Report on the annual accounts of the Intelligent Energy Executive Agency for the financial year 2006 together with the Agency's replies
Date: 2007-09-27
Institutions: European Court of Auditors
Subjects: EU office or agency, European Court of Auditors, administration of the Institutions, energy policy, financial control, implementation of the budget, powers of the institutions (EU), report

C 309/18

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

19.12.2007

on the annual accounts of the Intelligent Energy Executive Agency for the
financial year 2006 together with the Agency’s replies

REPORT

(2007/C 309/04)

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

OBSERVATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1-2

3-6

7

Tables 1 to 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Agency’s replies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

19

19

19

20

23

Paragraph

Page

19.12.2007

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 309/19

INTRODUCTION

1.
The Intelligent Energy Executive Agency (hereinafter
referred to as ‘the Agency’) was set up by Commission Decision
2004/20/EC of 23 December 2003 (1). The Agency was estab-
lished for a period beginning on 1 January 2004 and ending on
31 December 2008 for the management of Community actions
in the field of energy. The Agency acquired its financial indepen-
dence on 1 January 2006.

2.
Table 1 summarises the Agency’s competences and activi-
ties. Key information taken from the financial statements drawn
up by the Agency for the financial year 2006 is presented in Tables
2, 3 and4.

STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE

This Statement is addressed to the European Parliament
3.
and the Council in accordance with Article 14 of Council Regu-
lation (EC) No 58/2003 of 19 December 2002 (2); it was drawn
up following an examination of the Agency’s accounts, as
required by Article 248 of the Treaty establishing the European
Community.

4.
The Agency’s accounts for the financial year ended
31 December 2006 (3) were drawn up by its Director, pursuant
to Article 14 of Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003, and sent to
the Court, which is required to give a statement of assurance on
their reliability and on the legality and regularity of the underly-
ing transactions.

The Court conducted its audit in accordance with the IFAC
5.
and INTOSAI International Auditing Standards and Codes of Eth-
ics, insofar as these are applicable in the European Community
context. The audit was planned and performed to obtain reason-
able assurance that the accounts are reliable and that the under-
lying transactions are legal and regular.

The Court has thus obtained a reasonable basis for the

6.
Statement set out below.

Reliability of the accounts

The Agency’s accounts for the financial year ended 31 Decem-
ber 2006 are, in all material respects, reliable.

Legality and regularity of the underlying transactions

The transactions underlying the Agency’s annual accounts,
taken as a whole, are legal and regular.

The observation which follows does not call the Court’s State-
ment into question.

OBSERVATION

The utilisation rate for 2006 of commitment appropria-
7.
tions was 97 %. However, the cancellation rate was 8 % and more
than 20 % of 2006 commitment appropriations were carried for-
ward. More than 48 % of appropriations for operating activities
(Title III) were committed in December, so 43 % of the commit-
ments had to be carried forward to 2007, and 32 % of carry-overs
from 2005 were cancelled in 2006. Several budget lines for
administrative support were not used at all during 2006 and
about 94 000 euro were carried over without adequate justifica-
tion (4). Thus, the budgetary principle of annuality was not strictly
observed.

This report was adopted by the Court of Auditors in Luxembourg at
27 September 2007.

its meeting of

For the Court of Auditors
Hubert WEBER
President

(1) OJ L 5, 9.1.2004, p. 85.
(2) OJ L 11, 16.1.2003, p. 5.
(3) These accounts were drawn up on 21 June 2007 and received by the

Court on 5 July 2007.

(4) Article 9 of Financial Regulation.

Areas of Community competence
deriving from the Treaty

Competences of the Agency as defined in Commission Decision 2004/20/EC
of 23 December 2003

Governance

Resources available to the Agency in 2006
(2005 n/a)

Activities and services provided in 2006

Table 1

Intelligent Energy Executive Agency (Brussels)

Objectives

Tasks

1. Steering Committee

Final Budget

In the context of implementing the
Community programme IEE 1:

Comprises five members appointed
by the European Commission.

protecting

The Community policy on the
environment shall contribute to
preserving,
and
improving the quality of the envi-
ronment;
human
protecting
health; prudent and rational utili-
sation of natural resources; and
promoting measures at interna-
tional level to deal with regional
or worldwide
environmental
problems.

