Report on the annual accounts of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction for the financial year 2007 together with the Centre's replies
Date: 2008-09-25
Institutions: European Court of Auditors
Subjects: European Court of Auditors, European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, administration of the Institutions, financial control, implementation of the budget, powers of the institutions (EU), report

C 311/164

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

5.12.2008

REPORT

on the annual accounts of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and
Drug Addiction for the financial year 2007 together with the Centre’s
replies

(2008/C 311/24)

CONTENTS

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

STATEMENT OF ASURANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

OBSERVATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Paragraph

1-2

3-6

7-8

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

The Centre’s replies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Page

165

165

165

167

171

5.12.2008

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 311/165

INTRODUCTION

The Court has thus obtained a reasonable basis for the

6.
Statement below:

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug
1.
Addiction (hereinafter the Centre) was established by Council
Regulation (EEC) No 302/93 of 8 February 1993 (1). Its main task
is to collect data on drugs and drug addiction in order to prepare
and publish information that is objective, reliable and comparable
at European level. The information is intended to provide a basis
for analysing the demand for drugs and ways of reducing it, as
well as, in general, phenomena associated with the drug market.

2.
Table 1 summarises the Centre’s competences and activi-
ties. Key data taken from the financial statements drawn up by the
Centre for the financial year 2007 are presented inTables 2, 3
and 4for information purposes.

Reliability of the accounts

The Centre’s accounts for the financial year ended 31 Decem-
ber 2007 are, in all material respects, reliable.

Legality and regularity of underlying transactions

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

The observations which follow do not call the Court’s State-
ment into question.

STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE

3.
This Statement of Assurance is addressed to the European
Parliament and the Council in accordance with Article 185(2) of
Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 (2). It was
drawn up following an examination of the Centre’s accounts, as
required by Article 248 of the Treaty establishing the European
Community.

OBSERVATIONS

4.
The Centre’s accounts for the financial year ended
31 December 2007 (3) were drawn up by its Director, pursuant
to Article 11 of Regulation (EEC) No 302/93, 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 underlying
transactions.

The Court conducted its audit in accordance with the IFAC
5.
and ISSAI (4) International Auditing Standards and Codes of Eth-
ics, in so far 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.

(1) OJ L 36, 12.2.1993. This Regulation was amended by Regulations
(EC) No 3294/94 of 22 December 1994 (OJ L 341, 30.12.1994, p. 7)
and (EC) No 1651/2003 of 18 June 2003 (OJ L 245, 29.9.2003, p. 30).

(2) OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1.
(3) These accounts were drawn up on 30 June 2008 and received by the

Court on 7 July 2008.

The Centre’s 2007 final budget amounted to 14,4 million
7.
euro, as compared with 13,1 million euro the previous year. The
Centre’s budget is mainly financed by subsidies from the Com-
mission. The final budget, adopted on 23 October 2007, included
supplementary appropriations of 469 000 euro; most of these,
i.e. 420 000 euro,
increasing by more than 80 % the initial
amount of the budget line for IT operations.

The Centre is in disagreement with Norway concerning the
8.
calculation of Norway’s financial contribution for its participation
in the Centre’s work (applicable from 2007 onwards). The dis-
agreement is due to the fact that the formula in the signed origi-
nal agreement (applied by the Centre) differs from the formula in
the agreement as published in the Official Journal (applied by
Norway). The Centre has accounted for this contribution using its
interpretation of the formula. The Centre should seek to resolve
this disagreement as soon as possible as it has an impact on the
budget and on the Centre’s financial statements (5).

(4) International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and International Stan-

(5) The Centre’s estimation is approximately 80 000 euro higher than

dards of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAI).

that of the Norwegian authorities.

C 311/166

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

5.12.2008

This report was adopted by the Court of Auditors in Luxembourg at
24 and 25 September 2008.

its meeting of

For the Court of Auditors
Vítor Manuel da SILVA CALDEIRA
President

European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (Lisbon)

Table 1

Areas of Community competence
deriving from the Treaty

The Centre’s powers as defined in Regulation (EC) No 1920/2006 of the
Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006

Governance

Resources available to the Centre in
2007
(Data for 2006)

Products and services supplied in 2007
(Data for 2006)

The Community complements
the Member States’ action in
reducing drugs-related health
damage, including information
and prevention.

