BETA


2022/2128(DEC) 2021 discharge: European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC)

Progress: Procedure completed

RoleCommitteeRapporteurShadows
Lead CONT CZARNECKI Ryszard (icon: ECR ECR) WINZIG Angelika (icon: EPP EPP), HEIDE Hannes (icon: S&D S&D), WIEZIK Michal (icon: Renew Renew), RIVASI Michèle (icon: Verts/ALE Verts/ALE), ADINOLFI Matteo (icon: ID ID), OMARJEE Younous (icon: GUE/NGL GUE/NGL)
Committee Opinion ITRE
Lead committee dossier:

Events

2023/09/29
   Final act published in Official Journal
2023/05/10
   EP - Results of vote in Parliament
2023/05/10
   EP - Decision by Parliament
Details

The European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the Executive Director of the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking discharge in respect of the implementation of the Joint Undertaking’s budget for the financial year 2021 and approve the closure of the Joint Undertaking’s accounts.

Noting that the Court of Auditors found that the annual accounts of the Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2021 present fairly the financial situation of the Joint Undertaking on 31 December 2021 and the results of its operations, Parliament adopted, by 553 votes to 17 with 60 abstentions, a resolution containing a series of observations which form an integral part of the discharge decision.

General comments

Parliament noted that the Court considered the risk to the reliability of the annual accounts to be medium, due to the procedures regarding asset recognition and management not yet having been established, and due to the requirements for the reporting, certification and validation of its members’ in-kind contributions.

The Joint Undertaking will receive additional funding of around EUR 2 billion from the Digital Europe programme, as well as additional funding of EUR 200 million from the Connecting Europe Facility to support the acquisition, deployment, upgrading and operation of the infrastructures for supercomputers and quantum computers.

2021 was the first full year of operation of the Joint Undertaking since becoming autonomous in September 2020.

Budgetary and financial management

For 2021, the budget in new payment appropriations amounted to EUR 207.5 million (compared to EUR 181.5 million in 2020) and in new commitment appropriations to EUR 722.4 million (compared to EUR 509.1 million in 2020).

At the end of 2021, the Joint Undertaking had already committed EUR 180 million for the 50 % co-financing under Horizon 2020 research and innovation grants. Participating States are to finance the remaining 50 % of the total project costs, and that private members are to contribute on top of the maximum eligible costs of the grant actions.

Regarding the Joint Undertaking’s 2021 budget available for operational projects, the implementation rates for operational commitment and payment appropriations were 2 % and 47 % respectively. The very low implementation rate for commitment appropriations is largely explained by the delayed start of the Joint Undertaking under the MFF 2021-2027 in July 2021 and the transfer by the Commission and Participating States of EUR 700 million of funds to the Joint Undertaking in December 2021.

The Joint Undertaking still lacks reliable procedures for certifying and validating in-kind contributions, reported by its private members and Participating States.

Other observations

The resolution also contains a series of observations on staff and internal control.

In particular, it noted the following:

- the Court assessed the risk for contract expenditure and public procurement procedures as medium for the Joint Undertaking, due to the complex procurement procedures for high-value contracts;

- at the end of 2021, the Joint Undertaking employed 15 statutory members of staff and 3 interim members of staff who assist the finance and communications team;

- the Joint Undertaking will have to implement more than EUR 7 billion in funds and, for this, it needs to recruit an additional 39 members of staff to achieve its planned level of 54 statutory members of staff by the end of 2023;

- thirteen consortia signed agreements with the Joint Undertaking in 2021 and began to work in April 2021;

- the Joint Undertaking prepared the second phase of the European processor initiative project, a cornerstone of the European initiative towards strategic autonomy in high performance computing, chip technologies and infrastructure which started in 2022 and to build on the achievements of the first phase;

- a comprehensive set of rules and procedures were developed for its staff to have a clear framework in which to work;

- specific measures have been implemented for the prevention and management of conflicts of interest of experts in charge of the evaluation of grant applications and of the review of projects and tenders;

- the Joint Undertaking adopted and started to implement the common research anti-fraud strategy.

Documents
2023/05/09
   EP - Debate in Parliament
2023/03/28
   EP - Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
Documents
2023/03/28
   EP - Committee report tabled for plenary
Documents
2023/02/28
   EP - Vote in committee
2023/02/13
   CSL - Supplementary non-legislative basic document
Documents
2023/02/02
   EP - Amendments tabled in committee
Documents
2022/12/13
   EP - Committee draft report
Documents
2022/11/15
   CofA - Court of Auditors: opinion, report
2022/09/13
   EP - Committee referral announced in Parliament
2022/07/14
   EP - CZARNECKI Ryszard (ECR) appointed as rapporteur in CONT
2022/06/23
   EC - Non-legislative basic document
2022/06/23
   EC - Non-legislative basic document published

Documents

Votes

Décharge 2021: entreprise commune pour le calcul à haute performance européen - A9-0089/2023 - Ryszard Czarnecki - Proposition de résolution #

2023/05/10 Outcome: +: 553, 0: 60, -: 17
DE FR PL ES IT RO NL CZ HU PT BE BG AT SE IE DK HR LT SK FI LV SI EL CY EE MT LU
Total
88
74
49
51
61
29
28
21
18
19
18
15
17
20
12
13
12
10
13
13
8
8
10
6
7
5
5
icon: PPE PPE
161

Hungary PPE

1

Denmark PPE

For (1)

1

Cyprus PPE

2

Estonia PPE

For (1)

1

Malta PPE

For (1)

1

Luxembourg PPE

2
icon: S&D S&D
132

Czechia S&D

For (1)

