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 European Aviation Safety Agency for the financial year 2010  
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT,  
— having regard to the final annual accounts of the European Aviation Safety Agency for the financial year 
2010,  
— having regard to the Court of Auditors’ report on the annual accounts of the European Aviation Safety 
Agency for the financial year 2010, together with the Agency’s replies (  1 ), 
— having regard to the Council’s recommendation of 21 February 2012 (06083/2012 – C7-0051/2012),  
— 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 Regulation (EC) No 216/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council (  3 ) 
establishing a European Aviation Safety Agency, and in particular Article 60 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 (  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 and the opinion of the Committee 
on Transport and Tourism (A7-0124/2012),  
A. whereas the Court of Auditors stated that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the annual accounts 
of the European Aviation Safety Agency (‘the Agency’) for the financial year 2010 are reliable and that 
the underlying transactions are legal and regular,  
B. whereas on 10 May 2011 Parliament granted the Executive Director of the Agency discharge for 
implementation of its budget for the financial year 2009 (  5 ), and in its resolution accompanying the 
discharge decision, inter alia:  
— urged the Agency to implement an activity-based structure for the operational budget in order to 
establish a clear link between the work programme and the financial forecasts and improve 
performance monitoring and reporting,EN L 286/176 Official Journal of the European Union 17.10.2012  
( 1 ) OJ C 366, 15.12.2011, p. 21.  
( 2 ) OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1.  
( 3 ) OJ L 79, 19.3.2008, p. 1.  
( 4 ) OJ L 357, 31.12.2002, p. 72.  
( 5 ) OJ L 250, 27.9.2011, p. 140.
— drew attention to the fact that once again the Agency carried forward to 2010 a high level of 
appropriations for operating expenditure,  
— requested that a report be attached to each year’s budget on the unspent appropriations carried over 
from previous years, explaining why those monies have not been used and how and when they will 
be used,  
— noted deficiencies in staff selection procedures which put at risk the transparency of those 
procedures,  
C. whereas the Agency is financed by fees and charges and a contribution from the Union,  
D. whereas the budget of the Agency for the financial year 2010 was EUR 137 200 000 compared to 
EUR 122 200 000 in 2009, which was an increase of 12,27 %; whereas the contribution of the Union 
to the budget of the Agency for 2010 was EUR 34 197 000 (  1 ), which represents an increase of 0,87 % 
compared to 2009,  
Budget and financial management  
1. Recalls that two-thirds of the Agency’s budget comes from fees and charges paid by the industry, one 
third comes from Union subsidies, and the initial Union contribution to the Agency for 2010 
amounted to EUR 32 879 000; notes however that EUR 1 318 000, coming from the recovery of 
surplus, was added to that amount which, as a result, makes a total Union contribution of 
EUR 34 197 000;  
2. Notes that the Agency’s budget increased by 61 % from EUR 85 200 000 to EUR 137 200 000 from 
2007 to 2010 while staff numbers rose from 333 to 524;  
3. Notes that under Article 3 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 593/2007 of 31 May 2007 on the fees 
and charges levied by the European Aviation Safety Agency (  2 ) the revenues from fees constitute 
assigned revenues which can be carried over by the Agency as long as they have not been used; 
notes that industry receipts may be related to more than one financial year; notes that the reserve 
that can be used during the subsequent years is adjusted based on the budget result for the year; notes 
that the amount of the reserve decreased over the last two years from EUR 29 000 000 at the end of 
2008 to EUR 21 000 000 at the end of 2010;  
4. Notes from its final annual accounts for the financial year 2010 that the Agency used only non- 
differentiated appropriations and that as a result the commitment appropriations were equal to the 
payment appropriations; notes moreover that the overall budget implementation rate was 99,51 % for 
the 2010 appropriations;  
5. Calls on the Agency to further take adequate measures in order to avoid deficiencies that put at risk the 
transparency of the procurement process as well as the principle of sound financial management;  
Accounting  
6. Ascertains from its final annual accounts that in 2010 the Agency changed its revenue recognition 
method from a cost-based method to a method based on the straight-line method proposed in EC 
Accounting Rule number 4;  
7. Understands from the Agency that the change was made to improve accuracy and transparency on how 
the revenue earned is based and to take account of the 2009 Court of Auditors’ recommendation to 
apply a method reflecting more accurately the amount of revenue allocated to a financial year;EN 17.10.2012 Official Journal of the European Union L 286/177  
( 1 ) OJ L 64, 12.3.2010, p. 613.  
