Resolution (EU) 2023/1932 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 European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) for the financial year 2021
Date: 2023-05-10
Institutions: European Parliament
Subjects: Eurojust, budgetary discharge, financial year, general budget (EU)








L_2023242EN.01043501.xml










29.9.2023   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


L 242/435








            RESOLUTION (EU) 2023/1932 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 European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) 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 European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) 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 Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs,










—


having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A9-0122/2023),












A.


whereas, according to its statement of revenue and expenditure (1), the final budget of European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) (the ‘Agency’) for the financial year 2021 was EUR 53 297 699, representing an increase of 27,81 % compared to 2020; whereas the Agency’s budget derives almost exclusively from the Union budget;












B.


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








Budget and financial management









1.


Notes with satisfaction that budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2021 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 99,97 %; notes that this represents a slight decrease of 0,02 % compared to 2020; notes that the execution rate of payment appropriations was 84,58 %, representing a decrease of 0,49 % compared to 2020;





Performance









2.


Notes that the Agency uses key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess the added value provided by its activities and to improve its budget management; observes that the Agency defined 59 KPIs in its annual working plan for 2021 and 9 multi-annual KPIs for the multi-annual strategy (MAS) 2019-2021; notes that, excluding the KPIs impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and those deemed not measurable or possible to assess, the Agency achieved the targets for only 36 out of 49 KPIs (73 % achieved as in 2020) and 6 out of 6 multi-annual KPIs (100 %);












3.


Notes that the Agency continued to strengthen operational cooperation and the referral of cases by the liaison prosecutors, resulting in 290 new cases in 2021; notes with satisfaction that the Agency continued to take steps to increase the referral of cases between the Agency and the European Judicial Network (EJN), with 44 cases referred to the EJN in 2021; notes with satisfaction that in 2021 the Agency facilitated the execution of European Arrest Warrants related to 480 new cases and 713 ongoing cases and enabled the use of 4 262 European Investigation Orders; notes furthermore that national prosecutors from across the Union and beyond turned to the Agency for assistance in 10 105 cross-border criminal investigations (an increase of 15 % compared to 2020), among which 4 808 were new cases opened during 2021 and 5 297 cases were ongoing cases;












4.


Notes with appreciation that the Agency has been supporting the Commission in the preparation for the start of negotiations for international agreements between the Union and 13 third countries, for the exchange of operational information, including personal data; further notes that the network of the Agency contact points increased to 60 countries in 2021; further notes the strengthening of cross-border cooperation between the Union and the United Kingdom (UK), with the appointment of a Liaison Prosecutor and Assistants from the UK to the Agency;












5.


Stresses the important role of the Agency in assisting the competent authorities of the Member States in the prosecution of cross-border serious and organised crime; commends the contribution of the Agency’s dedicated team of lawyers and analysts in providing legal advice, analysis and operational assistance, resulting in 466 cases directly supported by the team in 2021; commends the Agency for supporting in 2021, 457 coordination meetings and 22 coordination centres with videoconferencing and other hybrid solutions in addition to the meetings held in-person; notes with satisfaction that the Agency provided rapid responses in order to support judicial authorities in 1 928 time-sensitive cases;












6.


Welcomes the fact that in 2021 the Agency enhanced its strategic cooperation with partners in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, such as Frontex, Europol and eu-LISA; welcomes, furthermore, the signature of the Working Arrangement between the Agency and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) to practically implement the means of cooperation put in place in their respective regulations; welcomes the subsequent legal and operational assistance offered to EPPO in the facilitation of cooperation with non-participating Member States;












7.


Supports the further strengthening of the Agency’s cooperation with the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) in particular with regard to access to lawyers, victims’ rights and problems concerning detention conditions;





Staff policy









8.


Notes with appreciation that, on 31 December 2021, the establishment plan was 100 % executed, with 207 temporary agents appointed out of 207 temporary agents authorised under the Union budget (compared to 204 appointed out of 207 authorised posts in 2020); notes that, in addition, 30,5 contract agents and 19 out of 21 full-time equivalent seconded national experts worked for the Agency in 2021; notes however, from the Agency’s reply to the discharge authority, the Agency’s concern regarding the insufficient human resources allocated within the MFF 2021-2027, particularly in the context of the increase of tasks and demands for the Agency to support operational cases and the additional workload resulting from the new Eurojust legal framework; calls on the Agency and the Commission to engage in an active dialogue in order to address the issue of understaffing in its future establishment plans;












9.


