European Parliament resolution containing the comments accompanying the decision on the discharge to the Director of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction in respect of the implementation of its budget for the financial year 2001
Date: 2003-11-06
Institutions: Committee on Budgetary Control, European Parliament
Subjects: European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, budgetary discharge, financial year, implementation of the budget

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Official Journal of the European Union

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EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION

containing the comments accompanying the decision on the discharge to the Director of the Euro-
pean Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction in respect of the implementation of its
budget for the financial year 2001

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT,

— having regard to the Court of Auditors' report on the financial statements of the European Monitoring
Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction for the financial year 2001, together with the Centre's replies (1)
(C5-0096/2003),

— having regard to the Council's recommendation of 7 March 2003 (C5-0097/2003),

— having regard to the EC Treaty, and in particular Article 276 thereof,

— 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 Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2343/2002 of 23 December 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 (3) and, in particular, Article 94 thereof,

— having regard to Rule 93a and Annex V of its Rules of Procedure,

— having regard to its decision of 8 April 2003 on the postponement of the decision concerning

discharge and its resolution containing the comments accompanying that decision (4),

— having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control and the opinion of the Committee

on Employment and Social Affairs (A5-0360/2003),

A. whereas in its abovementioned resolution, Parliament

— welcomed the fact that it is henceforth the competent authority for giving discharge to the Com-

munity bodies referred to in Article 185(1) of the new Financial Regulation, and

— stressed that in order to fulfil its new responsibilities in this respect it expected to receive all relevant
and necessary information from these bodies in reply to questions that it would have forwarded to
them;

B. whereas its competent committee has received answers to such questions;

C. whereas the Agency's answers to the abovementioned questions, in many respects, provided Parliament
with updated information; such information is supplementary to the observations contained in the
Court of Auditors' report on the financial statements of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and
Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) for 2001 and to the Agency's replies to these observations;

D. whereas the condition that Parliament takes a decision on discharge after it has been adequately

informed was thus met;

1. Notes the following figures for the accounts of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug

Addiction for the financial years 2001 and 2000;

(1) OJ C 326, 27.12.2002, p. 64.
(2) OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1.
(3) OJ L 357, 31.12.2002, p. 72.
(4) OJ L 148, 16.6.2003, pp. 16 and 18.

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Revenue and expenditure account for the financial years 2001 and 2000

(EUR 1 000)

Revenue collected for the financial year

Commission subsidies

Norwegian subsidy

Other subsidies

Financial revenue

2001

8 750

399

1 153

99

Total revenue (a)

10 401

Budgetary expenditure for the financial year

Staff — Title I of the budget

Payments

Appropriations carried over

Administration — Title II of the budget

Payments

Appropriations carried over

Operational activities — Title III of the budget

Payments

Appropriations carried over

Payments in respect of appropriations assigned

Carryovers of appropriations assigned

4 027

428

560

596

1 883

1 432

469

684

Total expenditure (b)

10 079

Outturn for the financial year (a-b) (1)

Balance carried over from the previous financial year

Appropriations carried over from the previous financial
year for reuse

Reimbursement of balance to the Commission

Depreciation

Exchange differences

Balance for the financial year

NB:

Any discrepancies in totals are due to the effects of rounding.

322

2 076

319

– 2 076

– 557

– 2

82

2000

8 214

232

8 446

3 876

189

682

354

1 498

1 651

8 250

196

1 617

269

—

—

– 6

2 076

Source: Monitoring Centre data. These tables summarise the data provided by the Monitoring Centre in its own financial statements.

(1) Calculation based on the principles laid down in Article 15 of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1150/2000 of 22 May 2000

(OJ L 130, 31.5.2000, p. 8).

