EN Official Journal of the European Union L 246/240

RESOLUTION (EU) 2016/1517 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

of 28 April 2016

with observations forming an integral part of the decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Environment Agency for the financial year 2014

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT,

— having regard to its decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Environment Agency for the financial year 2014,

— having regard to Rule 94 of and Annex V to its Rules of Procedure,

— having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control and the opinion of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (A8-0100/2016),

A. whereas, according to its financial statements, the final budget of the European Environmental Agency (‘the Agency’) for the financial year 2014 was EUR 52 573 071, representing an increase of 6,70 % compared to 2013; whereas 76,81 % of the Agency’s budget derives from the Union budget; whereas the increase is mostly related to operating expenditure for strategic actions;

B. whereas the Court of Auditors (‘the Court’), in its report on the annual accounts of the European Environmental Agency for the financial year 2014 (‘the Court’s report’), has stated that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the Agency’s annual accounts for the financial year 2014 are reliable and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular;

Comments on the legality and regularity of transactions

1. Notes from the Court’s report that in 2014 the Agency launched a call to procure IT and geographic information systems (GIS) consultancy services for the implementation of the reference data access (RDA) component and for the purpose of supporting the Agency in other Copernicus-related activities; notes that, according to the Court’s report, an important aspect of the tender referred to as ‘known shortcomings’ was not defined in technical specifications; acknowledges from the Agency that the ‘known shortcomings’ were however described in Section 6.3.2 of the tender specifications;

Budget and financial management

2. Notes that the budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2014 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 99,19 % and that the payment appropriations execution rate was 87,19 %;

Commitments and carry-overs

3. Acknowledges that the Court’s annual audit has found no notable issues as regards the level of committed appropriations carried over in 2014; notes that, although the total level of carry-overs from 2014 to 2015 is higher than in the previous year, 69,36 % of that amount refers to the final payment of the 2014 contribution to the European Topic Centres (ETCs) which, according to the agreements, was to be paid after the fourth quarterly progress report was presented in 2015;

Transfers

4. Notes that a total of 24 transfers were made in 2014; notes that those transfers were below the limit of 10 % of the appropriations for the year as shown on the budgetary line from which the transfer is made and amounted to EUR 268 128 (0,64 % of total appropriations); notes that 40 % of the number of transfers was made on differentiated appropriations and hence not included in the 10 % calculation;

Procurement and recruitment procedures

5. Notes from the Agency that it reduced the number of its staff in line with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement on budgetary discipline (1), and that this led to a reduction of three temporary posts for the year 2014; acknowledges from the Agency that adjusting its organisational structure to find the necessary redundancies without detrimental effect on its capacity to deliver the main parts of its multiannual work programme is becoming increasingly difficult, in particular with regard to the additional anticipated staff reduction above the limit set out in the Interinstitutional Agreement; takes note that the last external evaluation of the Agency states that its administrative costs are lower than those of similar agencies;

6. Asks the Agency to apply strictly the measures pertaining to discretion and exclusion in public procurement, with proper background checks being carried out in every instance, and to apply the exclusion criteria so as to debar companies in the event of any conflict of interest, this being essential to protect the financial interests of the Union;

Prevention and management of conflicts of interest and transparency

7. Notes that the Agency’s anti-fraud strategy was adopted by its Management Board in November 2014, with the aim of ensuring proper handling of conflict of interest issues and of developing anti-fraud activities especially through prevention, detection, awareness-raising and closer cooperation with the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF); takes note that in line with OLAF’s ‘Methodology and guidance for anti-fraud strategies for EU decentralised Agencies’, the Agency conducted a fraud risk assessment of its activities based on the estimated likelihood and possible impact of fraud;

8. Requests that the Agency implement Article 16 of the Staff Regulations by publishing information about senior officials who have left the service and a list of conflicts of interest on an annual basis;

