Activites

• 2017/04/27 Results of vote in Parliament
  • Results of vote in Parliament
  • T8-0191/2017 summary

    The European Parliament decided to grant the Executive Director of the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 (FCH2) Joint Undertaking discharge in respect of the implementation of Authority’s budget for the financial year 2015. Based on the statement of assurance provided by the Court of Auditors concerning the reliability of the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions, it decided to approve the closure of the accounts of the Joint Undertaking for the same financial year. Noting that the Court of Auditors has stated that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the Joint Undertaking’s annual accounts for the financial year 2015 are reliable and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Parliament adopted by 501 votes to 101 with 11 abstentions, a resolution containing a series of recommendations which form an integral part of the decision on discharge. Financial management: the final budget of FCH2 for the financial year 2015 included commitment appropriations of EUR 132 583 855 and payment appropriations of EUR 95 089 121. Members noted the following: the commitment appropriations increased by 17 % compared to 2014 mainly due to the higher amount for 2015 call of proposals and payment appropriations showed a decrease of 2 % compared to 2014; the budget execution by year end for all fund sources reached 87.3 % as regards commitment appropriations, representing a slight decrease compared to previous year (a number of project proposals were rejected as they did not meet the required quality, resulting in unused commitment appropriations of EUR 13 700 000). The payment execution rate was at 83 %, representing the best execution rate of payments for FCH2 to date; FCH2 has set up ex-ante procedures based on financial and operational data reviews, and performs ex post audits of grant beneficiaries; the sector manifested a clear intention to invest, develop and commercialise its innovative technologies, both on the side of industry and research. A total of 59 research and industry organisations reported their investments for a cumulative total amount of EUR 188 570 000. Members welcomed the fact that the Commission presented clear guidelines for the budgetary reporting and financial management of FCH2 on 20 December 2016 following the Court’s recommendation. Other observations: the resolution also contained a series of observations regarding calls for proposals, the legal framework of the joint undertaking, the prevention and management of conflicts of interests and internal audits and controls. Members acknowledged the fact that FCH2 successfully made the transition to Horizon 2020. The FCH2 is called upon to report to the discharge authority regarding improvements which have been taking in order to make the selection procedure more transparent.

• 2017/04/26 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2017/03/29 Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
  • A8-0109/2017 summary

    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 Fuel Cells and Hydrogen (FCH) Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2015. The committee called on the European Parliament to grant the joint undertaking’s Executive Director 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 need to be taken into account when the discharge is granted. They may be summarised as follows: Financial management: the final budget of FCH2 for the financial year 2015 included commitment appropriations of EUR 132 583 855 and payment appropriations of EUR 95 089 121. The commitment appropriations increased by 17 % compared to 2014 mainly due to the higher amount for 2015 call of proposals and payment appropriations showed a decrease of 2 % compared to 2014. The budget execution by year end for all fund sources reached 87.3 % as regards commitment appropriations, representing a slight decrease compared to previous year due to the outcome of the evaluation for the 2015 call. The payment execution rate was at 83 %, representing the best execution rate of payments for FCH2 to date. FCH2 has set up ex-ante procedures based on financial and operational data reviews, and performs ex post audits of grant beneficiaries. The sector manifested a clear intention to invest, develop and commercialise its innovative technologies, both on the side of industry and research. Members welcomed the fact that the Commission presented clear guidelines for the budgetary reporting and financial management of FCH2 on 20 December 2016 following the Court’s recommendation. Other observations: the report also contained a series of observations regarding calls for proposals, the legal framework of the joint undertaking, the prevention and management of conflicts of interests and internal audits and controls. The FCH2 is called upon to report to the discharge authority regarding improvements which have been taking in order to make the selection procedure more transparent.

• 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

    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 Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking - FCH 2. 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 FCH 2 JU, 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 FCH 2. The FCH 2 Joint Undertaking: the FCH 2 JU, located in Brussels (BE), was set up by Council Regulation (EU) No 559/2014 until 31 December 2024. It replaces and succeeds the FCH Joint Undertaking and aims to reduce the production cost of fuel cell systems to be used in transport applications. As regards the JU’s accounts, these are presented in detail in the document published by the Joint Undertaking (please refer to the final accounts of the FCH 2).

