PURPOSE: to grant discharge to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in respect of the implementation of its budget for the financial year 2010.

NON-LEGISLATIVE ACT: Decision 2012/572/EU of the European Parliament on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) for the financial year 2010.

CONTENT: with the present decision, and in accordance with Article 319 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the European Parliament grants discharge to the Director of the Centre in respect of the implementation of its budget for the financial year 2010.

This decision is in line with the European Parliament's resolution adopted on 10 May 2012 and comprises a series of observations that form an integral part of the discharge decision (please refer to the summary of the opinion of 10/05/2012).

A parallel decision, 2012/573/EU, adopted on the same day, approves the closure of the Centre's accounts for the 2010 financial year.

The European Parliament adopted a decision to grant the Director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control discharge in respect of the implementation of the Centre's budget for the financial year 2010. This decision also approves the closure of the Agency’s accounts.

Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the annual accounts of the Centre for the financial year 2010 are reliable and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Parliament adopted a resolution containing a series of recommendations that need to be taken into account when the discharge is granted, in addition to the general recommendations that appear in the draft resolution on performance, financial management and control of EU agencies.

These recommendations may be summarised as follows:

Financial Management : Parliament acknowledges from the final annual accounts of the Centre for the financial year 2010 that its budget execution rate reached 95% in terms of commitment appropriations. It is however concerned that the budget execution rate in terms of payments only reached 68 % of its total budget. Further efforts need to be made by the Centre in this respect. Members underline that the implementation of payment credits improved to 92.7% which represents an amount of unused credits of EUR 3.8 million and that this under-execution is related to the fact that the Centre has limited its request of payment credits in order to reduce the amount of cash in its bank account at year end; Carryover appropriations : Parliament states that an amount of EUR 15.6 million, equivalent to 27% of the total budget was carried forward to 2011. It urges once more the Centre to promptly redress the deficiencies found by the Court of Auditors on carryovers and stress that a high level of carryovers has a negative impact on the implementation of the budget; Procurement : Parliament observes from its AAR that the procurement office dealt with 50 open procedures and 18 negotiated procedures as well as 8 calls for proposals. It calls on the Centre to provide the discharge authority with the results of each of the procurement procedures; Human Resources : Parliament urges the Centre to put in place sufficient measures to guarantee the transparency of its recruitment procedures. It is concerned about the Court of Auditors’ findings: neither the thresholds that candidates had to meet in order to be invited to the interview, nor those necessary to be put on the reserve list were fixed in advance. This could cover up a situation of nepotism or conflict of interests. Members ascertain that the turnover rate for temporary agents and contract agents was 7% in 2010;

Performance : Parliament acknowledges that the Centre is now working with its partners to implement changes on the basis of lessons learned from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, in order to further improve the performance of the Centre for the future; Internal audit : Members note that according to the report on budgetary and financial management, a review of the implementation of the Internal Control System was carried out. They urge the Centre to promptly take action in this respect and inform the discharge authority of the stage of implementation of these standards. Members acknowledge also from the Centre that at the end of 2010 the IAS audit reported no critical findings.

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Monica Luisa MACOVEI (EPP, RO) on discharge to be granted to the Director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control discharge in respect of the implementation of the Centre's budget for the financial year 2010.

Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the annual accounts of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control for the financial year 2010 are reliable and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Members approve the closure of the Centre’s accounts. However, they make a number of recommendations that need to be taken into account when the discharge is granted, in addition to the general recommendations that appear in the draft resolution on performance, financial management and control of EU agencies:

Financial Management : Members acknowledge from the final annual accounts of the Centre for the financial year 2010 that its budget execution rate reached 95% in terms of commitment appropriations. They are however concerned that the budget execution rate in terms of payments only reached 68 % of its total budget. Further efforts need to be made by the Centre in this respect. They underline that the implementation of payment credits improved to 92.7% which represents an amount of unused credits of EUR 3.8 million and that this underexecution is related to the fact that the Centre has limited its request of payment credits in order to reduce the amount of cash in its bank account at year end; Carryover appropriations : Members state that an amount of EUR 15.6 million, equivalent to 27% of the total budget was carried forward to 2011. They urge once more the Centre to promptly redress the deficiencies found by the Court of Auditors on carryovers and stress that a high level of carryovers has a negative impact on the implementation of the budget; Human Resources : Members urge the Centre to put in place sufficient measures to guarantee the transparency of its recruitment procedures. They are concerned about the Court of Auditors’ findings: neither the thresholds that candidates had to meet in order to be invited to the interview, nor those necessary to be put on the reserve list were fixed in advance. This could cover up a situation of nepotism or conflict of interests. Members ascertain that the turnover rate for temporary agents and contract agents was 7% in 2010; Internal audit : Members note that according to the report on budgetary and financial management, a review of the implementation of the Internal Control System was carried out. They urge the Centre to promptly take action in this respect and inform the discharge authority of the stage of implementation of these standards. Members acknowledge also from the Centre that at the end of 2010 the IAS audit reported no critical findings.

Having examined the revenue and expenditure accounts for the financial year 2010 and the balance sheet at 31 December 2010 of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, as well as the Court of Auditors' report on the annual accounts of the Centre for the financial year 2010, accompanied by the Centre's replies to the Court's observations, 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 2010.