( 2 ) OJ L 140, 1.6.2007, p. 3.
8. Acknowledges from the Annual Activity Report of the Agency that the Enterprise Resource Planning 
system was further enhanced and systematically used for all types of financial transactions and for the 
year-end closing;  
Procurement procedure  
9. Notes from its AAR that 23 high value tendering procedures covering both operational and adminis ­
trative needs were managed throughout 2010, that 20 of them were finalised and 29 high value 
contracts signed with a value of approximately EUR 14 000 000; notes in addition that 428 
contracts were signed following the low value procurement procedures totalling approximately 
EUR 1 650 000;  
10. Acknowledges, in particular, from the Court of Auditors that, for two large procurement procedures, 
the evaluation method did not allow tenders offering the best financial bid to achieve the highest price 
score; notes from the Agency that these two procurement procedures refer to:  
— the renewal of a four-year cleaning services contract amounting to EUR 1 000 000,  
— a Framework Contract of a maximum of four years for studies on aircraft engine certification 
requirements and standards with a maximum value of EUR 2 500 000 for which the awarded 
contractor did not complete all cost elements in its application,  
notes that the Agency replied that no negative impact on the outcome was to be reported and will 
nevertheless take into account the considerations of the Court and in the future address the risk 
identified through paying even more attention to financial evaluation formulas;  
Human resources  
11. Notes that, once more, the discharge authority found deficiencies in staff selection procedures which 
put at risk the transparency of these procedures; acknowledges from the Court of Auditors that there 
was no evidence that thresholds for being invited to interview or being put on the reserve list had been 
defined before the examination of the applications started; notes that this could be to cover up a 
situation of nepotism or conflict of interest; asks that everything be done in order to avoid conflicts of 
interest; calls on the Commission to ensure that the Agency applies Union rules correctly; stresses the 
importance of transparency in procurement and staff selection procedures;  
12. Notes that the Agency did not inform the discharge authority of the actions taken to make the selection 
procedures of its experts/staff more transparent as requested in 2009, although understands that the 
matter was addressed in 2010 after the Court of Auditors once again underlined the issue in its report; 
stresses, once more, that the impact of these deficiencies is even more crucial when considering that the 
objectives of the Agency are as follows: issuing certification specifications, taking decisions regarding 
airworthiness and environmental certification and conducting standardisation inspections of the 
competent authorities in the Member States;  
13. Notes the Agency’s reply to the Court that its guidelines for panel members indicate clearly the 
minimum threshold which candidates have to meet in order to be invited for interviews (50 %) or 
to be put on the reserve list (65 %) but that it reserves its right to decide on what constitutes a 
maximum reasonable number of candidates to be invited according to their merit ranking;  
14. Reminds the Agency of the importance of ensuring adequate training and qualification criteria for 
inspection teams and team leaders; calls on the Agency to take concrete steps and inform the discharge 
authority thereof;  
15. Notes that, from 2009 to 2010, the Agency’s staff numbers rose from 509 to 578, including 
temporary and contracting agents;EN L 286/178 Official Journal of the European Union 17.10.2012
Conflict of interest  
16. Notes that the Agency’s technical staff members need to be commonly recruited from national aviation 
authorities and the aviation industry; understands that the staff members must have sufficient and up- 
to-date technical experience of working in the field of aviation to perform a technical check of 
documents demonstrating compliance for the purposes of ensuring an adequate level of aviation 
safety as requested by the applicable Union legislation; is concerned however that this situation 
could cause conflicts of interest if a staff member recruited from an aircraft manufacturer works and 
takes decisions at the Agency on the certification of the aircraft he/she used to work on while employed 
by the manufacturer and, if not detected and adequately managed, could result in a conflict of interest 
situation; recognises however that the Agency has put in place a certification procedure where impar ­
tiality of the decision-making process is guaranteed through the collegiality of the technical assessments 
and the decision-making process itself; also understands that the Agency is in the process of setting up 
an Agency-wide policy in the area of codes of conduct including identification, prevention, monitoring 
and dealing with the consequences of potential conflict of interest cases which will help the Agency to 
further improve the identification and handling of conflict of interests situations in such a way that 
aviation safety is not put at risk at any time;  
