Activites

• 2014/04/03 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T7-0335/2014 summary

    The European Parliament adopted a decision concerning the discharge to be granted to the Executive Director of the IMI Joint Undertaking discharge in respect of the implementation of the Office'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 in the Court of Auditors’ opinion, the Joint Undertaking’s annual accounts present fairly, in all material respects, its financial position as at 31 December 2012 and the results of its operations and cash flows for the year then ended, Parliament adopted by 485 votes to 62, with 15 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: Qualified opinion of Court of Auditors: Parliament was concerned that the error rate resulting from the ex post audits, performed by or on behalf of the Joint Undertaking was 5.82 %. It recognised that most of these errors were relatively small in amounts to be adjusted (less than EUR 5 000 in favour of the Joint Undertaking) and noted that steps had been taken to recover or offset these amounts from subsequent claims. It pointed out that actions taken by the Joint Undertaking to prevent and correct these errors had a bearing on the residual error rate. However, Parliament took note that the Court of Auditors issued a qualified opinion on the legality and the regularity of the transactions on that basis, underlying the annual accounts of the Joint Undertaking for the second consecutive year. Rate of utilisation and carryovers: Parliament was concerned that a high level of payment and commitment appropriations for administrative expenditure in 2012 were still unused at year end (26.81 % of commitment appropriations and 39.8 % of payment appropriations). It noted that the high level of unused appropriations of the administrative budget indicated that it was not based on realistic estimates defined through the Legislative Financial Statement. Audit rights of the Court of Auditors: Parliament was surprised to learn that the provisions of the Council Regulation setting up the Joint Undertaking do not recognise the right of the Court of Auditors to audit the in-kind contributions of EFPIA (European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations) companies, although they are recorded in the Joint Undertaking’s financial statements. It emphasised that it is estimated that these contributions will represent approximately EUR 1 billion over the Joint Undertaking's lifetime and it invited the Court of Auditors to clarify the implications of that provision in the Court of Auditors’ annual opinion on the accounts of the Joint Undertaking. Parliament went on to make a series of observations on calls for proposals, internal control systems, internal audits, and horizontal aspects of European Research Joint Undertakings. It also invited the Court of Auditors to monitor the Joint Undertaking's policies as regards the management and prevention of conflicts of interests by drafting a Special Report on the matter by the next discharge procedure. JTI: Parliament invited the Court of Auditors to comprehensively analyse the Joint Technology Initiatives (JTIs) and the other joint undertakings in a separate report in light of the substantial amounts involved and the risks- notably reputational – presented. It noted that the Joint Undertakings’ total 2012 forecasted budgeted income amounted to some EUR 2.5 billion or about 1.8 % of the 2012 Union general budget while approximately EUR 618 million came from the general budget (cash contribution from the Commission) and approximately EUR 134 million came from the industrial partners and members of the Joint Undertakings. It also recalled that the total Union contribution deemed necessary for the Joint Undertakings for their period of existence amounts to EUR 11.5 million. Parliament recalled that it had previously requested that the Court of Auditors draw up a special report on the capacity of the joint undertakings, together with their private partners, to ensure added value and efficient execution of Union research, technological development and demonstration programmes. It agreed with the Court of Auditors’ conclusion that the JTIs had been set up to support long-term industrial investment in particular research areas, but noted that it had taken on average two years to grant financial autonomy to a JTI, with the Commission usually remaining responsible for one third of the expected operational lifetime of the JTIs.

• 2014/04/02 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2014/03/20 Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
  • A7-0200/2014 summary

