Resolution of the European Parliament containing the comments accompanying the decision on the discharge to the Executive Director of the European Environment Agency in respect of the implementation of its budget for the financial year 2003
Date: 2005-04-12
Institutions: European Parliament
Subjects: Eurofound, budgetary discharge, financial year, implementation of the budget

27.7.2005

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 196/75

RESOLUTION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

containing the comments accompanying the decision on the discharge to the Director of the
European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions in respect of the
implementation of its budget for the financial year 2003

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT,

— having regard to the Court of Auditors' report on the annual accounts of the European Foundation for
the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions for the 2003 financial year together with the
Foundation's replies (1),

— having regard to the Council's recommendation of 8 March 2005 (6854/2005 — C6-0074/2005),

— 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, and to Council Regulation (EC) No 1649/2003 of 18 June 2003 amending Regulation
(EEC) No 1365/75 on the creation of a European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and
Working Conditions and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 1417/76 (3), and in particular Article 16 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 Rules 70 and 71 of and Annex V to its Rules of Procedure,

— having regard to the Report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A6-0074/2005),

A.

B.

Whereas the European Court of Auditors (ECA) stated, in its abovementioned specific report, that it
obtained reasonable assurance that the annual accounts for the financial year ended 31 December
2003 were reliable and that the underlying transactions, taken as a whole, were legal and regular.

Whereas on 21 April 2004 the European Parliament gave discharge (5) to the Director of the
European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (the Foundation) in
respect of the implementation of its budget for the 2002 financial year and in the resolution
accompanying the discharge decision, the European Parliament, inter alia:

— invited the Foundation to improve the transparency of its tendering procedures,

— welcomed efforts made by the Foundation with a view to reducing carry-overs of appropriations
and encouraged it to share with other agencies the positive outcome of its efforts so as to help
disseminate best practice with regard to reducing carry-overs,

(1) OJ C 324, 30.12.2004, p. 75.
(2) OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1.
(3) OJ L 245, 29.9.2003, p. 25.
(4) OJ L 357, 31.12.2002, p. 72.
(5) OJ L 330, 4.11.2004, p. 53.

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Official Journal of the European Union

27.7.2005

1.

Notes the following figures for the accounts of the European Foundation for the Improvement of
Living and Working Conditions for the financial years 2003 and 2002:

Revenue and expenditure account for the financial years 2003 and 2002

(in EUR 1 000)

2003

2002

17 090

16 500

47

35

62

57

Total revenue (a)

17 172

16 619

Revenue

Commission subsidies

Miscellaneous revenue

Financial revenue

Expenditure
Staff — Title I of the budget

Payments

Appropriations carried over
Administration — Title II of the budget

Payments

Appropriations carried over
Operating activities — Title III of the budget

Payments

Appropriations carried over

8 927

109

968

224

3 733

2 817

9 111

216

938

683

3 290

3 105

17 343

– 724

– 1 209

81

13

0

0

0

3

– 1 836

Total expenditure (b)

16 778

Outturn for the financial year (a – b)

Balance carried over from the previous financial year

Appropriations carried over and cancelled

Sums from the previous financial year for re-use that were not used

PHARE revenue collected

PHARE revenue to be collected

PHARE expenditure

Exchange rate differences

Balance for the financial year

394

– 1 836

118

19

639

361
– 1 000

9

– 1 296

Source: The Foundation's data. This table summarises the data provided by the Foundation in its accounts.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Expects the Foundation from now on, in line with the ECA's observation, to record correctly in its
budget extra-budgetary subsidies or allocations it receives;

Invites the Foundation to continue developing synergies with other Agencies and in particular with
the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work as well as with Eurostat so as to avoid overlaps
and to build on complementary aspects within common thematic responsibilities; expects such
synergy to be strengthened through the exchange of
information on best practice in order to
enhance results;

Welcomes the Foundation's equality policy and mainstreaming of activities and encourages it to
follow up and evaluate such policies regularly to ensure their implementation;

Welcomes the Foundation's commitment to disseminating its findings to citizens and the measures it
has taken to develop and strengthen the Agency's strategy for information and communication;

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Official Journal of the European Union

L 196/77

General points addressed to the Commission and the Agencies

6.

7.

