Activites

• 2013/04/17 Vote in plenary scheduled
• 2013/04/16 Indicative plenary sitting date, 1st reading/single reading
• 2013/03/19 Vote scheduled in committee, 1st reading/single reading
• 2013/02/27 Amendments tabled in committee
  • PE497.881
• 2013/02/01 Document attached to the procedure
  • 05753/2013 summary

    Having examined the revenue and expenditure accounts for the financial year 2011 and the balance sheet at 31 December 2011 of the European Maritime Safety Agency, as well as the Court of Auditors' report on the annual accounts of the Agency for the financial year 2011, accompanied by the Agency's replies to the Court's observations, the Council recommends the European Parliament to give a discharge to the Executive Director of the Agency in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2011. The observations in the Court of Auditors' report in relation to the financial year 2011 call for some comments by the Council, which may be summarised as follows: the Council welcomes the Court's opinion that, in all material respects, the Agency's annual accounts present fairly its financial position as at 31 December 2011 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with the provisions of the Agency's Financial Regulation, and that the underlying transactions for that financial year are legal and regular; nevertheless, it urges the Agency to improve its internal budgetary procedures in order to ensure the adequate decommitment of appropriations not related to any existing legal obligation. The Council regrets that the Court detected important deficiencies in the Agency's asset management and urges the Agency to continue to review its procedures and to implement the necessary improvements; lastly, the Council encourages the Agency to pursue its efforts to address the shortcomings detected by the Court in its staff recruitment procedures.

• 2013/01/28 Committee draft report
  • PE497.833
• 2012/09/13 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 2012/09/11 Court of Auditors: opinion, report
  • OJ C 388 15.12.2012, p. 0129
  • N7-0024/2013 summary

    PURPOSE: presentation of the EU Court of Auditors’ report on the annual accounts of the European Maritime Safety Agency for the financial year 2011, together with the Agency’s reply. 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 Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). In the Court’s opinion, the Agency’s Annual Accounts fairly present, in all material respects, its financial position as of 31 December 2011 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with the provisions of its Financial Regulation. The Court also considers that the transactions underlying the annual accounts of the Agency for the financial year ended 31 December 2011 are, in all material respects, legal and regular. The report confirms that the Agency’s 2011 budget amounted to EUR 56.4 million and that the number of staff employed by the Agency at the end of the year was 252. The report also makes a series of observations on the budgetary and financial management of the Agency, accompanied by the latter’s response. The main observations may be summarised as follows: Court’s comments: budget commitments: the Court states that budget commitments were not related to existing legal commitments and the Agency should have decommitted and paid back the amount to the Commission at the beginning of 2012; assets: the Court identified the need to improve the Agency’s asset management. There are unexplained differences between the recorded annual and cumulated depreciation. For internally created intangible assets, accounting procedures and information on costs are not reliable; recruitment: the Court stresses the need to improve the transparency of recruitment procedures. Agency’s replies: the Agency states that it will review its year end procedures in order to ensure outstanding balances on commitments not related to existing legal obligations are decommitted before the closing of the year; differences between recorded annual and cumulated depreciation have been mainly triggered by impairment procedures and inclusion of assets transferred from third parties and already partly depreciated. Guidelines for internally generated intangible assets are being updated along with a proper cost allocation based on "formally accepted milestones" and their related percentage of completion; EMSA endorses the Court's recommendations and has already updated its recruitment procedures accordingly. Lastly, the Court of Auditors’ report contains a summary of the Agency’s activities in 2011. This is focused on the following: organising workshops and other events; training sessions for Port State Control officers; inspections et visits; SafeSeaNet (available 99.4% of time 2010) ; ordering 2 481 satellite images and analysed through CleanSeaNet ; EU Long Range Identification and Tracking Data Centre (LRIT) was available during 99.36% of time throughout the year; 64 drills and 16 exercises with the anti-pollution vessels; EMSA Maritime Support Services operating on a 24/7 basis; THETIS, the information system in support of the new Port State Control inspection 99.07% available throughout the year.

• 2012/07/25 Non-legislative basic document
  • COM(2012)0436 summary

    PURPOSE: presentation by the Commission of the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2011, as part of the 2011 discharge procedure. Analysis of the accounts of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). CONTENT: this Commission document sets out the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2011 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 Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). In 2011, the tasks and budget of this agency were as follows: description of EMSA's tasks: the Agency, which is located in Lisbon, was established by was set up by Regulation (EC) No 1406/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council and its tasks are to ensure a high level of maritime safety and to prevent pollution by ships, provide the Commission and the Member States with technical assistance, and monitor the implementation of Union legislation, as well as to evaluate its effectiveness; EMSA's budget for the 2011 financial year: the Agency’s budget for 2011, as presented in the Commission document on the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union, gives the following figures: forecasted income budget: EUR 57 million; entitlements established: EUR 53 million; amounts received: EUR 53 million; outstanding: EUR 0 million EUR. The complete version of the Agency's final accounts may be found at the following address: http://emsa.europa.eu/emsa-documents/financial-documents.html