17. Calls on the Agency to take duly into consideration the professional background of its staff members in 
order to avoid any conflict of interest; is of the opinion that the Agency’s conflicts of interest policy 
should set out to which extent and under which conditions an Agency employee can be involved in the 
certification of an aircraft on which they worked prior to joining the Agency;  
18. Calls on the Agency to adopt effective processes that duly address potential cases of allegations of 
conflicts of interest within the Agency; also calls on the Agency to publish on its website the 
declaration of interests and professional background of its experts, management staff, Management 
Board members and of any other persons whose activities are related to the certification process; 
indicates that the Agency should follow the OECD guidelines in the area of conflicts of interest;  
19. Noting that the Agency is involved in decisions of vital importance for all citizens and taking into 
account its exposure due to its importance to the industry, the discharge authority is looking forward to 
receiving and discussing the findings and recommendations from the Special Report on conflict of 
interest situations to be released by the Court of Auditors before the end of June 2012;  
Performance  
20. Calls on the Agency to further implement the existing activity-based structure for the operational 
budget in order to establish a clear link between the work programme and the financial forecasts 
and further improve performance monitoring and reporting;  
21. Calls on the Agency to make a Gantt diagram part of the programming for each of its operational 
activities where relevant; stresses also how important it is for the Agency to set SMART objectives and 
RACER indicators in its programming as it has done in its Annual Work Programme and in its AAR 
since 2008;  
Internal control  
22. Notes from its AAR that the Agency consolidated its Integrated Management System in 2010 including 
the concept of ‘internal control’, which aims at ensuring that the risks are correctly mitigated, in order 
to enhance the Agency’s ability to achieve operational, quality, compliance or financial objectives;  
23. Notes that, in December 2010, the Agency’s Integrated Management System achieved certification 
against the internationally recognised ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management Standard;  
Standardisation inspections process  
24. Calls on the Agency to further improve the documentation of inspection planning and inspection 
programming; reminds the Agency of the importance of documenting the risk assessment and 
criteria used when establishing its inspection planning in order to justify its internal decision-making 
process for cases presenting significant deficiencies affecting Union citizens’ safety;EN 17.10.2012 Official Journal of the European Union L 286/179
25. Calls moreover the Agency to further improve its effectiveness in managing key safety concerns by:  
— monitoring information,  
— reducing the length of the reporting and implementing time-frame,  
— documenting the decision-making process between the Agency and the Commission,  
— adequately mitigating the risks of any potential conflict of interest situation;  
26. Calls moreover on the Agency to classify, monitor and follow up its inspection findings classified as 
‘Observations’; takes note from the Agency that it has developed an operating procedure to define those 
findings and to communicate them to the Commission; calls therefore on the Agency to inform the 
discharge authority on the action taken;  
Internal audit  
27. Acknowledges that several ‘very important’ recommendations from the Internal Audit Service (IAS) 
aimed at reducing outstanding risks to the Agency are still open and are currently under review by the 
IAS;  
28. Notes in particular that in 2010 the IAS performed an audit on the Standardisation Inspection Process 
in order to assess and provide an independent assurance on the internal control system related to the 
standardisation inspection process in the Agency, the purpose of which is to monitor the application of 
relevant Union Regulations by the national aviation authorities and report to the Commission; also 
notes that the Agency has already developed a corrective action plan which was agreed by the IAS and 
already provided to the IAS for its review evidence of implementation regarding the recommendations 
set out in paragraphs 25 to 27 of this report;  
29. Calls in this respect on the Agency to further:  
— document its risk assessments after its annual inspection programmes and inspection visit,  
— improve the monitoring of and reporting on the significant deficiencies which raise safety concerns,  
— follow-up and monitor its observations after inspection visits;  
30. Draws attention to its recommendations from previous discharge reports, as set out in the Annex to 
this resolution;  
31. Refers, in respect of the other observations accompanying its Decision on discharge, which are of a 
horizontal nature, to its resolution of 10 May 2012 (  1 ) on the performance, financial management and 
control of the agencies.EN L 286/180 Official Journal of the European Union 17.10.2012  
( 1 ) Texts adopted, P7_TA(2012)0164 (see page 388 of this Official Journal).
