Activites

• 2018/04/18 Results of vote in Parliament
  • Results of vote in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
  • T8-0166/2018 summary

    The European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the Director of the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking on the implementation of the budget of the Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2016 and to approve the closure of the accounts of the Joint Undertaking for the same exercise. Noting that the Court of Auditors considered that the annual accounts of the Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2016 accurately reflect the financial position of the Joint Undertaking as at 31 December 2016, as well as the results of its operations, Parliament adopted 562 votes in favor, 108 against and 29 abstentions, a resolution containing a series of observations which form an integral part of the discharge decision: General: Members noted that the maximum Union contribution to the activities of the Joint Undertaking is EUR 975 000 000, to be paid from Horizon 2020. The industry members of the Joint Undertaking are to contribute resources of at least EUR 2 730 000 000 over the period of the Joint Undertaking, consisting of at least EUR 975 000 000 of in-kind and cash contributions to the Joint Undertaking’s operational activities and at least EUR 1 755 000 000 of in-kind contributions to the Joint Undertaking’s additional activities. They noted that 29 out of 65 retained proposals from Call 2016 were at the grant agreement preparation stage by the end of 2016. By early 2017, the Joint Undertaking programme will have a portfolio of 65 ongoing projects with a total of 729 participants from 30 countries with a total grant value of EUR 414 000 000. Budget and financial management: the Joint Undertaking’s annual accounts provide that the final 2016 budget is to be available for implementation and include commitment appropriations of EUR 194 295 870 and payment appropriations of EUR 67 196 187, the utilisation rates for commitment and payment appropriations of which were 97.1 % and 95.8 %, respectively. Members expressed some concern that several industry members participating in Joint Undertaking's projects could not report their in-kind contributions by the given deadline, either because their own 2016 accounts were not yet closed, or because the projects had started close to the end of 2016. They regretted that, by the end of 2016, the total contribution from the industry members amounted to EUR 313 200 000, compared to the Union’s cash contribution of EUR 65 000 000 which stems from the fact that the industry members had already declared a significant amount of in-kind contributions to additional activities compared to the Union’s input. The Joint Undertaking is invited to inform the discharge authority of developments in in-kind contributions and payments made. Other observations: the resolution also contained a series of observations on procurement and recruitment procedures, the legal framework and the prevention and management of conflicts of interests. By the end of 2016, the Joint Undertaking’s staff was almost complete, with 20 posts filled out of a total of 22 posts allocated to the Joint Undertaking by the staff establishment plan. Members welcomed the fact that the target set in the 2016 annual work programme was fully achieved, with the recruitment of 13 temporary agents and 8 contract agents coming from 10 Members States. Members noted with appreciation that in 2016 the human resources function continued to strengthen the legal framework paying particular attention to the application of the implementing rules of the Commission to the Joint Undertaking. They welcomed the fact that, in that respect, the governing board has adopted nine new implementing rules in 2016. They also recognised the need for the Joint Undertaking to communicate with Union citizens concerning the significant research and collaboration that it is undertaking. The Commission was asked to ensure the direct involvement of the Joint Undertaking in the process of the Horizon 2020 mid-term review in the sphere of the further simplification and harmonisation of joint undertakings.

• 2018/03/22 Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
  • A8-0071/2018 summary

    The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Brian HAYES (EPP, IE) on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the bio-based industries (BBI) Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2016. 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 2016. 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 2016, 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: General: Members noted that the maximum Union contribution to the activities of the Joint Undertaking is EUR 975 000 000, to be paid from Horizon 2020. The industry members of the Joint Undertaking are to contribute resources of at least EUR 2 730 000 000 over the period of the Joint Undertaking, consisting of at least EUR 975 000 000 of in-kind and cash contributions to the Joint Undertaking’s operational activities and at least EUR 1 755 000 000 of in-kind contributions to the Joint Undertaking’s additional activities. They noted that 29 out of 65 retained proposals from Call 2016 were at the grant agreement preparation stage by the end of 2016. By early 2017, the Joint Undertaking programme will have a portfolio of 65 ongoing projects with a total of 729 participants from 30 countries with a total grant value of EUR 414 000 000. Budget and financial management: the Joint Undertaking’s annual accounts provide that the final 2016 budget is to be available for implementation and include commitment appropriations of EUR 194 295 870 and payment appropriations of EUR 67 196 187, the utilisation rates for commitment and payment appropriations of which were 97,1 % and 95,8 %, respectively. Members expressed some concern that several industry members participating in Joint Undertaking's projects could not report their in-kind contributions by the given deadline, either because their own 2016 accounts were not yet closed, or because the projects had started close to the end of 2016. They regretted that, by the end of 2016, the total contribution from the industry members amounted to EUR 313 200 000, compared to the Union’s cash contribution of EUR 65 000 000 which stems from the fact that the industry members had already declared a significant amount of in-kind contributions to additional activities compared to the Union’s input. Other observations: the report also contained a series of observations on procurement and recruitment procedures, the legal framework and the prevention and management of conflicts of interests. By the end of 2016, the Joint Undertaking’s staff was almost complete, with 20 posts filled out of a total of 22 posts allocated to the Joint Undertaking by the staff establishment plan. Members welcomed the fact that the target set in the 2016 annual work programme was fully achieved, with the recruitment of 13 temporary agents and 8 contract agents coming from 10 Members States. Members noted with appreciation that in 2016 the human resources function continued to strengthen the legal framework paying particular attention to the application of the implementing rules of the Commission to the Joint Undertaking. They welcomed the fact that, in that respect, nine new implementing rules have been adopted by the governing board in 2016.

