PURPOSE: to grant discharge to EUROJUST for the financial year 2005.

LEGISLATIVE ACT: Decision 2008/523/EC of the European Parliament on the discharge for the implementation of the budget of Eurojust for the financial year 2005.

CONTENT: with the present decision, the European Parliament grants discharge to the Director of EUROJUST for the implementation of its budget for the financial year 2005.

This decision is in line with the European Parliament’s resolution adopted on 24 April 2007 and comprises a series of observations that form an integral part of the discharge decision (please refer to the summary of the opinion of 24/04/2007).

Budget 2008/523
OJ L 187 15.07.2008, p. 0135

SP(2007)2625/2

Results of vote in Parliament

Debate in Parliament

The European Parliament adopted a resolution drafted by Edit HERCZOG (PSE, HU), and granted the administrative director of Eurojust discharge for the implementation of Eurojust's budget for the financial year 2005. It then approved the closing of the accounts of Eurojust for the financial year 2005.

The Parliamentary resolution is divided into two parts. The first contained general points, and concerned the majority of EU Agencies requiring individual discharge. The second part contained specific points relating to the Agency.

General points: Parliament considers that the ever-growing number of Community Agencies and the activities of certain of them do not seem to form part of an overall policy framework, and that the remits of some Agencies do not always reflect the real needs of the Union. Accordingly, it invites the Commission to define an overall policy framework for the setting up of new Community Agencies and to present a cost-benefit study before the setting up of any new agency, while being careful to avoid any overlap of activities between Agencies or with the remits of other European organisations. Parliament calls on the Court of Auditors to give its opinion on this cost-benefit study before Parliament takes its decision, and it asks the Commission to present every five years a study on the added value of every existing Agency. ; invites all relevant institutions In the case of a negative evaluation of the added value of an Agency, all relevant institutions are asked to take the necessary steps by reformulating the mandate of that Agency or by closing it.

In view of the constantly increasing number of Agencies, Parliament feels that the Directorates-General of the Commission charged with the setting up and monitoring of Agencies must develop a common approach to the Agencies. It also asks the Commission to improve administrative and technical support to the Agencies. Parliament regretted that the negotiations on the draft interinstitutional agreement on the operating framework for the European regulatory agencies have not yet been concluded, and calls on the Commission, in consultation with the Court of Auditors, to do their utmost to ensure that the agreement is brought to a rapid conclusion. Noting that the Commission's budgetary responsibility calls for closer linking of the Agencies to the Commission, Parliament calls on the Commission and the Council to take all necessary steps to give the Commission a blocking minority in the supervisory bodies of the regulatory Agencies by 31 December 2007 and to provide for such a minority from the outset when new Agencies are set up. It invites the Court of Auditors to create an additional chapter in its Annual Report, devoted to all Agencies to be discharged under the Commission's accounts in order to have a much clearer picture of the use of EU funds by Agencies.

Parliament goes on to ask the Commission to come up with a proposal to harmonise the format of the annual reporting by the Agencies and to develop performance indicators which would allow a comparison of their efficiency. The Commission is urged to monitor and direct the management of the Agencies, especially in relation to the proper application of tender procedures, transparency of recruitment procedures, sound financial management and, most importantly, the proper application of the rules concerning the internal control framework.

Specific points concerning Eurojust: Parliament called on Eurojust to improve even further the programming of operating expenditure, noting that the utilisation rate of appropriations for operating activities (Title III) was only 80 % of the commitment appropriations for the financial year and that a third of commitments had to be carried over. Parliament also noted that the College decided to authorise a non-automatic carryover of appropriations for a total of EUR 285 484 and recalled that such carryovers are permitted only if most of the stages preparatory to the act of commitment have been completed before the end of the financial year, and that this was not the case. It invited Eurojust to improve its inventory procedure, and to inform Parliament about the adoption by its Board of any internal control standard, particularly with regard to procurement and recruitment. Parliament then invited Eurojust to respect public procurement procedures and contract management and to respect the time limits for framework contracts as laid down in the regulatory provisions.

Lastly, the Commission was invited to inform Parliament of its opinion concerning the draft regulation submitted by Eurojust.

