Report on the annual accounts of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work for the financial year 2014 together with the Agency’s reply
Date: 2015-09-08
Institutions: European Court of Auditors
Subjects: European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, administration of the Institutions, auditing, budgetary control, financial control








C_2015409EN.01028401.xml










9.12.2015   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 409/284





REPORT
on the annual accounts of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work for the financial year 2014 together with the Agency’s reply
(2015/C 409/32)

INTRODUCTION









1.


The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (hereinafter ‘the Agency’, aka ‘EU-OSHA’), which is located in Bilbao, was created by Council Regulation (EC) No 2062/94 (1). The Agency’s task is to collect and disseminate information on national and Union priorities in the field of health and safety at work, to support national and Union organisations involved in policymaking and implementation and provide information on preventive measures (2).





INFORMATION IN SUPPORT OF THE STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE









2.


The audit approach taken by the Court comprises analytical audit procedures, direct testing of transactions and an assessment of key controls of the Agency’s supervisory and control systems. This is supplemented by evidence provided by the work of other auditors and an analysis of management representations.










STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE









3.


Pursuant to the provisions of Article 287 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the Court has audited:






(a)


the annual accounts of the Agency, which comprise the financial statements (3) and the reports on the implementation of the budget (4) for the financial year ended 31 December 2014, and










(b)


the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying those accounts.










The management’s responsibility










4.


The management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the annual accounts of the Agency and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions (5):






(a)


The management’s responsibilities in respect of the Agency’s annual accounts include designing, implementing and maintaining an internal control system relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error; selecting and applying appropriate accounting policies on the basis of the accounting rules adopted by the Commission’s accounting officer (6); making accounting estimates that are reasonable in the circumstances. The Director approves the annual accounts of the Agency after its accounting officer has prepared them on the basis of all available information and established a note to accompany the accounts in which he declares, inter alia, that he has reasonable assurance that they present a true and fair view of the financial position of the Agency in all material respects.










(b)


The management’s responsibilities in respect of the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions and compliance with the principle of sound financial management consist of designing, implementing and maintaining an effective and efficient internal control system comprising adequate supervision and appropriate measures to prevent irregularities and fraud and, if necessary, legal proceedings to recover funds wrongly paid or used.










The auditor’s responsibility










5.


The Court’s responsibility is, on the basis of its audit, to provide the European Parliament and the Council (7) with a statement of assurance as to the reliability of the annual accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions. The Court conducts its audit in accordance with the IFAC International Standards on Auditing and Codes of Ethics and the INTOSAI International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions. These standards require the Court to plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance as to whether the annual accounts of the Agency are free from material misstatement and the transactions underlying them are legal and regular.












6.


The audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions. The procedures selected depend on the auditor’s judgement, which is based on an assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the accounts and material non-compliance by the underlying transactions with the requirements in the legal framework of the European Union, whether due to fraud or error. In assessing these risks, the auditor considers any internal controls relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of the accounts, as well as the supervisory and control systems that are implemented to ensure the legality and regularity of underlying transactions, and designs audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances. The audit also entails evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies, the reasonableness of accounting estimates and the overall presentation of the accounts. In preparing this report and Statement of Assurance, the Court considered the audit work of the independent external auditor performed on the Agency’s accounts as stipulated in Article 208(4) of the EU Financial Regulation (8).












7.


The Court considers that the audit evidence obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for its statement of assurance.





Opinion on the reliability of the accounts









8.


In the Court’s opinion, the Agency’s annual accounts present fairly, in all material respects, its financial position as at 31 December 2014 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with the provisions of its Financial Regulation and the accounting rules adopted by the Commission’s accounting officer.





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









9.


In the Court’s opinion, the transactions underlying the annual accounts for the year ended 31 December 2014 are legal and regular in all material respects.














10.


The comments which follow do not call the Court’s opinions into question.





COMMENTS ON BUDGETARY MANAGEMENT









11.


The overall level of committed appropriations was 99 % as in 2013. However, the level of committed appropriations carried over to 2015 for title II (administrative expenditure) was high at 4 43  412 euro, i.e. 34 % (2013: 6 01  426 euro, i.e. 30 %).












12.


These mainly relate to the purchase of goods and services, as planned, at the end of the year in connection with the Agency’s fitting out of its new premises, with the renewal of annual IT contracts and the cost of audit services.





OTHER COMMENTS









13.