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

Documents

• Non-legislative basic document published: COM(2012)0436
• Committee draft report: PE497.833
• Court of Auditors: opinion, report: OJ C 388 15.12.2012, p. 0129
• Court of Auditors: opinion, report: N7-0024/2013
• Document attached to the procedure: 05753/2013
• Amendments tabled in committee: PE497.881

Amendments

Dossier

14

2012/2193(DEC) 2012/12/13 TRAN 3 amendments... Amendment 1 # Isabelle DURANT, Eva LICHTENBERGER Draft opinion Paragraph 1 a (new) 1a. Demands that the European Commission scrutinise and prohibit possible conflicts of interest when the Agency hires experts and staff from the sector it supervises; Amendment 2 # Michel DANTIN Draft opinion Paragraph 3 3. Notes that the recent revision of the Agency'’s founding Regulation will give it additional tasks which can be performed more cost-effectively at the European level than at national level, hence strengthening pollution prevention in the European maritime sector; points out that this will need to be reflected in the Agency'’s future funding to avoid weakening its ability to perform its existing and future tasks efficiently and effectively; Amendment 3 # Silvia-Adriana ȚICĂU Draft opinion Paragraph 3 a (new) 3a. Draws the attention of the Agency to the need to improve its asset management as there are unexplained differences between the recorded annual and cumulated depreciation. source: PE-501.986 2013/02/27 CONT 11 amendments... Amendment 1 # Gerben-Jan GERBRANDY Proposal for a decision 1 Paragraph 1 1. ...Grants the Executive Director of the European Maritime Safety Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency's budget for the financial year 2011; Amendment 10 # Marta ANDREASEN Motion for a resolution Paragraph 6 6. Notes with concern the Court of Auditors' finding that when the Agency sold two sets of sweeping arms systems for at-sea oil recovery services in December 2011, aiming to obtain at least the equipment's net book value of EUR 319 050 , as a result of the minimum price being wrongly set below net book value, the equipment was sold at a loss of EUR 93 950; believes that as the price obtained was the result of a tender process, this should indicate that depreciation rates used may need examination; Amendment 11 # Philip BRADBOURN, Ryszard CZARNECKI, Andrea ČEŠKOVÁ, Derk Jan EPPINK Motion for a resolution Paragraph 6 6. Notes with concern the Court of Auditors' finding that when the Agency sold two sets of sweeping arms systems for at-sea oil recovery services in December 2011, aiming to obtain at least the equipment's net book value of EUR 319 050 , as a result of the minimum price being wrongly set below net book value, the equipment was sold at a loss of EUR 93 950; considers that this is unacceptable and shows lack of regard for taxpayers money; Amendment 2 # Inés AYALA SENDER Proposal for a decision 1 Paragraph 1 1. ...Grants the Executive Director of the European Maritime Safety Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency's budget for the financial year 2011; Amendment 3 # Philip BRADBOURN, Ryszard CZARNECKI Proposal for a decision 1 Paragraph 1 1. ...Postpones its decision on granting the Executive Director of the European Maritime Safety Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency's budget for the financial year 2011; Amendment 4 # Gerben-Jan GERBRANDY Proposal for a decision 2 Paragraph 1 1. ...Approves the closure of the accounts of the European Maritime Safety Agency for the financial year 2011; Amendment 5 # Inés AYALA SENDER Proposal for a decision 2 Paragraph 1 1. ...Approves the closure of the accounts of the European Maritime Safety Agency for the financial year 2011; Amendment 6 # Philip BRADBOURN, Ryszard CZARNECKI Proposal for a decision 2 Paragraph 1 1. ...Postpones the closure of the accounts of the European Maritime Safety Agency for the financial year 2011; Amendment 7 # Philip BRADBOURN, Ryszard CZARNECKI, Andrea ČEŠKOVÁ, Derk Jan EPPINK Motion for a resolution Paragraph 2 2. Notes with concern the Court of Auditors' finding that budget commitments amounting to EUR 0,9 million were not related to existing legal commitments and the Agency should have decommitted and paid back the amount to the Commission at the beginning of 2012; notes, however, that the Agency initiated the process too late and as a result, due to restrictions imposed by the IT system, the funds will be blocked for one year and will only be decommitted and paid back at the end of 2012; considers that this is unacceptable; Amendment 8 # Philip BRADBOURN, Ryszard CZARNECKI, Andrea ČEŠKOVÁ, Derk Jan EPPINK Motion for a resolution Paragraph 4 4. Regrets that the Court of Auditors identified the need to improve the Agency's asset management; it found, in particular, unexplained differences between the recorded annual and cumulated depreciation and that for internally created intangible assets, accounting procedures and information on costs were not reliable; notes that evidence of a physical inventory of administrative equipment within the required period was lacking; remarks that until the serious problems in the Agency are resolved no further extension of the Agency's competency should be considered; Amendment 9 # Marta ANDREASEN Motion for a resolution Paragraph 5 5. Acknowledges from the Agency that it has addressed all the issues concerning its asset management, in particular, in the course of 2012, detailed rules and procedures as regards asset management were developed and implemented, the correctness of the inventory was verified and, as foreseen, a full inventory of physical assets has been completed in the course of the second half of 2012; notes that the asset register supporting accrual- based accounting for assets, the Agency's tool to keep track of all its assets, has finally been fully updated; source: PE-497.881

History

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