Activites

• 2017/04/27 Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • T8-0169/2017 summary

    The European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the Director of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) in respect of the implementation of the Institute’s budget for the financial year 2015. The vote on the decision on discharge covers the closure of the accounts (in accordance with Annex IV, Article 5 (1) (a) to Parliament’s Rules of Procedure). Noting that the Court of Auditors has stated that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the Institute’s annual accounts for the financial year 2015 are reliable and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Parliament adopted by 499 votes to 111 with 5 abstentions, a resolution containing a series of recommendations, which form an integral part of the decision on discharge and which add to the general recommendations set out in the resolution on performance, financial management and control of EU agencies. These recommendations may be summarised as follows: Institute’s financial statements: Parliament noted that the final budget of the European Institute for Gender Equality for the financial year 2015 was EUR 7 658 166, representing a decrease of 4.33 % compared to 2014. Budget and financial management: It noted that the budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2015 resulted in a high budget implementation rate of 98.55 %, indicating that commitments were made in a timely manner, representing a slight decrease of 0.5 % compared to 2014. It noted that, in 2015, the Institute signed a contract with an external consultant to advise on how it could move towards project-based organisation and activity-based budgeting/costing. The services included a range of reforms to maximise workflows, assure quality and improve monitoring and management tools. Members noted with satisfaction that after the successful first year of the project, the Institute continued to fully implement the approach from 2016. Parliament also made a series of observations regarding commitment and carry-overs, the prevention and management of conflicts of interests, procurement and recruitment procedures and internal audits and controls. It noted that the Institute works closely with the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound). It held meetings with key partners such as UN Women and UNESCO on gender issues. It also welcomed that the Institute is looking for synergies by pooling certain tasks and introducing shared services with other agencies and took note of the agreement signed between the Institute and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), which was signed in order to exchange services on the exchange of experts between the parties in the area of ex post controls. Parliament noted the Institute’s efforts to reorganise its structure to put a focus on communication and stakeholder engagement activities. Collaboration with the European Parliament: Parliament appreciated the contribution of the Institute to the ongoing work of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM). It called for further interaction between the legislative and non-legislative priorities of the FEMM Committee and the Institute’s research, also taking into account the Gender Equality Index developed by the Institute.

• 2017/04/26 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2017/03/29 Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
  • A8-0106/2017 summary

    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 European Institute for Gender Equality for the financial year 2015. The committee called on the European Parliament to grant the Director of the Institute 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 Institute 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 Institute’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: Institute’s financial statements: Members noted that the final budget of the European Institute for Gender Equality for the financial year 2015 was EUR 7 658 166, representing a decrease of 4.33 % compared to 2014. Budget and financial management: Members noted that the budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2015 resulted in a high budget implementation rate of 98.55 %, indicating that commitments were made in a timely manner, representing a slight decrease of 0.5 % compared to 2014. They noted that, in 2015, the Institute signed a contract with an external consultant to advise on how it could move towards project-based organisation and activity-based budgeting/costing. The services included a range of reforms to maximise workflows, assure quality and improve monitoring and management tools. They noted with satisfaction that after the successful first year of the project, the Institute continued to fully implement the approach from 2016. Members also made a series of observations regarding commitment and carry-overs, the prevention and management of conflicts of interests, procurement and recruitment procedures and internal audits and controls. Members noted that the Institute works closely with the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound). It held meetings with key partners such as UN Women and UNESCO on gender issues. They welcomed that the Institute is looking for synergies by pooling certain tasks and introducing shared services with other agencies and took note of the agreement signed between the Institute and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), which was signed in order to exchange services on the exchange of experts between the parties in the area of ex post controls. Lastly, Members noted the Institute’s efforts to reorganise its structure to put a focus on communication and stakeholder engagement activities.

