Activites

• 2014/09/05 Final act published in Official Journal
• 2014/04/03 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T7-0312/2014 summary

    The European Parliament adopted a decision concerning the discharge to be granted to the Executive Director of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in respect of the implementation of the Authority's budget for the financial year 2012. The vote on the discharge decision approved the closure of the accounts (in accordance with Annex VI, Article 5(1) of the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament. Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the annual accounts of the Authority for the financial year 2012 are reliable, and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Parliament adopted by 510 votes to 70, with 14 abstentions, a resolution containing a series of recommendations that form an integral part of the discharge decision and as well as the general recommendations that appear in the draft resolution on performance, financial management and control of EU agencies. These recommendations are summarised as follows: Reliability of the accounts: Parliament noted that the Court of Auditors found, in its annual audit report for 2012, that the validation of the accounting systems by the Authority’s accounting officer covers the central ABAC and SAP systems, but not the local systems and the reliability of data exchanges between central and local systems, which represents a risk as to the reliability of accounting data. It acknowledged that the risk did not materialise in the use of inaccurate data by the Authority's accounting officer; expects the Authority, however, to integrate its local systems in the validation process by its accounting officer. Budget and financial management: Parliament noted that budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2012 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 99.30% and that the payment appropriations execution rate was 88%. It acknowledged that the relocation of the Authority to its new premises generated savings amounting to EUR 3.94 million and that that amount was reallocated to operational activities. Commitments and carryovers: Parliament noted that carryovers were high. It acknowledged that a high amount of carry-overs were made for reasons beyond the Authority’s control. They recalled that the Authority should respect the principle of annuality. Prevention and management of conflicts of interests and transparency: Parliament believed that the procedure for assessing possible conflicts of interest at the Authority, where declarations of interest are screened by Heads of Unit and are generally assessed on a case by case basis, is burdensome and is subject to criticism, raising questions about its credibility and effectiveness. It called on the Authority to come up with a simplified procedure with less uncertainty which would validate and streamline the process and save both human resources and money without, however, jeopardising the newly set standards for the detection and prevention of conflicts of interests. It also noted with concern that the Authority applies a less stringent conflicts of interest policy to experts from food safety organisations (FSOs), as the list which the Authority uses to indicate these FSOs includes institutes that are nominated by Member States and cofinanced by private or undisclosed partners, creating a possible loophole. Parliament considered that the Authority should apply a two-year cooling-off period to all material interests related to the commercial agrifood sector, including research funding, consultancy contracts and decision-making positions in industry-captured organisations. The Authority should ask experts to declare whether their interests were remunerated or not. Current practice of experts anonymising their interests, for instance by using the expression “private company”, should not be accepted by the Authority. It stated that the current declarations of interests forms could be further improved. In addition, it believed that that list should be revised by excluding organisations which receive more than 50% of their funding from sources other than public sources, in order to avoid undue influence. Performance: Parliament requested that the Authority communicate the results and impact its work has on European citizens in an accessible way, mainly through its website. Lastly, Parliament also made a series of observations on transfers, procurement and recruitment procedures as well as comments on internal controls.

• 2014/04/02 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2014/03/21 Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
  • A7-0219/2014 summary

    The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Petri SARVAMAA (EPP, FI) in which it recommended the European Parliament to grant discharge to the Executive Director of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in respect of the implementation of the Authority's budget for the financial year 2012. Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the annual accounts of the Authority for the financial year 2012 are reliable, and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Members approved the closure of EFSA’s accounts. They made, however, a number of recommendations that needed 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. Budget and financial management: Members noted that budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2012 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 99.30% and that the payment appropriations execution rate was 88%.  They acknowledged that the relocation of the Authority to its new premises generated savings amounting to EUR 3.94 million and that that amount was reallocated to operational activities. Commitments and carryovers: Members noted that carryovers were high. They acknowledged that a high amount of carry-overs were made for reasons beyond the Authority’s control. They recalled that the Authority should respect the principle of annuality. Prevention and management of conflicts of interests and transparency: Members believed that the procedure for assessing possible conflicts of interest at the Authority, where declarations of interest are screened by Heads of Unit and are generally assessed on a case by case basis, is burdensome and is subject to criticism, raising questions about its credibility and effectiveness. They called on the Authority to come up with a simplified procedure with less uncertainty which would validate and streamline the process and save both human resources and money without, however, jeopardising the newly set standards for the detection and prevention of conflicts of interests. Members noted with concern that the Authority applies a less stringent conflicts of interest policy to experts from food safety organisations (FSOs), as the list which the Authority uses to indicate these FSOs includes institutes that are nominated by Member States and cofinanced by private or undisclosed partners, creating a possible loophole. They considered that the Authority should apply a two-year cooling-off period to all material interests related to the commercial agrifood sector, including research funding, consultancy contracts and decision-making positions in industry-captured organisations. The Authority should ask experts to declare whether their interests were remunerated or not. Current practice of experts anonymising their interests, for instance by using the expression “private company”, should not be accepted by the Authority. They stated that the current declarations of interests forms could be further improved. Lastly, Members also made a series of observations on transfers, procurement and recruitment procedures as well as comments on internal controls.