9. Encourages the Agency further to raise awareness of the conflict-of-interest policy among its staff, alongside ongoing awareness-raising activities and the inclusion of integrity and transparency as an obligatory item to be discussed during recruitment procedures and performance reviews;

10. Calls on those Union institutions and agencies which have introduced codes of conduct, including Parliament, to step up their implementation measures, such as checks of declarations of financial interests;

11. Calls for an overall improvement in the prevention of, and the fight against, corruption through a holistic approach, commencing with better public access to documents and more stringent rules on conflicts of interest, the introduction or strengthening of transparency registers and the provision of sufficient resources for law enforcement measures, and also through improved cooperation among Member States and with relevant third countries;

12. Notes that the Agency has published on its website the declarations of interest of its Management in addition to the CVs already published; takes note that the Agency’s Management Board has made CVs available for those board members who agree to provide them;

Internal controls

13. Notes from the Court’s report that the Agency started to implement a new ex ante and ex post control policy for grants; takes note that at the time of the Court’s audit, the verification procedures were yet to be documented; acknowledges from the Agency that, when it began implementing the new control policy in May 2014, it prioritised the guidelines for beneficiaries on the preparation of cost statements; acknowledges furthermore that those guidelines were elaborated and distributed to the resource officers performing the ex ante verifications on grants and are applicable from the financial year 2016;

14. Notes from the Court’s report the weaknesses identified in the Agency’s ex ante and ex post verifications; points out that in one case, requested documents were not provided, and in another, ineligible expenditure was included, but the full amount claimed was nevertheless approved; acknowledges from the Agency that, following the observations of the Court, it initiated recovery from the beneficiary concerned in the second case; acknowledges that the Agency will rigorously document any instances of overriding of controls or deviations from established policies and procedures that may occur in the future;

15. Notes with concern from the Court’s report that, although the ex ante and ex post verifications are incompatible tasks, the internal auditor was involved in both; acknowledges from the Agency that a formal ex post verification strategy will be developed ensuring compatibility with the tasks of the Agency’s Internal Audit Capability; acknowledges that the Agency’s internal auditor is to carry out exclusively ex post controls, including on-the-spot verifications, and verify the effectiveness of the Agency’s ex ante verification process; expects the Agency to report back to the discharge authority on the progress made with the measures put into action regarding the ex ante and ex post control policy;

Internal audit

16. Takes note that the Commission’s Internal Audit Service conducted an audit on data/information management including the IT component starting in 2014 and finalised in 2015; looks forward to the results of the audit which will be presented in the Agency’s Annual Report for 2015;

17. Notes that, due to the change in the Agency’s financial regulation, a new Internal Audit Charter was defined and approved by the Agency’s Management Board; takes note that the Management Board is the new recipient of the Internal Audit Capability’s (IAC) reports, and that the Management Board will also approve the annual work plan and follow up the recommendations of the IAC;

Other comments

18. Notes that the Agency contracted IT back-up services, including email services, with a cloud services provider using an interinstitutional contract provided by the Commission; takes note that the conditions of the contract do not adequately define the location of the Agency’s data, which means that there is a risk that the privileges and immunities of the European Communities, to which the Agency is subject, are not guaranteed, and that the service provider does not fully respect the privacy guarantees granted by Article 7 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union; acknowledges from the Agency that further to receiving clarifications and guarantees from the service provider, it considers the identified residual risks as acceptable and adequately addressed by the agreed contractual clauses; notes that the Agency will nevertheless undertake periodic reviews of the contract implementation with a view to reassessing the risks and adopting appropriate measures and remedial actions if deemed necessary;

19. Refers, for other observations of a cross-cutting nature accompanying its decision on discharge, to its resolution of 28 April 2016 (2) on the performance, financial management and control of the agencies.

(1) Interinstitutional Agreement of 2 December 2013 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline, on cooperation in budgetary matters and on sound financial management (OJ C 373, 20.12.2013, p. 1).

(2) Texts adopted, P8_TA(2016)0159 (see page 447 of this Official Journal).