Implementation of the budget

2. Notes with satisfaction the measures introduced by the Centre in line with an integrated planning of
activities and allocation of budgetary resources aimed at ensuring better monitoring, implementing,
reporting on and assessment of its activities; expects such measures to have a positive impact on budget
implementation and to result, in particular, in a reduction in appropriations carried over;

3. Encourages the Centre to continue its efforts to follow its operational activities closely, especially as
regards its relation with the Reitox focal points; considers that the recommendations of the external
evaluation on the financing of the Reitox network should be taken up with a view to clarifying and
further adapting the contractual relationship of the Centre with such focal points; notes that such
problems are ‘systemic’ in nature;

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4. Takes the view that there is scope for developing a harmonised approach between agencies in dealing
with such problems; expects the Centre to intensify its contacts with other agencies faced with similar
problems in their relations with networks of national points in order for a ‘best practice approach’ to be
developed and applied;

Application of financial provisions

5. Notes the measures introduced by the Centre with a view to putting its contract database into operation
and, more generally, measures aiming to achieve better cooperation between its operational and admin-
istrative departments;

Purchases of goods and services/tendering procedures

6. Welcomes the Centre's reply on steps taken in order to secure improvements in this field, including
better definition of evaluation criteria, ensuring comparability of tenders and equal treatment for
tenderers;

7. Expects the Centre to take further steps to enhance interinstitutional cooperation, based on a best prac-
tice approach, while allowing for the specific interests of and constraints upon Agencies to be taken
duly into consideration;

Buildings policy

8. Reiterates the concerns expressed by the Commission in the Management Board of the Centre and the
negative opinion of Parliament under Article 179 of the Financial Regulation concerning the Centre's
current building requirements; expects the Centre to find an appropriate solution in accordance with
Parliament's recommendations, and will follow up the issue in the forthcoming discharge procedure;

General points concerning the Agencies

Operational tasks

9. Reiterates,

in the light of the fact that,

in the case of many agencies, administrative expenditure
exceeds operational expenditure, there is scope for these agencies to be entrusted with more opera-
tional tasks; takes the view that they could for example be entrusted with implementing Community
programmes in the field of education or health, thus helping to avoid the unnecessary creation of
further executive agencies by the Commission; regrets that the Commission did not comply with
Parliament's request (1) to make proposals in this respect by 30 June 2003; invites the agencies to iden-
tify areas where they could take over implementation of Community programmes currently managed
by the Commission and to make proposals in this respect by the end of 2003;

10. Welcomes, in this context, the proposal from the European Training Foundation (ETF) to take up
possible further tasks; invites the Commission to use the ETF's expertise in a wider geographical area
than at present and for providing technical assistance to programmes such as Tempus and Erasmus
Mundus;

Adapting the financial rules to the new Financial Regulation

11. Expects the agencies to complete their procedures for bringing into line their internal financial rules
with the requirements of the new framework Financial Regulation as soon as possible and in any event
by the end of the year at the latest; recalls that such internal financial rules may not depart from the
framework Financial Regulation except where the specific operating needs of an agency so require and
with the Commission's prior consent; calls on the agencies once they have completed such a process
to inform Parliament's competent committees; asks the Court of Auditors to give an opinion on all
financial provisions adopted by the agencies which depart from the framework Financial Regulation;

(1) See paragraph 14 of Parliament's resolution containing the comments accompanying the decision concerning
discharge to the Management Board of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training in respect
of the implementation of its budget for the financial year 2001 (OJ L 148, 16.6.2003, p. 83).

