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 (GSA).

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 GNSS Agency (GSA).

In 2012, the tasks and budget of this Authority were as follows:

• description of the Authority's tasks: the GNSS Supervisory Authority was set up by Council Regulation (EC) No 1321/2004 and its main task is to manage the public interests relating to the European GNSS programmes and to act as the regulatory authority for the programme during the deployment and operational phases of the Galileo Programme. Regulation (EC) No 683/2008 of the European Parliament and the Council reduced the responsibilities of the Authority to the control of the security of Galileo systems and to the preparation of their commercialisation. In 2012, the GSA’s headquarters was relocated to Prague, Czech Republic. Part of the GSA staff remained located in Brussels awaiting relocation to other GSA sites in France and UK in 2013;
• GNSS' 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 106 million;

- paid : EUR 58 million;

- carried-over : EUR 47 million.

§         Payment appropriations :

- committed : EUR 55 million;

- paid : EUR 33 million;

- carried-over : EUR 22 million.

Please refer also to the final accounts of the GSA.