Notes the lack of gender and geographical balance within the Agency for 2021; notes that the Agency reported 6 men (67 %) and 3 women (33 %) in senior and middle management, 18 men (67 %) and 9 women (33 %) in the Agency’s management board, and 77 men (33 %) and 158 women (67 %) in overall staff; asks the Agency to ensure gender and geographical balance at the staff level in the future; asks the Commission and the Member States to take into account the importance of ensuring gender balance when nominating their members to the Agency’s executive board;












10.


Notes with appreciation the Agency’s existing measures and ongoing efforts to prevent harassment; notes that a new group of confidential counsellors was appointed as the previous mandate expired; welcomes the fact that in 2021, the Agency offered refresher training on psychological and sexual harassment to all staff and additional training on conflict management and resolution to the confidential counsellors and managers; notes that no cases of harassment were reported in 2021;












11.


Notes with interest that the Agency took some internal measures to alleviate the strain that extended teleworking caused to staff, such as measures ensuring the right to disconnect and the right to concentrate; notes with satisfaction that, with regard to the right to concentrate, ‘slow weeks’ and ‘meeting free days’ were introduced to reduce stress and digital overload caused by virtual meetings and to concentrate on specific tasks; calls on the Agency to share the results achieved through these measures and good practices in the area of staff well-being in its cooperation with other Union decentralised agencies;












12.


Notes with appreciation that the Agency has appointed a contact point for whistleblowing matters, providing staff with confidential and impartial guidance on whistleblowing rules for staff; welcomes the organisation in 2021 of one ethics and whistleblowing training for all staff;












13.


Notes that the Agency recruited 23 temporary and contract agents in 2021 through external recruitment procedures; notes that two appointments have been made to offset the effects of part-time work that was on average 4,9 FTE throughout the year; welcomes that, in line with the Agency’s KPIs, in 2021 the percentage of staff deployed to operational roles was higher than in 2020; notes, however, that OLAF has been carrying out an investigation, that is still ongoing, on allegations of irregularities in recruitment; takes note that OLAF made no recommendations to the Agency in 2021; calls on the Agency to ensure full cooperation with OLAF and to timely and transparently report to the budgetary authority on the outcome of the investigation;












14.


Notes with appreciation that the Agency has implemented Phase 1 of the SYSPER human resources tool, with the first modules becoming available in September 2021; encourages the Agency to continue implementing further modules in order to improve the management of its human resources;





Procurement









15.


Notes that 51 procurement procedures were concluded in 2021 for a total value of EUR 42 249 672; acknowledges that the Agency was audited by the Court in the framework of a performance audit on ‘blacklisting of economic operators’, covering Early Detection and Exclusion System (EDES), to assess whether exclusion is being used effectively to protect Union funds from untrustworthy recipients; calls on the Agency to keep the discharge authority informed regarding this audit’s conclusions, once they will be available;












16.


Welcomes the adoption and implementation of e-tendering and e-submission in the digitalisation of procurement procedures, as well as the current testing of the Public Procurement Management Tool (PPMT); calls on the Agency to report to the discharge authority about the implementation of the PPMT and to continue the digitalisation process of its procurement procedures;












17.


Notes that, according to the Court’s observation in its audit report for the 2020 financial year, the procurement procedure for leasing vehicles in connection with a framework contract signed in 2018 was irregular; notes the Court’s remark that all subsequent payments made based on that contract were irregular, and that in 2021 such payments amounted to EUR 34 022; acknowledges the Agency’s reply that remedies for such cases have been foreseen; underlines that such situations may incur reputational damage to the Agency; calls on the Agency to address this finding without further delay and to report to the discharge authority about the solutions identified;





Prevention and management of conflicts of interest, and transparency









18.


Acknowledges the Agency’s existing measures and its ongoing efforts to secure the transparency, prevention and management of conflicts of interest; notes that the Agency adopted a new anti-fraud strategy on 21 June 2021 after conducting a fraud-risk assessment in the first half of 2021; welcomes the fact that the risk assessment confirmed that the risk of fraud in the Agency was relatively low;












19.


Acknowledges the Agency’s standard operating procedure regarding the management of conflicts of interest; notes with interest that, in addition, all staff leaving the Agency are requested to fill in a form requesting permission to engage in an occupation for the two subsequent years to ensure that there is no conflict of interest between their future position and their employment with the Agency; welcomes the fact that the Agency publishes on its website the declarations of interest and CVs of its national members, the Commission representative in the management board, and that of the administrative director; regrets, however, that the CVs of senior management, external experts and in-house experts are not published on its website; calls on the Agency to publish these CVs on its website without further delay;





Internal control









20.


