STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE 7. Pursuant to the provisions of Article 287 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the Court has audited: (a) the annual accounts of the ENIAC Joint Undertaking, which comprise the financial statements (6) and the reports on the implementation of the budget (7) for the financial year ended 31 December 2013, and (b) the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying those accounts. The management’s responsibility 8. In accordance with Articles 33 and 43 of Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2343/2002 (8), the management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the annual accounts of the Joint Undertaking and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions. (a) The management’s responsibilities in respect of the Joint Undertaking’s annual accounts include designing, implementing and maintaining an internal control system relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, selecting and applying appropriate accounting policies on the basis of the accounting rules adopted by the Commission’s accounting officer (9), and making accounting estimates that are reasonable in the circumstances. The Director approves the annual accounts of the Joint Undertaking after its accounting officer has prepared them on the basis of all available information and established a note to accompany the accounts in which he declares, inter alia, that he has reasonable assurance that they present a true and fair view of the financial position of the Joint Undertaking in all material respects. (b) The management’s responsibilities in respect of the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions and compliance with the principle of sound financial management consist of designing, implementing and maintaining an effective and efficient internal control system comprising adequate supervision and appropriate measures to prevent irregularities and fraud and, if necessary, legal proceedings to recover funds wrongly paid or used. The auditor’s responsibility 9. The Court’s responsibility is, on the basis of its audit, to provide the European Parliament and the Council (10) with a statement of assurance as to the reliability of the annual accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions. The Court conducts its audit in accordance with the IFAC International Standards on Auditing and Codes of Ethics and the INTOSAI International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions. These standards require the Court to plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance as to whether the annual accounts of the Joint Undertaking are free from material misstatement and the underlying transactions are legal and regular. 10. The audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions. The procedures selected depend on the auditor’s judgement, which is based on an assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the accounts and material non-compliance by the underlying transactions with the requirements in the legal framework of the European Union, whether due to fraud or error. In assessing these risks, the auditor considers any internal controls relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of the accounts, as well as the supervisory and control systems that are implemented to ensure the legality and regularity of underlying transactions, and designs audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances. The audit also entails evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies, the reasonableness of accounting estimates and the overall presentation of the accounts. 11. The Court considers that the audit evidence obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for its statement of assurance. Opinion on the reliability of the accounts 12. In the Court’s opinion, , the Joint Undertaking’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 rules and the accounting rules adopted by the Commission’s accounting officer. Basis for a qualified opinion on the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions 13. The Joint Undertaking’s ex-post audit strategy (11) was adopted by a Governing Board decision on 18 November 2010 and is a key tool (12) for assessing the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions. The payments made in 2013 against certificates of acceptance of costs issued by the national funding authorities (NFAs) of the Member States amounted to 17 million euro, which represents 50 % of the 34,4 million euro in operational payments. 14. The administrative agreements established between the Joint Undertaking and the NFAs of the Member States provide in principle that the NFAs will perform audits on behalf of the Joint Undertaking. The Joint Undertaking’s ex-post audit strategy relies heavily on the NFAs to audit project cost claims. 15. In 2013, the audits performed by NFAs covered 32 % of beneficiaries from the 2008 call 1, representing 61 % of accepted costs. However, the Joint Undertaking did not assess the quality of these audits. 16. The Joint Undertaking itself carried out a limited review of cost claims (13) and concluded in its annual activity report that the error rate is below 2 %. This limited review is not sufficient to give assurance on the error rate reported by the Joint Undertaking. 17. The Court is unable to conclude whether the ex-post audit key control is functioning effectively. Qualified opinion on the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying the accounts 18. In the Court’s opinion, except for the possible effects of the matter described in the basis for a qualified opinion in paragraphs 16 to 17, the transactions underlying the annual accounts of the Joint Undertaking for the financial year ended 31 December 2013 are, in all material respects, legal and regular.