The European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the Director of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) for the financial year 2021 and to approve the closure of the accounts for that year.

Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it had obtained reasonable assurance that the Centre's annual accounts for the financial year 2021 were reliable and that the underlying transactions were legal and regular, Parliament adopted, by 577 votes to 39 with 14 abstentions, a resolution containing a series of recommendations which form an integral part of the discharge decision and which complement the general recommendations contained in the resolution on the performance, financial management and control of EU agencies.

Centre’s financial statements

The EMCDDA's final budget for 2021 was EUR 18 974 791, representing an increase of 5.13% compared to 2020.

Budgetary and financial management

Parliament appreciated the budget monitoring efforts made during the 2021 financial year, which resulted in a budget implementation rate of 100%, the same rate as in 2020. The payment appropriations execution rate was 96.35 %, representing an increase of 1.62 % compared to the previous year. It further noted with satisfaction that the implementation rate of payment appropriations carried over from 2020 to 2021 was 98.80 %.

Other observations

Parliament also made a series of observations concerning performance, digitalisation, staff, procurement and internal control.

In particular, they noted that:

- in 2021, most of the Centre’s performance indicators were achieved;

- the Centre’s management board adopted the second Roadmap 2025 as well as the Centre’s new business model that aims to further develop the Centre into a customer-focused and data-driven organisation;

- the Centre is a responsible party in numerous key actions of the EU Drugs Action Plan 2021-2025 approved by the Council of the European Union in 2021;

- the Centre released its first fully digital flagship publication with eight ‘responses miniguides’ addressing key public health challenges in the drugs field, the launch of a new online toolkit aiming to meet targets in certain health areas and the release of special reports on the threats to the Union of emerging drug developments in Afghanistan and Iran, and on the Balkan and southern trafficking routes into the Union;

- the Centre’s participation in drug related training events and capacity building was welcomed, managing to transfer its knowledge to over 870 professionals working in the drug field, representing an increase of almost 75 % compared to 2020;

- on 31 December 2021, the establishment plan was 96 % implemented, with seven officials and 66 temporary agents appointed out of seven officials and 69 temporary agents authorised under the Union budget (compared to 76 authorised posts in 2021 and in 2020). Gender and geographical balance should be ensured;

- the Centre should enhance the digitalisation of its staff management system in order to increase its efficiency;

- in terms of procurement execution, the 2021 procurement plan was successfully executed by the Centre with 98 negotiated procedures of a total value of EUR 1 556 147. The Centre should continue its progress towards digitalising its procurement procedures;

- the Centre performed an assessment of its internal control framework in 2021, concluding that all components are present and functioning, with some improvements advisable regarding ‘control environment’, ‘control activities’ and ‘information and communication’;

- a revised anti-fraud strategy was adopted in 2021, with three strategic objectives and an action plan to be implemented in 2022.