Resolution (EU) 2023/1851 of the European Parliament of 10 May 2023 with observations forming an integral part of the decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union (CdT) for the financial year 2021
Date: 2023-05-10
Institutions: European Parliament
Subjects: Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union, budgetary discharge, financial year, general budget (EU)








L_2023242EN.01020901.xml










29.9.2023   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


L 242/209








            RESOLUTION (EU) 2023/1851 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
         
of 10 May 2023
         
with observations forming an integral part of the decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union (CdT) for the financial year 2021


THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT,







—


having regard to its decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union for the financial year 2021,










—


having regard to Rule 100 of and Annex V to its Rules of Procedure,










—


having regard to the opinion of the Committee on Culture and Education,










—


having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A9-0104/2023),












A.


whereas, according to its statement of revenue and expenditure (1), the final budget of the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union (the ‘Centre’) for the financial year 2021 was EUR 53 031 743, representing an increase of 13,30 % compared to 2020; whereas 89,88 % of the Centre’s budget derives from direct contributions from institutions, other agencies and bodies;












B.


whereas the Court of Auditors (the ‘Court’), in its report on the annual accounts of the Centre for the financial year 2021 (the ‘Court’s report’), states that it has obtained reasonable assurance that the Centre’s annual accounts are reliable and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular;








Budget and financial management









1.


Notes with concern that budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2021 resulted in a budget implementation rate of current year commitment appropriations of 83,54 %, representing a decrease of 6,45 % compared to 2020; notes that the current year payment appropriations execution rate was 76,51 %, representing a decrease of 6,86 % compared to 2020;












2.


Notes that for 2021, due to exceptional events, the Centre did not apply the mechanism for automatic reimbursement of the budget surplus (EUR 1,1 million) to clients; notes that that amount has been carried over to 2022;





Performance









3.


Notes the Centre’s focus on direct outcome associated with its activities; notes the financial key performance indicators (KPIs) that provide a good indication of the Centre’s operational performance; acknowledges that the strategic KPIs provide a multi-directional perspective on the Centre’s performance, beyond output; encourages the Centre to continue monitoring its performance on both levels, direct output of activities and strategic performance; notes that as of 2021 multiple KPIs related to IT security are reported and the Centre continues to refine the way the security of its information systems is evaluated;












4.


Notes that with 367 264 pages, the number of pages of documents translated, modified, edited and revised increased by 9,7 % compared to 2020 (322 443 pages); notes that in 2021, with 274 706 pages, the number of translated pages of EU trade marks further decreased by 8,5 % in comparison to 2020 (300 348 pages); notes that with regard to EU trade marks, the number of translated pages is on a significant downward trend; notes that with a total of 641 970 pages translated in 2021, the actual volume remained relatively stable compared to 2020 (635 269 pages);












5.


Notes the efforts of the Centre to raise awareness of the importance of multilingualism for the agencies’ operations and to foster multilingual communication to reach out to Union citizens, and encourages the Centre to do even more; looks forward to seeing the first results of the pilot exercise launched in 2021 aiming to analyse the agencies’ existing multilingual practices with a view to setting up a ‘multilingualism toolbox’ and creating common guidelines for agencies’ language policies; calls on all Union institutions and bodies to prioritise all languages of the Union equally;












6.


Notes, in the context of recurring issues encountered with the quality of translations produced by external language service providers, that the Centre has put in place a system for assessing the quality of outsourced translations and improving translations that show weaknesses; welcomes the fact that the Centre has developed specific guidelines on its quality expectations, provided tutorials for external providers to address recurring issues and took stringent measures against several contractors whose documents were judged to be repeatedly unsatisfactory, leading in some cases to the termination of framework contracts;












7.


Notes with appreciation that, in order to achieve efficiency gains, the Centre’s strategy includes a complete revision of its way of working, the modernisation of some of its strategic tools, the implementation of cost efficiency measures in its business model, more accurate information on the actual costs of the Centre’s products and the continuous improvement of its workflow management tool (eCdT); calls on the Centre to continue to develop its synergies, increase cooperation and exchange of good practices with other Union agencies with a view to improving efficiency as regards, for instance, human resources, building management, IT services and security;












8.


