PURPOSE: to grant discharge to the European Institute for Gender Equality for the financial year 2013.

NON LEGISLATIVE ACT: Decision (EU) 2015/1659 of the European Parliament on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Institute for Gender Equality for the financial year 2013.

CONTENT: with the present decision, the European Parliament grants discharge to the Director of the European Institute for Gender Equality for the implementation of its budget for the financial year 2013.

This decision is in line with the European Parliament's resolution adopted on 29 April 2015 and comprises a series of observations that form an integral part of the discharge decision (please refer to the summary of the opinion of 29 April 2015).

Amongst Parliament’s main observations, it called on the Institute to include the joint annual meetings between Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality and the Institute in its annual work programme, and to regularly present the results and findings of its research before the relevant Parliamentary committees.

The European Parliament adopted by 552 votes to 134, with 6 abstentions, a decision to grant discharge to the Director of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) for the financial year 2013.

The vote on the discharge decision approved the closure of the accounts (in accordance with Annex VI, Article 5(1) of the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament).

Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the annual accounts of the Institute for the financial year 2013 are reliable, and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Parliament adopted by 578 votes to 102, with 6 abstentions, a resolution containing a number of recommendations that form an integral part of the discharge decision and as well as the general recommendations that appear in the resolution on performance, financial management and control of EU agencies :

Institute’s financial statements : Parliament noted that the final budget of the Institute for the financial year 2013 was EUR 10 024 535 representing an increase of 29.49% compared to 2012. Commitments and carry-overs : It also noted that budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2013 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 98.01% and that the payment appropriations execution rate was 76.93 %. Members stated that the overall level of committed appropriations in 2013 was 99%, indicating that commitments were made in a timely manner. It welcomed the further reduction of the overall level of carry-overs from EUR 2.5 million (32%) in 2012 to EUR 2.2 (29%) in 2013. Those carry-overs mainly concern procurement procedures that were concluded late in 2013 due to reasons mostly beyond the Institute’s control.

Parliament made a series of observations on procurement procedures, the prevention and management of conflicts of interests, recruitment and internal control. It noted that in order to improve procurement, planning and monitoring, the Institute has put in place a monitoring tool which follows the expected dates of each step of the annual procurement proceedings .

Lastly, Parliament called on the Institute to include the joint annual meetings between Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality and the Institute in its annual work programme. It called on the Institute to regularly present the results and findings of its research before the relevant Parliament's committees and called on the Institute to facilitate access in a more proactive way to gender-related information, focused on the work carried out by its members, to Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality.

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Ryszard CZARNECKI (ECR, PL) on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) for the financial year 2013.

It called on the European Parliament to grant the Director of the Institute discharge in respect of the implementation of the Institute’s budget for the financial year 2013.

Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the annual accounts of the Authority for the financial year 2013 are reliable, and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Members called on the Parliament to approve the closure of the Institute’s accounts. They made, however, a number of recommendations that needed to be taken into account when the discharge is granted, in addition to the general recommendations that appear in the draft resolution on performance, financial management and control of EU agencies .

Institute’s financial statements : Members noted that the final budget of the Institute for the financial year 2013 was EUR 10 024 535 representing an increase of 29.49% compared to 2012. Commitments and carry-overs : Members noted that budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2013 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 98.01% and that the payment appropriations execution rate was 76.93 %. They also noted that the overall level of committed appropriations in 2013 was 99%, indicating that commitments were made in a timely manner. They welcomed the further reduction of the overall level of carry-overs from EUR 2.5 million (32%) in 2012 to EUR 2.2 (29%) in 2013. Those carry-overs mainly concern procurement procedures that were concluded late in 2013 due to reasons mostly beyond the Institute’s control.

Members also made a series of observations on procurement procedures, the prevention and management of conflicts of interests, recruitment and internal control.

Lastly, they noted that in order to improve procurement, planning and monitoring, the Institute has put in place a monitoring tool which follows the expected dates of each step of the annual procurement proceedings .

Having examined the revenue and expenditure accounts for the financial year 2013 and the balance sheet at 31 December 2013 of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), and the report by the Court of Auditors on the annual accounts of the Institute for the financial year 2013, accompanied by the Institute's replies to the Court's observations, the Council recommends the European Parliament to give a discharge to the Director of the Institute in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2013.

The Council welcomes the Court's opinion that, in all material respects, the Institute's annual accounts present fairly its financial position as at 31 December 2013 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with the provisions of the Institute's Financial Regulation and the accounting rules adopted by the Commission's accounting officer, and that the underlying transactions for that financial year are legal and regular.

