Report on the annual accounts of the European Research Council Executive Agency for the financial year 2010, together with the Agency’s reply
Date: 2011-09-06
Institutions: European Court of Auditors
Subjects: EU office or agency, administration of the Institutions, auditing, budgetary control, budgetary resources, closing of accounts, financial control, powers of the institutions (EU)








C_2011366EN.01006901.xml










15.12.2011   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 366/69





REPORT
on the annual accounts of the European Research Council Executive Agency for the financial year 2010, together with the Agency’s reply
2011/C 366/13

INTRODUCTION







1.


The European Research Council Executive Agency (hereinafter ‘the Agency’), which is located in Brussels, was set up by Commission Decision 2008/37/EC of 14 December 2007 (1). The Agency was established for a period beginning on 1 January 2008 and ending on 31 December 2017 with the aim of managing the ‘Ideas’ specific programme in the field of frontier research (2).










2.


The Agency’s 2010 budget was 29,3 million euro. The number of staff employed by the Agency at the end of the year was 316.





STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE







3.


Pursuant to the provisions of Article 287(1), second subparagraph, of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the Court has audited the annual accounts (3) of the Agency, which comprise the ‘financial statements’ (4) and the ‘reports on the implementation of the budget’ (5) for the financial year ended 31 December 2010, and the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying those accounts.










4.


This Statement of Assurance is addressed to the European Parliament and the Council in accordance with Article 14 of Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 (6).





The Director’s responsibility







5.


As authorising officer, the Director implements the revenue and expenditure of the budget in accordance with the financial rules of the Agency, under his own responsibility and within the limits of the authorised appropriations (7). The Director is responsible for putting in place (8) the organisational structure and the internal management and control systems and procedures relevant for drawing up final accounts (9) that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and for ensuring that the transactions underlying those accounts are legal and regular.





The Court’s responsibility







6.


The Court’s responsibility is to provide, on the basis of its audit, a statement of assurance as to the reliability of the annual accounts of the Agency and the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying them.










7.


The Court conducted its audit in accordance with the IFAC and ISSAI (10) International Auditing Standards and Codes of Ethics. Those standards require the Court to comply with ethical requirements and to plan and perform the audit so as to obtain reasonable assurance as to whether the accounts are free of material misstatement and whether the underlying transactions are legal and regular.










8.


The Court’s audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence of the amounts and disclosures in the accounts and of the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying them. The procedures selected, including its assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the accounts or of illegal or irregular transactions, whether due to fraud or error, depend on its audit judgement. In making those risk assessments, internal controls relevant to the entity’s preparation and presentation of accounts are considered in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances. The Court’s audit also includes evaluating the appropriateness of the accounting policies used and the reasonableness of the accounting estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the accounts.










9.


The Court believes that the audit evidence obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for the opinions set out below.






Opinion on the reliability of the accounts








10.


In the Court’s opinion, the Agency’s Annual Accounts (11) fairly present, in all material respects, its financial position as of 31 December 2010 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with the provisions of its Financial Regulation.






Opinion on the legality and the regularity of the transactions underlying the accounts








11.


In the Court’s opinion, the transactions underlying the annual accounts of the Agency for the financial year ended 31 December 2010 are, in all material respects, legal and regular.





This Report was adopted by Chamber IV, headed by Mr Igors LUDBORŽS, Member of the Court of Auditors, in Luxembourg at its meeting of 6 September 2011.


For the Court of Auditors

Vítor Manuel da SILVA CALDEIRA

President





(1)  OJ L 9, 12.1.2008, p. 15.

(2)  The Annex summarises the Agency's competences and activities. It is presented for information purposes.

(3)  These accounts are accompanied by a report on the budgetary and financial management during the year which gives inter alia an account of the rate of implementation of the appropriations, with summary information on the transfers of appropriations among the various budget items.

(4)  The financial statements include the balance sheet and the economic outturn account, the cash-flow table, the statement of changes in capital and the annex to the financial statements, which includes a description of the main accounting policies and other explanatory information.

(5)  The budget implementation reports comprise the budget outturn account and its annex.

(6)  OJ L 11, 16.1.2003, p. 1.

(7)  Article 25 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1653/2004 (OJ L 297, 22.9.2004, p. 6).

(8)  Article 29 of Regulation (EC) No 1653/2004.

(9)  The rules concerning the presentation of the accounts and accounting by the Agencies are laid down in Chapter 1 of Title VI of Regulation (EC) No 1653/2004 as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 651/2008 (OJ L 181, 10.7.2008, p. 15).

(10)  International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAI).

(11)  The Final Annual Accounts were drawn up on 29 June 2011 and received by the Court on 1 July 2011. The Final Annual Accounts can be found on the following website http://eca.europa.eu or http://erc.europa.eu/


ANNEX

European Research Council Executive Agency (Brussels)


Competences and activities








Areas of Union competence deriving from the Treaty


(Article 182 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union)









1.


A multiannual framework programme, setting out all the activities of the Union, shall be adopted by the European Parliament and the Council, after consulting the Economic and Social Committee. The framework programme shall:






—


establish the scientific and technological objectives to be achieved by the activities provided for in Article 180 and fix the relevant priorities,










—


indicate the broad lines of such activities,










—


fix the maximum overall amount and the detailed rules for Union financial participation in the framework programme and the respective shares in each of the activities provided for.














2.


