Activites

• 2009/03/31 Final act published in Official Journal
• 2008/04/22 Results of vote in Parliament
  • Results of vote in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
  • T6-0150/2008 summary

    The European Parliament adopted, by 633 votes in favour, 18 against and 40 abstentions, a Decision to grant the Executive Director of the European Environment Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of its budget for the financial year 2006. The decision to grant discharge also constitutes closure of the accounts of this EU agency.At the same time, the Parliament adopted by 629 votes in favour, 16 against and 39 abstentions, a Resolution containing the comments which form part of the decision giving discharge. The report had been tabled for plenary by Hans-Peter MARTIN (NI, AT) on behalf of the Committee on Budgetary Control. As is the case for all EU agencies, Parliament's Resolution is divided into two parts: part one contains general comments on EU agencies, while part two focuses on the specific case of the Agency.1) General comments on the majority of EU agencies: the Parliament notes that the budgets of the 24 agencies and other satellite bodies audited by the Court of Auditors totalled more than EUR 1 billion and that the number of agencies is constantly increasing. The number of agencies subject to the discharge procedure evolved from 8 in 2000 to 20 in 2006. It concludes therefore that the auditing/discharge process has become cumbersome and disproportionate compared to the relative size of the agencies and that, in the future, this type of procedure should be simplified and rationalised for decentralised agencies.On the basis of the financial analysis, the Parliament is of the following opinion:Fundamental considerations: given the constantly increasing number of agencies, the Parliament requests that, before the creation of a new agency, the Commission provide clear explanations regarding agency type, objectives of the agency, internal governance structure, products, services, clients and stakeholders of the agency, formal relationship with external actors, budget responsibility, financial planning, and personnel and staffing policy. It also requests that each agency be governed by a yearly performance agreement which should contain the main objectives for the coming year and that the performance of the agencies be regularly audited by the Court of Auditors (and extend the financial analysis of expenditure to also cover administrative efficiency and effectiveness). More generally, the Parliament takes the view that, in the case of agencies, which are continually overestimating their respective budget needs, technical abatement should be made on the basis of vacant posts in order to reduce the assigned revenue for the agencies and therefore also lower administrative costs of the EU. It recalls that it is a serious problem that a number of agencies is criticised for not following rules on public procurement, the Financial Regulation, the Staff Regulations etc., and considers that the principal reason for this is that most regulations and the Financial Regulation are designed for bigger institutions rather than for small agencies. Therefore, it is necessary to seek a rapid solution in order to enhance the effectiveness of the legislation by grouping the administrative functions of various agencies together or by establishing implementing rules which are better adapted to the agencies. The Parliament also insists that the Commission, when drafting the Preliminary Draft Budget, take into consideration the results of budget implementation by the individual agencies in former years and revise the budget requested by the particular agency accordingly. If the Commission does not undertake this revision, the Parliament invites the competent committee to revise, itself, the budget in question to a realistic level. At the same time, the Parliament recalls that it expects the Commission to present every five years a study on the added value of every existing agency and to not hesitate to close an agency if it is deemed useless by the analysis. Such an assessment is expected as soon as possible given that this type of assessment has yet to be presented. Furthermore, the Parliament insists that recommendations of the Court of Auditors should be promptly implemented and the level of subsidies paid to the agencies should be aligned with their real cash requirements. Presentation of reporting data: noting that there is no standard approach among the agencies with regard to the presentation of information, the Parliament recalls that it already invited the directors of the agencies to accompany their annual activity report with a declaration of assurance concerning the legality and regularity of operations, similar to the declarations signed by the Directors General of the Commission. It therefore asks the Commission to amend its standing instructions to the agencies and to produce a harmonised model for presenting information, including: i) an annual report intended for a general readership on the body's operations, work and achievements; ii) financial statements and a report on implementation of the agency’s budget; iii) an activity report of the Directors of the agency (as requested by the Parliament since 2005); iv) a declaration of assurance signed by the body's director. General findings by the Court of Auditors: the Parliament refers to certain recurring findings by the Court, including the disbursement of subsidies paid by the Commission (not sufficiently justified estimates of the agencies' cash requirements), the non implementation of the ABAC accounting system by some agencies or the accrued charges for untaken leave which are accounted for by some agencies. It calls for rapid measures in these areas as well as improvements to the internal audit procedures of the agencies. The Parliament also calls on the agencies to consider an inter-agency disciplinary board, as some individual agencies have difficulty in setting up their own disciplinary boards due to their size. Draft inter-institutional agreement: the Parliament recalls the Commission's draft Interinstitutional agreement on the operating framework for the European regulatory agencies (see ACI/2005/2035), which was intended to create a framework for the creation, structure, operation, evaluation and control of the European regulatory agencies and awaits its adoption as soon as possible. It particularly welcomes the Commission's commitment to bring forward a Communication on the future of the regulatory agencies during the course of 2008.2) Specific points concerning the European Environment Agency: while, on the whole, the Parliament commends the Agency’s activities, it notes, however, that a considerable amount of budget appropriations for operating activities was carried over to the financial year 2007, due in part to the late receipt of funding for the Corine programme (Global Monitoring for the Environment and Security – GMES). It, therefore, criticises the Agency’s non-respect of the budgetary principle of annuality. Similarly, the Parliament regrets certain malfunctions in the Agency’s control system, which did not clearly segregate the duties of the authorising officer and the accountant.On the budgetary front, the Parliament points out that the Agency had an accumulated surplus of EUR 4 241 797 at 31 December 2006 and that, furthermore, according to its report on budgetary and financial management, the Agency is entitled to receive EUR 3.3 million from the Commission corresponding to an underpayment of subsidies for the financial years 1994 to 2005.Regarding recruitment, the Parliament notes that one-third of the staff is of a single nationality. It, therefore, expects the Agency to improve the balance in and diversity of staffing.Lastly, the Parliament commends the Agency for the publication of its “balanced scorecard” annexed to its annual report, and believes that other agencies should follow suit.