Welcomes the Agency’s assessment of its internal control system, that concluded that all internal control principles are present and functioning, with minor deficiencies for which corrective measures have been foreseen;












21.


Notes the limited review of the implementation of the Agency’s new legal framework; highlights that, in the final audit report submitted in January 2021, the internal audit service (IAS) included two recommendations, one of which concerns the Agency’s actions for implementing its own initiative on operational tasks, and the other on the need for the Agency to update its risk management register; takes note that, according to the Agency’s action plan submitted in February 2021, the actions foreseen for the first recommendation are ongoing, while the actions foreseen for the second recommendation are marked as completed; calls on the Agency to fully implement the recommendations of the IAS and to report to the discharge authority about the progress achieved;












22.


Notes the limited review on the implementation of the Agency’s new internal control framework (ICF); highlights that, in the final audit report submitted in May 2021, the IAS recommended to the Agency to carry out an iCAT survey to strengthen the assessment of soft controls as part of the overall assessment of the ICF; notes that, according to the Agency’s action plan submitted in May 2021, the internal iCAT survey is planned to take place in 2022; calls on the Agency to keep working on the implementation of all the recommendations and to report to the budgetary authority in this regard;












23.


Notes that in 2021 European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS)’ first data protection audit of the Agency’s data protection activities took place, and that the EDPS found that, overall, the Agency’s compliance with the data protection framework was satisfactory, with no critical issues;





Digitalisation and the green transition









24.


Notes that in 2021 the Agency initiated the implementation of the EMAS (Environmental Management and Audit Scheme)/ISO 14001 compliance framework; welcomes the fact that, according to the Agency’s energy providers, 70 % of its sources of energy come from renewable energy resources; further notes that the Agency, as part of the Union Greening network, organised a public tender in 2021 for the environmental management system, reduction and offsetting of greenhouse emissions related services;












25.


Notes that the Agency initiated a number of ICT projects in 2021 in areas such as video-conferencing tools, remedy implementation, e-recruitment tools; welcomes the fact that, with regards to video-conference tools, the Agency launched a project to increase the number of available interpretation languages and enhance the users’ experience when joining one of the Agency’s videoconferences;












26.


Welcomes the Agency’s continuous efforts to monitor security logs and respond to potential cyber security incidents; notes that in 2021 the Agency signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Computer Emergency Response Team for the EU institutions, bodies and agencies (CERT-EU) to improve the cyber security support and the log monitoring; further notes that the Agency is developing a cyber security structure to anticipate the implementation of the upcoming regulation on cybersecurity; calls on the Agency to keep reporting to the budgetary authority about the progress in this regard;












27.


Welcomes the Agency’s participation as a pilot Agency in the Commission’s process of implementing a modernised accounting and financial management system, SUMMA; notes that during 2021, the Agency provided key user support in the different phases of the SUMMA implementation, from requirement analysis and specification to testing, data migration and roll out into production in 2022;












28.


Welcomes the actions taken by the Agency in 2021 towards starting the key preparatory initiatives for the implementation of the new Eurojust case management system, related to the legislative proposal on exchanges of digital cross-border terrorism cases; highlights that the allocation of new tasks through upcoming legislation must be accompanied in a coordinated manner by the adequate human and budgetary resources, entailing at the same time a reasonable level of flexibility in order to prevent situations where resources are allocated in an untimely manner;





Business continuity along the COVID-19 crisis









29.


Notes that in 2021 the Agency’s business continuity team continued to meet weekly to ensure that any impact on the Agency’s work was addressed proactively; notes that the Agency took some corrective actions such as budget transfers and an in-year revision of KPI targets for areas that continued to be impacted by COVID-19;












30.


Notes that in 2021, 83 % of coordination meetings took place online and 7 % took place through hybrid modalities; takes note of the Agency’s commitment to keep holding a minimum percentage of coordination meetings online or through hybrid methods and running selections remotely;





Other comments









31.


Notes that the Agency continued strengthening its data protection compliance; recalls that a register of processing activities was created on the Agency’s website in accordance with Article 57 of the Agency’s regulation; observes that 82 records of processing activities have been published on its website at the end of 2021; highlights that 6 requests for access to personal data were received and handled by the data protection officer throughout the year;












32.


Calls on the Agency to step up its efforts and report relevant performance information to the Union citizens and general public in clear and accessible language; urges the Agency to ensure greater transparency and public accountability by better-utilizing media and social media channels;












33.


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. 91.

(2)  Texts adopted, P9 TA(2023)0190.