(Article 152 of the Treaty)

Objectives

Tasks

1. The Management Board

Final budget

Network:

To provide the Union and its
Member States with factual,
objective, reliable and compa-
rable information at Commu-
nity level concerning drugs,
drug addiction and their conse-
quences.

The Monitoring Centre should
focus on the following priority
areas:

1. monitoring the state of the
and
in par-
involving

drugs
problem,
emerging trends,
those
ticular
multi-drug use;

2. monitoring the solutions
and providing information
on best practices;

3.

4.

assessing the risks of new
psychoactive
substances
and maintaining a rapid
information system;

tools

developing
and
instruments to help Mem-
ber States to monitor and
evaluate
their national
policies and the Commis-
sion to monitor and evalu-
ate EU policies.

— To collect and analyse

data.

— To

improve
comparison methods.

data-

— To disseminate data.

— To cooperate with Euro-
pean and international
bodies and organisations
and with third countries.

representative
Comprises one
from each MemberState, two rep-
resentatives of the Commission
and two independent experts des-
ignated by the European Parlia-
ment.

It adopts the work Programme,
the general activities report and
the budget.

2. Director

14,4 million euro (13,1 million
euro). Community subsidy 93 %
(92 %).

Number of posts in establishment
plan: 82 (77)

Posts occupied: 73 (68)

The Centre runs a computerised net-
work for the collection and exchange of
information called the ‘European Infor-
mation Network on Drugs and Drug
Addiction’ (Reitox); this network con-
nects national drug information net-
works,
the
MemberStates and the information sys-
tems of
international organisations
working with the Centre.

specialist

centres

in

+ 25 (23) other staff (auxiliary
contracts, contract staff and tem-
porary replacements)

Publications:

— To identify new develop-
changing
and

ments
trends.

Appointed by the Management
Board at the Commission’s pro-
posal.

Total staff: 98 (91)

Assigned to the following duties:

3. Scientific Committee

operational: 60 (53,5)

administrative and IT support: 29
(30)

mixed: 9 (7,5)

Delivers opinions. It consists of at
most fifteen well-known scientists
appointed in view of their excel-
lence by the Management Board
following a call for expressions of
interest. The Management Board
may also appoint a panel of
experts to the extended Scientific
Committee for risk assessment of
new psychoactive substances.

4. External audit

Court of Auditors.

5. Discharge authority

Parliament acting on a recom-
mendation from the Council.

— Annual report on the state of the
drug problem in Europe; 23 lan-
guage versions, publication and
interactive website);

— Selected issues published alongside
the Annual report (3 issues, publi-
cation, summaries and interactive
website, EN);

— Statistical bulletin and interactive
website containing over 350 (250)
tables, 100 (150) graphs and PDF
files;

— General activities report — annual,

EN;

— Drugnet Europe newsletter — 4

issues, EN (4);

— Drugs in Focus (policy briefings)
— 3 issues, 25 language versions;

— Technical and scientific studies,
including Articles and scientific
summaries 57 (37);

.

.

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Areas of Community competence
deriving from the Treaty

The Centre’s powers as defined in Regulation (EC) No 1920/2006 of the
Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006

Governance

Resources available to the Centre in
2007
(Data for 2006)

Products and services supplied in 2007
(Data for 2006)

Other websites:

Set-up/updating/content development
of public EMCDDA website:

— Drug profiles,

— Country situation summaries,

— Country data profiles,

— Drug treatment overviews,

— European legal database on drugs,

— Evaluation instruments bank,

— Exchange on drug demand reduc-

tion action,

— FONTE: a data collection, valida-
tion, storage and retrieval system

Promotional brochures: 3 (4) prod-
ucts

Media products: 174 (174) miscella-
neous products

Participation
conferences/meetings: 230 (162)

international

in

Source:

Information supplied by the Centre.

