RESOLUTION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT  
of 17 April 2013  
with observations forming an integral part of its Decision on discharge for the implementation of 
the budget of the European Joint Undertaking for ITER and the Development of Fusion Energy for 
the financial year 2011  
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT,  
— having regard to the final annual accounts of the European Joint Undertaking for ITER and the Devel ­
opment of Fusion Energy for the financial year 2011,  
— having regard to the Court of Auditors’ report on the annual accounts of the European Joint Under ­
taking for ITER and the Development of Fusion Energy for the financial year 2011, together with the 
replies of the Joint Undertaking (  1 ), 
— having regard to the conclusions of the European Parliament Joint Delegation of the Committee on 
Budgets and the Committee on Budgetary Control to ITER in Cadarache of 16-18 May 2011,  
— having regard to the Council’s recommendation of 12 February 2013 (05755/2013 – C7-0040/2013),  
— having regard to Article 319 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,  
— having regard to Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial 
Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities (  2 ), and in particular 
Article 185 thereof,  
— having regard to Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council 
of 25 October 2012 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union and repealing 
Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 (  3 ), and in particular Article 208 thereof,  
— having regard to Council Decision 2007/198/Euratom of 27 March 2007 establishing the European 
Joint Undertaking for ITER and the Development of Fusion Energy and conferring advantages upon it (  4 ), 
and in particular Article 5(3) thereof,  
— having regard to Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2343/2002 of 19 November 2002 on the 
framework Financial Regulation for the bodies referred to in Article 185 of Council Regulation (EC, 
Euratom) No 1605/2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European 
Communities (  5 ), and in particular Article 94 thereof,  
— having regard to Rule 77 of, and Annex VI to, its Rules of Procedure,  
— having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A7-0077/2013),  
A. whereas the European Joint Undertaking for ITER and the Development of Fusion Energy (‘the Joint 
Undertaking’) was set up in March 2007 for a period of 35 years,  
B. whereas the Joint Undertaking started to work autonomously on March 2008,  
C. whereas the Court of Auditors states that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the annual 
accounts of the Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2011 are reliable and that the underlying 
transactions are legal and regular,EN L 308/364 Official Journal of the European Union 16.11.2013  
( 1 ) OJ C 6, 10.1.2013, p. 36.  
( 2 ) OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1.  
( 3 ) OJ L 298, 26.10.2012, p. 1.  
( 4 ) OJ L 90, 30.3.2007, p. 58.  
( 5 ) OJ L 357, 31.12.2002, p. 72.
D. whereas on 9 October 2008 the Court of Auditors delivered Opinion No 4/2008 on the Joint Under ­
taking’s Financial Regulation,  
E. whereas at the creation of the Joint Undertaking the indicative total resources deemed necessary for the 
period 2007 to 2014 were EUR 9 653 000 000;  
Budgetary and financial management  
1. Notes that the annual accounts of the Joint Undertaking fairly present, in all material respects, its 
financial position as of 31 December 2011 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the 
year then ended, in accordance with the provisions of its Financial Regulation;  
2. Acknowledges that the transactions underlying the annual accounts of the Joint Undertaking for the 
financial year 2011 are, in all material respects, legal and regular;  
3. Notes that the utilisation rates for the available commitment and payment appropriations were 99,7 % 
and 85,7 % respectively; points out that out of EUR 611 000 000 of commitment appropriations 
available for operational activities, 42 % were implemented through direct individual commitments 
while the remaining 58 % were implemented through global commitments;  
4. Welcomes the appointment of the Head of the ITER Department, the Head of Administration and the 
Head of the Budget and Finance unit in 2011 following the adaptation of the management 
improvement plan to separate financial and operational functions in 2010;  
5. Regrets that the Joint Undertaking’s Internal Auditor raised concerns about the financial circuits and 
moreover the separation of duties; urges the Joint Undertaking to put in place without delay a proper 
systematisation of the financial circuits and to segregate all duties that are incompatible;  
6. Expects the Joint Undertaking to:  
— fully implement and make use of an integrated tool to administer budget, financial and operational 
information;  
— fully implement the action plans adopted by the Joint Undertaking in response to the internal audits 
on the financial circuits, grant management and experts contracts;  
— complete the validation of the underlying systems by the accounting officer;  
— adopt a comprehensive  ex post  audit strategy for grants and operational contracts;  
— carry out a risk management exercise at corporate level;  
Procurement and grants  
7. Emphasises the fact that, as already pointed out in the Court of Auditors’ 2010 report, the Joint 
Undertaking needs to enhance its efforts to increase competition as the number of offers received 
for the operational procurement procedures signed in 2011 was still low and amounted to two on 
average while for grants the average number of proposals received was only one per call; acknowledges 
that the Joint Undertaking’s nature of work is characterised by the procurement of high technological 
components, never built before and without any commercial value, designed for the construction of an 
experimental fusion reactor in an extremely complex market in which monopoly or oligopoly situ ­
ations are predominant; reiterates that the Joint Undertaking must find value for money in all possible 
acquisitions;EN 16.11.2013 Official Journal of the European Union L 308/365