• 2014/03/17 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
• 2013/10/22 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 2013/07/26 Non-legislative basic document published
  • COM(2013)0570 summary

    PURPOSE: presentation by the Commission of the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2012, as part of the 2012 discharge procedure. Analysis of the accounts of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). CONTENT: this Commission document sets out the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2012 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 Food Safety Authority (EFSA). In 2012, the tasks and budget of this agency were as follows: description of EFSA's tasks: EFSA, which is located in Parma, was established by Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council. Its main aim is to provide scientific opinions and scientific and technical support for the legislation and policies which have a direct or indirect impact on food and feed safety; EFSA's budget for the 2012 financial year: the Authority’s budget for 2012, as presented in the Commission document on the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union, gives the following figures: §         Commitment appropriations : - committed : EUR 79 million; - paid : EUR 78 million; - carried-over : 0. §         Payment appropriations : - committed : EUR 90 million; - paid : EUR 80 million; - carried-over : EUR 9 million. Please refer also to the final accounts of the EFSA.

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

Documents

• Non-legislative basic document published: COM(2013)0570
• Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A7-0219/2014
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T7-0312/2014

Amendments

Dossier

31

2013/2220(DEC) 2013/12/18 ENVI 9 amendments... Amendment 1 # Jutta HAUG Draft opinion Paragraph 1 1. Notes that in 2012 an amount of EUR 78.3 million have been made available to the European Food Safety Authority through the General EU budget; likes to stress that this amount representes 0.056% of the overall EU budget; takes note that 342 posts out of 355 had been filled by the end of 2012 and that 124 contract agents and seconded national experts were employed by the Authority; acknowledges the improved occupation rate compared to 2011; Amendment 2 # Anna ROSBACH Draft opinion Paragraph 3 3. RecogniStresses the three comments made by the Court of Auditors which focus on the reliability of accounting data, on internal controls and on budgetary management; is at the same time also aware of the Authority's reply; welcomes the Authority's comprehensive self-assessment of its internal control system in 2012, a process which is still on-going; notes further that carry-overs amounting to EUR 4.03 have been in conformity with the management plan or were related to payments suspended for reasons beyond the Authority's control; draws attention to additional carry-overs amounting to EUR 3.87 million for which a better budgetary management is required to be in conformity with the annuality principle; Amendment 3 # Julie GIRLING Draft opinion Paragraph 3 3. RecogniStresses the three comments made by the Court of Auditors which focus on the reliability of accounting data, on internal controls and on budgetary management; is at the same time also aware of the Authority's reply; welcomes the Authority's comprehensive self-assessment of its internal control system in 2012, a process which is still on-going; notes further that carry-overs amounting to EUR 4.03 have been in conformity with the management plan or were related to payments suspended for reasons beyond the Authority's control; draws attention to additional carry-overs amounting to EUR 3.87 million for which a better budgetary management is required to be in conformity with the annuality principle; Amendment 4 # Anna ROSBACH Draft opinion Paragraph 3 a (new) 3a. Believes that the discharge decision should be based upon OECD guidelines to ensure high quality internationally recognised accounting, audit and financial disclosure standards; invites the European institutions to incorporate and commit to introducing OECD guidelines within a common framework for all European institutions and bodies; Amendment 5 # Julie GIRLING Draft opinion Paragraph 3 a (new) 3a. Believes that the discharge decision should be based upon OECD guidelines to ensure high quality internationally recognised accounting, audit and financial disclosure standards; invites the European institutions to incorporate and commit to introducing OECD guidelines within a common framework for all European institutions and bodies; Amendment 6 # Anna ROSBACH Draft opinion Paragraph 4 4. Is especially aware of the public interest in the decision-making process within the Authority, which is done within its legal role and responsibilities; welcomnotes that the Authority is dedicating 70% of its human resources to scientific activities, evaluation and data collection; heartens the Authority to further progress