BETA

Awaiting Parliament 1st reading / single reading / budget 1st stage



2016/2194(DEC) 2015 discharge: European Joint Undertaking for ITER and the Development of Fusion Energy - Fusion for Energy Joint Undertaking (F4E)
Next event: Vote in plenary scheduled 2017/04/27 more...
RoleCommitteeRapporteurShadows
Lead CONT POCHE Miroslav (S&D) HAYES Brian (EPP), MARIAS Notis (ECR), GERBRANDY Gerben-Jan (ALDE), OMARJEE Younous (GUE/NGL), TARAND Indrek (Verts/ALE), VALLI Marco (EFD), KAPPEL Barbara (ENF)
Opinion ITRE
Lead committee dossier: CONT/8/07519

Activites

  • 2017/04/27 Vote in plenary scheduled
  • 2017/04/26 Debate in Parliament
  • 2017/03/29 Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
    • A8-0108/2017 summary
  • 2017/03/23 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
    • DG {'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/budget_en', 'title': 'Budget'}, GEORGIEVA Kristalina

Documents

History

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

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  • The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Miroslav POCHE (S&D, CZ) on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the ITER and the Development of Fusion Energy for the financial year 2015.

    The committee called on the European Parliament to grant the Director of the European Joint Undertaking for ITER and the Development of Fusion Energy discharge in respect of the implementation of the Joint Undertaking’s budget for the financial year 2015.

    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, Members called on Parliament to approve the closure of the joint undertaking’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:

    General: Members expressed concern that the Court’s report once again emphasises that the complexity of ITER activities puts the amount of the Joint Undertaking’s contribution to the construction phase of the ITER project at significant risk of increasing. They recognised that significant progress across a range of areas impacting on the whole management structure of the project has been achieved. Highlighting  the need to maintain the budget cap of EUR 6.6 billion until 2020, Members stressed that the main challenge for the ITER project is to make sure that the realistic schedule and budgeting are kept and that any potential deviation or problem is detected at the earliest stage possible. The Commission is invited to present, before July 2017, a communication on ITER project, which is essential for ensuring transparency of the whole project and setting out the way forward.

    Budget and financial management: the final 2015 budget available for implementation included commitment appropriations of EUR 467 901 000 and payment appropriations of EUR 586 080 000. The utilisation rates for commitment and payment appropriations were 100 % and 99 % respectively. The full implementation of the 2015 budget made the level of cancelled appropriations very low for 2015. Out of the EUR 467 900 000 available for commitment appropriations, 52 % was implemented through direct individual commitments and the remaining 48 % through global commitments. As regards individual commitments, lower performance than originally foreseen was mainly due to a decrease in the amount of cash contribution requested by ITER Organisation, a decrease in the amount of cash contribution requested by Japan and postponements of contracts in areas such as remote handling, diagnostics and plasma engineering. As for global commitments, the main domains were buildings (for amendments or options on the main buildings contracts) and a vacuum vessel (for completion of the procurement of the main vessel).

    Other observations: the report also contained a series of observations on the prevention and management of conflicts of interests, personal selection and recruitment, internal control measures, operational procurements and grants, intellectual property rights and industrial policy.

    The report also noted in particular:

    • the development of contract tracker tool (a portal by which to exchange documentation with suppliers), which is an important tool for monitoring of milestones and overall project progress;
    • the launch of 73 operational procurement procedures the signing of 79 procurement contracts for a value of about EUR 326 million. The average time to contract for procurements above EUR 1 million decreased from 240 days to 140 days during 2015 in comparison with 2014;
    • the adoption of the single intellectual property document in 2016;
    • the signature of a renewed long-term lease agreement with Spain for its offices.

    The Director is encouraged to continue in his effort towards optimising resources between the Joint Undertaking and the ITER Organisation.

activities/3/docs
  • url: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&mode=XML&reference=A8-2017-0108&language=EN type: Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading title: A8-0108/2017
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  • body: EP shadows: group: EPP name: HAYES Brian group: ECR name: MARIAS Notis group: ALDE name: GERBRANDY Gerben-Jan group: GUE/NGL name: OMARJEE Younous group: Verts/ALE name: TARAND Indrek group: EFD name: VALLI Marco group: ENF name: KAPPEL Barbara responsible: True committee: CONT date: 2016-08-04T00:00:00 committee_full: Budgetary Control rapporteur: group: S&D name: POCHE Miroslav
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Industry, Research and Energy committee: ITRE
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2017-04-26T00:00:00
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  • 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 Joint Undertaking for ITER and Fusion for Energy Joint Undertaking (F4E).