• 2008/04/03 Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
  • A6-0122/2008
• 2008/03/26 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
• #2847
• 2008/02/12 Council Meeting
• 2007/10/25 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 2007/03/30 Non-legislative basic document published
  • SEC(2007)1055 summary

    PURPOSE: presentation of the final accounts of the European Environment Agency for the financial year 2006. CONTENT: this document sets out a detailed account of the implementation of the 2006 budget, including the revenue and expenditure and the balance sheet for the year concerned.According to this document, the final budget amounted to EUR 37.1 million (compared to EUR 32.1 million in 2005) representing a 75% Community subsidy.As regards the staffing policy, the Agency, whose head office is in Copenhagen (Denmark), officially set out 115 posts in its establishment plan. 110 of these posts are currently occupied with + 47 other posts (auxiliary contracts, seconded national experts, local and employment-agency staff) assigned to operational, administrative and mixed tasks. In 2006, staff expenditure amounted to EUR 15.692 million.The Agency’s main activities concentrated on the following : launch of Prelude (PRospective Environmental analysis of Land Use Development in Europe);update of the European Pollutant Emission Register (EPER);publication of reports on, inter alia, transport and the environment, agriculture and the environment, energy and the environment, bioenergy, air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, the state of Europe’s coasts, urban spread and the management of natural resources;seminars organised under the Presidency of the Council;assistance with data harmonisation;management of the Eionet (European Environment Information and Observation Network).The complete version of the final accounts may be found at the following address: http://www.eea.europa.eu/documents

  • DG {'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/budget/', 'title': 'Budget'}, KALLAS Siim

Documents

• Non-legislative basic document published: SEC(2007)1055
• Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A6-0122/2008
• Results of vote in Parliament: Results of vote in Parliament
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T6-0150/2008

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)