on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Environment Agency for the financial year 2010

(C7-0278/2011 – 2011/2217(DEC))

The European Parliament,

–   having regard to the final annual accounts of the European Environment Agency for the financial year 2010,

–   having regard to the Court of Auditors’ report on the annual accounts of the European Environment Agency for the financial year 2010, together with the Agency’s replies(1),

–   having regard to the Council’s recommendation of 21 February 2012 (06083/2012 – C7-0051/2012),

–   having regard to Article 319 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

–   having regard to Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities(2), and in particular Article 185 thereof,

–   having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90 of 7 May 1990 on the establishment of the European Environment Agency and the European Environment Information and Observation Network(3), and in particular Article 13 thereof,

–   having regard to Regulation (EC) No 401/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the European Environment Agency and the European Environment Information and Observation Network(4), and in particular Article 13 thereof,

–   having regard to Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2343/2002 of 19 November 2002 on the framework Financial Regulation for the bodies referred to in Article 185 of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities(5), and in particular Article 94 thereof,

–   having regard to Rule 77 of, and Annex VI to, its Rules of Procedure,

–   having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control and the opinion of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (A7-0105/2012),

1.      Postpones its decision on granting the Executive Director of the European Environment Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency's budget for the financial year 2010;

2.      Sets out its observations in the resolution below;

3.      Instructs its President to forward this Decision and the resolution that forms an integral part of it to the Executive Director of the European Environment Agency, the Council, the Commission and the Court of Auditors, and to arrange for their publication in the Official Journal of the European Union (L series).

2. PROPOSAL FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT DECISION

on the closure of the accounts of the European Environment Agency for the financial year 2010

(C7-0278/2011 – 2011/2217(DEC))

The European Parliament,

–   having regard to the final annual accounts of the European Environment Agency for the financial year 2010,

–   having regard to the Court of Auditors’ report on the annual accounts of the European Environment Agency for the financial year 2010, together with the Agency’s replies(6),

–   having regard to the Council’s recommendation of 21 February 2012 (06083/2012 – C7-0051/2012),

–   having regard to Article 319 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

–   having regard to Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities(7), and in particular Article 185 thereof,

–   having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90 of 7 May 1990 on the establishment of the European Environment Agency and the European Environment Information and Observation Network(8), and in particular Article 13 thereof,

–   having regard to Regulation (EC) No 401/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the European Environment Agency and the European Environment Information and Observation Network(9), and in particular Article 13 thereof,

–   having regard to Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2343/2002 of 19 November 2002 on the framework Financial Regulation for the bodies referred to in Article 185 of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities(10), and in particular Article 94 thereof,

–   having regard to Rule 77 of, and Annex VI to, its Rules of Procedure,

–   having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control and the opinion of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (A7-0105/2012),

1.      Postpones the closure of the accounts of the European Environment Agency for the financial year 2010;

2.      Instructs its President to forward this Decision to the Executive Director of the European Environment Agency, the Council, the Commission and the Court of Auditors, and to arrange for its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union (L series).

3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION

with observations forming an integral part of its Decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Environment Agency for the financial year 2010

(C7-0278/2011 – 2011/2217(DEC))

The European Parliament,

–   having regard to the final annual accounts of the European Environment Agency for the financial year 2010,

–   having regard to the Court of Auditors’ report on the annual accounts of the European Environment Agency for the financial year 2010, together with the Agency’s replies(11),

–   having regard to the Council’s recommendation of 21 February 2012 (06083/2012 – C7-0051/2012),

–   having regard to Article 319 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

–   having regard to Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities(12), and in particular Article 185 thereof,

–   having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90 of 7 May 1990 on the establishment of the European Environment Agency and the European Environment Information and Observation Network(13), and in particular Article 13 thereof,

–   having regard to Regulation (EC) No 401/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the European Environment Agency and the European Environment Information and Observation Network(14), and in particular Article 13 thereof,

–   having regard to Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2343/2002 of 19 November 2002 on the framework Financial Regulation for the bodies referred to in Article 185 of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities(15), and in particular Article 94 thereof,

–   having regard to Rule 77 of, and Annex VI to, its Rules of Procedure,

–   having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control and the opinion of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (A7-0105/2012),

A. whereas the Court of Auditors has stated that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the annual accounts for the financial year 2010 are reliable and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular,

B.  whereas on 10 May 2011 Parliament granted the Executive Director of the European Environment Agency discharge for implementation of the Agency's budget for the financial year 2009(16), and in its resolution accompanying the discharge, inter alia:

-    encouraged the Agency to continue its efforts to further develop its communication methods in order to attract more media coverage for its findings, as such measures may lead to more transparent working methods and greater public interest in the Agency's work,