ANNEX  
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RECOMMENDATIONS OVER PAST YEARS  
European Aviation Safety 
Agency  2006  2007  2008  2009  
Performance  The Agency should carefully check 
the consistency of the expenditure 
forecasts: the Agency’s cost analysis 
system showed costs of about 
EUR 48 000 000 versus revenue of 
about EUR 35 000 000; 
insufficient programming  The Agency should carefully check 
the consistency of the expenditure 
forecasts that are to be presented 
for adoption by the budgetary 
authority  — Calls on the Agency to set out a diachronic 
analysis of operations carried out in this and 
the previous years 
— Calls on the Agency to set SMART objectives 
and RACER indicators 
— Calls on the Agency to make a Gantt diagram  — Calls on the Agency to set SMART objective and 
RACER indicators 
— Calls on the Agency to consider making a Gantt 
diagram part of the programming for each of its 
operational activities, with a view to indicating 
in a concise form the amount of time spent by 
each staff member on a project 
— Urges the Agency to implement an activity 
based structure for the operational budget in 
order to establish a clear link between the work 
programme and the financial forecasts and the 
improve performance monitoring and reporting 
— Calls on the Agency to set out a comparison of 
its operations that were carried out during the 
year for which discharge is to be granted and 
during the previous financial year  
Fees and charges 
regulation  n.a. The Agency should not confuse to 
use the former regulation on fee 
levied with the new one  — Calls on the Agency to establish a monitoring 
system at the level of certification projects 
— Calls on the Agency to put forward a detailed 
plan to guarantee that the system of annual flat 
fees might not generate income which is 
significantly above the actual costs of the 
services rendered  — Calls on the Agency to improve its monitoring 
system for certification projects to make sure 
that, over the entire duration the fees levied do 
not deviate significantly from the actual cost 
— Calls on the Agency to correctly estimate for the 
establishment of the 2010 financial statements, 
the accrued expenditure related to the 
management of certification tasks outsourced to 
national aviation authorities  
Carry-over of 
appropriations/Pro ­
curement issues  The budgetary principle of 
annuality was not observed: 
contrary to its Financial Regulation, 
the Agency used its differentiated 
payment appropriations carried 
over from 2005 despite the fact 
that it had enough payment 
appropriations for 2006  Transparency issues on the award 
criteria and the financial evaluation 
method  — Calls on the Agency to remedy the enterprise 
resource planning system resulting from a 
delay in signing the service contract. (Calls on 
the Agency to present a much more realistic 
forecast to the Commission and the Parliament 
during the next years)  — Agency carried forward to 2010 a high level of 
appropriations for operating expenditure (65 % 
from Title III, Operational Activities. The 
percentage of commitments carried forward is 
13 %)EN 17.10.2012 Official Journal of the European Union L 286/181
European Aviation Safety 
Agency  2006  2007  2008  2009  
— Calls on the Commission to examine ways of 
ensuring that the principle of needs-based cash 
management is implemented in full, in order to 
ensure that the Agency’s cash reserves are kept 
as low as possible  — Calls for more accurate and timely management 
of contracts and for far more realistic forecasts 
to be presented to Parliament and Commission 
for the next financial year 
— Requests that a report be attached to each year’s 
budget on the unspent appropriations carried 
over from previous years explaining why those 
monies have not been used and how and when 
they will be used  
Human resources  n.a.  Calls on the Agency to improve its 
recruitment and resource planning 
systems  Calls on the Agency to improo ve its recruitment 
and resource planning systems  — Notes deficiencies in staff selection procedures 
which put at risk the transparency of these 
procedures. Court of Auditors reported that the 
decisions by the selection boards were 
insufficiently justified and documented since 
thresholds for being invited to interview or put 
on the reserve list were not defined in advance 
and minutes were missing 
— Urges the Agency to inform the discharge 
authority on the actions taken to redress this 
situation and make the selection procedures of 
its experts/staff more transparent  
Internal audit  The Agency has not yet 
implemented an effective claim 
management system, possibly 
including interest on late payment  n.a. Calls on the Agency to take steps to fulfil 13 (two 
are considered critical) out of 28 recommendations 
made by the Internal Audit Service → i.e. the 
recommendations concern the budgetary 
uncertainty, the absence of risk analysis, the 
absence of an appraisal and promotion policy, the 
cut-off procedure and a procedure for recording 
exceptions which have been closed  Acknowledges that the Agency has implemented 20 
out of the 26 recommendations made by the IAS 
since 2006EN L 286/182 Official Journal of the European Union 17.10.2012