Organisation of technical and scien-
tific meetings: 41 (27)

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European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (Lisbon) — Budget implementation for the financial year 2007

Table 2

Source of revenue

Revenue

Revenue entered in the
final budget for the
financial year

Revenue received

Allocation of expenditure

Expenditure

Final budget appropriations for the financial year

Appropriations carried over from the previous
financial year

entered

committed

paid

carried
over

cancelled

available

paid

carried
over

cancelled

(1 000 euro)

Community subsidies

13 469

13 469

Other subsidies

412

333

Title I
Staff (NDA)

Title II
Administrations (NDA)

Title III
Operational activities (DA)

Assigned revenue (Phare
and CARDS)

Other assigned revenue

550

pm

0

251

Assigned revenue (Phare
and CARDS)

Other assigned revenue

7 118

7 098

7 011

87

2 093

2 064

1 294

770

CA

PA

4 669

4 669

4 498

550

pm

26

220

4 452

0

177

74

Total

14 431

14 053

Total PA 14 431

12 934

931

Total CA 14 431

13 906

20

30

172

218

550

0

772

818

95

88

405

307

0

0

584

144

257

139

327

0

7

97

0

5

1 228

791

327

109

NDA: non-differentiated appropriations (commitment appropriations equal payment appropriations).
DA:
CA:
PA:
Source: Data supplied by the Centre. This table summarises the data provided by the Centre in its annual accounts.

differentiated appropriations (commitment appropriations and payment appropriations may differ).
commitment appropriations in a system of differentiated appropriations.
payment appropriations in a system of differentiated appropriations.

E
N

O

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C 311/170

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

5.12.2008

European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (Lisbon) — Economic outturn account for the
financial years 2007 and 2006

Table 3

(1 000 euro)

2007

2006

Operating revenue

Community subsidy

Other revenues

Operating expenditure

Staff expenditure

Fixed asset-related expenditure

Other administrative expenditure

Operating expenditure

13 369

662

Total (a)

14 031

7 044

358

1 289

5 028

Total (b)

13 719

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

Revenue from financial operations (e)

Expenditure on financial operations (f)

Surplus /(deficit) from non-operating activities (g = e – f)

Economic result for the year (h = c + g)

312

—

17

– 17

295

Source: Data supplied by the Centre — This table summarises the data provided by the Centre in its annual accounts.

13 394

93

13 488

6 566

292

2 369

4 629

13 857

– 370

—

16

– 16

– 385

European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (Lisbon) — Balance sheet at 31 December 2007
and 2006

Table 4

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

Reserves

Accumulated surplus/deficit

Economic result for the year

(1 000 euro)

2007

2006

426

2 725

556

1 847

5 554

165

2 606

2 771

2 783

2 488

295

2 783

Total assets

Total liabilities

Net assets

Net capital

374

2 809

416

1 881

5 480

149

2 843

2 992

2 488

2 872

– 385

2 488

Source: Data supplied by the Centre — This table summarises the data provided by the Centre in its annual accounts.

5.12.2008

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Official Journal of the European Union

C 311/171

THE CENTRE’S REPLIES

The referred supplementary appropriations were entered into the EMCDDA 2007 budget by means of
7.
the amending and supplementary budget adopted by the EMCDDA on 23 October 2007. These appropria-
tions aimed at coping with supplementary needs that could not be anticipated when the initial 2007 budget
was adopted (December 2006). These needs depended on some factors/events that were only known during
the third quarter of 2007, namely the schedule for the EMCDDA’s move into its new premises and associated
IT technical requirements. However, in accordance with the position expressed by the Court, the EMCDDA is
fully committed to pursuing its constant efforts to anticipate and plan, as much as possible, its budget needs.

8.
The EMCDDA is actively trying to reach a compromise with the Norwegian authorities in order to over-
come the current impasse, whilst avoiding jeopardising the EMCDDA’s activities/operations and its good rela-
tions with Norway.