EN    EN  
 EUROPEAN  
COMMISSION 
Brussels, 24.4.2015  
COM(2015) 179 final 
  
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION 
Progress report on the implementation of the Common Approach on EU decentralised 
agencies 
 
 
2 
 The Common Approach on EU decentralised agencies agreed in July 2012 by the European 
Parliament, the Council and the Commission define s a more coherent and efficient framework 
for the functioning of agencies.  
The Commission committed to follow-up on this agreement, where relevant in cooperation 
with the agencies. The Commission's main object ives for the implementation of the Common 
Approach are: more balanced governance, impr oved efficiency and accountability and greater 
coherence. These objectives are of particular  importance at a time when efficient and 
responsible use of resources is paramount. 
In its Roadmap of December 2012, the Commi ssion set out in detail how it intended to 
follow-up on the Common Approach: it listed a number of initiatives for which action was 
needed on its side, and/or on  the side of agencies, the Member States, the European 
Parliament and the Council. The initiatives are a direct translation of  the provisions of the 
Common Approach into concrete deliverable s. The Roadmap sets deadlines for those 
deliverables for which the Commission is re sponsible (30 initiatives) and highlights 5 
initiatives that the Commission considers priori ties. In addition, it indicates when cooperation 
with agencies is necessary and when agencies have already started implementing the Common Approach.  
In parallel to the actions listed in the Road map, the implementation of the Common Approach 
requires the adaptation of the founding acts of  existing agencies following a case by case 
analysis, as well as the adaptation or adopti on of other legislativ e acts (Staff Regulations
1, 
Framework Financial Regulation2).  
This is the second report on the implementation of the Roadmap presented by the 
Commission. It focuses in partic ular on progress made since th e adoption of the first report3, 
in December 2013, in respect of Roadmap acti ons under Commission res ponsibility. In the 
previous year, the Commission already made subs tantial progress in the implementation of the 
roadmap, including, inter alia,  the adoption of guidelines on standard provisions for 
headquarters agreements of EU decentralis ed agencies, Communication Handbook for the EU 
decentralised agencies, guidelines on the preven tion and management of conflicts of interest 
in EU decentralised agencies and guidelines on perf ormance budgeting and decentralized 
agencies. 
 
1. Good progress in the implementation of the Roadmap 
In the Roadmap, the Commission set an amb itious agenda for 2013 and beyond. Substantial 
efforts have been made jointly by the Commissi on services and the decen tralised agencies.  
  
                                                            
1  OJ L 287, 29.10.2013, p. 15 
2  OJ L 328, 7.12.2013, p. 42 
3  http://europa.eu/agencies/documents/2013-12-
10_progress_report_on_the_implementation_of_the_common_approach_en.pdf   
 
3 
 a. Setting up of agencies  
In 2014 Commission services, with input provided by agencies, put together a start-up toolkit 
covering the procedures to be followe d when an agency is being set up4. This guidance is 
available to the agencies a nd partner DGs alike and is s ubject to continuous update.  
This exercise is particularly useful in the framework of setting-up the Single Resolution Board 
(SRB), a new EU  Union body created in 20145. The SRB is the resolution authority for the 
Banking Union and will work in close cooperation with the national reso lution authorities of 
participating Member States. It will start wo rking on developing resolu tion plans of credit 
institutions from 1 January 2015 and is planned to be fully operational from 1 January 2016. 
In line with the Common Approach, a headquarter s' agreement should be signed with the least 
possible delay between the SRB and the Belgia n authorities, based on the guidelines provided 
to that effect by the Commission in 2013. 
At present, another 7 agencies6 are still lacking a proper headquarters' agreements. The 
Commission therefore invites agai n the relevant Member States7 and agencies to proceed as 
soon as possible with the signature of these agreements.8 
 
b. Operation of agencies  
Based on feedback from the agencies, the Co mmission issued guidelines for agencies' 
programming document9 (applicable as from 2016) as well as a template for agencies' 
consolidated annua l activity report10 (applicable as from 2015), in line with the requirements 
set by the new Framework Financ ial Regulation. These documents11 will support the agencies 
in preparing these two key instru ments, i.e. the reporting document  the first time for the 2014 
financial year and the programming document fr om 2017 financial year onwards, and thereby 
help enhance coherent governance and accountability across agencies.  
In the context of constrained financial and hum an resources, the Commission and the agencies 
continued their efforts to identify and put in  place structural measures to rationalise the 
functioning of the latter:  
                                                            
