PURPOSE: to grant discharge to the Euratom Supply Agency (ESA) for the financial year 2015.

NON-LEGISLATIVE ACT: Decision (EU, Euratom) 2017/1708 of the European Parliament on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the Euratom Supply Agency for the financial year 2015.

CONTENT: with the present decision, the European Parliament grants discharge to the Director-General of the Euratom Supply Agency for the implementation of its budget for the financial year 2015.

This decision is in line with the European Parliament's resolution adopted on 27 April 2017 and comprises a series of observations that form an integral part of the discharge decision (please refer to the summary of the opinion of 27 April 2017).

Amongst Parliament’s main observations in the resolution accompanying the discharge decision, the latter noted that in 2015, the Agency prepared and presented to its advisory committee a draft proposal to amend its rules in order to bring them into line with current market practices. It called on the Agency to inform the discharge authority of further developments regarding the amendment of its rules.

The European Parliament decided to grant discharge the Director-General of the Euratom Supply Agency (ESA) in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2015.

The vote on the discharge decision covers the closure of the accounts (in accordance with Annex IV, Article 5(1)(a) to its Rules of Procedure).

Noting that the Court of Auditors issued a statement of assurance as to the reliability of the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions for the financial year 2015, Parliament adopted by 496 votes to 111, with 11 abstentions, a resolution containing 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 resolution on performance, financial management and control of EU agencies .

These recommendations may be summarised as follows:

Agency’s financial statements : Parliament noted that the final budget of the Agency for the financial year 2015 was EUR 125 000, representing an increase of 20.19 % compared to 2014. Budget and financial management : it also noted that budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2015 resulted in a commitment appropriations execution rate of 98.92 %, representing an increase of 7.84 % compared to 2014.

Parliament made some comments as regards the Agency’s staff. It also noted that in 2015, the Agency prepared and presented to its advisory committee a draft proposal to amend its rules in order to bring them into line with current market practices. It stressed that if adopted, this would be the first revision of the rules since 1975. It called on the Agency to inform the discharge authority of further developments regarding the amendment of its rules.

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Inés AYALA SENDER (S&D, ES) on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the Euratom Supply Agency for the financial year 2015.

The committee called on the European Parliament to grant the Director-General of the Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2015.

Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it had obtained reasonable assurance that the annual accounts of the Agency for the financial year 2015 were reliable and that the underlying transactions were legal and regular, Members called on Parliament to approve the closure of the Agency’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 :

Agency’s financial statements : Members noted that the final budget of the Agency for the financial year 2015 was EUR 125 000, representing an increase of 20.19 % compared to 2014. Budget and financial management : they also noted that budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2015 resulted in a commitment appropriations execution rate of 98.92 %, representing an increase of 7.84 % compared to 2014.

Lastly, Members noted that in 2015, the Agency prepared and presented to its advisory committee a draft proposal to amend its rules in order to bring them into line with current market practices. They stressed that if adopted, this would be the first revision of the rules since 1975. They called on the Agency to inform the discharge authority of further developments regarding the amendment of its rules.

Having examined the revenue and expenditure account for the financial year 2015 and the balance sheet as at 31 December 2015 of the Euratom Supply Agency (ESA), as well as the Court of Auditors' report on the annual accounts of the Agency for the financial year 2015, accompanied by the Agency's replies to the Court's observations, the Council recommended the European Parliament to give a discharge to the Director General of the Agency in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2015.

The Council welcome the Court's opinion that, in all material respects, the Agency's annual accounts present fairly its financial position as at 31 December 2015 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 2015 are legal and regular in all material respects.

Nevertheless, it made the following comment:

financial programming : the Council noted that a high level of commitment appropriations was carried over to 2016. It encouraged the Agency to continue improving its financial programming and monitoring of the budget implementation, in order to reduce the level of commitments carried over to the following financial year to the minimum strictly necessary.

PURPOSE: presentation of the EU Court of Auditors’ report on the annual accounts of the Euratom Supply Agency (ESA) for the year 2015, 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 focused on the annual accounts of the ESA. In brief, the Agency’s main task is to ensure a regular supply of nuclear materials, in particular nuclear fuels, to EU users, by means of a common supply policy based on the principle of equal access to sources of supply.

Statement of assurance : pursuant to the provisions of Article 287 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the Court has audited:

the annual accounts of the Agency, which comprise the financial statements and the reports on the implementation of the budget for the financial year ended 31 December 2015, and the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying those accounts.

Opinion on the reliability of the accounts : in the Court’s opinion, the Agency’s annual accounts present fairly, in all material respects, its financial position as at 31 December 2015 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with the provisions of its Financial Regulation and the accounting rules adopted by the Commission’s accounting officer.

Opinion on the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying the accounts : in the Court’s opinion, the transactions underlying the annual accounts for the year ended 31 December 2015 are legal and regular in all material respects.

The report made 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:

The Court’s observations :

budgetary management : the Court noted that t he level of carryovers of committed appropriations was high for administrative expenditure with EUR 41 482. They mainly relate to the purchase of IT hardware (servers and laptops) ordered in December 2015 and to IT consulting services which go beyond the calendar year.