T6-0121/2007

A6-0120/2007

A6-0120/2007

The committee adopted the report by Edit HERCZOG (PES, HU) granting discharge to Eurojust for 2005. In its accompanying resolution, it made a number of general points concerning the majority of the EU agencies:

- the ever-growing number of Community Agencies and the activities of some of them do not seem to form part of an overall policy framework, and "the remits of some Agencies do not always reflect the real needs of the Union or the expectations of its citizens";

- the Commission should therefore define an overall policy framework and should present a cost-benefit study before the setting up of any new Agency, and the Court of Auditors should give its opinion on this study before Parliament takes its decision;

- every 5 years, the Commission should present a study on the added value of every existing Agency; where the evaluation is negative in the case of a particular Agency the latter’s mandate should be reformulated or the Agency should be closed;

- the Commission should improve administrative and technical support to the Agencies, given the growing complexity of the Community’s administrative rules and technical problems;

- the Agencies should improve their cooperation and benchmarking with actors in the field;

- the Commission should harmonise the format of the annual reporting by the Agencies to develop performance indicators which would allow a comparison of their efficiency.

In its specific remarks, the committee called on Eurojust to further improve the programming of operating expenditure. It underlined that Eurojust still does not have its own financial regulation, and urged the Commission to inform Parliament of its opinion concerning the draft regulation submitted by Eurojust. The committee also wanted to see operating and accounting procedures put on a more formal basis to ensure better internal control.

PE384.341

PE386.403

PE384.441

Having examined the revenue and expenditure account for the financial year 2005, the balance sheet of revenue and expenditure at 31 December 2005 of Eurojust and the Court of Auditors' report on the annual accounts of Eurojust for the financial year 2005, the Council recommends the European Parliament to give a discharge to the Administrative Director of Eurojust in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2005.

In doing so, the Council confirms that EUR 800 000 (92%) of the EUR 900 000 in appropriations carried forward from the financial year 2004 to the financial year 2005 have been used. In addition, EUR 2.1 million in appropriations have been carried forward from the financial year 2005 to the financial year 2006 and EUR 1 million has been cancelled.

In parallel, the Council makes accompanying comments on the discharge which should be followed up. In particular, it:

is aware that the activity of Eurojust is dependent on various external factors that make an accurate programming particularly difficult. However, it regrets the unequal implementation rate of appropriations among the titles, and calls on Eurojust to concentrate its efforts on a qualitative improvement in its programming of operating expenditure, in order to achieve a more satisfactory allocation of the resources; calls on Eurojust to take all the necessary measures to establish an exhaustive physical inventory of fixed assets through a reliable system, so as to meet its accounting obligations; is concerned as regards the lack of any internal control standards and calls on Eurojust to pursue its efforts to remedy such a situation as soon as possible; calls on Eurojust to pursue its improvements in its tender procedure in order to rectify all anomalies detected by the Court as soon as possible.

05711/2007

This report from the Court of Auditors concerns the annual accounts of Eurojust for the financial year ended 31 December 2005.

The Court states that Eurojust’s accounts for the financial year 2005 are, in all material respects, reliable and the transactions underlying Eurojust’s annual accounts, taken as a whole, are legal and regular.

The report shows that the appropriations entered in the final budget amount to EUR 13 000 000 with EUR 11 780 000 committed and EUR 9 951 000 paid. EUR 2 115 000 was carried over to 2006, and EUR 934 000 cancelled.

In its report the Court states that a review of the implementation of the budget showed that 90 % of the appropriations granted for the year had been committed. The overall rate of payment against the year’s commitments was 84 %. Nevertheless, the utilisation rate of appropriations for operating activities (Title III) was low: only 80 % of the commitment appropriations for the financial year were used and a third of commitments had to be carried over. For the same expenditure, more than 15 % of the commitments carried over to the year had to be cancelled. These findings suggest that a qualitative improvement in the programming of operating expenditure is needed in order to avoid mobilising resources unnecessarily. The College decided to authorise a non-automatic carryover of appropriations for a total of EUR 285 484. Such carryovers are permitted only if most of the stages preparatory to the act of commitment have been completed before the end of the financial year and this was not the case.