• 2017/03/22 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
• 2016/10/04 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 2016/07/11 Non-legislative basic document published
  • COM(2016)0475 summary

    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 European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE). 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 European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), 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 EIGE. EIGE: the Institute, which is located in Vilnius (LT), was established by Regulation (EC) No 1922/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council in order to collect, analyse and disseminate information as regards gender equality and to raise awareness on all issues regarding this area. As regards the EIGE’s accounts, these are presented in detail in the document on the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for 2015: Commitment appropriations: -          committed: EUR 8 million; -          paid: EUR 8 million; -          carried-over: EUR 3 million. Payment appropriations: -          committed: EUR 10 million; -          paid: EUR 7 million; -          carried-over: EUR 3 million. For further details on expenditure, please refer to the final accounts of the EIGE.

  • DG {'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/budget_en', 'title': 'Budget'}, GEORGIEVA Kristalina

Documents

• Non-legislative basic document published: COM(2016)0475
• Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A8-0106/2017
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T8-0169/2017

Amendments

Dossier

29

2016/2185(DEC) 2016/12/08 FEMM 15 amendments... Amendment 1 # Notis MARIAS 1. Notes the Court of Auditors' opinion that the annual accounts of the European Institute for Gender Equality (‘EIGE’) present fairly, in all material respects, its financial position as at 31 December 2015 and that the transactions underlying EIGE's annual accounts for the year ended 31 December 2015 are legal and regular in all material respects;(Does not affect the English version.) Amendment 10 # Monika VANA Draft opinion Paragraph 5 a (new) 5 a. Welcomes EIGE's key achievements of 2015, in particular the second edition of the Gender Equality Index, the finalisation of the Gender Statistics Database and the implementation of the on-line gender mainstreaming platform; Amendment 11 # Monika VANA Draft opinion Paragraph 5 b (new) 5 b. Notes EIGE's efforts to reorganise its structure to put a focus on communication and stakeholder engagement activities and calls for further coordination with the Commission in order to ensure that EIGE's technical assistance supports the tasks linked to the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of EU policies and that gender mainstreaming is effectively implemented in all the phases of the policy cycle; Amendment 12 # Arne GERICKE Draft opinion Paragraph 6 6. WelcomStresses the prioritising of the work on several areas with outputs of high quality and high visibility, without losing focus on gender mainstreaming; in the event that Regulation No 1922/2006 is reviewed, calls for the incorporation ofneed to restrict the work of EIGE to equality between men and women in accordance with the bases provided by the Treaty provisions and, within the framwork of the next review of Regulation No 1922/2006, to ensure that the fight against violence against women, female genital mutilation and migrant womenthe needs of migrant women are incorporated into the tasks of EIGE; Amendment 13 # Notis MARIAS Draft opinion Paragraph 6 6. Welcomes the prioritising of the work on several areas with outputs of high quality and high visibility, without losing focus on gender mainstreaming; in the event that Regulation No 1922/2006 is reviewed, calls for the incorporation ofurges that the fight against violence against women, female genital mutilation and migrant women should be incorporated into the tasks of EIGE; Amendment 14 # Viorica DĂNCILĂ Draft opinion Paragraph 6 a (new) 6a. Recalls that the Institute was established in order to contribute to and strengthen the promotion of gender equality including, first and foremost, gender mainstreaming in all Union policies and the resulting national policies, and the fight against discrimination based on sex, and to raise Union citizens' awareness of gender equality; Amendment 15 # Notis MARIAS Draft opinion Paragraph 7 7. Is of the opinion, on the basis of the data available now, that discharge can be granted to the Director of EIGE in respect of the implementation of the EIGE's budget for the financial year 2015.deleted Amendment 2 # Arne GERICKE Draft opinion Paragraph 1 a (new) 1a. Recognises the work of EIGE, considers its financial and human resources to be adequate and encourages those responsible to make further savings as far as possible; Amendment 3 # Arne GERICKE Draft opinion Paragraph 2 2. Welcomes the fact that 100 % of the Staff Establishment Plan posts were filled by the end of 2015; points out that, despite a reduction in the establishment plan compared to the previous year, the personnel costs increased