In 2005 new EU Staff Regulations entered into force, including provisions that future remunerations of officials recruited before 1 May 2004 should not be less than under the previous EU Staff Regulations. The Court’s audit revealed that this was not complied with and, in the case of 1 of the 26 officials employed at that time, this led to an underpayment of 5  300 euro for the period 2005 to 2014. The Agency will make the supplementary salary payments in due course.





FOLLOW-UP OF PREVIOUS YEAR’S COMMENTS









14.


An overview of the corrective actions taken in response to the Court’s comments from the previous year is provided in Annex I.





This Report was adopted by Chamber IV, headed by Mr Milan Martin CVIKL, Member of the Court of Auditors, in Luxembourg at its meeting of 8 September 2015.


For the Court of Auditors

Vítor Manuel da SILVA CALDEIRA

President





(1)  OJ L 216, 20.8.1994, p. 1. The Regulation was last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1112/2005 (OJ L 184, 15.7.2005, p. 5).

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

(3)  These include the balance sheet and the statement of financial performance, the cash flow table, the statement of changes in net assets and a summary of the significant accounting policies and other explanatory notes.

(4)  These comprise the budgetary outturn account and the annex to the budgetary outturn account.

(5)  Articles 39 and 50 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1271/2013 (OJ L 328, 7.12.2013, p. 42).

(6)  The accounting rules adopted by the Commission’s accounting officer are derived from the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) issued by the International Federation of Accountants or, where relevant, the International Accounting Standards (IAS)/International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) issued by the International Accounting Standards Board.

(7)  Article 107 of Regulation (EU) No 1271/2013.

(8)  Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L 298, 26.10.2012, p. 1).


ANNEX I
Follow-up of previous year’s comments







Year


Court's comment


Status of corrective action
(Completed/Ongoing/Outstanding/N/A)




2013


The overall level of committed appropriations was 99 % as compared to 95 % in 2012. However, the level of committed appropriations carried over to 2014 was high at 6 01  426 euro (30 %) for title II (administrative expenditure) and 3 6 93  549 euro (46 %) for title III (operational expenditure).


N/A




2013


For title II, this was caused by the purchase of goods and services, as planned, at the end of the year in connection with the Agency’s move to its new premises and with the renewal of annual IT contracts. For title III, the high level of planned carry-overs mainly resulted from the multiannual nature of major projects launched in 2013, such as the European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER-2).


N/A







ANNEX II
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (Bilbao)
Competences and activities







Areas of Union competence deriving from the Treaty


(Articles 151 and 153 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union)




Article 151

The Union and the Member States [...], shall have as their objectives the promotion of employment, improved living and working conditions, so as to make possible their harmonisation while the improvement is being maintained, proper social protection, dialogue between management and labour, the development of human resources with a view to lasting high employment and the combating of exclusion.

Article 153

With a view to achieving the objectives of Article 151, the Union shall support and complement the activities of the Member States in the following fields:






(a)


improvement in particular of the working environment to protect workers’ health and safety;










(b)


working conditions;
[...]










(e)


the information and consultation of workers;
[...]










(h)


the integration of persons excluded from the labour market, without prejudice to Article 166;










(i)


equality between men and women with regard to labour market opportunities and treatment at work;










(j)


the combating of social exclusion;
[...].









Competences of the Agency


(Council Regulation (EC) No 2062/94)




Objectives

In order to improve the working environment, as regards the protection of the safety and health of workers as provided for in the Treaty and successive strategies and action programmes concerning health and safety at the workplace, the aim of the Agency shall be to provide the Union and the Member States, the social partners and those involved in the field with technical, scientific and economic information of use in the field of safety and health at work (Article 2).

Tasks







—


To collect, analyse and disseminate information on national and Union priorities and on research;










—


to promote cooperation and the exchange of information, including information on training programmes;










—


to supply the Union bodies and the Member States with the information they require for formulating and implementing policies, in particular as regards the impact on small and medium-sized enterprises;










—


to make available information on preventive activities;










—


to contribute to the development of strategies and Union action programmes;










—


to set up a network comprising national focal points.









Governance




Governing Board (GB)







—


One representative of the Government of each Member State.










—


One representative of the employers’ organisations of each Member State.










—


One representative of the employees’ organisations of each Member State.










—


Three representatives of the Commission.










—


Members and alternate members from the first three categories shall be appointed from the members and alternate members of the Advisory Committee on Safety and Health at Work.





Bureau of the GB







—


Chair and three vice-chairs of the Board.