Nevertheless, the Council has made one observation concerning:

carry-overs : the Council invites the Institute to continue improving its financial programming and monitoring of the budget implementation in order to reduce the level of commitments carried over to the next financial year to the strict minimum.

PURPOSE: presentation by the Commission of the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2013, as part of the 2013 discharge procedure.

Analysis of the accounts of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) .

CONTENT: this Commission document sets out the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2013 as prepared on the basis of the information presented by the institutions, organisations and bodies of the EU, in accordance with Article 129 (2) of the Financial Regulation applicable to the EU's General Budget, including the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE).

The document contains the figures on which the discharge procedure is based.

Discharge procedure of the EU agencies : the EU Budget finances a wide range of policies and programmes throughout the EU. In accordance with the priorities set by the European Parliament and the Council in the multi-annual financial framework (MFF), the European Commission carries out specific programmes, activities and projects in the field with the technical support of some specialised agencies.

The consolidated annual accounts of the EU provide information on the activities of the institutions, agencies and other bodies of the EU from a budgetary and accrual accounting perspective.

The consolidated reports on the implementation of the general budget of the EU include the budget implementation of all Institutions. Agencies do not have a separate budget inside the EU budget ; and they are partially financed by a Commission budget subsidy.

Each agency is subject to its own discharge procedure.

EIGE : in 2013, the tasks and budget of this agency were as follows:

description of the EIGE’s tasks : the Institute, which is located in Vilnius, was established by Regulation (EC) No 1922/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council. The Institute’s task is to : (i) collect, analyse and disseminate information as regards gender equality, (ii) develop, analyse, evaluate and disseminate methodological tools in order to support the integration of gender equality into all Union policies and the resulting national policies, (iii) raise awareness on all issues regarding this area; the EIGE’s budget for the 2013 financial year : the Institute’s budget for 2013, as presented in the Commission document on the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union, gives the following figures:

§ Commitment appropriations :

- committed : EUR 8 million;

- paid : EUR 7 million;

- carried-over : 0.

§ Payment appropriations :

- committed : EUR 10 million;

- paid : EUR 8 million;

- carried-over : EUR 2 million.

Please refer also to the final accounts of the EIGE .

PURPOSE: presentation of the EU Court of Auditors’ report on the annual accounts of the European Institute for Gender Equality for the year 2013, together with the Institute’s reply.

CONTENT: in accordance with the tasks conferred on the Court of Auditors by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the Court presents to the European Parliament and to the Council, in the context of the discharge procedure, a Statement of Assurance as to the reliability of the annual accounts of each institution, body or agency of the EU, and the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying them, on the basis of an independent external audit.

This audit concerned, amongst others, the annual accounts of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE).

Statement of assurance : pursuant to the provisions of Article 287 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the Court has audited:

the annual accounts of the Institute, which comprise the financial statements and the reports on the implementation of the budget for the financial year ended 31 December 2013; the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying those accounts.

Opinion on the reliability of the accounts : in the Court’s opinion, the Institute’s annual accounts present fairly, in all material respects, its financial position as at 31 December 2013 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with the provisions of its Financial Regulation and the accounting rules adopted by the Commission’s accounting officer.

Opinion on the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying the accounts : in the Court’s opinion, the transactions underlying the annual accounts for the year ended 31 December 2013 are legal and regular in all material respects.

The report also makes a series of observations on the budgetary and financial management of EIGE, accompanied by the latter’s response. The main observations may be summarised as follows:

The Court’s observations :

budgetary management : in 2013, the Institute further reduced the overall level of carry-overs of committed appropriations which mainly relate to operational expenditure. They mainly concerned procurement procedures that were concluded late in the year due to reasons mostly beyond the Institute’s control.

EIGE’s reply :

budgetary management : the EIGE stated that operational appropriations delays are due to the circumstances outside EIGE’s control, i.e. a delayed decision by the Presidency of the Council of the EU regarding a subject of study. In order to improve the procurement planning and monitoring EIGE has now in place a monitoring tool which follows the expected dates of each step of the annual procurement proceedings.

Lastly, the Court of Auditors’ report contains a summary of the Institute’s activities in 2013 . This is focused on the following:

Budget : EUR 7.5 million of which the Union subsidy is 100%.

Activities :

comparable and reliable data and indicators on gender equality; collecting and processing methods and good practices for gender equality work; awareness-raising; networking and communication; studies; additional meetings were held in the framework of the LT presidency of the Council of the EU; international conferences; research reports; annual reports.