RESOLUTION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT  
of 10 May 2012  
with observations forming an integral part of its Decision on discharge in respect of the 
implementation of the budget of the Artemis Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2010  
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT,  
— having regard to the final annual accounts of the Artemis Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2010,  
— having regard to the Court of Auditors’ report on the annual accounts of the Artemis Joint Undertaking 
for the financial year 2010, together with the replies of the Joint Undertaking (  1 ), 
— having regard to the Council’s recommendation of 21 February 2012 (06086/2012 — C7-0050/2012),  
— 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 Council Regulation (EC) No 74/2008 of 20 December 2007 on the establishment of 
the ‘Artemis Joint Undertaking’ to implement a Joint Technology Initiative in Embedded Computing 
Systems (  3 ), and in particular Article 11(4) 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 Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 
1605/2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Commu ­
nities (  4 ), 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 (A7-0109/2012),  
A. whereas the Artemis Joint Undertaking was set up in December 2007 for a period of 10 years to define 
and implement a ‘Research Agenda’ for the development of key technologies for embedded computing 
systems across different application areas in order to strengthen European competitiveness and sustain ­
ability, and allow the emergence of new markets and societal applications,  
B. whereas the Joint Undertaking started to work autonomously in October 2009,  
C. whereas the Court of Auditors states that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the annual accounts 
for the financial year 2010 are reliable and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular,  
D. whereas the maximum contribution for the period of 10 years from the Union to the Joint Undertaking 
is EUR 420 000 000 to be paid from the budget of the seventh research framework programme,  
E. whereas the budget of the Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2010 amounted to EUR 38 500 000,EN 17.10.2012 Official Journal of the European Union L 286/307  
( 1 ) OJ C 368, 16.12.2011, p. 1.  
( 2 ) OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1.  
( 3 ) OJ L 30, 4.2.2008, p. 52.  
( 4 ) OJ L 357, 31.12.2002, p. 72.
Budget and Financial Management  
1. Notes with concern that the budget of the Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2010 was not 
adopted by the end of the previous year; takes note of the Joint Undertaking’s reply that its 2010 
budget was adopted in January 2011 due to the fact that the operational part of the budget depends 
on the commitment of the Member States and that for most of them the amount of commitment can 
only be ascertained after the adoption of their national budgets; calls on the Joint Undertaking and the 
contributing Member States to reach an agreement on a timetable and practical arrangements for the 
disclosure of their respective commitments to enable the adoption of the Joint Undertaking’s budget in 
due time and to keep the discharge authority informed on this matter;  
2. Is concerned that the structure and presentation of the Joint Undertaking’s 2010 budget were not in 
line with the provisions of the Joint Undertaking’s financial rules; understands from the Joint Under ­
taking that the structure and presentation of the budget have been adapted in the 2011 budget; calls 
on the Court of Auditors to assure the discharge authority that the structure and presentation of the 
Joint Undertaking’s budget are now fully in line with its financial rules;  
3. Acknowledges from the Joint Undertaking 2010 Annual Activity Report (AAR) that the commitment 
credits implemented by the Joint Undertaking for operational expenditures amounted to EUR 
36 000 000; takes note that with regards to the administrative expenditure the Joint Undertaking 
and the Commission agreed on the following split:  
— the Joint Undertaking and Artemisia: EUR 1 000 000;  
— the Commission: EUR 1 500 000;  
notes, however, that the needs of the Joint Undertaking for administrative expenditures reached 
EUR 1 900 000 and that as a consequence the contribution of the Commission was limited to 
EUR 935 315,91;  
4. Notes that the Joint Undertaking’s final budget included payment appropriations of EUR 27 000 000; 
acknowledges from the final annual accounts that the appropriations were committed at a rate of 
99,9 % but regrets that the utilisation rate only reached the level of 37,78 %;  
5. Is concerned about the low implementation rate of the budget and, moreover, about the underlying 
activities of the Joint Undertaking; underlines that the deposits in bank accounts at the end of 2010 
totalled EUR 16 600 000 representing 60 % of the available payment appropriations;  
Internal control systems  
6. Calls on the Joint Undertaking to fully implement its internal controls and financial information 