Welcomes the active engagement of the Centre with other Union agencies; commends the Commission for the emphasis on ensuring that, pursuant to the founding acts of Union agencies and bodies, the Centre is to provide the translation services required for the functioning of such Union agencies and bodies, which makes full use of the Centre’s linguistic services;












9.


Commends the Centre for its new services implemented in 2021, such as the light post-editing service, the Paste‘n’Go service for faster translation of short texts and the customised machine translation engines in several areas; notes the deployment of six new releases of the interinstitutional terminology database IATE and of the pilot projects with the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, the Court and the Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation; notes furthermore the fruitful collaboration of the Centre with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office on various projects;












10.


Welcomes the introduction in 2021, building on the implementation of the Centre’s 2019–2020 Transformation Plan, of a more client-oriented approach to quality, which allows clients to choose from a range of translation services, from thoroughly revised translations through to a completely automated service, thus providing new opportunities for clients to optimise their translation budgets; notes that the 2021 client satisfaction survey showed overall client satisfaction with the range and quality of services offered by the Centre;





Staff policy









11.


Notes that, on 31 December 2021, the establishment plan was 95,33 % implemented, with 47 officials and 137 temporary agents appointed out of 51 officials and 142 temporary agents authorised under the Union budget (193 authorised posts, the same as in 2019); notes that, in addition, 24 contract agents worked for the Centre in 2021 (with 28 authorised posts);












12.


Notes the Centre’s gender breakdown reported for 2021, with one woman in a senior management position, with 32 men (62 %) and 24 women (38 %) at management board level and an overall staff of 82 men (39 %) and 126 women (61 %); notes that there is an underrepresentation of men in the Centre’s overall staff; asks the Centre to work towards gender balance at the staff level and at management board level; stresses the importance of geographical balance and that all Member States should be proportionally represented in order to have an appropriate representation of nationals from all Member States;












13.


Deplores the high number of members of the management board, which does not facilitate decision-making and simplified management;












14.


Notes that the Centre has a policy in place that includes a formal and informal procedure relating to psychological and sexual harassment, with appointed confidential counsellors able to handle the informal procedure; welcomes the fact that in 2021 the Centre joined the EU Agencies Network Task Force on the use of confidential counsellors; notes that, according to the Centre’s reply, no harassment cases were reported in 2021;












15.


Notes that the Centre has developed a human resources policy on work-life balance, career development, teleworking and the integration of people with disabilities and has a turnover rate for 2021 of 2,72 %;





Procurement









16.


Notes with concern the Court’s observation regarding the weaknesses in the Centre’s public procurement procedures in 2021, whereby contracts were signed using a negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice; notes the Court’s conclusion that such contracts, for which payments of EUR 108 200 were made, are irregular; calls on the Centre to report to the discharge authority on the actions taken in order to avoid this type of irregularities in the future;












17.


Welcomes the fact that the Centre fully adopted e-procurement procedures in 2021; recalls the importance for all procurement procedures to ensure fair competition between tenderers and to procure goods and services at the best price, respecting the principles of transparency, proportionality, equal treatment and non-discrimination; asks for the implementation of the e-procurement IT tools developed by the Commission; calls for an updated clarification of the procedures and templates in the procurement guidelines; notes with concern the Court’s observation that public procurement weaknesses are increasing and remain the largest source of irregular payments in most of the agencies;





Prevention and management of conflicts of interest and transparency









18.


Notes that, according to the Centre’s follow-up to the 2020 discharge, its website was migrated to Drupal where a field for CVs was added for each member of the management board; notes the Centre’s reply that, due to the size of its management board, it is looking for a solution allowing board members to upload and maintain declarations of interests and CVs themselves; calls on the Centre to report to the discharge authority on the progress made in that regard until such time as the CVs of all board members are published;












19.


Welcomes the fact that the Centre requests every staff member participating in the evaluation of candidates for a selection procedure or in a procurement evaluation to sign a declaration on conflicts of interest; notes that the director’s declaration of interests is published on the Centre’s website; notes furthermore that in 2021 no cases of conflicts of interest or whistleblowing were reported or opened;












20.