However, the Council considers that observations made in the Court of Auditor's report call for a certain number of remarks:

the Council welcomes the Court's opinion that, in all material respects, the Centre's annual accounts fairly present the financial position as at 31 December 2010 and the results of operations and cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with the provisions of the Centre's Financial Regulation, and that the underlying transactions for that financial year are legal and regular; as in the previous year, the Council notes with concern that the level of carry-overs still remains high. Therefore, it urges the Centre to intensify its efforts to improve its planning and implementation of the budget , in line with the budgetary principle of annuality; it calls on the Centre to correct the weaknesses identified in its staff selection procedures, stressing the importance of ensuring transparency in the recruitment process .

PURPOSE: presentation of the EU Court of Auditors’ report on the annual accounts of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, together with the Centre's replies.

CONTENT: in accordance with the tasks conferred on the Court of Auditors by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the Court presents to the European Parliament and to the Council, in the context of the discharge procedure, a Statement of Assurance as to the reliability of the annual accounts of each institution, body or agency of the EU, and the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying them, on the basis of an independent external audit.

This audit concerned, amongst others, the annual accounts of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

In the Court's opinion, the Centre's Annual Accounts fairly present, in all material respects, its financial position as of 31 December 2010 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with the provisions of its Financial Regulation.

It considers that the transactions underlying the annual accounts of the Centre for the financial year ended 31 December 2010 are, in all material respects, legal and regular .

The report confirms that the Centre’s 2010 budget amounted to EUR 57.8 million and that the number of staff employed at the end of the year was 254.

The report also makes a series of observations on the budgetary and financial management of the Centre, accompanied by the latter’s response. The main observations may be summarised as follows:

The Court’s observations :

financial and budgetary management: in 2010, an amount of EUR 15.6 million, equivalent to 27% of the total budget. For the Court, this high level of carry-forward, matched by a low level of accrued expenditure (EUR 5.5 million), is excessive and at odds with the budgetary principle of annuality; recruitment: with regard to staff selection procedures, neither the thresholds that candidates had to meet in order to be invited to the interview nor those necessary to be put on the reserve list were fixed in advance. According to the Court, these practices put at risk the transparency of the recruitment procedures.

The Centre’s replies : T

the Centre notes that it has reduced the carry-forward of Title III — Operational expenditure by 10 %, compared to 2009. Nevertheless, the Centre acknowledges the necessity to further reduce the rate of carry-forward as much as it is possible; the Centre has taken note of the Court’s observations and is reviewing its selection procedure to increase its transparency.

Lastly, the Court of Auditors’ report contains a summary of the Centre’s activities in 2010. This is focused on the following:

threats monitored using the threat tracking tool (TTT) and weekly threat reports on communicable diseases; provision of support to epidemic intelligence for large mass-gathering events; simulation exercises for testing and improving preparedness and response to communicable diseases; implementation of a European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET); thousands of visitors on ECDC web portal; the Third European Antibiotic Awareness Day organised, with the participation of 36 countries; integration into ECDC of 11 of the 17 dedicated surveillance networks at the end of 2010; ECDC related articles published across 49 countries worldwide.

PURPOSE: presentation by the Commission of the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2010, as part of the 2010 discharge procedure.0

Analysis of the accounts of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

CONTENT: this Commission document sets out the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2010 as prepared on the basis of the information presented by the institutions, organisations and bodies of the EU, in accordance with Article 129 (2) of the Financial Regulation applicable to the EU's General Budget, including the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

In 2010, the tasks and budget of this agency were as follows:

description of the Centre's tasks : the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, which is located in Stockholm, was set up by Regulation (EC) No 851/2004 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 diseases and to provide scientific opinions on this subject. It is also required to coordinate the European network of bodies operating in this field ; the Centre's budget for the 2010 financial year : the Centre's 2010 budget amounted to EUR 57.8 million, compared with EUR 51 million the previous year. The number of staff employed by the Centre at the end of the year was 254, as compared with 199 the previous year.

The complete version of the Centre's final accounts may be found at the following address: http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/aboutus/key_documents/Pages/key_documents.aspx

PURPOSE: presentation by the Commission of the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2010, as part of the 2010 discharge procedure.0

Analysis of the accounts of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

CONTENT: this Commission document sets out the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2010 as prepared on the basis of the information presented by the institutions, organisations and bodies of the EU, in accordance with Article 129 (2) of the Financial Regulation applicable to the EU's General Budget, including the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

In 2010, the tasks and budget of this agency were as follows:

description of the Centre's tasks : the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, which is located in Stockholm, was set up by Regulation (EC) No 851/2004 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 diseases and to provide scientific opinions on this subject. It is also required to coordinate the European network of bodies operating in this field ; the Centre's budget for the 2010 financial year : the Centre's 2010 budget amounted to EUR 57.8 million, compared with EUR 51 million the previous year. The number of staff employed by the Centre at the end of the year was 254, as compared with 199 the previous year.

The complete version of the Centre's final accounts may be found at the following address: http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/aboutus/key_documents/Pages/key_documents.aspx