—


Coordinators from each of the three interest groups.










—


One additional member from each of the groups and the Commission.





Director

is appointed by the Governing Board on the basis of a short-list from the Commission.

Committees

Mandatory consultation of the European Commission and the Advisory Committee on Safety and Health at Work in respect of the work programme and budget.

External audit

European Court of Auditors.

Discharge authority

European Parliament, acting on a recommendation from the Council.





Resources available to the Agency in 2014 (2013)





Budget

17,3(17,5) million euro of which:






—


Union subsidy, DG Employment: 84,1 % (86,3 %).










—


Other Union subsidy, DG Employment: 11,6 % (9,4 %)











—


Other Union subsidy, DG Enlargement: 2,6 % (3,2 %)











—


Other Union subsidy, DG DEVCO: 1,1 % (-.- %)










—


Other: 0,6 % (1,0 %)






Staff at 31 December 2014

43 (44) posts provided for in the establishment plan, of which, 40 (42) posts were occupied.
Other staff:






—


Seconded National Experts: 0 (0)











—


contract staff: 24 (25 — one of which financed from earmarked funds)










—


local staff: 1 (1)





Total staff employed: 65 (67)

Allocated to:






—


operational activities: 46 (48)











—


administrative tasks:10 (10)











—


mixed tasks: 9 (9)









Products and services in 2014


(Collecting and analysing information)




Priority Area 1: Anticipating Change


Activity 1.1: Foresight of new and emerging OSH risks associated with new technologies in green jobs

Summary report of foresight workshop with the electricity sectoral social dialogue committee (Brussels March) was published and promoted in July 2014.
The organisation of a second workshop for the transport sector is still under discussion with B.1 unit at DG EMP (2015).

Activity 1.2: Large-scale foresight

The scoping study for foresight topics (promoted in September) will be used as the basis for specifying the second large-scale foresight project starting in 2015. The report on emerging risks in the healthcare sector was published in October.
The project on success factors to transfer foresight findings into policy making has been postponed from 2015 to 2016.

Priority Area 2: Facts and figures


Activity 2.1: European Survey of Enterprises on New & Emerging Risks (ESENER)

ESENER-2 fieldwork in all 36 countries, and final dataset finalised. Technical reports — methodological and fieldwork, final coding, weighting, data editing and cleaning; quality control will follow early 2015.
First findings report to be published February 2015, followed by an overview report and a summary report (translated) in Q2 2015.

Activity 2.2: OSH overview: Older workers

Final pre-financing received from EC in May in line with delegation agreement.
Second interim payment processed upon delivery of OSH and ageing workforce review; age and gender review; OiRA sub-module for developers (final) and review of available tools (final); country report; case studies on rehabilitation programmes; case studies from the workplace; draft analysis plan.
Discussion workshops with intermediaries in selected Member States (Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Austria, Germany, Poland, Greece and United Kingdom) to obtain their views and experiences took place in July with FOP involvement.
Draft final country reports were sent to the Focal Points for information and as an opportunity for final comment.
Preliminary project results presented at various events.
Planning started to link the project to HWC 2016-17, including web data visualisation

Activity 2.3: OSH overview: Micro and small enterprises

Kick-off meeting for project held and specific contract for work package 1 signed
Work package includes in-depth review of available data relevant to OSH in micro and small enterprises in the EU.

Activity 2.4: OSH overview: Work-related diseases

Workshop on workplace risks to reproductivity held in January and its seminar online summary published in May. First results discussed with Focal Points in February and Prevention and Research Advisory Group in March.
Report on workplace risks to reproduction under revision to include recent policy developments and findings of workshop.
Report on work-related cancer and summary promoted in 2014.
Workshop on burden of disease held in October, seminar online summary available on Agency’s website

Activity 2.5: OSH overview: Costs and benefits of OSH

Expert meeting was held in June 2014 (seminar online summary published) with experts on modelling of costs of poor OSH and gave highly useful input for the further development of the project, which led to revised scheduling: call for tender for a larger OSH overview report will be published early 2015 and the feasibility study planned for the end of 2014 was cancelled
Report ‘The business case for safety and health: Cost–benefit analyses of interventions in small and medium-sized enterprises’ promoted in September.
Conference ‘Investing in OSH — how benefits beat the costs’ organised by the Focal Points of the BENELUX countries in close cooperation with the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, EU-OSHA and TNO (seminar online summary published)

