies and the activities of certain of them do not seem to form part of an overall policy framework, and that the remits of some Agencies do not always reflect the real needs of the Union. Accordingly, it invites the Commission to define an overall policy framework for the setting up of new Community Agencies and to present a cost-benefit study before the setting up of any new agency, while being careful to avoid any overlap of activities between Agencies or with the remits of other European organisations. Parliament calls on the Court of Auditors to give its opinion on this cost-benefit study before Parliament takes its decision, and it asks the Commission to present every five years a study on the added value of every existing Agency. ; invites all relevant institutions In the case of a negative evaluation of the added value of an Agency, all relevant institutions are asked to take the necessary steps by reformulating the mandate of that Agency or by closing it.

In view of the constantly increasing number of Agencies, Parliament feels that the Directorates-General of the Commission charged with the setting up and monitoring of Agencies must develop a common approach to the Agencies. It also asks the Commission to improve administrative and technical support to the Agencies. Parliament regretted that the negotiations on the draft interinstitutional agreement on the operating framework for the European regulatory agencies have not yet been concluded, and calls on the Commission, in consultation with the Court of Auditors, to do their utmost to ensure that the agreement is brought to a rapid conclusion. Noting that the Commission's budgetary responsibility calls for closer linking of the Agencies to the Commission, Parliament calls on the Commission and the Council to take all necessary steps to give the Commission a blocking minority in the supervisory bodies of the regulatory Agencies by 31 December 2007 and to provide for such a minority from the outset when new Agencies are set up. It invites the Court of Auditors to create an additional chapter in its Annual Report, devoted to all Agencies to be discharged under the Commission's accounts in order to have a much clearer picture of the use of EU funds by Agencies.

Parliament goes on to ask the Commission to come up with a proposal to harmonise the format of the annual reporting by the Agencies and to develop performance indicators which would allow a comparison of their efficiency. The Commission is urged to monitor and direct the management of the Agencies, especially in relation to the proper application of tender procedures, transparency of recruitment procedures, sound financial management and, most importantly, the proper application of the rules concerning the internal control framework.

Specific points concerning the Centre: Parliament noted that the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2005 was marked by a low rate of commitment (84 %) and a substantial rate of carry-overs (35 % overall and almost 90 % for operating expenditure), and that this situation was in part due to problems inherent in the Centre's start-up period. It also noted that the Centre's establishment phase was given a further boost by the global concern over a potential influenza pandemic, and congratulated the Centre on its ability to consolidate its position in the field of surveillance of communicable diseases in a very short time.

Furthermore, Parliament noted that no activity-based management had been brought in, and insisted that requests to the Commission for the payment of subsidies should be justified by a forecast of cash needs . It regretted that the Centre had no such system for producing forecasts. No budgetary commitments were made for the Centre's expenditure in 2005 prior to legal commitments, contrary to requirements, and for the same period, all the Centre's payments were made by the accounting officer without the authorising officer having issued any payment orders . The Centre’s accounts were not kept in accordance with the double-entry method during 2005, thus creating the risk of errors, and Parliament insisted that this should be rectified as soon as possible.

Lastly, Parliament insisted on a strict application of staff selection procedures, noting that there were shortcomings in the documentation of the Centre's staff selection procedures (lack of formalisation of decisions on the appointment and composition of selection boards, lack of final report by selection boards on their work).

T6-0126/2007

A6-0119/2007

A6-0119/2007

The committee adopted the report by Edit HERCZOG (PES, HU) granting discharge to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control for 2005. In its accompanying resolution, it made a number of general points concerning the majority of the EU agencies:

- the ever-growing number of Community Agencies and the activities of some of them do not seem to form part of an overall policy framework, and "the remits of some Agencies do not always reflect the real needs of the Union or the expectations of its citizens";

- the Commission should therefore define an overall policy framework and should present a cost-benefit study before the setting up of any new Agency, and the Court of Auditors should give its opinion on this study before Parliament takes its decision;

- every 5 years, the Commission should present a study on the added value of every existing Agency; where the evaluation is negative in the case of a particular Agency the latter’s mandate should be reformulated or the Agency should be closed;

- the Commission should improve administrative and technical support to the Agencies, given the growing complexity of the Community’s administrative rules and technical problems;

- the Agencies should improve their cooperation and benchmarking with actors in the field;

- the Commission should harmonise the format of the annual reporting by the Agencies to develop performance indicators which would allow a comparison of their efficiency.

