PURPOSE: to grant discharge to the European Agency for Safety and Health at work for the financial year 2007.

LEGISLATIVE ACT: Decision 2009/679/EC of the European Parliament on the discharge for the implementation of the budget of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work for the financial year 2007.

CONTENT: with the present decision, the European Parliament grants discharge to the Director of the European Environment Agency for the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2007.

This decision is in line with the European Parliament’s resolution adopted on 23 April 2009 and comprises a series of observations that form an integral part of the discharge decision (please refer to the summary of the opinion of 23/04/2009). The decision to grant discharge is also an approval of the closure of the accounts of this EU agency.

Budget 2009/679
OJ L 255 26.09.2009, p. 0195

Results of vote in Parliament

The European Parliament adopted a decision concerning the discharge to be granted to the Director of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) in respect of the implementation of its budget for the financial year 2007. The decision to grant discharge is also an approval of the closure of the accounts of this EU agency.

Noting that the Court issued a fully positive statement of assurance and made no observations at all, the European Parliament adopted by 403 votes to 9, with 17 abstentions, a resolution which constitutes an integral part of the decision to grant discharge in which the Parliament congratulates the Agency on having significantly improved its financial management over the last two years.

Parliament encourages it to continue to strive for the highest standards in budgetary planning, implementation and control. It refers, for other observations accompanying its decision on discharge, to its resolution on financial management and control of EU agencies - see 2008/2207(INI) - adopted in parallel.

T6-0303/2009

Debate in Parliament

A6-0174/2009

A6-0174/2009

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report drawn up by Christofer FJELLNER (EPP-ED, SE) on discharge to be granted to the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, calling on the European Parliament to grant the Executive Director of the Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of its budget for the financial year 2007.

Noting that the Agency’s annual accounts for the financial year 2007 are reliable, and the underlying transactions are legal and regular, MEPs approve the closure of the Agency’s accounts.

However, they make a number of recommendations as part of the decision on discharge. Other than the general recommendations appearing in the draft resolution on financial management and control of EU agencies (see 2008/2207(INI) ), MEPs do not make any specific observations. MEPs therefore congratulate the Agency on having significantly improved its financial management over the last two years and encourage it to continue in this way.

PE416.345

Based on the observations contained in the revenue and expenditure account and the balance sheet of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work for the financial year 2007, as well as on the Court of Auditor’s report and the Agency’s replies to the Court’s observations, the Council recommends that the Parliament grant the Director of the Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2007.

In doing so, the Council confirms that EUR 2.3 million (87%) of the appropriations carried over from 2006 to 2007 (EUR 2.7 million) were used, that appropriations carried over from 2007 to 2008 amount to EUR 3.7 million and that EUR 1 million was cancelled.

Recalling that the Court of Auditors was able to obtain reasonable assurance that the Agency’s annual accounts were, in all material aspects, reliable, the Council believes that the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2007 calls for no particular comments. The Council welcomes that the Agency has successfully followed up the comments made in the Council recommendation on the discharge for the financial year 2006 , improving the Agency's financial, budgetary and human resources management. It encourages the Agency to continue ensuring a sound financial management.

05588/2009

PURPOSE: to present the report by the Court of Auditors on the 2007 annual accounts of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA).

CONTENT: the Court of Auditor’s report includes a detailed section on the Agency’s expenditure. The analysis of the expenditure calls for no comments from the Court.

OJ C 311 05.12.2008, p. 0001
N6-0004/2009

PURPOSE: to present the final accounts of the European Agency for Safety and Health for the financial year 2007.

CONTENT: this document sets out a detailed account of the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2007. It notes that the final budget amounted to EUR 14.9 million (compared to EUR 14.1 million in 2006) of which 93.8% stems from a Community subsidy (DG Employment) and 2.9% from DG Enlargement. The remaining 3.3% emanates from miscellaneous revenue.