on this path; Amendment 7 # Julie GIRLING Draft opinion Paragraph 4 4. Is especially aware of the public interest in the decision-making process within the Authority, which is done within its legal role and responsibilities; welcomnotes that the Authority is dedicating 70% of its human resources to scientific activities, evaluation and data collection; heartenencourages the Authority to further progress on this path; Amendment 8 # Anna ROSBACH Draft opinion Paragraph 6 6. Recommends on the facts available that discharge canshould not be granted to the Executive Director of the European Food Safety Authority in respect of the implementation of the Authority’s budget for the financial year 2012. Amendment 9 # Julie GIRLING Draft opinion Paragraph 6 6. Recommends on the facts available that discharge canshould not be granted to the Executive Director of the European Food Safety Authority in respect of the implementation of the Authority’s budget for the financial year 2012. source: PE-526.143 2014/02/25 CONT 22 amendments... Amendment 1 # Petri SARVAMAA Proposal for a decision 1 Paragraph 1 1. Grants the Executive Director of the European Food Safety Authority discharge in respect of the implementation of the Authority's budget for the financial year 2012 / Postpones its decision on granting the Executive Director of the European Food Safety Authority discharge in respect of the implementation of the Authority's budget for the financial year 2012; Amendment 10 # Monica MACOVEI Motion for a resolution Paragraph 3 3. Notes that budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2012 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 99,30 % and that the payment appropriations execution rate was 88,00 %; notes that in comparison with 2011, the amounts committed and paid out in 2012 increased by 2,1 % and 8, 6 % respectively ; Amendment 11 # Monica MACOVEI Motion for a resolution Paragraph 3 a (new) 3a. Acknowledges that the relocation of the Authority to its new premises generated savings of EUR 3,94 million which were reallocated to operational activities such as scientific cooperation and the recruitment of scientific staff; Amendment 12 # Rina Ronja KARI Motion for a resolution Paragraph 9 9. Believes that the procedure for assessing possible conflicts of interests at the Authority, where declarations of interest are screened by Heads of Unit and are generally assessed on a case by case basis, is burdensome and is subject to criticism, raising questions about its credibility and effectiveness; notes with concern that even a revised procedure has not helped dispel fears about the Authority’s expert impartiality; calls on the Authority to come up with a simplified procedure with less uncertainty which would validate and streamline the process and save both human resources and money without, however, jeopardising the newly set standards for the detection and prevention of conflicts of interests; Amendment 13 # Ryszard CZARNECKI, Andrea ČEŠKOVÁ, Marta ANDREASEN, Derk Jan EPPINK, Philip BRADBOURN Motion for a resolution Paragraph 9 9. Believes that the procedure for assessing possible conflicts of interests at the Authority, where declarations of interest are screened by Heads of Unit and are generally assessed on a case by case basis, is overly burdensome and is subject to criticism, raising questions aboutserious concerns regarding its credibility and effectiveness; notes withexpresses serious concern that even a revised procedure has not helped dispel fears about the Authority’s expert impartiality; calls ondemands that the Authority to come up with a simplified procedure with less uncertainty which would validate and streamline the process and save both human resources and money; Amendment 14 # Bart STAES Motion for a resolution Paragraph 9 9. Believes that the procedure for assessing possible conflicts of interest at the Authority, where declarations of interests are screened by Heads of Unit and are generally assessed on a case by case basis, is burdensome and is subject to criticism, raising questions about its credibility and effectiveness; notes with concern that even a revised procedure has not helped dispel fears about the Authority’s expert impartiality; calls on the Authority to come up with a simplified procedure with less uncertainty which would validate and streamline the process and save both human resources and money before October 2014; Amendment 15 # Rina Ronja KARI Motion for a resolution Paragraph 9 a (new) 9a. Welcomes the progress made by the Authority on its conflicts of interests policy; calls on the Authority to continue its work on this matter and to dedicate sufficient resources and staff to this matter and to consider appointing specialised staff for the screening work on conflicts of interests; Amendment 16 # Bart STAES Motion for a resolution Paragraph 10 a (new) 10a. Believes that the Authority should apply a five-year cooling-off period to all material interests related to the commercial agrifood sector, including research funding, consultancy