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12. Reiterates its call to the agencies to ensure a strict segregation of duties between authorising officer(s)

and accounting officer(s); recalls the enhanced role of the latter in:

(a) laying down and validating the accounting systems;

(b) keeping the accounts;

(c) validating systems laid down by the authorising officer to supply accounting information;

(d) cooperating with the Commission's accounting officer;

(e) preparing and presenting the financial statements and the reports on implementation of the

budget;

Stresses, furthermore, that accounting officers must be appointed by the management boards of the
agencies on the grounds of adequate competence and professional experience; also expects compu-
terised systems put in place to guarantee the existence of a complete audit trail for each operation in
order to ensure transparency;

13. Reminds the agencies that they should fully respect public procurement procedures as laid down in
the Financial Regulation; stresses that open calls for tender must be used as much as possible in order
to enhance transparency and to ensure equal treatment of potential tenderers; emphasises that non-
respect of public procurement rules is not only potentially detrimental to the financial interests of the
agencies but can also be a criminal offence under the law of Member States;

Internal audit and control

14. Recalls that among the important features of the new Financial Regulation are the increased responsi-
bility of authorising officers and the setting-up of internal audit capabilities in order to counter the risk
of irregularities and mismanagement; therefore invites:

— the Court of Auditors to increase the number of checks carried out by its auditors,

— the agencies to thoroughly review their procedures for implementing their budgets in line with the

newly created framework,

— the Commission to cooperate closely with the agencies, especially in the areas of accounting,

internal audit and management and control procedures,

in order for appropriate and harmonised solutions to be put into practice;

15. Invites the Commission to propose a change to Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2343/2002 on the
framework Financial Regulation governing the agencies in order to give the agencies' respective
internal auditors real powers of scrutiny instead of merely an advisory role, as is currently the case;

16. Is extremely concerned that the Commission's Internal Audit Service (IAS) does not carry out any
checks on the agencies; stresses that this implies that Articles 71 and 72 of Regulation (EC, Euratom)
No 2343/2002 are not being adhered to and that, in practice, an outside control of the quality of
management and control systems of the agencies is left to be carried out in the context of the Court
of Auditors control; calls, therefore, on the Commission to ensure that the necessary resources are
made available so that the IAS is in a position to fulfil its tasks with regard to the internal control
systems in the agencies;

Cooperation with OLAF

17. Invites the Court of Auditors to report by the end of the year on whether the Community bodies duly
cooperate with the European Anti-fraud Office (OLAF) and apply the corresponding Interinstitutional
Agreement of 25 May 1999 (1) unreservedly; also asks the Court of Auditors to evaluate the effective-
ness of this cooperation on the basis of the cases processed so far;

(1) OJ L 136, 31.5.1999, p. 15.

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Preparing the Agencies for enlargement

18. Invites the Commission, with a view to accelerating the efforts towards preparing the integration of
the future Member States, to make the appropriate proposals, before the adoption of the 2004 budget,
aimed at:

— fostering better functioning of these Community bodies,

— ensuring better value for money through a cost/benefit analysis,

— avoiding any unnecessary creation of new agencies;

stresses that the further expansion, on the occasion of enlargement, of the administrative boards of the
agencies, which, as a general rule, are already very ponderous, would not be acceptable, on grounds of
both efficiency and cost; considers that enlargement offers a good opportunity to thoroughly recon-
sider the composition and working methods of these administrative boards;

19. Calls, therefore, on the Commission, in making such proposals, to consider, inter alia:

— entrusting the agencies with further operational tasks such as the carrying out of programmes,

where appropriate,

— setting up joint boards for more Agencies, especially for those with similar tasks,

— the possibility of mergers of Agencies in case of overlapping of activities.

Recalls, with regard to the latter, that the Commission has indicated a possible overlap between the
European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop) and the European Training
Foundation, and between the Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions and
the Agency for Safety and Health at Work;

20. Furthermore, invites the Commission, in line with its proposal on European Governance (aimed at
concentrating its activity on the core tasks), to include in its action programme for 2004 the appro-
priate proposals with a view to avoiding the duplication of work, either between Agencies with similar
activities, or between the activities of the agencies and those of the Commission;

21. Reiterates its call on the Commission to submit a proposal for an amendment to the constituent acts
of the agencies to ensure that their directors may in future be appointed only with the assent of Parlia-
ment; awaits proposals from the Commission to this effect, to be submitted by 1 December 2003 at
the latest.