The Court also highlights that:

Eurojust still does not have its own financial regulation and, this being the case, has continued to apply the framework financial regulation for the Community bodies. At the end of 2005, the Commission had still not issued an opinion concerning the draft regulation submitted by Eurojust in May of the same year; the inventory of fixed assets is managed using a spreadsheet, which does not allow the integrity of the data to be guaranteed; the Management Board has still not adopted any internal control standards. Formalisation of operating and accounting procedures is mostly lacking (in 2005, the checklists describing the checks to be carried out on budgetary commitments relating to important operating procedures (procurement, and recruitment) were insufficiently developed); some anomalies were found in respect of public procurement procedures and contract management, in particular the absence of guidelines on the weightings applied to award criteria, and confusion between the selection criteria and the criteria for awarding contracts. Framework contracts have, moreover, exceeded the time limits laid down in the regulatory provisions.

Eurojust responds point by point to the Court’s observations and states that its volume of activity

depends heavily on the number of cases referred by the Member States. Therefore, the programming of allocation of its resources has a highly indicative and approximate character.

Moreover, the allocation in December 2004 of EUR 2 million for Eurojust’s operational activities has had a negative impact on the level of execution. It states that it will apply strictly the applicable regulation in its future decisions relating to the non-automatic carry-over procedure.

Eurojust prioritised the setting up of an asset inventory system to meet the accounting obligations. An exhaustive inventory database is currently being implemented.

In 2006, on the basis of its experience, Eurojust has started to improve the checklists in use for its main budgetary operations.

Lastly, Eurojust has improved its tender procedures in view to make a clearer distinction between selection and award criteria.

N6-0001/2007
OJ C 312 19.12.2006, p. 0001

PURPOSE: presentation of the final accounts of Eurojust for the financial year 2005.

CONTENT: this document published in the Official Journal of the EU sets out a detailed account of the implementation of the 2005 budget, including the revenue and expenditure and the balance sheet for the year concerned.

According to this document, the final budget amounted to EUR 13 million (compared to EUR 9.3 million in 2004) including a 100% Community subsidy.

As regards the staffing policy, Eurojust officially set out 87 posts in the establishment plan compared to 76 in 2004. 70 of these posts are occupied +15 other staff (seconded national experts, local staff, 13 agency staff) totalling 85 staff carrying out operational, administrative and mixed tasks. Staff expenditure amounted to nearly EUR 5.4 million in 2005.

Eurojust’s objective is to improve the coordination of investigations and prosecutions covering the territories of several Member States of the European Union, as well as that of non-member States. In 2005, it held 73 meetings, examined 462 bilateral cases and 124 multilateral cases on the following issues:

- Fraud: 14%;

- Drug-trafficking: 16%;

- Terrorism: 3%;

- Murder: 5%;

- Trafficking in human beings: 4%;

- Money-laundering: 6%;

- Other: 52%.

The complete version of the final accounts may be found at the following address:

http://www.eurojust.europa.eu

N6-0030/2006
OJ C 266 31.10.2006, p. 0034

PURPOSE: presentation of the final accounts of Eurojust for the financial year 2005.

CONTENT: this document published in the Official Journal of the EU sets out a detailed account of the implementation of the 2005 budget, including the revenue and expenditure and the balance sheet for the year concerned.

According to this document, the final budget amounted to EUR 13 million (compared to EUR 9.3 million in 2004) including a 100% Community subsidy.

As regards the staffing policy, Eurojust officially set out 87 posts in the establishment plan compared to 76 in 2004. 70 of these posts are occupied +15 other staff (seconded national experts, local staff, 13 agency staff) totalling 85 staff carrying out operational, administrative and mixed tasks. Staff expenditure amounted to nearly EUR 5.4 million in 2005.

Eurojust’s objective is to improve the coordination of investigations and prosecutions covering the territories of several Member States of the European Union, as well as that of non-member States. In 2005, it held 73 meetings, examined 462 bilateral cases and 124 multilateral cases on the following issues:

- Fraud: 14%;

- Drug-trafficking: 16%;

- Terrorism: 3%;

- Murder: 5%;

- Trafficking in human beings: 4%;

- Money-laundering: 6%;

- Other: 52%.

The complete version of the final accounts may be found at the following address:

http://www.eurojust.europa.eu

N6-0030/2006