-    was concerned about the Agency's practice of making transfers to increase a budget line in order to pay rent for the Agency's premises for the first quarter of 2010 and charge it to the 2009 budget, as this practice is at odds with the principle of annuality,

-    called on the Agency to address deficiencies in the recruitment procedures which put at risk the transparency of these procedures,

C. whereas the budget of the Agency for the year 2010 was EUR 50 600 000, which is 26 % higher than in 2009; whereas the contribution of the Union to the budget of the Agency for 2010 was EUR 35 258 000, compared with EUR 34 560 000 in 2009(17), which represents an increase of 2 %;

1.      Postpones the discharge to the Agency and awaits substantial replies and actions on the critical remarks and requests made;

Budget and Financial Management

2.      Notes that the Agency's levels of budget execution in terms of committed appropriations and of payment appropriations were respectively of 100 % and of 90,75 %;

3.      Ascertains from the Agency's Final Accounts that, for the financial year 2010, the total payments of the Agency represented EUR 38 898 533,88;

Carryover appropriations

4.      Takes note from the Agency's Final Accounts that EUR 12 809 551,05 of the 2010 appropriations have been carried forward to 2011; acknowledges that out of the overall amount carried over EUR 8 941 279 are external assigned revenues which are multiannual and hence are not subject of the principle of annuality;

5.      Notes from the Agency's Final Accounts that cancellation of unused payment appropriations carried over from the previous year amounted to EUR 585 282,87; understands from the Agency that this amount is lower than the amount cancelled in 2009, i.e. EUR 693 127,02; notes, therefore, that a cancellation rate of only 1,5 % represents an improved anticipation of financial needs;

6.      Regrets that the Court of Auditors did not consider the level of the Agency's appropriations carried forward and cancelled to be sufficiently high to warrant a mention in its report on the annual accounts of the Agency for the financial year 2010;

Procurement Procedures

7.      Calls on the Internal Audit Service (IAS) to audit the Agency's contracts in the area of canteen services, cleaning services, security services and furniture to establish whether the call preparation, publication, evaluation and contract management phases respect the two following principles: maximum competition and value-for-money, and to inform the discharge authority in due course of its findings;

Human Resources

8.      Notes that the Agency has revised its recruitment processes in line with the remarks made by the discharge authority and Court of Auditors in order to address the weaknesses in relation to vacancy notices, to the documentation of the decision of the selection boards, to the thresholds for being invited to interview and to the minutes of the interviews;

9.      Acknowledges also from its Annual Management Plan that the Agency implemented the 'EEA Personnel Policy' which provides the basis for staff development;

10.    Was informed that 7 internal candidates and 40 external applicants were recruited in 2010; acknowledges the split amongst categories of internal candidates of 1 official, 5 temporary agents and 1 contract agent and the split amongst externally recruited staff of 1 official, 13 temporary agents, 29 contract agents and 4 national experts; takes note that, for the last five years, the Agency hosted 12 guest scientists working at its premises; for the sake of transparency, calls on the Agency to complete publishing the curriculum vitae – including at least the educational and work background – of the guest scientists, in order to increase transparency;

Agency's strategy for 2009-2013

11.    Welcomes the fact that the Agency staff and management activities, quality control processes, products and services, administrative and building services are brought together under the strategic area in the 'EEA Strategy 2009-2013';

12.    Calls on the Agency to make a more explicit link between measures, resources and results;

Conflict of interest

13.    Notes that, from June 2010 until April 2011, the Executive Director of the Agency was a trustee and a member of the International Advisory Board of Earthwatch - an international environmental charity engaging people in scientific field research and education - and was reported to be a member of the European Advisory Board of Worldwatch Europe; acknowledges that, in accordance with the Executive Director's statement, she stepped down from her positions in Earthwatch in April 2011 following advice from the President of the Court of Auditors in the context of a possible conflict of interests;

14.    Is seriously concerned that in 2010, while the Executive Director was directly involved with Earthwatch, 29 staff members of the Agency, including the Executive Director, went for up to 10 days of research on different biodiversity projects in the Caribbean or Mediterranean managed by Earthwatch and that the Agency paid a total of EUR 33 791,28, to the NGO as stated by the Agency's Executive Director;

15.    Recognises the special training of staff as part of the career development and takes note of the total amount paid for that training;

16.    Commends the cooperation between the Agency and NGOs working in the environmental area, as it is the case with other specialised agencies, but recalls that even the mere appearance of conflict of interest is damaging trust in the institutions and raises concerns of taxpayers;