(Article 174(1))

— To manage all phases in the

lifetime of specific projects;

— To adopt the instruments of
budget implementation and to
carry out, where the Commis-
sion has empowered it to do
so, all the operations necessary
to manage the Community
programme and, in particular,
those linked to the award of
contracts and grants;

— To gather, analyse and pass on
the
to the Commission all
information needed to guide
the implementation of the pro-
gramme.

In the framework of the sustain-
able development strategy,
the
European Union has taken mea-
sures to promote and develop
renewable energy and energy effi-
ciency. The objective is to contrib-
ute in a balanced way to security
of energy supply, competitiveness
and environmental protection.
The areas of action are the devel-
opment of renewable energy and
energy efficiency, including in the
transport sector, and their pro-
motion in developing countries.

These measures include a multi-
annual programme for action in
the field of energy:
‘Intelligent
Energy — Europe’ 2003-2006 —
IEE 1 (decision no 1230/2003/EC
of the European Parliament and
of the Council of 26 June 2003).

Community

Under
this Community pro-
gramme, the Agency is respon-
sible for implementing the tasks
concerning
aid,
except for programme evaluation,
monitoring of legislation and stra-
tegic studies, or any other action
which comes under the exclusive
competence of
the European
Commission.

It adopts the Agency’s annual work
programme after approval by the
European Commission. In addition,
it adopts the administrative budget
of the Agency and its annual activ-
ity report.

2. Director

Appointed by the European Com-
mission.

3. External Audit control

A) 53,2 million euro (100 % gen-
eral budget of the European Union) for
the budget of the programme IEE 1
that the Agency implements under
the responsibility of the Commis-
sion;

B) 5,2 million euro (100 % Com-
munity subsidy) for the administrative
budget for which the Agency is
autonomous.

Staff at 31 December 2006

16 TA posts listed in the establish-
ment plan.

20

final

— Monitored 218 on-going projects
for which grants were awarded
under the 2003 and 2004 IEE Call
for proposals.
In total, 168
progress reports and 36 interim
and
reports were
approved and payments made to
beneficiaries accordingly. Further-
more, the Agency participated in
more than 100 project meetings.
It
also organised 14 project
co-ordinator workshops with the
participation of the parent DG and
other relevant Commission pro-
grammes.

The European Court of Auditors.

TA posts occupied: 16

4. Discharge Authority

Other posts:

The European Parliament following
a recommendation from the Coun-
cil.

Contract staff: 30 posts planned, of
which 25 were occupied.

Total staff at 31.12.2006: 41

Responsible for

— Operational tasks: 31

— Administrative tasks: 10

— Managed the 2005 Call for pro-
posals for the IEE programme
(published in 2005 with submis-
sion deadlines in early 2006): in
total, the IEEA received 265 pro-
posals from 29 countries and
about 2000 organisations. As in
the
external
experts assisted the IEEA during
the evaluation. In total 125 grant
agreements were concluded.

preceding

year,

— Managed the 2006 Call for pro-
posals for the IEE programme: the
Call was published in late May
2006 with a submission deadline
of 31st October 2006. Substantial
efforts were undertaken to pro-
mote the call to relevant target
groups across Europe,
including
the organisation of a European
Info Day (Brussels, 31 May 2006,
450 participants, live broadcast by
internet), support of more than 40
national info days, circulation of
Email alerts, and regular web
updates. In total, the IEEA received
351 proposals in response to the
2006 Call. Evaluations with exter-
nal experts took place in early
2007.