• 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 bio-based industries joint undertaking - BBI. 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 cash flows of the EU institutions and bodies, including the BBI, 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 bio-based industries joint undertaking - BBI. The bio-based industries joint undertaking: the BBI, a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) set up in 2014 and located in Brussels (BE), was established in accordance with Council Regulation (EU) No 560/2014 establishing the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking. The BBI’s main objective is to seek a more resource efficient and sustainable low-carbon economy and increase economic growth and employment, in particularly in rural areas, by developing sustainable and competitive bio-based industries in Europe based on advanced biorefineries that source their biomass sustainably. As regards the BBI’s accounts, these are presented in detail in the document published by the Joint Undertaking (please refer to the report on financial and budgetary management of the BBI).

  • 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: A8-0071/2018
• Results of vote in Parliament: Results of vote in Parliament
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T8-0166/2018

Amendments

Dossier

5

2017/2183(DEC) 2018/03/01 CONT 5 amendments... Amendment 1 # Ryszard CZARNECKI, Notis MARIAS, Beata GOSIEWSKA, Richard SULÍK, Raffaele FITTO Proposal for a decision 1 Paragraph 1 1. Grants the Executive Director of the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking discharge in respect of the implementation of the Joint Undertaking’s budget for the financial year 2016 / Postpones its decision on granting the Executive Director of the Bio- based Industries Joint Undertaking discharge in respect of the implementation of the Joint Undertaking’s budget for the financial year 2016; Amendment 2 # Miroslav POCHE Motion for a resolution Paragraph 8 8. Expresses some concern that several industry members participating in Joint Undertaking's projects could not report their in-kind contributions by the given deadline, either because their own 2016 accounts were not yet closed, or because the projects had started close to the end of 2016; acknowledges that the reporting deadline of 31stJanuary needs to be revised in case of future legislative proposals to amend Regulation (EU) No 560/2014; acknowledges that in those cases, the Joint Undertaking applied Commission guidelines for accounting standards and made a pro-rata estimation on the basis of project costs; asks, however, that industry members find a way to capture their in-kind contributions to prevent recurrence of this problem; Amendment 3 # Miroslav POCHE, Zigmantas BALČYTIS Motion for a resolution Paragraph 10 10. Expresses serious concern about the fact that out of the EUR 975 000 000 of contributions to be made by the industry members to the operational activities and administrative costs of the Joint Undertaking by the end of 2016, industry members had reported in-kind contributions of only EUR 15 400 000 for operational activities, and the governing board had validated cash contributions by the members to the Joint Undertaking’s administrative costs of EUR 3 000 000; regrets the low level of in-kind contributions which stems from the fact that most Joint Undertaking’s projects were only in their preliminary stages in 2016; points out in this context that Regulation (EU) No 560/2014 establishing the Bio- based Industries Joint Undertaking was amended by Regulation (EU) 2018/121 earlier this year with an aim to improve the level of private sector´s financial contribution; calls on the Joint Undertaking to inform the discharge authority on the development of those projects and of in-kind contributions and payments made; Amendment 4 # Miroslav POCHE, Zigmantas BALČYTIS Motion for a resolution Paragraph 11 11. Regrets to note that, by the end of 2016, the total contribution from the industry members amounted to EUR 313 200 000, compared to the Union’s cash contribution of EUR 65 000 000 which stems from the fact that the industry members had already declared a significant amount of in-kind contributions to additional activities compared to the Union’s input; hopes that the situation will return to equilibrium in the following years; Amendment 5 # Miroslav POCHE Motion for a resolution Paragraph 17 a (new) 17 a. Calls on the Commission to ensure the direct involvement of the Joint Undertaking in the process of the Horizon 2020 mid-term review in the sphere of further simplifications and harmonisation of joint undertakings. source: 618.276

History

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