In its specific remarks concerning the ECDPC, the committee noted that the low rate of commitment and substantial rate of carry-over was in part due to problems inherent in the Centre's start-up period. It also noted that no activity-based management had been brought in, despite the Centre's financial regulation making provision for its introduction, on the lines of that applied to the general budget, with a view to improving the monitoring of performance. The committee insisted that requests to the Commission for the payment of subsidies should be justified by a forecast of cash needs and regretted that the Centre had no such system for producing forecasts. Lastly, it called for the strict application of the Centre's staff selection procedures.

PE386.402

PE382.440

PE384.446

Having examined the revenue and expenditure account for the financial year 2005, the balance sheet of revenue and expenditure at 31 December 2005 of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the Council recommends the European Parliament to give a discharge to the Director of the Centre in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2005.

In doing so, it confirms that EUR 1.4 million in appropriations have been carried forward from the financial year 2005 to the financial year 2006 and EUR 800 000 have been cancelled.

In parallel, the Council makes accompanying comments on the discharge which should be followed up. In particular, it:

calls on the Centre to improve its expenditure planning , in order to comply with the principle of annuality and to reduce to a minimum level the rate of carry-over; takes note that the Centre has recently brought in an activity-based planning and set up a financial system in order to improve the quality of its internal control standards regarding transactions and to respect the requirements of the Centre's Financial Regulation; calls on the Centre to take adequate measures to remedy the weaknesses identified in the recruitment process.

05711/2007

This report from the Court of Auditors concerns the annual accounts of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control for the financial year ended 31 December 2005.

The Court is of the opinion that the Centre’s accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2005 are, in all material respects, reliable and the transactions underlying the Centre’s annual accounts, taken as a whole, are legal and regular.

The report shows that the appropriations entered in the final budget amount to EUR 4 852 000 with EUR 4 066 000 committed and EUR 2 603 000 paid. EUR 1 438 000 was carried over to 2006 and EUR 811 000 was cancelled. The outstanding commitments carried over from the previous year amount to EUR 1 754 000 with EUR 1 670 000 being paid.

The Court observes that the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2005 was marked by a low rate of commitment (84 %) and a substantial rate of carry-over (35 % overall and almost 90 % for operating expenditure). This situation was in part due to problems inherent in the Centre’s start-up period. In future, the Centre should be vigilant concerning the risk of mobilising resources unnecessarily, in particular by ensuring strict programming of its activities.

The Court noted that no activity-based management had been brought in, despite the Centre’s financial regulation making provision for its introduction, on the lines of that applied to the general budget, with a view to improving the monitoring of performance.

Moreover, the Court also noted requests to the Commission for the payment of subsidies should be justified by a forecast of cash needs. The Centre’s financial regulation stipulates that the authorising officer should make a budgetary commitment before entering into a legal commitment vis-à-vis third parties. However, no budgetary commitments were made for the Centre’s expenditure in 2005 prior to the legal commitment. During the same period, all the Centre’s payments were made by the accounting

officer without the authorising officer having issued any payment orders.

Contrary to the provisions of the regulations, the Centre’s accounts were not kept by the double-entry method during 2005, thus creating risks of errors. There were shortcomings in the documentation of the

Centre’s staff selection procedures (lack of formalisation of decisions on the appointment and composition of selection boards, lack of final report by selection boards on their work).

The Centre responds point by point to the Court’s observations and states that the main causes of the relatively low budget execution and the high percentage of the carry-over appropriations were related to the start-up phase of the Centre. ECDC is rapidly progressing and is focusing on its planning for the best possible use of the funds allocated to it during 2006.

The basis for an activity based planning has been established in the second half of 2005. During 2006, the Centre is gradually putting in place the necessary reporting systems and processes to assure reliable and transparent activity based reporting.