Priority Area 3: Tools for OSH management


Activity 3.1: Online interactive Risk Assessment (OiRA) tool

OiRA tools published in 2014: 42 (further ones anticipated before year-end) exceeding initial target of 35. Five agreements signed and 15 events organised.
Eight low value contracts to adapt and translate existing OiRA tools into other languages/national contexts (six further contracts before the end of the year) in order to encourage development of OiRA tools at national level. More detailed information on progress in the OiRA http://www.oiraproject.eu/Resources

Activity 3.2: Tool for implementing OSH solutions

First discussions on feasibility study ‘exploring practical online OSH tools’ took place at Prevention and Research Advisory Group (PRAG) meetings in March and October.
Seminar on topic held in Paris in October gathering main stakeholders. The Agency is also working on the content of the new section ‘e-tools’ to be included in the next EU-OSHA corporate website.

Priority Area 4: Raising awareness


Activity 4.1: Healthy Workplace Campaign (HWC) 2012-2013, Working together for risk prevention

The Healthy Workplaces Campaign (HWC) 2012-2013 ‘Working together for risk prevention’ drew to a close setting an unprecedented record in terms of delivery of a broad range of awareness-raising initiatives at the European and national level, as well as in terms of official campaign and media partners.
At the end of 2013, the IES (Institute for Employment Studies) was commissioned to produce the ‘Ex-post evaluation of the Healthy Workplaces Campaign 2012-2013: Working Together for Risk Prevention’. The final report, which was published in October 2014, incorporates both quantitative and qualitative data, stemming from desk research, online surveys, focus groups and interviews with focal points, campaign partners, and other relevant stakeholders.
The contract for the report on ‘Review of successful OSH benchmarking initiatives’ was signed at the end of August 2014 and the work started with a survey on benchmarking initiatives among campaign partners.

Activity 4.2: Healthy Workplace Campaign (HWC) 2014-2015, ‘Healthy Workplaces Manage Stress’

The Healthy Workplaces Campaign (HWC) 2014-15 ‘Healthy Workplaces Manage Stress’ was launched on 7 April by the EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, László Andor; Greek Deputy Minister for Labour, Social Security and Welfare, Vasilis Kegkeroglou and Director of EU-OSHA, Christa Sedlatschek. On the same date the campaign website was launched, with tools and resources available in 25 languages.
The 2014 European Campaign Assistance Package (ECAP), which provides the Agency’s network of national focal points with financial and logistical support for implementing campaign activities at national level was successfully implemented. During the year, focal points ordered a total of 22 national partnership meetings, 61 stakeholders’ seminars, 15 press conferences, 18 press releases, 5 journalists’ round tables, 4 radio phone-ins and 6 professional articles. Among the campaign material, 88  720 campaign-branded items, 4 76  125 publications in 25 languages, and 62 campaign stands, 15 exhibition kits, were distributed. A special highlight of the campaign was also the release of the DVD ‘Napo in…When stress strikes’.
Among other campaign-related products and publications, a literature review ‘Calculating the cost of work-related stress and psychosocial risks’ discussing the financial burden of psychosocial risks at societal, organisational and individual level was published online in June. Another key product developed for the campaign was the ‘Managing stress and psychosocial risk e-guide’. The e-guide was made available in 30 national versions and aims to motivate managers in SMEs to conduct psychosocial risk management based on the available national resources. In addition, a joint EU-OSHA-Eurofound report on psychosocial risks was published and promoted at an expert seminar on 16—17 October 2014.
The 2014-15 HWC Official Campaign Partnership Offer succeeded in recruiting more than 100 official campaign partners, including workers’ and employers’ organisations, multinational companies and organisations representing a wide range of OSH professions — the highest number of partners supporting a single Healthy Workplaces Campaign. In addition, a total of 29 media partners from 14 countries are now engaged in the 2014-15 HWC.
The European Good Practice Awards Competition (GPA) was launched on 15 April. A good practice awards promotion package was produced to support focal points and organisations interested in sharing good practices both at national and European level.
The campaign was also presented at the EU Conference on ‘Occupational safety and health — OSH policy in the future’ Athens, 16—17 June 2014, as part of the Greek EU Presidency programme.
In 2014, for the first time, the campaign was supported by an integrated social media campaign, engaging different audiences with campaign products developed specifically for social media such as infographics and videos.

Activity 4.3: Healthy Workplace Campaign (HWC) 2016-2017

The Campaign scope and goals were agreed. The goals are as follows:






—


To promote sustainable work and healthy ageing right from the start and stress the importance of prevention throughout working life.










