Resolution of the European Parliament of 29 April 2015 with observations forming an integral part of the decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Institute for Gender Equality for the financial year 2013
Date: 2015-04-29
Institutions: European Parliament
Subjects: European Institute for Gender Equality, budgetary discharge, financial year, general budget (EU)








L_2015255EN.01025101.xml










30.9.2015   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


L 255/251








            RESOLUTION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
         
of 29 April 2015
         
with observations forming an integral part of the decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Institute for Gender Equality for the financial year 2013


THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT,






—


having regard to its decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Institute for Gender Equality for the financial year 2013,










—


having regard to Rule 94 of and Annex V to its Rules of Procedure,










—


having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control and the opinion of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (A8-0098/2015),










A.


whereas, according to its financial statements, the final budget of the European Institute for Gender Equality (‘the Institute’) for the financial year 2013 was EUR 10 024 535, representing an increase of 29,49 % compared to 2012,










B.


whereas the Court of Auditors, in its report on the annual accounts of the European Institute for Gender Equality for the financial year 2013 (‘the Court's report’), has stated that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the Institute's annual accounts are reliable and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular,






Follow-up of 2012 discharge









1.


Notes from the Court's report that regarding the two comments made in the Court's 2011 report and marked as ‘Ongoing’ in the Court's 2012 report, corrective actions were taken and one comment is marked in the Court's 2013 report as completed while the other one is marked as ‘Ongoing’; notes, furthermore, that for the two comments made in the Court's 2012 report, corrective actions were also taken and one comment is now marked as ‘Completed’ and the other one as ‘Ongoing’;












2.


Acknowledges from the Institute that information on its activities' impact on Union citizens is available on its website — which has been updated — and has been made more accessible through the use of social media;












3.


Notes that in order to improve procurement, planning and monitoring, the Institute has put in place a monitoring tool which follows the expected dates of each step of the annual procurement proceedings;





Budget and financial management









4.


Notes that budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2013 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 98,01 % and that the payment appropriations execution rate was 76,93 %;












5.


Notes from the Institute that according to its plans to ensure adequate monitoring and reporting of the budget implementation, a procedure for central budget monitoring has been adopted in 2013; calls on the Institute to inform the discharge authority on the results obtained through that procedure;





Commitments and carry-overs









6.


Notes from the Court's report that the overall level of committed appropriations in 2013 was 99 %, indicating that commitments were made in a timely manner; welcomes the further reduction of the overall level of carry-overs from EUR 2 500 000 (32 %) in 2012 to EUR 2 200 000 (29 %) in 2013; points out that those carry-overs mainly relate to title III (operational expenditure) with EUR 2 000 000 representing 56 % of the corresponding committed appropriations; acknowledges that those carry-overs mainly concern procurement procedures that were concluded late in 2013 due to reasons mostly beyond the Institute's control, such as a delayed decision by the Presidency of the Council of the Union regarding a subject of study;












7.


Notes that according to the Court's report, the level of carry-overs is in line with the budgetary principle of annuality;





Procurement and recruitment procedures









8.


Ascertains from the Institute that its recruitment and selection procedure has been updated according to the discharge authority's recommendations and now incorporates written tests as well as their respective weightings, which are finalised before the review of any candidate application;












9.


Acknowledges from the Institute that from 2013, its annual work programme (AWP) incorporates a financing decision indicating new procurement details, including the total annual budged reserved for operational procurement as well as the indicative timeframe for launching procurement procedures;












10.


Notes from the Institute that a centralised procurement monitoring tool, which covers all procurement procedures and indicates planned and actual dates of the main procedural steps in each procurement procedure, has been developed;





Prevention and management of conflicts of interests and transparency









11.


Takes note that the Institute's Management Board adopted its policy on management of conflicts of interests after the policy proposal had been reviewed and approved by the Commission; acknowledges from the Institute that the publication of CVs and declarations of interest of the members of the Management Board, the Director and senior management is provided for in that policy and accomplished on the Institute's website;





Internal audit









12.


Notes from the Institute that in 2013, the Commission's Internal Audit Service (IAS) carried out an audit work in accordance with the Institute's strategic audit plan; notes that this audit work included an audit on human resources management which identified good practices as well as reasonable assurance regarding the human resources management set-up;












13.


Notes with concern that in the course of the risk analysis, the IAS identified certain processes of high inherent risk which could not be audited within the Institute's strategic audit plan as the controls were assessed as absent or insufficient; welcomes the submission of an action plan aimed at addressing those high risk areas; looks forward to the next in-depth risk assessment which will follow-up on this action plan and calls on the Institute to inform the discharge authority on its results;












14.


Takes note from the Institute that no critical or very important recommendations from the IAS were open as of 31 December 2013;





Other comments









15.


Recalls that the Institute' has been established in order to promote gender equality, including gender mainstreaming in all Union policies and the resulting national policies, to fight against discrimination based on sex and to raise Union citizens' awareness of gender equality; recalls that according to the Institute's AWP, its mission is to become the European knowledge centre on gender equality issues;












16.


Recalls that the Institute has a fundamental role due to the fact that real and effective equality between women and men should be promoted and granted in all spheres of public and private life;












17.


Calls on the Institute to include the joint annual meetings between Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality and the Institute in its AWP; calls on the Institute to regularly present the results and findings of its research before the relevant Parliament's committees; notes that the Institute should facilitate access in a more proactive way to gender-related information, focused on the work carried out by its members, to Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality; considers that this would provide MEPs with important and more effective information tools;












18.


Calls for better interaction between legislative and non-legislative priorities of Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality and the Institute's research; acknowledges the importance of the Institute's role in collecting reliable comparative data disaggregated by sex and fundamental to the development of national and Union policies, especially those on gender based violence; calls on the Institute to work closely with Eurostat and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights in order to produce regular surveys on those issues that the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality considers to be the most important, notably violence against women and typical features of female employment;












19.


Refers, for other observations of a cross-cutting nature accompanying its decision on discharge, to its resolution of 29 April 2015 (1) on the performance, financial management and control of the agencies.






(1)  Texts adopted of that date, P8_TA(2015)0130 (see page 431 of this Official Journal).