The Centre did not have an adequate system for monitoring cash needs during 2005 for reasons relating to its start up phase. As of February 2006, basic projections on cash needs were introduced, and as the Centre further develops its reporting systems the cash flow projections will be further refined.

The situation described by the Court was initially caused by an absence of relevant ICT tools at the disposal of the Centre. The setting up of a financial system was prepared for in 2005 and it became fully operational in early 2006. No automated payment orders could be produced in 2005 due to the absence of ICT budget system. Nevertheless payments were only processed after the assurance that relevant information, authorisations and signatures were in place. From 2006 onwards, payment orders are systematically processed and approved for to all payments.

In the start up period of 2005, ECDC did not dispose of a computerised accounting system. During 2006 the Centre installed all the necessary software and is now operating a fully computerised accounting system.

Following the Court’s remark, the recruitment processes are now more extensively documented and consistently formalised. A strong Human Resources recruitment capacity has been prioritised as to assure that, in the build up phase of the Centre, the recruitment process is transparent and rigorous.

N6-0001/2007
OJ C 312 19.12.2006, p. 0001

PURPOSE: presentation of the final accounts of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control for the financial year 2005.

CONTENT: this document published in the Official Journal of the EU sets out a detailed account of the implementation of the 2005 budget, including the revenue and expenditure and the balance sheet for the year concerned.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control was created by Regulation 851/2004/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004. Its main tasks are to collect and disseminate data on the prevention and control of human disease and to provide scientific opinions on this subject. It is also required to coordinate the European networking of bodies operating in this field.

The Centre became autonomous as of the second half of 2005.

According to this document, the final budget amounted to EUR 4.85 million including a Community subsidy of 98%.

As regards the staffing policy, the Centre, (which is temporarily based in Stockholm) officially set out 29 posts in its establishment plan. 22 posts are currently occupied + 20 other posts totalling 42 posts assigned to operational and administrative duties.

Staff expenditure amounted to EUR 2.5 million in 2005.

The activities carried out in 2005 are as follows:

protocols developed for evaluating networks; planning document prepared for future strategy for surveillance activities in Europe; scientific panels established for all 6 disease groups listed in Decision 2119/98/EC; expert opinions and guidelines prepared on avian influenza; responsibility for the EWRS (102 public health events reported and reviewed); protocols and guidelines developed for mobilising outbreak assistance teams; 2 outbreak assistance missions; procedure for coordination of public health threats defined and in place (Commission, Member States, WHO); 21 weekly epidemiological reports disseminated through the Eurosurveillance journal.

The complete version of the final accounts may be found at the following address:

www.ecdc.europa.eu

N6-0035/2006
OJ C 266 31.10.2006, p. 0031

PURPOSE: presentation of the final accounts of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control for the financial year 2005.

CONTENT: this document published in the Official Journal of the EU sets out a detailed account of the implementation of the 2005 budget, including the revenue and expenditure and the balance sheet for the year concerned.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control was created by Regulation 851/2004/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004. Its main tasks are to collect and disseminate data on the prevention and control of human disease and to provide scientific opinions on this subject. It is also required to coordinate the European networking of bodies operating in this field.

The Centre became autonomous as of the second half of 2005.

According to this document, the final budget amounted to EUR 4.85 million including a Community subsidy of 98%.

As regards the staffing policy, the Centre, (which is temporarily based in Stockholm) officially set out 29 posts in its establishment plan. 22 posts are currently occupied + 20 other posts totalling 42 posts assigned to operational and administrative duties.

Staff expenditure amounted to EUR 2.5 million in 2005.

The activities carried out in 2005 are as follows:

protocols developed for evaluating networks; planning document prepared for future strategy for surveillance activities in Europe; scientific panels established for all 6 disease groups listed in Decision 2119/98/EC; expert opinions and guidelines prepared on avian influenza; responsibility for the EWRS (102 public health events reported and reviewed); protocols and guidelines developed for mobilising outbreak assistance teams; 2 outbreak assistance missions; procedure for coordination of public health threats defined and in place (Commission, Member States, WHO); 21 weekly epidemiological reports disseminated through the Eurosurveillance journal.

The complete version of the final accounts may be found at the following address:

www.ecdc.europa.eu

N6-0035/2006