Activites

• 2018/04/18 Debate in Parliament
  • T8-0160/2018
• 2018/03/23 Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
  • A8-0092/2018 summary

    The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Bart STAES (Greens/EFA, BE) on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) for the financial year 2016. The committee called on the European Parliament to grant the Director of the Foundation discharge in respect of the implementation of the Foundation’s budget for the financial year 2016. Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it had obtained reasonable assurance that the annual accounts of the Foundation for the financial year 2016 were reliable and that the underlying transactions were legal and regular, Members called on Parliament to approve the closure of the Foundation’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: Foundation’s financial statements: the final budget of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions for the financial year 2016 was EUR 20 789 500, representing a decrease of 1.72 % compared to 2015. Budget and financial management: budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2016 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 99.99 % and that the payment appropriations execution rate was 84.80 %, representing a decrease of 2.55 % compared to 2015. Members expressed concern about the negative budgetary impact of the growing Irish country coefficient which increasingly risks undermining the financial capability of the Foundation to deliver on its mandate. They expect action to be taken by the Institutions of the Union to offset the effects. Commitments and carry-overs: the level of committed appropriations carried forward to 2017 was high at EUR 2.8 million (43 %) for operational expenditure, compared to EUR 2.1 million (31 %) in 2015, mainly in relation to projects (studies and pilot schemes) going beyond the year end. The report recommended to the Foundation that it may consider introducing differentiated budget appropriations in order to better reflect the multiannual nature of operations and unavoidable delays between the signature of contracts, deliveries and payments. Carry-overs may often be justified and do not necessarily indicate weaknesses in budget planning and implementation. Members also made a series of observations regarding the prevention and management of conflicts of interests, procurement and staff policy and internal controls and audits. They recalled that staffing cuts have been implemented with great difficulty and reiterated their concern towards any further cuts which would limit the agencies' ability to carry out their mandate. On internal audits, Members noted with satisfaction that the Foundation and the internal audit service (IAS) agreed on a plan to take corrective action against the weaknesses found in the Foundation’s management of projects, mainly in relation to governance arrangements, monitoring and reporting. Members also noted how strongly the Foundation has contributed to combating poverty and fraudulent contracting of work in several actions across the Union.

• 2018/03/20 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
• 2017/09/13 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 2017/06/26 Non-legislative basic document published
  • COM(2017)0365 summary

    PURPOSE: presentation by the Commission of the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2016, as part of the 2016 discharge procedure. Analysis of the accounts of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound). 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. This Commission document concerns the EU's consolidated accounts for the year 2016 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 cashflows of the EU institutions and bodies, including the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), 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 Eurofound. Eurofound: the Foundation, which is located in Dublin (IRL), was set up by Council Regulation (EEC) No 1365/75 aims to contribute to the planning and establishment of better living and working conditions in the Union by increasing and disseminating knowledge which is relevant to this subject. As regards the Foundation’s accounts, these are presented in detail in the document on the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for 2016: Commitment appropriations: available: EUR 21 million; made: EUR 21 million. Payment appropriations: available: EUR 24 million; made: EUR 20 million. For further details on expenditure, please refer to Eurofound’s 2016 annual accounts.

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

Documents

• Non-legislative basic document published: COM(2017)0365
• Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A8-0092/2018
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T8-0160/2018

History

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