Resolution (EU) 2017/1617 of the European Parliament of 27 April 2017 with observations forming an integral part of the decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2015, Section IV — Court of Justice
Date: 2017-04-27
Institutions: European Parliament
Subjects: Court of Justice of the European Union, budgetary discharge, financial year, general budget (EU)








L_2017252EN.01011601.xml










29.9.2017   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


L 252/116








            RESOLUTION (EU) 2017/1617 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
         
of 27 April 2017
         
with observations forming an integral part of the decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2015, Section IV — Court of Justice


THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT,






—


having regard to its decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2015, Section IV — Court of Justice,










—


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










—


having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control and the opinion of the Committee on Legal Affairs (A8-0136/2017),










A.


whereas in the context of the discharge procedure, the discharge authority stresses the particular importance of further strengthening the democratic legitimacy of the Union institutions by improving transparency and accountability, implementing the concept of performance-based budgeting and good governance of human resources,






1.   

Notes with satisfaction that, in its annual report for 2015, the Court of Auditors identified no significant weaknesses in respect of the audited topics relating to human resources and procurement for the Court of Justice of the European Union (the ‘Court of Justice’);



2.   

Welcomes the fact that, on the basis of its audit work, the Court of Auditors concluded that the payments as a whole for the year ended on 31 December 2015 for administrative and other expenditure of the Court of Justice were free from material error;



3.   

Notes that in 2015, the Court of Justice had appropriations amounting to EUR 357 062 000 (EUR 355 367 500 in 2014) and that the implementation rate was 99 %; welcomes the very high utilisation rate in 2015, identical to the rate in 2014;



4.   

Notes that the estimated revenue of the Court of Justice for the financial year 2015 was EUR 44 856 000; asks the Court of Justice to explain why the established entitlements in the financial year 2015 are EUR 49 510 442, which is 10,4 % higher than estimated;



5.   

Notes that revenue from entitlements carried over from 2014 to 2015 amounts EUR 84 620,37 and that 84,28 % represents revenue from persons working with the institutions and other Union bodies;



6.   

Notes that the Court of Justice's budget is mostly administrative, with around 75 % being used for expenditure concerning persons working within the Court of Justice and the remaining amount relating to buildings, furniture, equipment and special functions carried out by it; stresses, however, that introducing performance-based budgeting should not apply only to the Court of Justice's budget as a whole but should include the setting of specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-based (SMART) targets to individual departments, units and staffs' annual plans; in this respect, calls on the Court of Justice to introduce the principle of performance-based budgeting more widely in its daily operations;



7.   

Welcomes the productivity of the judicial activity of the Court of Justice in 2015, with 1 711 cases brought before the three courts and 1 755 cases completed; notes that this is the highest annual number of the cases in the Court of Justice's history;



8.   

Notes that the Court of Justice completed 616 cases in 2015, which represents a decrease compared to 2014 (719 cases were completed in 2014), and had 713 new cases brought before it (compared to 622 in 2014);



9.   

Notes that in 2015 the General Court received 831 new cases and dealt with 987 cases, which constitutes a general increase when compared with previous years;



10.   

Notes that in 2015 the Civil Service Tribunal completed 152 cases, as in 2014, and had 167 new cases; stresses that 10 years after its establishment, 2015 was the last year of existence of the Tribunal; believes that an in-depth assessment of those 10 years of activity should be made by the Court of Justice;



11.   

Notes that the 2015 statistics for the three courts confirm the trend seen in recent years as regards the average duration of proceedings, which remains satisfactory (for the Court of Justice, 15,3 months requests for a preliminary ruling (compared with 15 months in 2014), 1,9 months for urgent requests for a preliminary ruling (compared with 2,2 months in 2014), 17,6 months for direct actions (compared with 20 months in 2014) and 14 months for appeals (compared with 14,5 months in 2014); for the General Court and Civil Service Tribunal, respectively 20,6 months (compared with 23,4 months in 2014) and 12,1 months (compared with 12,7 months in 2014) for all types of case; considers that the amendments to the Statute of the Court of Justice adopted in 2015 can only further enhance that streamlining;



12.   

Welcomes the fact that the number of cases concluded increased by 57 % during the period 2007 to 2015, largely owing to the coordinated efforts of the courts and auxiliary staff, despite the extremely limited increase in auxiliary staff capacity over that period;



13.   

Notes that 2015 was the year of adoption of the judicial architectural reform of the Court of Justice, which was accompanied by the development of new rules of procedure for the General Court; understands that, by virtue of the number of judges of the General Court being doubled in a three-stage process extending until 2019, that reform will enable the Court of Justice to continue to deal with the increase in the number of cases; looks forward to analysing the achievements of that reform in the Court of Justice's capacity to deal with cases within a reasonable period and in compliance with the requirements of a fair hearing;



14.   

Believes that that reform will allow the Court of Justice to deal with its increasing caseload more quickly and efficiently and serve the interests of those seeking justice, respecting their right to due process within a reasonable time, in line with the objectives of an effective, high-quality service;



15.   

Notes the upcoming recast of the Code of Conduct for Members where the conditions for carrying out external activities and the publication of their financial interests will be clarified; calls for a greater level of transparency on the external activities of each judge; requests that the Court of Justice provide information regarding other posts and paid external activities of the judges on its website and its annual activity reports;



16.   

Notes that out of the commitments of missions of EUR 295 500 only EUR 41 209 were used; points out that this under-investment could be avoided; requests the Court of Justice to improve its budgeting and accountability in regard to the mission budget and emphasises the need for the principle of missions to be cost-effective;



17.   

Considers that the Court of Justice should make available a general overview of the participants and the contents of its meetings with external parties other than the ones related to its judicial activity;



18.   