4  Roadmap action no. 10 
5  Article 64 of  SRB’s Founding Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 806/2014 of 15.7.2014, OJ L 225/1, 
30.7.2014) foresees that as far as is compatible w ith the particular nature of the Board, the financial 
provisions shall be based on the framework financial Regulation adopted for bodies set up under the TFEU in accordance with Article 208 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European 
Parliament and of the Council. 
6  CPVO, EASA, EMA, ERA, ESMA, Eurofound, FRONTEX 
7  France, Germany, UK, Ireland, Poland 
8  Roadmap action no. 8 
9  Roadmap action no. 26 
10  Roadmap action no. 31 
11  C(2014) 9641 
 
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 − Provision of services12: in March 2014, the Commissi on services adopted the 
'Guidance on charge-back of services' among its Directorates Ge neral and services. 
Although the Guidance does not apply to de centralised agencies, it sets up basic 
principles for internal charge-back, e.g. equa l treatment of client s, transparency and 
no-profit rule. To ensure consistency, it al so proposes a basic co sting model and an 
annual reporting template. The Commission is  preparing similar Guidance to other 
institutions, decentralised agencies and bodies. In this context, the Commission has 
taken good note of the general principles pr oposed by the agencies in relation to 
services provided by the Commission (e.g. transparency, support-oriented approach, 
efficiency, timeliness, cohe rence and accountability).  
− Review of Service Level Agreements (SLAs)13: the SLAs between agencies and the 
Paymaster's Office (PMO) have been re-negot iated, resulting in streamlined conditions 
based on a transparent cost-calculation method  of actual average costs. Other Service 
Level Agreements will be reviewed in the future in accordance with the new guidance.   
− Support in the field of public procurement14: additional guidance has been developed 
in view of agencies' participation in ca lls for tenders and contracts launched by the 
Commission, whenever there is a potential for realising efficiency gains. The 
Commission also provides gene ral support to the ag encies in this field. In particular, 
the Commission provides customised financia l training to the agencies having signed a 
Service Level Agreement with the Commission. The Commission also makes available its financial helpdesk function, where about a third of the questions related to 
financial management come from agenci es. Furthermore, all information about 
procurement and contract management may be accessed by the agencies on a 
dedicated intranet website. 
− Support in the field of the certification of the annual accounts of the entities: Article 
208 (4) Financial Regulation states that "An independent external auditor shall verify 
the annual accounts of each of the bodies". To this end, the Commission has made its 
framework contract on audit and controls available to the agencies. Whereas each 
agency remains fully accountable of the si gned specific contract, the specifications 
have been prepared in close cooperation with  the European Court of Auditors in order 
to ensure the consistency with the practices  of the Court and the added value of the 
report provided by the external contractor. 
As regards streamlining agencies' internationa l activities, working arrangements have been 
signed or are being signed between  most partner DGs and the agencies to ensure that the latter 
operate within their mandate and the institutional framework
15, in particular in those instances 
where the relevant provisions on internationa l activities included in agencies' founding acts 
are of a more general nature. The Commission will keep this process under review. 
                                                            