    The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Paul RÜBIG (EPP, AT) on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2012 and called on the European Parliament to grant the Executive Director of the IMI Joint Undertaking discharge in respect of the implementation of the Office'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 IMI for the financial year 2012 are reliable and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Members made 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: ·        Qualified opinion of Court of Auditors: Members were concerned that the error rate resulting from the ex post audits, performed by or on behalf of the Joint Undertaking was 5.82 %. They recognised that most of these errors were relatively small in amounts to be adjusted (less than EUR 5 000 in favour of the Joint Undertaking) and noted that steps had been taken to recover or offset these amounts from subsequent claims. The report pointed out that actions taken by the Joint Undertaking to prevent and correct these errors had a bearing on the residual error rate. However, Members took note that the Court of Auditors issued a qualified opinion on the legality and the regularity of the transactions on that basis, underlying the annual accounts of the Joint Undertaking for the second consecutive year. ·        Rate of utilisation and carryovers: Members were concerned that a high level of payment and commitment appropriations for administrative expenditure in 2012 were still unused at year end (26.81 % of commitment appropriations and 39.8 % of payment appropriations). They noted that the high level of unused appropriations of the administrative budget indicated that it was not based on realistic estimates defined through the Legislative Financial Statement. Members went on to make a series of observations on calls for proposals, internal control systems, internal audits, and horizontal aspects of European Research Joint Undertakings. JTI: the committee invited the Court of Auditors to comprehensively analyse the Joint Technology Initiatives (JTIs) and the other joint undertakings in a separate report in light of the substantial amounts involved and the risks- notably reputational – presented. It noted that the Joint Undertakings’ total 2012 forecasted budgeted income amounted to some EUR 2.5 billion or about 1.8 % of the 2012 Union general budget while approximately EUR 618 million came from the general budget (cash contribution from the Commission) and approximately EUR 134 million came from the industrial partners and members of the Joint Undertakings. Members recalled that Parliament had previously requested that the Court of Auditors draw up a special report on the capacity of the joint undertakings, together with their private partners, to ensure added value and efficient execution of Union research, technological development and demonstration programmes. They agreed with the Court of Auditors’ conclusion that the JTIs had been set up to support long-term industrial investment in particular research areas, but noted that it had taken on average two years to grant financial autonomy to a JTI, with the Commission usually remaining responsible for one third of the expected operational lifetime of the JTIs.

• 2014/03/18 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 Joint Technology Initiative on Innovative Medicines(IMI). 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 IMI Joint Undertaking. In 2012, the tasks and budget of the Joint Undertaking were as follows: description of the tasks of the Joint Undertaking: the IMI Joint undertaking, which is located in Brussels, was set up in 2007 by Council Regulation (EC) No 73/2008 for a period of 10 years. Its main task is to improve significantly the efficiency of the drug development, so that in the long-term, the pharmaceutical sector might produce safe and effective innovative medicine; budget of the Joint Undertaking for the 2012 financial year: the maximum indicative contribution of the Commission to cover running costs and research activities is EUR 1 billion to be paid from the budget of the Seventh Research Framework Programme. At 31 December 2012, the Commission held 78.58% of the ownership participation in IMI. Please also consult the final accounts of IMI Joint Undertaking.

  • 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: A7-0200/2014
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T7-0335/2014

Amendments

Dossier

7

2013/2251(DEC) 2014/02/26 CONT 7 amendments... Amendment 1 # Ryszard CZARNECKI, Marta ANDREASEN, Andrea ČEŠKOVÁ, Derk Jan EPPINK, Philip BRADBOURN Proposal for a decision 1 Paragraph 1 1. GPostpones its decision on grantsing the Executive Director of the IMI Joint Undertaking discharge in respect of the implementation of the Joint Undertaking's budget for the financial year 2012; Amendment 2 # Ryszard CZARNECKI, Marta ANDREASEN, Andrea ČEŠKOVÁ, Derk Jan EPPINK, Philip BRADBOURN Proposal for a decision 2 Paragraph 1 1. ApprovPostpones the closure of the accounts of the IMI Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2012; Amendment 3 # Elena BĂSESCU Motion for a resolution Citation 11 a (new) - having regard to the previous discharge reports of the Parliament; Amendment 4 # Monica MACOVEI Motion for a resolution Subheading 2 a (new) Prevention and management of conflicts of interests and transparency Amendment 5 # Monica MACOVEI Motion for a resolution Paragraph 7 a (new) 7a. Observes that the CVs and Declarations of Interests of the members of the Management Board, the Executive Director and senior management members are not publicly available; calls on the Joint Undertaking to remedy the situation as a matter of urgency; acknowledges that the Joint Undertaking has Conditions that enforce a Code of Conduct on the independent experts that evaluate the research proposals; urges nevertheless the Joint Undertaking to develop and adopt a comprehensive policy on the prevention and management of conflicts of interests; Amendment 6 # Monica MACOVEI Motion for a resolution Paragraph 20 a (new) 20a. Regrets that the declarations of interests and CVs of members of the management board, management staff and external and in-house experts of the Joint Undertaking are not publicly available; believes that a high level of transparency is a key element in order to mitigate the risks of conflicts of interests; calls, therefore, on the Joint Undertaking to make its policy and/or arrangements on the prevention and management of conflicts of interests and its implementing rules as well as the list of the members of the management boards, management staff and external and in-house experts, together with their respective declarations of interests and CVs, available on its website; Amendment 7 # Monica MACOVEI Motion for a resolution Paragraph 20 b (new) 20 b. Invites the Court of Auditors to monitor the Joint Undertaking's policies as regards the management and prevention of conflicts of interests by drafting a Special Report on the matter by the next discharge procedure; source: PE-528.209

History

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