due to an increased employee turnover rate (28 %); highlights the reported high workload of the staff of EIGE and repeats its calls for more staff to be allocated to EIGE to work on priority areas, including violence against women;deleted Amendment 4 # Monika VANA Draft opinion Paragraph 2 2. Welcomes the fact that 100 % of the Staff Establishment Plan posts were filled by the end of 2015; points out that, despite a reduction in the establishment plan compared to the previous year, the personnel costs increased due to an increased employee turnover rate (28 %); highlights the reported high workload of the staff of EIGE and repeats its calls for more staff to be allocated to EIGE to work on priority areas, including violence against women, and to strengthen its capacity to assist the Commission by providing relevant data and technical assistance; Amendment 5 # Notis MARIAS Draft opinion Paragraph 3 3. HighlightNotes that in 2015 EIGE achieved the great majority of its planned output indicators; the overall level of committed appropriations was 98,55 %, the overall available budget implementation rate for 2015 was 73,86% (compared to 77,97 % in 2014); Amendment 6 # Notis MARIAS Draft opinion Paragraph 4 4. Is concerned that in 2015 the level of carry-overs of payments for Title III (operational expenditure) increased to 61 %, compared to 54 % in 2014; notes that, according to the Court of Auditors, this mainly results from the nature of activities of EIGE which span over many months, often beyond year-end; repeats its previous calls on EIGE to step up effortscalls on EIGE to reduce the level of carry-over of such payments; Amendment 7 # Arne GERICKE Draft opinion Paragraph 5 5. Appreciates the contribution of EIGE to the ongoing work of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality; points out that the outcome of the external evaluation of EIGE was positive overall; calls for better use of the Experts Forum’ and for higher synergies with other stakeholders; Amendment 8 # Notis MARIAS Draft opinion Paragraph 5 5. Appreciates the contribution of EIGE to the ongoing work of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality; points outnotes that the outcome of the external evaluation of EIGE was positive overall; calls for better use of the Experts Forum’ and for higher synergies with other stakeholders; Amendment 9 # Viorica DĂNCILĂ Draft opinion Paragraph 5 5. Appreciates the contribution of EIGE to the ongoing work of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality; calls for further interaction between legislative and non-legislative priorities of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality and the Institute’s research, taking also into account the Gender Equality Index developed by the Institute; points out that the outcome of the external evaluation of EIGE was positive overall; calls for better use of the Experts Forum’ and for higher synergies with other stakeholders; source: 595.603 2017/03/06 CONT 14 amendments... Amendment 1 # Inés AYALA SENDER Proposal for a decision 1 1 Paragraph 1 1. Grants the Director of the European Institute for Gender Equality discharge in respect of the implementation of the Institute’s budget for the financial year 2015 / Postpones its decision on granting the Director of the European Institute for Gender Equality discharge in respect of the implementation of the Institute’s budget for the financial year 2015; Amendment 10 # Barbara KAPPEL Motion for a resolution Paragraph 10 10. Notes with concern that some of the curriculum vitae and declarations of interest of the Institute’s management board members and staff are not published on its website; regrets that some declarations of conflicts of interests of its Administrative Board members as well as of its management staff are pending; notes that this practice does not further transparency and the remaining declarations should therefore be published without delay; Amendment 11 # Benedek JÁVOR Motion for a resolution Paragraph 10 10. Notes with concern that some of the curriculum vitae and declarations of interest of the Institute’s management board members and staff are not published on its website; calls on the Institute to publish such documents and enable the public to perform the necessary overview of its senior management; Amendment 12 # Inés AYALA SENDER Motion for a resolution Paragraph 14 14. Notes that the Commission’s Internal Audit Service (IAS) carried out an audit on procurement supporting operational processes in the Institute; notes that its final report was forwarded to the Institute in mid-October 2015; acknowledges that in 2015 90 % of the IAS’ recommendations (46 out of 51) werehad already been implemented by their deadlines end of 2015, including recommendations of the 2015 IAS audit on ‘Procurement supporting operational processes in EIGE’ and stemming from the IAS Strategic Internal Audit Plan 2015- 2017; Amendment 13 # Inés AYALA SENDER Motion for a resolution Paragraph 15 15. Points out that according to the results of the audit carried out by the IAS, twoone recommendations wereas marked as ‘V'very Iimportant’' and four recommendations rated