12  Roadmap action no. 12 
13  Roadmap action no. 13 
14  Roadmap action no. 14 
15  Roadmap action no. 17 
 
5 
 On the important issue of the prevention and management of conflicts of interest16 the 
Commission issued guidelines in December 2013. The Commission invites the agencies to 
adopt without delay respective frameworks on conflicts of interest  in line with these 
guidelines. Agencies hereby need to strike an adequate balance between  managing conflicts of 
interest and preserving their capability to obtain best possible scientific advice. The 
Commission recalls the fact that as the agencies are legally i ndependent entities, they alone 
are responsible for the way they handle the issu e of conflicts of interest in practice and 
notably, how they enforce and control that the ke y principles in this domain are respected, as 
well as for reporting on it.  
In order to foster the exchange of best practic es on the exchange of EU classified information 
(EUCI)17, the Commission set up a networ k of officials of the EU d ecentralised agencies with 
security responsibilities. The ne twork aims at having regular (a t least once a y ear) interactive 
meetings which serve as a platform for thorough  exchange of best pr actice and experience on 
the handling of EUCI in general and on the exch ange of EUCI in particular. In addition, via 
the established servi ce level agreements the Commission provides support to a number of 
agencies in other security domains, such as production of service ba dges, security training, 
advice on physical protecti on of buildings, etc.  
c. Evaluations, audit and OLAF  
The Commission continues its work to revise its evaluation guidelines18. The agencies have 
contributed to this process. These Guidelines  which apply to all ev aluations performed by 
Commission Services will form the basis fo r the Handbook for agencies' evaluations which 
had been developed within the framework of their Performance Development Network. 
With regards to the establishment of its audit programme, the Internal Audit Service (IAS) has 
adopted a risk assessment approach  at the portfolio level. Each  agency is assigned a risk 
rating based on a number of defined criteria. The audited entities' risk ratings are reviewed 
annually. The frequency, type of audits and the processes covered are decided in function of 
the risk rating of the entity, complemented with specific risk information at process level.  
Additionally, appropriate provisions  are developed to ensure minimum audit coverage for the 
lower-risk entities. As regards the monitoring of the implementation of recommendations, it is 
shifting the focus from a periodical/annual ex ercise to continuous monitoring and follow-up 
of the outstanding recommendations. In line with the new IAS Charter for Agencies and other 
autonomous bodies, IAS offers co-operation a nd co-ordination with the Internal Audit 
Capabilities (IACs), as appropr iate, for the purpose of provi ding optimal audit coverage. 
OLAF organised two workshops for the agencies  in January 2014 to provide them with an 
additional step-by-step guide on how to prepar e their Anti-Fraud Strategy. OLAF also gave 
customised help to different agencies la ter. To date, EFCA, CEDEFOP, EASA, EIGE, 
EIOPA, ESMA and OHIM have already adopted their Anti-Fraud Strategies.  The Anti-Fraud 
Strategy of EBA is being finalised. 
d. Management of financial and human resources and budgetary process 
                                                            
16  Roadmap actions no. 33 to 35 
17  Roadmap action no. 37 
18  Roadmap action no. 45 
 
6 
 In 2013, the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission agreed to set up an inter-
institutional working group on agencies' resources in the framework of the conciliation for the 
2014 EU budget. As provided for by the Multi-Annual Financial Framework 2014-2020, the three Institutions committed to progressively  reducing the staffing levels of all EU 
institutions, bodies and agencies  by 5% over five years and agreed on the need for a closer 
and more permanent scrutiny of the developmen t of decentralised agencies to ensure a 
coherent approach. The Inter-institutional Work ing Group on agencies' resources met twice in 
2014 and is expected to con tinue its work until the end of 2017, when the 2018 budget is 
expected to be adopted a nd the 5% target achieved. 
Following the new Framework Financial Re gulation, the programming tool on human 
resources management (i.e. the Multi-annual St aff Policy Plan) is part of the new Single 
Programming Document which brings toge ther the annual and multi-annual work 
programmes along with human and financia l resources programming.  This new tool
19 will be 
used by the agencies starting with the 2017 prog ramming exercise. In addition, new reporting 
guidelines were developed, with the aim of  streamlining the reporting requirements, i.e. 
bringing together aspects of HR reporti ng with financial and activity reporting.  
After thorough consultation with the agenci es, Commission services  issued guidelines20 on 
tailored performance indicators to assess the results achieved by agencies' Executive 
Directors21. These indicators feed into the work of the European Parliament and the Council 
in the framework of the agencies' discharge procedure.  
The last reform of the Staff Regulations en abled a simplified procedure as regards the 
application of implementing rules in agenci es. In addition, further simplification was 
generated with new guidelines22 developed by the Commission se rvices for the adoption of 
the implementing rules, allowing to save time  and resources involved in the process. 
Furthermore, model implementing rules in th e area of employment and career staff in 
agencies has been developed to avoid multiplic ation of different rules among agencies. These 
were the result of a collaborative work between  the Commission services and the agencies.  
As regards administrative inquiries and discip linary procedures, th e Commission services 
worked in close co-operation with agencies to create an inter-agenc y disciplinary pool of 
investigators. This included also the organi sation of intensive trainings by the Commission. 
Finally, Commission services will continue to  work on developing a guide on agencies' 
internal planning and revenue for ecasting, on the basis of best practices, to  help the agencies 
reduce carry over and cancellation rates, where this is the case23. 
 