systems in particular on the operational verification of cost claims, on the assurance provided by 
the national authorities’ certificates and the  ex post  audit strategy;  
7. Is concerned that in the area of  ex ante  verification, reliance is placed entirely upon the certificates 
provided by the national authorities and that the Joint Undertaking does not perform any other checks 
to ensure the legality and regularity of the expenses declared by the beneficiaries; urges the Joint 
Undertaking to establish an  ex ante  verification mechanism in order to avoid errors and/or fraud in the 
expenses declared;  
8. Notes that the  ex post  audit of cost claims related to projects has been fully delegated to the Member 
States; is therefore of the opinion that the Joint Undertaking will have difficulties in ensuring that the 
financial interests of its members are adequately protected and that the underlying transactions are 
legal and regular; calls on the Joint Undertaking to reconsider its strategy towards the  ex post  audit of 
cost claims and to inform the discharge authority on the mechanism implemented to ensure 
compliance with Article 12 of its Founding Regulation (EC) No 74/2008;EN L 286/308 Official Journal of the European Union 17.10.2012
9. Notes the Court of Auditors’ finding that the Joint Undertaking has an adequate level of IT governance 
and practice for its size and mission; stresses, however, that the strategic IT planning and monitoring 
cycle, the security policies and rules, IT Risk management and Business Continuity Plan and Disaster 
Recovery Plan is lagging behind; calls on the Joint Undertaking to remedy the situation and provide 
the discharge authority with an up-to-date report on the matter;  
10. Takes note that the Accounting Officer of the Joint Undertaking validated the financial and accounting 
systems (ABAC and SAP); notes, however, that the underlying business processes were not validated, in 
particular the one providing financial information about the validation and payment of the cost claims 
received from the national authorities; asks the Joint Undertaking to inform the discharge authority on 
the state of validation of the underlying business processes;  
Internal audit  
11. Takes note that the Joint Undertaking’s financial rules have not yet been amended to include the 
provision referring to the powers of the Commission’s internal auditor regarding the general budget 
as a whole;  
12. Notes, however, that the Commission and the Joint Undertaking have taken action to ensure that the 
respective operational roles of the Commission’s Internal Audit Service and the Joint Undertaking’s 
internal auditing function are clearly defined;  
Call for proposals and projects negotiations  
13. Acknowledges from the AAR that the Joint Undertaking’s Call 2010 was published on 26 February 
2010 and that 73 proposals for research projects were submitted in response to Project Outline (PO) 
phase of this Call, of which 72 satisfied the eligibility criteria; notes that the 11 selected proposals range 
in size from EUR 45 000 000 to EUR 3 400 000, with four projects of EUR 15 000 000 or more, 
representing 66 % of the total investment; notes, however, that of the original 11 projects for which the 
Executive Director was mandated to negotiate, one had to be deemed irrevocably unsuccessful, leaving a 
total of 10 projects successfully negotiated;  
14. Notes the introduction of the concept of ‘Maturity Index’ during the Call 2010; understands that the 
tool, which aims to help further analysis, was used at PO phase to judge the subjective quality of the 
POs and to observe the level of maturity of the response of the Artemis community to the work 
programme;  
15. Establishes from the AAR that with regards to the negotiation and start of R & D projects, some delay 
was recorded in the delivery of the ‘production environment’ for the Joint Undertaking contract 
negotiations due to some change of priority in the Commission’s services responsible for the 
management of the FP7 IT tools; takes note from the Joint Undertaking that the technical delay is 
under control and that a fully operational production environment was expected to be delivered by 
mid-January 2011; notes, however, that as a mitigating action to prevent further delays in the Joint 
Undertaking contract negotiations, a back-up solution based on manual processing is in place that 
would allow the closure of all negotiations in the first quarter 2011 (assuming that national contracts 
are signed), in case the IT tools were not yet ready;  
16. Ascertains from the AAR that at year-end 2010 the Joint Undertaking grant agreements were signed for 
the 13 projects of Call 2009 and that all projects were launched;  
17. Considers that it is positive that the Joint Undertaking monitored and reviewed the 2008 Calls projects; 
observes, however, that the evaluation of the projects’ outcomes often lack details to assess their 
performance; notes in particular that the outcomes of the projects CHARTER, eDIANA, SYSMODEL, 