contracts and decision-making positions in industry-captured organisations; Amendment 17 # Bart STAES Motion for a resolution Paragraph 10 b (new) 10b. Believes that financial interests in particular should be dealt with the utmost care and that experts should be asked to declare whether their interests were remunerated or not; believes that if this is the case, the amount should be specified; is of the opinion that the current practice of experts anonymising their interests, for instance by using the expression “private company”, should not be accepted by the Authority; Amendment 18 # Monica MACOVEI Motion for a resolution Paragraph 11 a (new) 11a. Acknowledges that the Authority has initiated a review of the implementation of its independence policy in the last quarter of 2013 and that the results will be available by October 2014; believes that the current declarations of interest forms could be further improved and should include information, inter alia, on: (i) whether the interest declared was remunerated, (ii) the amount of the remuneration, (iii) the participation in industry-linked conferences and the institution/person covering the expenses; Amendment 19 # Monica MACOVEI Motion for a resolution Paragraph 11 b (new) 11b. Regrets that the Management Board refused to elect its Chair and Vice-Chairs by open ballot, despite the recommendation of the discharge authority and expects further transparency in this respect in the future electing procedure; Amendment 2 # Ryszard CZARNECKI, Andrea ČEŠKOVÁ, Marta ANDREASEN, Derk Jan EPPINK, Philip BRADBOURN Proposal for a decision 1 Paragraph 1 1. Grants the Executive Director of the European Food Safety Authority discharge in respect of the implementation of the Authority's budget for the financial year 2012 / Postpones its decision on granting the Executive Director of the European Food Safety Authority discharge in respect of the implementation of the Authority's budget for the financial year 2012; Amendment 20 # Monica MACOVEI Motion for a resolution Paragraph 11 c (new) 11c. Observes that the Authority engaged in a structured dialogue with civil society on matters relating to conflicts of interests; views this development in a positive manner and calls on the Authority to hold structured dialogue regularly in the future; Amendment 21 # Gerben-Jan GERBRANDY, Jan MULDER, Chris DAVIES Motion for a resolution Subheading 8 a (new) Performance Amendment 22 # Gerben-Jan GERBRANDY, Jan MULDER, Chris DAVIES Motion for a resolution Paragraph 12 a (new) 12a. Requests that the agency communicate the results and impact its work has on European citizens in an accessible way, mainly through its website; Amendment 3 # Bart STAES Proposal for a decision 1 Paragraph 1 1. Grants the Executive Director of the European Food Safety Authority discharge in respect of the implementation of the Authority's budget for the financial year 2012 / Postpones its decision on granting the Executive Director of the European Food Safety Authority discharge in respect of the implementation of the Authority's budget for the financial year 2012; Amendment 4 # Karin KADENBACH Proposal for a decision 1 Paragraph 1 1. Grants the Executive Director of the European Food Safety Authority discharge in respect of the implementation of the Authority's budget for the financial year 2012 / Postpones its decision on granting the Executive Director of the European Food Safety Authority discharge in respect of the implementation of the Authority's budget for the financial year 2012; Amendment 5 # Ryszard CZARNECKI, Andrea ČEŠKOVÁ, Marta ANDREASEN, Derk Jan EPPINK Proposal for a decision 2 Paragraph 1 1. Approves the closure of the accounts of the European Food Safety Authority for the financial year 2012 / Postpones its decision on the closure of the accounts of the European Food Safety Authority for the financial year 2012; Amendment 6 # Petri SARVAMAA Proposal for a decision 2 Paragraph 1 1. Approves the closure of the accounts of the European Food Safety Authority for the financial year 2012 / Postpones its decision on the closure of the accounts of the European Food Safety Authority for the financial year 2012; Amendment 7 # Karin KADENBACH Proposal for a decision 2 Paragraph 1 1. Approves the closure of the accounts of the European Food Safety Authority for the financial year 2012 / Postpones its decision on the closure of the accounts of the European Food Safety Authority for the financial year 2012; Amendment 8 # Elena BĂSESCU Motion for a resolution Citation 10 a (new) – having regard to the previous discharge reports of the Parliament, Amendment 9 # Monica MACOVEI Motion for a resolution Recital A A. whereas according to its financial statements, the final budget of the European Food Safety Authority (‘the Authority’) for the financial year 2012 was EUR 78 279 000, representing an increase of 1,25 % compared to 2011; whereas the Authority's entire budget derives from the Union budget, source: PE-521.768

History

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