8. Regrets that in one case, the decision to cancel an open procedure and to use a negotiated procedure 
was not duly justified while in another case, the Joint Undertaking decided to negotiate with two 
companies which submitted offers under the open procedure (although one of them was not technically 
compliant); further regrets that in another situation both the choice of the negotiated procedure and the 
quantities and price contracted were not duly justified;  
9. Is concerned that the Court of Auditors’ audit has confirmed the findings of an internal audit carried 
out in 2011 in the area of procurement, notably:  
— the pre-information notice is not used as an instrument for increasing  ex ante  publicity of forth ­
coming tenders;  
— there is no system to track and manage changes in the contract requirements and thus identify and 
remedy cost deviations;  
— the duration of the procurement process is often excessive and there are inefficiencies in preparing 
tender documents;  
— cost estimates are not well documented;  
10. Calls, in this respect, for a detailed progress report which makes specific proposals to gradually rectify 
these shortcomings;  
11. Deplores the fact that the Court of Auditors’ audit also revealed that the  ex ante  control procedures 
applied to payments made under contracts and grant agreements are not sufficiently documented;  
Quality assurance audits and ex post controls on procurement and grants  
12. Is concerned by the fact that while the Joint Undertaking has a system to perform audits at the level of 
contractors with the aim of checking compliance with the quality assurance requirements the scope of 
these audits does not cover the financial aspects of the implementation of the contracts; calls the Joint 
Undertaking to ensure that the audit system scope covers the protection of the financial interest of the 
Joint Undertaking covering financial and contractual aspects;  
13. Takes note that despite having started in 2011 the  ex post  controls to assess the legality and regularity 
of the implementation of grants awarded the Joint Undertaking lacks an overall  ex post  control strategy 
to cover the implementation of grant contracts and procurement contracts; urges the Joint Undertaking 
to define and implement an overall  ex post  control strategy that covers in full their expended budgetary 
resources;  
Intellectual property rights and Industrial Policy  
14. Acknowledges that on 28 March 2012, the Governing Board adopted the Joint Undertaking’s policy on 
intellectual property rights and dissemination of information; notes, however, that the Governing Board 
has not yet adopted the industrial policy required under the Statutes;  
Late payment of membership contributions  
15. Deplores the fact that payment of the 2011 contributions by 12 members were subject to delays;  
16. Considers it to be essential that the deadline for paying membership contributions is respected by all 
Members of the Joint Undertaking; supports the fact that those measures were approved by the 
Governing Board for interest to be levied on Annual Membership Contribution in the event of late 
payment;EN L 308/366 Official Journal of the European Union 16.11.2013
Commission Internal Audit Service  
17. Notes that the mission charter of the Commission’s Internal Audit Service was adopted by the 
Governing Board on 25 November 2011 together with a coordinated strategic audit plan for 2012- 
2014 and its Financial Regulation has been amended accordingly to introduce the provisions of the 
framework Regulation referring to the powers of the Commission’s Internal Auditor; recalls that the 
Joint Undertaking started to work autonomously on March 2008;  
Financial Regulation and Implementing Rules  
18. Welcomes the fact that at its meeting of 1 June 2011 the Joint Undertaking’s Governing Board decided 
to broadly accept the observations (37 recommendations were fully accepted, 11 accepted with 
comments and only two rejected) of the Court of Auditors’ Opinion No 4/2008 on Fusion for 
Energy’s Financial Regulation;  
19. Takes note that the Court of Auditors considers that certain provisions in the Joint Undertaking’s 
implementing rules depart from the implementing rules of the Union Financial Regulation without 
sufficient justification; welcomes the Joint Undertaking’s clarification that the amended implementing 
rules provide sufficient guidance for the implementation of the activities the Joint Undertaking in what 
respects for instance the conditions to raise and grant loans or the rules for valuing in-kind contribu ­
tions;  
Union contribution to ITER construction phase  
20. Recalls that in July 2010, the Council revised the budget estimate of the Joint Undertaking’s 
contribution for the construction phase to EUR 6 600 000 000 (2008 value), thus doubling the 
initial estimate; is concerned that the Joint Undertaking is realising an exercise to align all the 
incurred cost up to date to the 2008 values in order to be able to establish the potential deviations 
from that budget estimates; takes note that the Joint Undertaking implemented a tool to regularly 
monitor the validity of the estimates and report on potential deviations; expects the Joint Undertaking 
to inform the discharge authority of the results of that analysis;  
Host State agreement  
21. Recognises that although a Host State agreement on the site and support, privileges and immunities was 
signed between the Kingdom of Spain and the Joint Undertaking, the permanent premises were yet not 
made available to the Joint Undertaking; notes, however, that the Joint Undertaking continues to 
occupy temporary premises sponsored by the Kingdom of Spain;  
Other issues  
22. Reiterates its invitation for the Court of Auditors to provide, within a reasonable deadline, a special 
report to Parliament on common issues which occur due to the nature of the joint undertakings, and 
which should be addressed by the joint undertakings together with their partners in order to ensure 
their added value and efficient execution of Union research, technological development and demon ­
stration programmes; notes, furthermore, that that report should include an assessment of the effec ­
tiveness of the joint undertakings’ establishment and structure.EN 16.11.2013 Official Journal of the European Union L 308/367