2. The revision of agencies' founding acts 
                                                            
19  Roadmap action No. 26 
20  SWD(2015)62  
21  Roadmap action no. 89 
22  Roadmap action no. 87 
23  Roadmap action no. 82 
 
7 
 The Commission proposed in 2014 to adapt the f ounding act of CEPOL to the principles set 
out in the Common Approach. The proposal also takes into account  the relevant provisions in 
the revised Framework Financial Regulation. The revision was needed in order to give 
CEPOL the appropriate legal ma ndate and the necessary resour ces to implement the EU Law 
Enforcement Training Scheme. The proposal is in line with the decision taken by the co-legislators to move CEPOL to Budapest. The Commission's initial proposal to merge CEPOL 
and Europol was rejected by the co-legislators.  
In the case of the revi sion of CEPOL's, Eurojust's, Eur opol's and OHIM's founding acts, the 
Commission has proposed important elements of reform to ensure the full implementation of 
the Common Approach. The Commission recalls the inter-institutional commitment to use 
such revisions of agencies' founding acts as opportunities to implement and hence comply 
with the Common Approach, such as the reinforcement of the supervisory role of the Management Board (including by  ensuring full participation by the Commission), ensuring a 
transparent selection procedure for Director s and the necessary adoption of a programing 
document with a multi-annual component, the possi ble setting up of an executive board where 
this ensures more efficiency and the obligati on to better follow-up on evaluations and audits. 
Considering the ongoing inter-institutional disc ussions on the revision of certain agencies' 
founding acts, the Commission regrets the lack of  political commitment to ensure respect of 
the Common Approach on EU decentralised agenci es, in particular re garding the role or 
composition of the agencies' management structures. 
The Commission welcomes the adoption in 2014 of a revised European GNSS Agency (GSA) 
founding regulation
24, which has been to a great extent aligned to the principles set out in the 
Common Approach. 
 
3. The role of Commission represen tatives in agencies' boards 
As in 2013, Commission representatives in agenci es' boards did not activate the alert/warning 
system set up by the Common Approach. It is recal led that this tool has a political and not a 
legal dimension. The Commission repr esentative has no legal possibi lity to suspend a decision 
taken by the management board. The system ho wever enables Commission representatives to 
formally oppose a decision of the boards with a view to ensuring coherence with EU policies 
and compatibility of the agencies' activities with their mandate and relevant EU legislation and subsequently alert the Eur opean Parliament and Council.  
Commission representatives in agencies’ board s continued to support the implementation of 
the Common Approach by the agencies, by fo llowing-up on the implementation of the 
Roadmap in each individual agency, by reviewi ng progress and alerting the partner DG and 
central services in case of difficulties.  
In particular if agencies are exceptionally entrusted with budget im plementation tasks by the 
Commission's respective authorising officers by  delegation (AOD), they should be able to 
rely on the control results a nd the indicators reported by the agency and by consequence to 
gain assurance on the achieveme nt of the internal control objectives as regards the budget 
                                                            
24  OJ L 150, 20.05.2014, p. 72 
 
8 
 implementation involved. In this context the respective AODs may also draw on information 
gathered by Commission’s represen tatives in the agency’s board. 
 
4. Conclusions 
In line with its previous commitment s, throughout 2013 and 2014, the Commission has 
invested considerable efforts to deliver on th e actions under its responsibility in the roadmap 
to follow-up to the Common Approach on EU decentralised agencies. The Commission has 
also performed a thorough case by case analysis  upon preparation of its legislative proposals 
to make sure they are in line with the Common Approach. The main objective of its work has been to ensure more balanced governance, impr oved efficiency and accountability and greater 
coherence. 
Implementation of the Roadmap on the Common Approach was based on extensive work on 
the side of Commission, but also on the side of the decentralised agencies, which actively 
contributed throughout the proce ss. The Commission welcomes th e proactive approach of the 
agencies and takes note of th e report endorsed by the EU agencies network in February 2015 
on the Roadmap actions that fall under the agencies ' responsibility. 
The reforms undertaken in the framework of th e Common Approach remain  highly relevant in 
the years to come. The Commission will continue to defend the principles set out in the 
Common Approach and invites the European Parl iament, the Council, the Member States and 
the agencies themselves to do the same, particularly on issues  that are under their direct 
responsibility.