—


To assist employers and workers (including micro enterprises) by providing information and tools for managing OSH in the context of an ageing workforce.










—


To facilitate exchange of information and good practice in this area.




The Campaign Strategy was finalised by the end of the year.
A call for tender for the development of an e-guide was launched in September and work is planned to start at the beginning of 2015.

Activity 4.4: Awareness raising actions

23 focal points responded to the 2014 Awareness Raising Package (ARP) offer. ARP activities included: 14 OSH film screenings and debates, 13 OSH photo exhibitions and promotion of Napo for teachers’ toolkit in two countries. In addition, 12 Napo costumes have been produced and distributed as part of the ARP.
The Napo Consortium initiated the development of a new film about electricity related OSH risks. External evaluation of the ‘Napo for teachers’ activity’ was commissioned to an external contractor with an interim report being received in November. More than 20  000 copies of the DVD ‘Napo in….no laughing matter’ were distributed in April to national Labour Inspectorates in more than 20 Member States to support the Senior Labour Inspectors’ Committee (SLIC) campaign about prevention of slips and trips. An updated version of a Napo leaflet has been produced, translated and distributed to interested Focal Points (portfolio).
The 2014 edition of the Healthy Workplaces Film Award with DOK Leipzig was launched in April with a deadline for submission of applications on the 10 July. Eight films were nominated from countries such as France, Germany, Poland and Spain. The winner, ‘Harvest’, was announced at the award ceremony on 1 November. The subtitling of the 2013 winning film C(us)todians in 13 EU languages was finalised and delivery to the Focal Points (portfolio) accomplished by end-July.
On Europe Day, 9 May, a tent was set up on the street in Bilbao to promote, jointly, the contributions made by Europe Direct Bizkaia (European Commission), the European Union and EU-OSHA behalf of the citizen. EU-OSHA’s participation with a stand at the Exhibition Fair (linked to the OSH World Congress in Frankfurt) — 25-28 August was a success, Highlights at the stand included the official launch of the OSHwiki, the Healthy Workplaces Manage Stress campaign and OiRA.

Priority Area 5: Networking knowledge


Activity 5.1: OSHwiki

PEROSH members invited to the OSHwiki Scientific Committee’s first meeting helped to define how OSHwiki can serve the needs of the research community as well as discussing how it can provide EU-OSHA guidance on strategic issues and source potential authors and readers (meeting held in June).
OSHwiki Communication Plan finalised; Beta Launch carried out in May. News items posted on the OSHmail, Twitter and Linkedin and a tailored e-mail was sent to existing accredited authors, Focal Points, Advisory Groups and the Governing Board.
OSHwiki was officially launched in August at the XX World Congress on Safety and Health at Work 2014 in Frankfurt, Germany and there are now over 100 accredited authors.

Activity 5.2: Other networking knowledge actions

Legislation section: work focused on making legislation webpage ready for migration to new corporate EU-OSHA website (checking and updating).
Information regarding national strategies in OSH wiki articles updated (it will be updated on a continuous basis following input from the Focal Points).
Research priorities: Position papers drafted and short list of priorities based on the report published in 2013 to influence the HORIZON 2020 work programme and content of the calls. A seminar to discuss the position papers and the short list will be held in November in Brussels. Directors and research directors of major OSH research institutes and funding bodies and EU Commission representatives will participate in the seminar.

Priority Area 6: Networking and corporate communication


Activity 6.1: Strategic networking.

Further development of the Agency’s strategic networks, in particular the tripartite governance networks (Board and Bureau), the Advisory Groups and the European networks.

Activity 6.2: Operational networking

Continued engagement with the Agency’s international network partners and focal point network, including promotion of networking at Member State level.
The ongoing focus of the activities is to ensure engagement with social partners at national level in the Member States. At the international level, in line with the priority identified in the 2014-2020 European Commission Communication on a Strategic Framework on OSH, EU-OSHA is working to develop better coordination and linkage with actors in non-Member States, International and Regional Organisations.
The communication partnerships were also further developed.