iLAND, INDEXYS, CHESS and CESAR are only rated as ‘positive’; calls on the Joint Undertaking to 
develop and implement more precise performance indicators for the future monitoring and review of 
its projects;EN 17.10.2012 Official Journal of the European Union L 286/309
Performance  
18. Notes from the AAR that the Commission’s report on the first interim evaluation of the Artemis and 
ENIAC Joint Technology Initiatives was adopted on 16 December 2010;  
19. Underlines that the interim evaluation formulated three recommendations to the Joint Undertaking:  
— to solve the ‘free riding’ problem, the Joint Undertaking should establish a system where each non- 
member beneficiary pays a percentage of its Union contribution as a fee to the costs of the Joint 
Undertaking;  
— the evaluation and selection processes should be modified to improve the match of the portfolio of 
supported projects to the strategic European aims of the programme;  
— Member States and the Industrial Associations should work together to establish processes whereby 
potential proposers can be given early, constructive feedback on their prospects for support;  
asks the Joint Undertaking to inform the discharge authority about the measures introduced following 
the results of this first interim evaluation;  
20. Takes note of the Commission’s proposal establishing the Specific Programme Implementing Horizon 
2020 — The Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2014-2020) — where the 
Commission raises a possibility of combining Artemis and ENIAC Joint Undertakings into one initiative 
and the possibility to set up new Joint Undertakings in the context of implementing the ‘Societal 
challenges’ part of Horizon 2020; calls on the Commission to keep the discharge authority informed 
about this matter;  
Lack of host State agreement  
21. Reiterates that the Joint Undertaking should rapidly conclude a host agreement with Belgium 
concerning office accommodation, privileges and immunities and other support to be provided by 
Belgium to it as provided by its Founding Regulation (EC) No 74/2008;  
Horizontal observations on the Joint Undertakings  
22. Underlines that seven Joint Undertakings have so far been established by the Commission under 
Article 187 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union; notes that six Joint Undertakings 
(IMI, Artemis, ENIAC, Clean Sky, FCH and ITER-F4E) are in the research area under the Commission’s 
DGs RTD and INFSO and one is charged with developing the new air traffic management system 
(SESAR) in the transport domain whose activities are supervised by DG MOVE;  
23. Notes that the total indicative resources deemed necessary for the Joint Undertakings for their period of 
existence amounts to EUR 21 793 000 000;  
24. Notes that the total Union contribution deemed necessary for the Joint Undertakings for their period of 
existence amounts to EUR 11 489 000 000;  
25. Notes that, for the financial year 2010, the overall Union contribution to the budget of the Joint 
Undertakings amounted to EUR 505 000 000;  
26. Calls on the Commission to provide the discharge authority annually with consolidated information on 
the total annual funding per Joint Undertaking made from the general budget of the Union in order to 
ensure transparency and clarity on the use of the Union’s funds and restore trust among the European 
taxpayers;EN L 286/310 Official Journal of the European Union 17.10.2012
27. Welcomes the initiative of Artemis to include information in its AAR on the monitoring and review of 
its ongoing projects; believes this is a practice that should be followed by the other Joint Undertakings;  
28. Recalls that Joint Undertakings are public–private partnerships and that as a consequence public and 
private interests are intertwined; is of the opinion that under the circumstances the likelihood of 
conflicts of interest should not be dismissed but addressed properly; calls therefore on the Joint 
Undertakings to inform the discharge authority on the verification mechanisms which exist in their 
respective structures to enable a proper management and prevention of conflicts of interest;  
29. Notes, with the notable exception of the Joint Undertaking for ITER and the Development of Fusion 
Energy, that Joint Undertakings are relatively small structures and geographically concentrated; believes 
therefore that they should pool their resources where possible;  
30. Calls on the Court of Auditors to provide the discharge authority with a follow-up on the comments it 
has made for each of the Joint Undertakings in their respective report on the annual accounts for the 
financial year 2011;  
31. Invites the Court of Auditors to provide, within a reasonable deadline, a special report to the 
Parliament, on the added value of the establishment of the Joint Undertakings for the efficient 
execution of Union research, technological development and demonstration programmes; further 
notes that the same report should include an assessment of the effectiveness of the Joint Undertakings’ 
establishment.EN 17.10.2012 Official Journal of the European Union L 286/311