Recalls its position that while it supported the Commission's efforts to establish a limited number of
models, at least for future ‘regulatory’ agencies, it took the view that the structure of current and
future agencies merited in-depth consideration at interinstitutional level; also stresses that before the
Commission defines the framework conditions for the use of regulatory agencies an Interinstitutional
Agreement should spell out common guidelines; this should happen before setting up a harmonised
framework for the structure of the agencies;

Notes the Commission's position (1) with regard to delegating responsibility for the execution of tasks
to bodies, including agencies, other than the Commission's core administration; takes the view that
this does not answer Parliament's call for in-depth consideration at interinstitutional
level of the
structure of existing agencies; therefore invites the Commission to provide clarification on this point
and on the future overall Interinstitutional Agreement related to the new arrangements to be set up
within or in parallel with the Financial Perspective (2);

8.

Invites the Commission to organise and perform in the medium term, e.g. on a standard three-year
cycle, a cross-cutting analysis of the evaluations carried out on individual Agencies in order to:

(a) reach conclusions with regard to the coherence of Agency activity with EU policies in general and
as regards the synergies existing or to be developed between the agencies and Commission
departments and the avoidance of overlapping between them;

(b) make an assessment of the broader European added value of the Agencies' outputs in their
the Agency

the relevance, efficiency and effectiveness of

respective area of activity and of
model in implementing or contributing to EU policies;

9.

10.

(c) determine and enhance the impact of the Agencies' actions in terms of the proximity, accessibility

and visibility of the EU to its citizens;

Expects such an overall analysis to be available by the end of 2005 so as to cover the three-year
period from the time of the introduction of the new Financial Regulation and the consequent new
framework in the Agencies' system;

Invites the Agencies to participate actively in such a process and to cooperate with the Commission,
providing the necessary input on matters that they feel are of substance to their functioning, role,
remit and needs, as well as on any matter which could help to improve the whole discharge
procedure, with a view to contributing to the success of such a process and increasing the account-
ability and transparency of the Agencies; invites Agencies to present such input also to its competent
committees;

11.

Calls on the Commission, in parallel with this exercise, to present by the end of 2005 at the latest,
proposals for changes to be made in the existing Agencies' Constituent Acts with a view, inter alia, to
optimising its relationship with the Agencies; such proposals should aim at:

(a)

increasing communication between the Commission and the Agencies;

(b) establishing or expanding cooperation in defining needs to be covered and objectives, outputs to
be produced and the strategy to achieve them, and in setting standards for monitoring and
evaluation;

(c) enhancing complementary action, better organising the necessary resources and their effective
allocation to produce results, and devising a communication strategy for dissemination of those
results;

(1) As set out in Annex 1 to the Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament
the enlarged Union 2007-2013’,

‘Building our common future, policy challenges and budgetary means of
(COM(2004) 0101, p. 38).

(2) See Annex to the Commission's report on the follow-up to 2002 Discharges (COM(2004) 0648, p. 108).

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12.

the
Emphasises that, before any decision is taken to propose the creation of a new agency,
Commission must undertake a strict evaluation of the need and added value of the function of
this agency, bearing in mind existing structures, the principles of subsidiarity, budgetary austerity and
the simplification of procedures;

13.

Expects the Commission to present swiftly the guidelines concerning staff policy of the Agencies that
Parliament had requested the Commission to present before the end of
the 2005 budgetary
procedure;

General points addressed to the Agencies

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

Expects to receive from now on, from each of the Agencies, the report summarising information on
the audits carried out by the Internal Auditor, the recommendations made and the action taken on
these
in accordance with Article 72(5) of Regulation (EC, Euratom)
No 2343/2002;

recommendations

Invites the Agencies to make further efforts to apply correctly the staff regulations and rules
applicable to other civil servants with regard to their staff (recruitment procedures and relevant
decisions taken, personal
files, calculation of remuneration and other entitlements, promotions
policy, percentage of vacant posts, quotas for respecting gender equality, etc.);

Notes that, in general, the respective percentage of male and female employees in the overall staff
composition of the Agencies shows that an imbalance between men and women exists; regrets that
men make up about one third of staff and are over-represented in high grade positions while women
are generally over-represented in low grade positions; expects the Agencies to take immediate and
effective measures to correct this situation;

Calls on the Agencies to ensure that all the relevant provisions of Directive 2002/73/EC of the
European Parliament and of
the Council of 23 September 2002 amending Council Directive
76/207/EEC on the implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women as
regards access to employment, vocational training and promotion, and working conditions (1) are
introduced in their respective staff policies;