The framework programme shall be adapted or supplemented as the situation changes.










3.


The framework programme shall be implemented through specific programmes developed within each activity. Each specific programme shall define the detailed rules for implementing it, fix its duration and provide for the means deemed necessary. The sum of the amounts deemed necessary, fixed in the specific programmes, may not exceed the overall maximum amount fixed for the framework programme and each activity.










4.


The Council, acting in accordance with a special legislative procedure and after consulting the European Parliament and the Economic and Social Committee, shall adopt the specific programmes.









Competences of the Agency


(Commission Decision 2008/37/EC of 14 December 2007)




Objectives

The Agency is responsible for carrying out the implementation of the tasks for the management of the Ideas Specific Programme (see Council Decision 2006/972/EC) under the Seventh Framework Programme for Union research FP7 (2007-2013), as adopted by Decision No 1982/2006/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council.

Tasks

Within the Ideas Specific Programme, under the Seventh Framework Programme for Union research, the Agency is responsible for the following tasks (see Commission Decision C(2008)5694 of 8 October 2008):






(a)


collect, process and distribute data, and in particular compile, analyse and transmit to the Commission and the Scientific Council all information required to guide implementation of the Ideas Specific Programme as well as policy development in the field of frontier research, and assist the Commission and the Scientific Council in establishing contacts with other programmes of the Union, the Member States or international organisations;










(b)


contribute to the evaluation by the Commission of the impact of the programme and to the monitoring of the effects of the measures taken;










(c)


carry out studies and assessments, in particular in support of the Commission annual report on the ERC operations and achievement of the objectives of the Ideas Specific Programme as well as the mid-term evaluation of implementation of the programme, and contribute to the preparation and implementation of follow-up action on evaluations, with a view to transmitting them to the Scientific Council and the Commission;










(d)


prepare draft recommendations for the Scientific Council and the Commission on implementation of the Ideas Specific Programme and its future development;










(e)


plan and implement information, communication and dissemination actions;










(f)


participate in preparatory work on Commission specific financing decisions relating to the Ideas Specific Programme.









Governance




1 —   Steering Committee

Five members appointed by the European Commission. Adopts the Agency's annual work programme after approval by the European Commission, the administrative budget of the Agency and its annual activity report.

2 —   Scientific Council of the ERC

The Scientific Council of the ERC is entrusted by virtue of Commission Decision 2007/134/EC with establishing a scientific strategy for the Ideas Specific Programme, deciding on the type of research to be funded in accordance with Article 6(6) of Decision 2006/972/EC and acting as a guarantor of the quality of the activity from a scientific perspective. Its tasks cover, in particular, the establishment of the annual work programme for the Ideas Specific Programme, and of the peer review process, as well as the monitoring and quality control of the implementation of the Specific Programme ‘Ideas’, without prejudice to the responsibility of the Commission.

3 —   Director

Appointed by the European Commission for 4 years.

4 —   External audit

Court of Auditors.

5 —   Discharge authority

Parliament, following a recommendation from the Council.





Resources available to the Agency in 2010 (2009)





Budget

29,3 million euro

(14,5 million euro).


Staff at 31 December 2010

The 2010 operating budget provides for an establishment plan of 100 Temporary staff (TS) and a budget for 215 Contract staff (CS) and 15 Seconded National Experts (SNE), at a total of 330 staff, out of which 316 were occupied at year end 2010, compared with 262 in 2009):






—


94 temporary staff, out of which 13 TS seconded and 81 TS external,










—


218 contract staff,










—


4 SNEs.





Allocated to:







—


Operational activities (Scientific and Grant Management departments): 68 %,










—


Administrative activities (other departments): 32 %.









Activities and services provided in 2010









1.


Monitor the grant agreements awarded under the 2010 and 2011 Ideas Work Programme, calls for Starting Grants and Advanced Grants. The Ideas work programme is implemented via the publication of the annual calls for proposals, which is followed by an evaluation (by external experts), the preparation and signing of grant agreements and finally the monitoring of project implementation. Each call for proposals results in a series of Grant Agreements, with an expected project cycle of about 5 years. At the end of 2010 five ‘lots’ were managed following completion of various calls. The first reporting cycle started for 2007 Starting Grants.










2.


Execution of the 2010 Calls for proposals for the Ideas work programme. (Starting Grants and Advanced Grants): 4 882 proposal applications were submitted in 2010, out of which 2 873 were for Starting Grants and 2 009 for Advanced Grants. Of these a total of 4 744 were eligible and thus evaluated by the review panels. A total of 665 proposals were selected for the granting process.










3.


Generation and dissemination of information on the Ideas Specific Programme and ERCEA’ activities in 2010.










4.


Support to the Scientific Council of the ERC: Five Scientific Council plenary sessions were organised during the reporting period. In order to facilitate the Scientific Council's strategy discussion, ERCEA, in conjunction with the Secretary General of the Scientific Council, carried out an analysis, drawing lessons from the first 3 years of ERCEA’s existence. Meetings relating to the four existing ERC Working Groups on ‘Relations with Industry’, ‘Open Access’, ‘Third Country Participation’ and ‘Gender Balance’ were organised by ERCEA. A series of documents containing analyses and key messages on the specific issues dealt with by the Working Groups were prepared by ERCEA in conjunction with the members of the said Groups.









Source: Information supplied by the Agency.







THE AGENCY'S REPLY






1.


The Agency has taken note of the Court’s report.