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Areas of Community competence
deriving from the Treaty

Competences of the Agency as defined in Commission Decision 2004/20/EC
of 23 December 2003

Governance

Resources available to the Agency in 2006
(2005 n/a)

Activities and services provided in 2006

— Published and disseminated infor-
mation about the IEE programme
and the Agency: in 2006, the pro-
gramme website registered more
than
downloads
500 000
and 1 million page views.

Regular News Alerts were sent to
the IEE contact database, which
included more than 5 000 con-
tacts by the end of 2006.

issues

Information and updates on IEE
projects were provided through
three
‘Intelli-
of
gent Energy News’ newsletter
(44 000 downloads during 2006)
and individual project fact sheets
(100 000 downloads).

the

— Initiated feedback from project
results in key policy areas of the
parent DG in form of round tables
and the participation of project
representatives in key conferences

— Put recommendations to the Com-
mission to guide the implementa-
tion of the IEE programme and the
preparation of the follow-up pro-
gramme IEE II (2007-2013): at the
invitation of the parent DG, the
Agency participated in a task force
in charge of preparing a draft work
programme for IEE II. The activi-
ties included an analysis of experi-
ences and statistical data related to
the participation rules, proposals
for future thematic themes, and
the organisation and analysis of a
public enquiry. Likewise, and at
the invitation of the parent DG,
the Agency brought its lessons
learned from managing the exter-
nal IEE strand (COOPENER) into
the
the
DEV/AIDCO Energy Facility and
programme
the
COOPENER II.

successor

design

phase

of

Source:

Information submitted by the Agency.

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Intelligent Energy Executive Agency (Brussels) — Implementation of the budget for the financial year 2006

Table 2

Source of revenue

Revenue

Revenue entered in
the final budget for
the financial year

Revenue received

Allocation of expenditure

Expenditure

Appropriations under the final budget

(1 000 euro)

Appropriations carried over from
the previous financial year(s) (1)

entered

committed

paid

carried
over

cancelled

available

paid

cancelled

Community subsidies

5 168

Other subsidies (2)

5 168

461

Total

5 168

5 629

Title I
Staff

Title II
Administration

Title III
Operating activities (3)

2 959

2 944

2 561

118

784

718

651

1 425

5 168

1 346

5 008

549

3 762

Total

67

797

982

280

66

79

425

66

324

70

461

2

309

1

313

64

15

69

148

(1) Appropriations remaining from 2005 transferred by the Commission to the Agency.
(2) Subsidy received from the European Commission to cover the commitments carried over from 2005 to 2006.
(3) Expenditure on experts’ meetings connected with the implementation of projects.
Source: Data supplied by the Agency. This table summarises the data provided by the Agency in its annual accounts. Revenue collected and payments are estimated on a cash basis.

Intelligent Energy Executive Agency (Brussels) — Economic outturn account for
the financial year 2006

Intelligent Energy Executive Agency (Brussels) — Balance sheet
at 31 December 2006

Table 3

Table 4

(1 000 euro)

(1 000 euro)

Operating revenue

Community subsidies

Other revenues

Operating expenses

Staff expenses

Fixed asset related expenses

Other administrative expenses

Total (a)

Total (b)

Surplus/(deficit) from operating activities (c = a – b)

Charges 2005 (d)

Economic result for the year (e = c – d)

2006

5 057

105

5 162

2 616

38

1 305

3 959

1 203

273

930

Non-current assets
Intangible fixed assets
Tangible fixed assets
Current assets
Short-term receivables
Cash and cash equivalents

Current liabilities
Provisions for risks and charges
Accounts payable

Net assets
Economic result for the year

2006

13
88

95
1 509
1 705

48
727
775

930
930
1 705

Total assets

Total liabilities

Total net assets
Total liabilities and net assets

Source: Data supplied by the Agency . This table summarises the data provided by the Agency in its annual accounts: these accounts are drawn up on an accrual basis.

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19.12.2007

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Official Journal of the European Union

C 309/23

THE AGENCY’S REPLIES

The Agency will implement a year-end procedure ensuring that only justified appropriations are

7.
carried over.