Activity 6.3: Corporate communications

In relation to the Agency’s online strategy 2014, preparatory actions for the implementation of the next EU-OSHA Corporate website saw a first internal release of the website deployed at the end of September. The new website should be launched in the first half of 2015.
Other online developments since the beginning of 2014 saw the launch of the Healthy Workplaces Campaign (HWC) 2014-15 website on 7 April and the redesign of the OiRA site. Several new or revamped web sections were also delivered
With regard to the Agency’s corporate promotion strategy, the Agency has also been very active on social media since the launch of the new HWC Campaign 2014-15. Our YouTube account now has over 1  000 subscribers (288 in June 2013) and we have reached 3 12  842 views (35  000 in June 2013). The Agency’s Facebook page’s popularity is steadily growing with 16  500 fans at end October (1  654 in June 2013). The Agency’s Twitter account is also more popular with 10  840 followers (7  179 in June 2013). We also have 4  797 LinkedIn followers compared to 2  766 in June 2013. 11 posts have been published on the Agency’s Blog since January. The number of OSHmail subscribers is steadily increasing. There are now over 67  000 OSHmail subscribers.
With regard to the Agency’s corporate publications strategy, the corporate branding of the new EU-OSHA premises was delivered, the 2013 Annual report and summary were produced and delivery of the report accomplished. In addition, a set of 5 infographics translated into all EU official languages was produced to support the publication of the Annual Report and summary. A new EU-OSHA’s corporate brochure was finalized and translated. A corporate video introducing the multiannual strategic programme (in 25 languages) was published as well as a video to support the launch of the e-Guide on stress.
Several reports, summaries and literature reviews of the Annual Management Plan 2014 were produced and published including: ‘Research guides design of the 2014 ESENER survey’, ‘OSH in the Hairdressing sector’, ‘Priorities for OSH Research in Europe 2013-2020’, ‘Estimating the costs of accidents and ill-health at work’, ‘E-fact and Checklist OSH in the wind energy sector’, ‘Calculating costs related to stress and psychosocial risks at work’, ‘Scoping study for a foresight on new and emerging risks and challenges’ and ‘Psychosocial risks in Europe: Prevalence and strategies for prevention’ (with Eurofound).
In addition, the HWC 2014-15 Campaign materials (Guide, leaflet, flyer, banner stands and giveaways) were produced and delivered. A set of three infographics and a video were produced to support the launch of the Campaign and a leaflet was produced for Europe Day.
Regarding the press office, 13 news releases were published and more than 90 media info requests/interviews responded to. Several press conferences/media encounters with the Director were organized to highlight relevant moments, such as the visit of the President of the EU Parliament, the inauguration of the Agency’s premises and the OSHwiki launch in Frankfurt. Over 1  300 online clippings and more than 5  800 social media posts have been recorded.

Activity 6.4: Preparatory measures for the Western Balkans and Turkey

The programme for the Western Balkans and Turkey came to an end in November 2014. Under the programme, actions were implemented to support the countries covered in becoming active participants in the Agency’s networks.
On 10 December 2014 the Commission Implementing Decision adopting a Multi-country Action Programme for the year 2014 (C(2014)9407 Final) was signed, under which EU-OSHA will receive as a direct grant award 4 10  000 euro for actions in the IPA II beneficiary countries.
Following on from this Decision, EU-OSHA will sign an agreement with the Commission in Quarter 1, 2015. Once signed, then EU-OSHA will continue its work in the region. It is anticipated that this agreement will last for 24 months.

Activity 6.5: Preparatory measures for the collaboration of ENP countries with EU-OSHA

This programme for the European Neighbourhood countries was initiated in 2014 in order to develop OSH actions and networks in the countries involved. In this initial phase of the two-year agreement, EU-OSHA is establishing single contact points in the beneficiary countries and supporting actions identified by the beneficiary countries as being a priority.

Corporate management

Programming of 2015 activities, in particular the 2015 management plan. Reporting and evaluation actions.
Corporate management, including business continuity, data protection, risk management, legal advice and internal control.

Administrative support

Main achievements in 2014 include:






—


Signature of seat agreement on 31 March 2014 with the Kingdom of Spain










—


Adoption of EU-OSHA Financial Regulation and Financial Implementing Rules










—


Staff Regulations, adoption of Implementing Rules










—


ABB (Activity Based Budget implementation)









Source: Annex supplied by the Agency.







THE AGENCY’S REPLY






11-12.


The Agency notes the Court’s comment related to the level of planned carry-overs for title II.










13.


The Agency acknowledges the comment from the Court. Following the necessary checks, action has been taken to proceed with the payment of the amount due for the period 2005-2014 (5  300 euro) to one of the temporary staff (AD) employed at 1.5.2004 and subject to multiplication factor.