as ‘Important’;reclassified as 'important' in January 2016 and five were marked 'important' - four under the 2015 audit and one under the 3013 audit that was implemented in 2016 notes that an action plan was agreed with all recommendations to be implemented during the first half of 2016; calls on the Institute to continue to report to the discharge authority on the implementation of the action plan; Amendment 14 # Petri SARVAMAA Motion for a resolution Paragraph 19 a (new) 19 a. (new) 19a. Acknowledges the Institute's drive towards gender equality and gender mainstreaming in all Union policies; notes with concern, however, a significant gender imbalance of 16 % / 84 % in the Institute's own Management Board; Amendment 2 # Ryszard CZARNECKI, Raffaele FITTO, Notis MARIAS Proposal for a decision 1 Paragraph 1 1. Grants the Director of the European Institute for Gender Equality discharge in respect of the implementation of the Institute’s budget for the financial year 2015 / Postpones its decision on granting the Director of the European Institute for Gender Equality discharge in respect of the implementation of the Institute’s budget for the financial year 2015; Amendment 3 # Inés AYALA SENDER Proposal for a decision 2 2 Paragraph 1 1. Approves the closure of the accounts of the European Institute for Gender Equality for the financial year 2015 / Postpones the closure of the accounts of the European Institute for Gender Equality for the financial year 2015; Amendment 4 # Ryszard CZARNECKI, Raffaele FITTO, Notis MARIAS Proposal for a decision 2 Paragraph 1 1. Approves the closure of the accounts of the European Institute for Gender Equality for the financial year 2015 / Postpones the closure of the accounts of the European Institute for Gender Equality for the financial year 2015; Amendment 5 # Benedek JÁVOR Motion for a resolution Recital B a (new) B a. whereas in the context of the discharge procedure, Parliament stresses the special importance of further strengthening the democratic legitimacy of the institutions of the Union by improving transparency and accountability, implementing the concept of performance-based budgeting and good governance of human resources; Amendment 6 # Petri SARVAMAA Motion for a resolution Paragraph 5 5. Observes that, according to the Court’s report, the level of committed appropriations carried over under Title III (operational expenditure) was at 61 %, compared to 54 % in 2014; acknowledges that these carry-overs are mainly related to the nature of the Institute’s activities which involve procuring studies that span many months, often beyond year-end; points outnotes that the carry-overs aremay often be partly or fully justified by the multiannual nature of the Institute’s operational programmes or delayed decisions by the Presidency of the Council regarding the subject of a study and do not necessarily indicate weaknesses in budget planning and implementation nor are they always at odds with the budgetary principle of annularity, in particular if they are planned in advance by the Institute and communicated to the Court; Amendment 7 # Barbara KAPPEL Motion for a resolution Paragraph 5 5. Observes that, according to the Court’s report, the level of committed appropriations carried over under Title III (operational expenditure) was at 61 %, compared to 54 % in 2014; acknowledges that these carry-overs are mainly related to the nature of the Institute’s activities which involve procuring studies that span many months, often beyond year-end; points out that the carry-overs are often partly or fully justified by the multiannual nature of the Institute’s operational programmes or delayed decisions by the Presidency of the Council regarding the subject of a study and do not necessarily indicate weaknesses in budget planning and implementation nor are they always at odds with the budgetary principle of annularity, in particular if they are planned in advance by the Institute and communicated to the Court; calls on the Institute to keep the volume to be carried over to the next year as low as possible; Amendment 8 # Inés AYALA SENDER Motion for a resolution Paragraph 8 8. Notes that the occupancy rate of the Institute’s establishment plan at the end of 2015 was at 100 % (e.g. 42 staff members);28 temporary staff members, 11 contract staff members and 11 national experts on secondment) observes that recruitment during the year was particularly active with no less than 12 positions being launched as open procedures; notes that 19 nationalities were represented at the Institution; welcomes the fact that the Institute remains fully committed to ensuring that staff receive the necessary training in order to facilitate professional development; acknowledges that, as a result, 8 different training programmes registered 185 participants in 2015; Amendment 9 # Barbara KAPPEL Motion for a resolution Paragraph 9 a (new) 9 a. asks the Institute to inform the discharge authority on alleged and confirmed infringements, how it has dealt with these infringements, and how it will avoid them in the future; source: 599.887

History

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