As regards the staffing policy, the Agency, whose head office is based in Bilbao (Spain), set out 42 posts in its establishment plan of which 38 are currently occupied. 25 other posts (auxiliary contracts, seconded national experts and local staff) are also occupied totalling 63 posts assigned to operational, administrative and mixed tasks.

In 2007, the Agency’s main activities concentrated on the following:

Building the links - Networking :

Finalization and follow-up on 2nd external evaluation of the Agency’s performance; Institutional capacity building in Candidate and Potential Candidate Countries (PHARE and CARDS programmes).

Communicating Information :

European Safe Start! Summit — closing event of the European Week 2006 campaign on young workers; Lighten the Load campaign — European campaign on work-related musculoskeletal disorders - EU 27+; Healthy Workplace Initiative — SME-targeted campaign in EU 12, Turkey and Croatia (final round); Multilingual web-based and printed information services on occupational safety and health; Monitoring and evaluation: evaluation report of 2005 Stop that Noise campaign; online survey of website users; website benchmarking exercise.

Developing knowledge :

Information products for national and European Week campaign 2007 (MSDs) and 2008 (Risk Assessment); Information products for projects on OSH & Economic Performance, the HORECA Sector, Mainstreaming OSH into Education, and Cleaning Workers; General improvements to the quality and accessibility of Good Practice information on the Agency’s website and to the on-line Thesaurus; European Risk Observatory: data collection on HORECA, ageing workers and transport. Reports on emerging biological risks, emerging psychosocial risks, and occupational skin exposure and work-related skin diseases. Literature review on the occupational safety and health of migrant workers. Launch of Phase I of the European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER). Third workshop on ‘fostering research co-ordination in the EU’.

The complete version of the final accounts may be found at the following address: http://osha.europa.eu/en/about/finance/

EUR-Lex
SEC(2008)2359

PURPOSE: to present the final accounts of the European Agency for Safety and Health for the financial year 2007.

CONTENT: this document sets out a detailed account of the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2007. It notes that the final budget amounted to EUR 14.9 million (compared to EUR 14.1 million in 2006) of which 93.8% stems from a Community subsidy (DG Employment) and 2.9% from DG Enlargement. The remaining 3.3% emanates from miscellaneous revenue.

As regards the staffing policy, the Agency, whose head office is based in Bilbao (Spain), set out 42 posts in its establishment plan of which 38 are currently occupied. 25 other posts (auxiliary contracts, seconded national experts and local staff) are also occupied totalling 63 posts assigned to operational, administrative and mixed tasks.

In 2007, the Agency’s main activities concentrated on the following:

Building the links - Networking :

Finalization and follow-up on 2nd external evaluation of the Agency’s performance; Institutional capacity building in Candidate and Potential Candidate Countries (PHARE and CARDS programmes).

Communicating Information :

European Safe Start! Summit — closing event of the European Week 2006 campaign on young workers; Lighten the Load campaign — European campaign on work-related musculoskeletal disorders - EU 27+; Healthy Workplace Initiative — SME-targeted campaign in EU 12, Turkey and Croatia (final round); Multilingual web-based and printed information services on occupational safety and health; Monitoring and evaluation: evaluation report of 2005 Stop that Noise campaign; online survey of website users; website benchmarking exercise.

Developing knowledge :

Information products for national and European Week campaign 2007 (MSDs) and 2008 (Risk Assessment); Information products for projects on OSH & Economic Performance, the HORECA Sector, Mainstreaming OSH into Education, and Cleaning Workers; General improvements to the quality and accessibility of Good Practice information on the Agency’s website and to the on-line Thesaurus; European Risk Observatory: data collection on HORECA, ageing workers and transport. Reports on emerging biological risks, emerging psychosocial risks, and occupational skin exposure and work-related skin diseases. Literature review on the occupational safety and health of migrant workers. Launch of Phase I of the European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER). Third workshop on ‘fostering research co-ordination in the EU’.

The complete version of the final accounts may be found at the following address: http://osha.europa.eu/en/about/finance/

EUR-Lex
SEC(2008)2359