  • 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: A8-0109/2017
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Results of vote in Parliament: Results of vote in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T8-0191/2017

Amendments

Dossier

10

2016/2199(DEC) 2017/03/06 CONT 10 amendments... Amendment 1 # Ryszard CZARNECKI, Raffaele FITTO, Notis MARIAS Proposal for a decision 1 Paragraph 1 1. Grants the Executive Director of the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking discharge in respect of the implementation of the Joint Undertaking’s budget for the financial year 2015 / Postpones its decision on discharge to the Executive Director of the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking in respect of the implementation of the Joint Undertaking’s budget for the financial year 2015; Amendment 10 # Zigmantas BALČYTIS Motion for a resolution Paragraph 17 c (new) 17c. Notes that general rules for employees, drawn up on the basis of a Commission template, should have been submitted to the Board for approval by the end of 2016; Amendment 2 # Notis MARIAS, Raffaele FITTO, Notis MARIAS Proposal for a decision 2 Paragraph 1 1. Approves the closure of the accounts of the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2015 / Postpones the closure of the accounts of the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2015; Amendment 3 # Miroslav POCHE Motion for a resolution Recital A A. whereas the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (“FCH”) was set up in May 2008 as a public-private partnership by Council Regulation (EC) No 521/200811 for a period until 31 December 2017 to focus on developing market applications and hence facilitating additional industrial efforts towards a rapid deployment of fuel cells and hydrogen technologies; whereas Regulation (EC) No 521/2008 was amendrepealed by Council Regulation (EU) No 559/201412 ; _________________ 11 Council Regulation (EC) No 521/2008 of 30 May 2008 setting up the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (OJ L 153, 12.6.2008, p. 1). 12 Council Regulation (EU) No 559/2014 of 6 May 2014 establishing the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking, (OJ L 169, 7.6.2014, p. 108). Amendment 4 # Miroslav POCHE Motion for a resolution Recital C C. whereas the Members of FCH were the Union, represented by the European Commission, the European Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Technology Initiative Industry Grouping (“FCH Industry Grouping”), and the New European Research Grouping N.ERGHY (“N.ERGHY”on Fuel Cells and Hydrogen AISBL - N.ERGHY ("Research Grouping"); Amendment 5 # Miroslav POCHE Motion for a resolution Recital D D. whereas the Members of FCH2 are the Union, represented by the European Commission, the New Energy World Industry Grouping AISBL (“NEW Hydrogen Europe ("Industry Grouping”") and the New European Research Grouping on Fuel Cells and Hydrogen AISBL“N.ERGHY” (“Research Grouping”); Amendment 6 # Miroslav POCHE Motion for a resolution Recital F F. whereas in FCH2, the NEW Industry Grouping and the Research Grouping are, together, to contribute 50 % of the running costs, the NEW Industry Grouping is to contribute 43 % and the Research Grouping is to contribute 7 % of the running costs, and both are to contribute to operational costs through in- kind contributions and to the objectives of FCH2 through in-kind contributions in additional activities (“IKAA”) with a minimum amount of EUR 380 000 000 of which at least EUR 285 000 000 in IKAA. Amendment 7 # Zigmantas BALČYTIS Motion for a resolution Paragraph 3 a (new) 3a. Notes that the Joint Undertaking has set up ex-ante procedures based on financial and operational data reviews, and performs ex post audits of grant beneficiaries; these checks are key tools for assessing the legality and regularity of operations; Amendment 8 # Zigmantas BALČYTIS Motion for a resolution Paragraph 17 a (new) 17a. Notes that internal control procedures have been established within the Joint Undertaking in order to provide a reasonable assurance that fraud and irregularities will be detected and prevented; Amendment 9 # Zigmantas BALČYTIS Motion for a resolution Paragraph 17 b (new) 17b. Calls on the Commission to issue explanatory guidelines on what should be presented in implementation reports; source: 599.873

History

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