Expects the Agencies, in response to the relevant observations of the ECA, to comply fully with the
budgetary principles as set out in the Financial Regulation, in particular those of unity and budgetary
accuracy; calls on the Agencies that have not yet done so to fulfil the Financial Regulation's
requirements on accounting matters and to strengthen further their procedures as regards internal
management and control with the aim of increasing accountability, transparency and European added
value;

Encourages the Agencies, especially those whose activities have points in common with the activities
or missions of other Agencies, to strengthen their cooperation, thus opening up opportunities for
developing synergies; invites them to formalise, where appropriate, such cooperation through specific
agreements (joint declarations, memoranda of understanding, decisions on joint planning and action-
s/programmes presenting complementary characteristics) so as to ensure that there is no duplication
of work, that each Agency's output is clearly identified and that the result of joint efforts maximises
the added value and the impact of their work; expects to be informed regularly on this issue;

Calls on the Agencies to pay special attention to procedures for the award and management of
contracts; invites them to take all appropriate measures as regards their administrative structures in
order to strengthen their internal control procedures, channels and management; takes the view that
such measures may include, where necessary or feasible, the setting-up of specialised units entrusted
with the task of advising, on the basis of risk analysis, on how best to prepare contract award
procedures, to ensure monitoring and to carry out follow-up, as required; on this matter, calls on the
Commission and the ECA to strengthen cooperation with the Agencies;

(1) OJ L 269, 5.10.2002, p. 15.

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21.

22.

23.

24.

Notes the difficulties to which some Directors, in particular of the ‘newly created’ Agencies, referred
with regard to the Agencies' compliance with the calendar and deadlines for reporting as set in the
Financial Regulation; invites the Agencies' Directors, in the perspective of the forthcoming review of
the Financial Regulation to be held in 2005, to inform its Committees on Budgets and Budgetary
Control of the difficulties encountered so far so that these may be considered in the framework of the
review; expects the Directors to make specific proposals for alternative arrangements as to deadlines
that may best suit their functioning requirements while respecting the reporting obligations of the
Agencies as provided for in the Financial Regulation;

Notes the positive response by the Agencies' Directors to the call by Parliament's committee
responsible for preparing discharge for the establishment of a more precise system of communi-
cation, in particular as regards the transmission by the Agencies to that committee of documents
relating to the Agencies' reporting obligations; takes the view that better organisation of such
communication will strengthen its cooperation with the Agencies and enhance democratic control;

Invites the Directors of the Agencies from now on to accompany their annual activity report, which
is presented together with financial and management information, with a declaration of assurance
concerning the legality and regularity of operations, similar to the declarations signed by the
Directors-General of the Commission;

Invites the Agencies to develop a comprehensive strategy of communication addressing the need to
make available, in the appropriate form, the results of their work to the general public beyond the
presentation of such results to the Institutions, Member States' competent services, specialists,
in view of the development of such a
partners or specific beneficiaries; calls on the Agencies,
strategy,
to intensify their cooperation and exchange information on best practice aimed at
achieving this goal; expects its competent committees to be duly informed by the Agencies, before
the next discharge exercise, on the progress made in devising such a strategy in order to ensure the
effective and timely monitoring of their activities;

General points addressed to the ECA and the Agencies

25. Welcomes the ECA's initiative to add a table to its specific reports on the Agencies presenting
summary information on the competences, governance, resources available and products/output of
the particular agency; takes the view that this enhances the clarity and transparency of the work of
these Community bodies, while providing a useful basis for comparison, where appropriate, with a
view to helping set up the harmonised framework for the Agencies that Parliament has called for;

26.

27.

Invites the ECA and the Agencies to strengthen their cooperation in order to enhance the procedures
and technical tools to improve the sound management of all the budgetary and finance issues, with
the view to establishing a methodology that prepares the ground for a positive budget discharge from
the start of the process; expects to be informed regularly of the progress made and the implemen-
tation of best practices;

Calls on the ECA and the Agencies to enhance transparency in the procédure contradictoire prior to the
ECA's final report, so as to avoid any contradiction or ambiguity which could jeopardise the cred-
ibility of the whole exercise;
invites the ECA and the Commission to propose a
feasible way of updating information on the improvements made and/or the problems found, from
the time when the ECA's preparatory report is first discussed until the time of the decision as to
whether to grant discharge,
in order to offer the most accurate picture of the situation of the
Agencies.

in this respect,