The Agency’s reply :

budgetary management : the Agency confirmed that the commitments were executed in the 4th quarter of 2015 because the decision on the possibility to use, or not, the DIGIT framework contracts was delayed and so were the solution design and the negotiation procedure. As a consequence, deliveries and payments went beyond 2015. The Agency will respect the principle of annuality to the maximum extent possible in the future.

Lastly, the Court of Auditors’ report also contained a summary of the Agency’s key findings in 2015 :

Budget : EUR 0.1 million (payment appropriations). Staff : 17 including officials, temporary and contract staff and seconded national experts.

PURPOSE: presentation by the Commission of the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2015, as part of the 2015 discharge procedure.

Analysis of the accounts of the Euratom Supply Agency (ESA) .

CONTENT: the organisational governance of the EU consists of institutions, agencies and other EU bodies whose expenditure is included in the general budget of the Union.

The EU's operational expenditure of these institutions takes different forms, depending on how the money is paid out and managed.

From 2014 onwards, the Commission classifies its expenditure as follows:

Direct management : the budget is implemented directly by the Commission services. Indirect management : the Commission confers tasks of implementation of the budget to bodies of EU law or national law, such as the EU agencies . Shared management : under this method of budget implementation tasks are delegated to Member States. About 80 % of the expenditure falls under this management mode covering such areas as agricultural spending and structural actions.

This Commission document concerns the EU's consolidated accounts for the year 2015 and details how spending by the EU institutions and bodies was carried out. The consolidated annual accounts of the EU provide financial information on the activities of the institutions, agencies and other bodies of the EU from an accrual accounting and budgetary perspective.

It is the responsibility of the Commission's Accounting Officer to prepare the EU's consolidated annual accounts and ensure that they present fairly, in all material aspects, the financial position, the result of the operations and the cash flows of the EU institutions and bodies, including the Euratom Supply Agency (ESA), with a view to granting discharge.

Discharge procedure : the final step of a budget lifecycle is the discharge of the budget for a given financial year. It represents the political aspect of the external control of budget implementation and is the decision by which the European Parliament, acting on a Council recommendation, "releases" the Commission (and other EU bodies) from its responsibility for management of a given budget by marking the end of that budget's existence. The European Parliament is the discharge authority within the EU.

The discharge procedure may produce three outcomes: (i) the granting; (ii) postponement or; (iii) the refusal of the discharge.

The final discharge report including specific recommendations to the Commission for action is adopted in plenary by the European Parliament and are subject to an annual follow up report in which the Commission outlines the concrete actions it has taken to implement the recommendations made.

Each agency is subject to its own discharge procedure, including the ESA.

The Euratom Supply Agency: the ESA, which is located in Luxembourg (LU), was established by Council Decision 2008/114/EC, Euratom in order to provide expertise, information and advice to the EU on the market in nuclear materials and services and monitor the market in this area.

As regards the Agency’s accounts, these are presented in detail in the final accounts of the ESA .

PURPOSE: presentation by the Commission of the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2015, as part of the 2015 discharge procedure.

Analysis of the accounts of the Euratom Supply Agency (ESA) .

CONTENT: the organisational governance of the EU consists of institutions, agencies and other EU bodies whose expenditure is included in the general budget of the Union.

The EU's operational expenditure of these institutions takes different forms, depending on how the money is paid out and managed.

From 2014 onwards, the Commission classifies its expenditure as follows:

Direct management : the budget is implemented directly by the Commission services. Indirect management : the Commission confers tasks of implementation of the budget to bodies of EU law or national law, such as the EU agencies . Shared management : under this method of budget implementation tasks are delegated to Member States. About 80 % of the expenditure falls under this management mode covering such areas as agricultural spending and structural actions.

This Commission document concerns the EU's consolidated accounts for the year 2015 and details how spending by the EU institutions and bodies was carried out. The consolidated annual accounts of the EU provide financial information on the activities of the institutions, agencies and other bodies of the EU from an accrual accounting and budgetary perspective.

It is the responsibility of the Commission's Accounting Officer to prepare the EU's consolidated annual accounts and ensure that they present fairly, in all material aspects, the financial position, the result of the operations and the cash flows of the EU institutions and bodies, including the Euratom Supply Agency (ESA), with a view to granting discharge.

Discharge procedure : the final step of a budget lifecycle is the discharge of the budget for a given financial year. It represents the political aspect of the external control of budget implementation and is the decision by which the European Parliament, acting on a Council recommendation, "releases" the Commission (and other EU bodies) from its responsibility for management of a given budget by marking the end of that budget's existence. The European Parliament is the discharge authority within the EU.

The discharge procedure may produce three outcomes: (i) the granting; (ii) postponement or; (iii) the refusal of the discharge.

The final discharge report including specific recommendations to the Commission for action is adopted in plenary by the European Parliament and are subject to an annual follow up report in which the Commission outlines the concrete actions it has taken to implement the recommendations made.

Each agency is subject to its own discharge procedure, including the ESA.

The Euratom Supply Agency: the ESA, which is located in Luxembourg (LU), was established by Council Decision 2008/114/EC, Euratom in order to provide expertise, information and advice to the EU on the market in nuclear materials and services and monitor the market in this area.

As regards the Agency’s accounts, these are presented in detail in the final accounts of the ESA .