1

Belgium S&D

2

Lithuania S&D

2

Latvia S&D

2

Slovenia S&D

2

Greece S&D

1

Cyprus S&D

2

Estonia S&D

2

Luxembourg S&D

For (1)

1
icon: Renew Renew
91

Poland Renew

1

Italy Renew

2

Hungary Renew

1

Austria Renew

For (1)

1
3

Ireland Renew

2

Croatia Renew

For (1)

1

Lithuania Renew

1

Finland Renew

2

Latvia Renew

For (1)

1

Slovenia Renew

2

Estonia Renew

3

Luxembourg Renew

2
icon: Verts/ALE Verts/ALE
69

Poland Verts/ALE

For (1)

1

Italy Verts/ALE

3

Romania Verts/ALE

1

Netherlands Verts/ALE

3

Czechia Verts/ALE

3

Portugal Verts/ALE

1

Belgium Verts/ALE

3

Austria Verts/ALE

3

Sweden Verts/ALE

3

Ireland Verts/ALE

2

Denmark Verts/ALE

1

Lithuania Verts/ALE

2

Finland Verts/ALE

3
icon: ECR ECR
57

Germany ECR

1

Netherlands ECR

Abstain (2)

5

Bulgaria ECR

1

Sweden ECR

3

Croatia ECR

1

Lithuania ECR

1

Slovakia ECR

Abstain (1)

1

Finland ECR

2

Latvia ECR

For (1)

1
icon: The Left The Left
32

Netherlands The Left

Abstain (1)

1

Czechia The Left

1

Portugal The Left

4

Belgium The Left

For (1)

1

Sweden The Left

For (1)

1

Ireland The Left

3

Denmark The Left

1

Finland The Left

For (1)

1

Cyprus The Left

2
icon: NI NI
35

France NI

3

Netherlands NI

Against (1)

1

Croatia NI

Against (1)

2

Slovakia NI

Against (1)

2

Latvia NI

1
icon: ID ID
53

Czechia ID

Abstain (2)

2

Austria ID

3

Denmark ID

Against (1)

1

Estonia ID

Abstain (1)

1
AmendmentsDossier
25 2022/2128(DEC)
2023/02/02 CONT 25 amendments...
source: 742.332

History

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

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2023-09-29T00:00:00
type
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OJ L 242 29.09.2023, p. 0568
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events/5/summary
  • The European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the Executive Director of the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking discharge in respect of the implementation of the Joint Undertaking’s budget for the financial year 2021 and approve the closure of the Joint Undertaking’s accounts.
  • Noting that the Court of Auditors found that the annual accounts of the Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2021 present fairly the financial situation of the Joint Undertaking on 31 December 2021 and the results of its operations, Parliament adopted, by 553 votes to 17 with 60 abstentions, a resolution containing a series of observations which form an integral part of the discharge decision.
  • General comments
  • Parliament noted that the Court considered the risk to the reliability of the annual accounts to be medium, due to the procedures regarding asset recognition and management not yet having been established, and due to the requirements for the reporting, certification and validation of its members’ in-kind contributions.
  • The Joint Undertaking will receive additional funding of around EUR 2 billion from the Digital Europe programme, as well as additional funding of EUR 200 million from the Connecting Europe Facility to support the acquisition, deployment, upgrading and operation of the infrastructures for supercomputers and quantum computers.
  • 2021 was the first full year of operation of the Joint Undertaking since becoming autonomous in September 2020.
  • Budgetary and financial management
  • For 2021, the budget in new payment appropriations amounted to EUR 207.5 million (compared to EUR 181.5 million in 2020) and in new commitment appropriations to EUR 722.4 million (compared to EUR 509.1 million in 2020).
  • At the end of 2021, the Joint Undertaking had already committed EUR 180 million for the 50 % co-financing under Horizon 2020 research and innovation grants. Participating States are to finance the remaining 50 % of the total project costs, and that private members are to contribute on top of the maximum eligible costs of the grant actions.
  • Regarding the Joint Undertaking’s 2021 budget available for operational projects, the implementation rates for operational commitment and payment appropriations were 2 % and 47 % respectively. The very low implementation rate for commitment appropriations is largely explained by the delayed start of the Joint Undertaking under the MFF 2021-2027 in July 2021 and the transfer by the Commission and Participating States of EUR 700 million of funds to the Joint Undertaking in December 2021.
  • The Joint Undertaking still lacks reliable procedures for certifying and validating in-kind contributions, reported by its private members and Participating States.
  • Other observations
  • The resolution also contains a series of observations on staff and internal control.
  • In particular, it noted the following:
  • - the Court assessed the risk for contract expenditure and public procurement procedures as medium for the Joint Undertaking, due to the complex procurement procedures for high-value contracts;
  • - at the end of 2021, the Joint Undertaking employed 15 statutory members of staff and 3 interim members of staff who assist the finance and communications team;
  • - the Joint Undertaking will have to implement more than EUR 7 billion in funds and, for this, it needs to recruit an additional 39 members of staff to achieve its planned level of 54 statutory members of staff by the end of 2023;
  • - thirteen consortia signed agreements with the Joint Undertaking in 2021 and began to work in April 2021;
  • - the Joint Undertaking prepared the second phase of the European processor initiative project, a cornerstone of the European initiative towards strategic autonomy in high performance computing, chip technologies and infrastructure which started in 2022 and to build on the achievements of the first phase;
  • - a comprehensive set of rules and procedures were developed for its staff to have a clear framework in which to work;
  • - specific measures have been implemented for the prevention and management of conflicts of interest of experts in charge of the evaluation of grant applications and of the review of projects and tenders;
  • - the Joint Undertaking adopted and started to implement the common research anti-fraud strategy.
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