    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 ITER-F4E, 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 ITER and Fusion for Energy.

    ITER and Fusion for Energy Joint Undertaking (F4E): the ITER-F4E Joint Undertaking, located in Barcelona (ES), is the technical and organisational structure to provide Euratom’s contribution to the ITER international project (whose main facilities are located in Cadarache - FR). The JU was set up under Council Decision 2007/198/Euratom for a period of 35 years.

    It was created to manage the ITER facilities, to encourage the exploitation of the ITER facilities, to promote public understanding and acceptance of fusion energy, and to undertake any other activities that are necessary to achieve its purpose.

    Implementation of the JU’s appropriations: the EU (Euratom) contribution to ITER International is given through the Fusion for Energy Agency, including also the contributions from Member States and from Switzerland. The total contribution is legally considered as a Euratom contribution to ITER since the Member States and Switzerland do not have ownership interests in ITER. As the EU legally holds the participation in the joint venture ITER International, the Commission must recognise the participation in its accounts.

    Following a review of the accounting for joint ventures, it has been determined that the ITER Organisation does not meet the criteria for recognition as a joint venture. Since 2015, it is no longer recorded as a joint venture, and EU contributions to the ITER Organisation are treated as expenses. As the carrying value of the ITER Organisation at 31 December 2014 was zero, and the impact of the change is not material, no adjustment of prior year results has been made.

    On an accounting level, the following expenditure is noted:

    Commitment appropriations:

    -          committed: EUR 792 million;

    -          paid: EUR 791 million;

    -          carried-over: 0.

    Payment appropriations:

    -          committed: EUR 531 million;

    -          paid: EUR 524 million;

    -          carried-over: EUR 6 million.

    Please also refer to the final accounts of ITER-F4E.

activities/1
date
2016-10-04T00:00:00
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EP
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Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
committees
activities/2/committees
  • body: EP shadows: group: EPP name: HAYES Brian group: ALDE name: GERBRANDY Gerben-Jan group: GUE/NGL name: OMARJEE Younous group: EFD name: VALLI Marco responsible: True committee: CONT date: 2016-08-04T00:00:00 committee_full: Budgetary Control rapporteur: group: S&D name: POCHE Miroslav
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Industry, Research and Energy committee: ITRE
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2016-10-04T00:00:00
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2017-03-23T00:00:00
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committees/0/shadows/1
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ECR
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FITTO Raffaele
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Verts/ALE
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TARAND Indrek
committees/0/shadows/6
group
ENF
name
ALIOT Louis
activities/1
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2016-10-04T00:00:00
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CONT/8/07519
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ALDE
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GERBRANDY Gerben-Jan
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EPP
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HAYES Brian
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EFD
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VALLI Marco
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Commissioner
GEORGIEVA Kristalina
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GEORGIEVA Kristalina
activities
  • date: 2016-07-11T00:00:00 docs: url: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexplus!prod!DocNumber&lg=EN&type_doc=COMfinal&an_doc=2016&nu_doc=0475 celexid: CELEX:52016DC0475:EN type: Non-legislative basic document published title: COM(2016)0475 body: EC type: Non-legislative basic document published commission:
committees
  • body: EP shadows: group: GUE/NGL name: OMARJEE Younous responsible: True committee: CONT date: 2016-08-04T00:00:00 committee_full: Budgetary Control rapporteur: group: S&D name: POCHE Miroslav
  • body: EP responsible: False committee_full: Industry, Research and Energy committee: ITRE
links
other
    procedure
    type
    DEC - Discharge procedure
    title
    2015 discharge: European Joint Undertaking for ITER and the Development of Fusion Energy - Fusion for Energy Joint Undertaking (F4E)
    stage_reached
    Preparatory phase in Parliament
    reference
    2016/2194(DEC)
    subject
    8.70.03.05 2015 discharge