Asks the Court of Justice to provide the discharge authority with a list of meetings with lobbyists, professional associations and civil society by June 2017; asks the Court of Justice to present the minutes of those meetings by June 2017;



19.   

Notes with satisfaction the improvements made in the e-Curia application and the fact that all Member States used it in 2015; considers that alongside the dematerialisation of documents, data security should be improved;



20.   

Notes that, according to its annual management report for 2015, the Court of Justice works closely with the Court of Auditors' team designated to carry out its performance review; in this regard notes that, at the beginning of the audit process, the Court of Justice raised obstacles to the work of the audit team; notes with satisfaction that the Court of Justice has improved its cooperation with the auditors and provided further documents to Court of Auditors; is aware that the principle of secrecy of deliberations is necessary to help preserve the independence of decision-makers, to promote consistency and finality of decisions and to prevent decision-makers from having to spend more time testifying about their decisions than making them; points out, however, that the secrecy of deliberations as principle ab ovo prevents any external control; invites the Court of Justice, therefore, to develop an internal control/remedy mechanism in order to provide in such cases a certain level of control;



21.   

Notes that the Court of Justice has complied with the interinstitutional agreement to reduce staff by 5 % over a period of five years;



22.   

Notes the high proportion of posts occupied (98 %) despite the high staff turnover rate in the Court of Justice and supports its active recruitment policy; calls on the Court of Justice to set up rules on revolving doors;



23.   

Welcomes the exchange of staff made by the Court of Justice with the European Central Bank in 2015 and expects that cooperation to continue in the years to come;



24.   

Welcomes the initiative of the Court of Justice to improve the gender balance in management posts and the fact that the gender balance in middle and senior management posts reached a level of 35 % to 65 % in 2015; believes, nevertheless, that there is further room for improvement in this area in the institution; notes, furthermore, that Parliament and the Council have stated that it is their objective to ensure an equal representation of women and men when appointing new judges to the General Court (1);



25.   

Emphasises that geographical balance, namely the relationship between staff nationality and the size of Member States, must remain an important element of resources management, particularly with respect to the Member States that acceded to the Union in 2004 or thereafter;



26.   

Welcomes the fact that the Court of Justice has reached a more balanced composition of officials from the Member States which joined the Union before 2004 and from the Member States which acceded to it in 2004 or thereafter; is deeply concerned, however, at the considerable geographic imbalance in middle and senior management level, to the disadvantage of the Member States which acceded to the Union in 2004 or thereafter; calls on the Court of Justice to endeavour to correct that situation and to report to Parliament on the improvements achieved in that regard;



27.   

Regrets the fact that the Court of Justice's internal whistleblowing rules were adopted only in the beginning of 2016; recommends that the Court of Justice disseminate those rules among its staff so that all employees are aware of them; asks the Court of Justice to provide, by June 2017, details of the whistleblower cases in 2015, if any, and of how they were handled and finalised;



28.   

Urges the Court of Justice to enact the submission of declarations of interests, instead of declarations of the absence of conflicts of interests, as self-evaluation of conflicts of interests is, in itself, a conflict of interests; considers that the evaluation of a situation of conflicts of interests must be done by an independent party; asks the Court of Justice to report by June 2017 on the changes introduced and to indicate who is checking the situations of conflicts of interests; reiterates that transparency is a key element to the public trust; calls on the Court of Justice to establish clear rules regarding ‘revolving doors’ and to put in place measures and dissuasive penalties, such as the reduction of pensions or the prohibition to work at least three years in similar bodies, to prevent ‘revolving doors’;



29.   

Notes the cooperation of the Court of Justice with the Commission and Parliament's interpretation services within the Interinstitutional Committee for Translation and Interpretation, particularly in the area of interpretation; expects that that cooperation will be extended to the translation area and supports it, where possible and without undermining the Court of Justice's responsibilities;



30.   

Calls on the Court of Justice to provide Parliament with the costs of translation according to the harmonised methodology agreed within the Interinstitutional Working Group on key interinstitutional activity and performance indicators;



31.   

Notes that the translation directorate of the Court of Justice had a workload increase of 1,4 % and that its productivity increased by 7 % in 2015 due to the outsourcing of workload control and the implementation of new translation supporting tools;



32.   

Supports the review of expenditure and of the conditions for use of official cars jointly conducted by the internal audit services of the Court of Justice and of the Court of Auditors; calls on the Court of Justice to consider, within the frame of that review, the possibility of reducing the number of official cars at the disposal of its members and staff; calls on the Court of Justice, moreover, to improve its checks against the use of official cars for private purposes;



33.   

Welcomes the commitment of the Court of Justice to ambitious environmental targets; encourages the institution to apply the principles of green public procurement and calls for the establishment of rules and a sufficient budget for carbon offsetting;



34.   

Notes the detailed information on the Court of Justice's buildings policy, particularly with regard to the construction of a fifth extension of the current buildings complex;



35.   

Welcomes the opening of the Court of Justice's historical archive at the Historical Archives of the Union in Florence;



36.   

Welcomes the Court of Justice's initiative to publish its annual activity report in a new format; calls on the Court of Justice to publish the Court of Auditors annual report, in particular the parts referring to the Court of Justice;



37.   

Calls on the Court of Justice to improve its communications policy towards the citizens of the Union;



38.   

Considers the answer given by the Court of Justice to Parliament's question (Question 26) on allowances to be incomplete; asks the Court of Justice for clarification and for a clear and detailed answer.




(1)  See Annex to Parliament's legislative resolution of 28 October 2015 — Joint statement by the European Parliament and the Council — Texts adopted, P8_TA(2015)0377.