Welcomes the new decisions adopted on 25 June 2022 related to the prevention and management of conflicts of interest with regard to staff members; encourages the Centre to develop its own code of conduct; insists on the need to put in place more systematic rules on transparency, incompatibilities, conflicts of interest, illegal lobbying and revolving doors; calls on the Centre to strengthen its internal control mechanisms, including by setting up an internal anticorruption mechanism;





Internal control









21.


Notes the assessment of the Centre’s internal control system and the Centre’s management’s consideration that the monitoring reviews showed no instances of inadequate or ineffective controls that would expose the Centre to key risks and welcomes the fact that the reviews were carried out on the basis of the 17 principles pertaining to the five components of the Centre’s internal control framework; welcomes the conclusion of the Centre that its control systems are fully effective overall, with some improvements needed to further increase the Centre’s resilience;












22.


Notes the fact that the Centre reported that in 2021 all remaining actions in the 2019–2020 anti-fraud action plan have been implemented, with the Centre having updated its processes concerning the detection and reporting of fraud;












23.


Notes with concern the weaknesses of the Centre’s internal controls with regard to several public procurement procedures, as reported by the Court, whereby in one case the members of the evaluation committee had not signed declarations of absence of conflicts of interest, while in another case the Centre had not taken a formal decision not to appoint an evaluation committee, had not issued an evaluation report or an award decision, and had not published an award notice; calls on the Centre to set up an action plan to mitigate the risks of recurrence of such weaknesses; calls further on the Centre to report to the discharge authority on the progress made in that matter;





Digitalisation and the green transition









24.


Notes that the Centre has an information system security policy (ISSP) and multiple security standards in place and is working closely with CERT-EU (Computer Emergency Response Team for the Union institutions, bodies and agencies) on enhancing its cybersecurity; calls on the Centre to prepare for the update of its ISSP in light of the two future Regulations of the European Parliament and of the Council on cybersecurity and information security in the institutions, bodies, offices and agencies of the Union; also encourages the Centre to offer systematic updated cybersecurity-related training programmes to all of its staff, including management, as that is a key element in an effective cybersecurity framework;












25.


Commends the additional steps made by the Centre in 2021 towards the flexibility, optimisation and digitalisation of its working methods and services; highlights, in particular, the introduction of Commission tools, namely ABAC, Sysper, MIPS and ARES, as well as Systal (a new e-selection and recruitment IT software) and SARA (a system for tracking the time spent by staff on different activities); welcomes the Centre’s decision to make use of the Commission’s qualified electronic signature;












26.


Notes that in 2021 the Centre reduced its office space by 33 % following the signature of a new lease contract, which should lead to a reduction in the Centre’s electricity consumption and in the amount of energy used for heating; commends the Centre’s use of energy-saving light units and movement sensors, as well as the purchase of electricity from green sources;





Business continuity during the COVID-19 crisis









27.


Notes that a new business continuity policy was drafted in 2021 and quality audits continued to be conducted to ensure compliance and efficiency in the Centre’s processes and procedures; regrets that a worldwide shortage of electronic devices led to a slowdown of some of the Centre’s IT and infrastructure projects;












28.


Notes that the Centre reported that the expanded use of teleworking, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, has worked well and, together with the Centre’s optimisation and digitalisation of processes, has brought increased performance and efficiency and a better allocation of resources; notes, nevertheless, that limitations imposed on staff for on-site presence slowed down the implementation of some of the Centre’s projects;





Other comments









29.


Acknowledges the efforts of the Centre in 2021 to increase its public visibility; notes the Centre’s improved social media metrics; commends the Centre for having hosted a high-level workshop on multilingualism, for its active participation in the Commission’s clear writing conference and for its outreach activities involving the exchange of best practices with universities and the global translation community;












30.


Calls on the Centre to step up its efforts in reporting relevant performance information to Union citizens and the general public in clear and accessible language; urges the Centre to ensure greater transparency and public accountability by utilising media and social media channels;












31.


Refers, for other observations of a cross-cutting nature accompanying its decision on discharge, to its resolution of 10 May 2023 (2) on the performance, financial management and control of the agencies.







(1)  
            OJ C 141, 29.3.2022, p. 57.

(2)  Texts adopted, P9_TA(2023)0190.