17.    Calls on the Agency, in an effort to promote greater transparency in terms of preventing and combating conflict of interests, to adopt immediately an action plan to publish on its website the declarations of interest and, when they are not available, the curriculum vitae – including at least the educational and work background – for the management staff, the members of the scientific committee, the experts and the members of the Management Board by 30 June 2012; is of the opinion that such measures would allow the discharge authority and the public to observe their qualifications and to prevent potential conflict of interest;

Performance

18.    Notes the Agency's initiative to provide, on a regular basis, an independent external evaluation on the basis of its founding Regulation (EEC) No 1210/90 and the work programmes adopted by the Management Board; notes in particular that the next evaluation will be undertaken in 2012 and will focus on the efficiency and effectiveness in delivering its corporate strategy;

19.    Notes the Agency’s initiative to measure its performance through the environmental management and audit scheme (EMAS) and internal management systems using four inter-related perspectives - financial, client, business and learning and growth;

20.    Acknowledges from comments in the Agency's Annual Management Plan, the Agency's efforts with various international and Union bodies, Eionet and the Scientific Committee to establish a networking structure in order to be able to maintain links to the research and scientific community, disseminate and utilise the results, particularly information and data, from research activities at European and national levels, in a more systematic way;

21.    Notes, in addition, that following the request of the discharge authority for the 2009 discharge, in 2011, the Agency increased its efforts to reach the wider public and initiated pilot projects by using social media as a means of communication directed to the public;

22.    Calls on the Agency to inform in detail the budget authority, in particular the Budget Control Authority, of:

-       the sources used by the Agency to construct its reports, papers and other related outputs;

-       the number of reports, and other products, delivered in 2010;

-       the evidence of the possible added value brought by the Agency’s reports compared with other bodies’ reports on environmental matters;

-       the process, if any, of verification of the data sent by the Member States, the periodicity of this verification and the way in which the data sent by Member States is used by the Agency;

23.    Is pleased that in 2010 the Agency placed extra emphasis on biodiversity, the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES), the Eye on Earth platform and the State of the Environment report (SOER) 2010;

24.    Would like to encourage the Agency to continue its efforts to further develop its communication methods in order to attract more media coverage for its findings and thus feed public debate and broaden the scope of the environmental information available to the public on important environmental issues, such as climate change, biodiversity and the management of natural resources;

Internal audit

25.    Acknowledges that in 2010 the IAS concluded an audit of the “management plan system (MPS)/monitoring of activities” whose objective was to assess and provide assurance on the adequacy of the planning and monitoring of the Agency’s activities; notes, in particular, that the IAS made eight recommendations, six of which were rated “important” and two “desirable”;

26.    Calls in this respect on the Agency to:

-     promote guidelines for objectives and measurable indicators in project planning and monitoring of progress,

-     allocate costs on projects,

-     promote more effective project management and procedures for checking and verifying new data entered into the MPS;

27.    Calls, in addition, on the Agency to adopt without further delay measures to address the weaknesses found by the IAS in its previous audits on quality management and on grant management in order to:

-     develop and use QA/QC checklist for GHG Inventory Report,

-     plan, describe and document relevant quality checks,

-     assure supervision of quality controls,

-     anticipate business continuity issues,

-     realise on-the-spot controls and verification of grants,

-     monitor and follow-up grant implementation;

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28.    Draws attention to its recommendations from previous discharge reports, as set out in the Annex to this resolution;

29.    Refers, in respect of the other observations accompanying its Decision on discharge, which are of a horizontal nature, to its resolution of … 2012 on the performance, financial management and control of the agencies.

ANNEX

European Parliament recommendations over past years

ANNEX

European Parliament recommendations over past years

24.1.2012

OPINION of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

for the Committee on Budgetary Control

on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Environment Agency for the financial year 2010

(C7-0278/2011- 2011/2217(DEC))

Rapporteur: Jutta Haug

SUGGESTIONS

The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety calls on the Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions in its motion for a resolution:

1.  Very much welcomes the work of the European Environment Agency as a reliable provider of independent and assured environmental information for all Union institutions, Member States and policy-making bodies;

2.  Notes that the financial resources made available in 2010 by the Union budget for the Agency amount to EUR 35 300 000;

3.  Is pleased that in 2010 the Agency placed extra emphasis on biodiversity, the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES), the Eye on Earth platform and the State of the Environment report (SOER) 2010, thus using Union subsidies in the manner intended by the Union legislator and the European Budgetary Authority;

4.  Would like to further encourage the Agency to continue its efforts to further develop its communication methods in order to attract more media coverage for its findings and thus feed public debate and broaden the scope of the environmental information available to the public on important environmental issues, such as climate change, biodiversity and the management of natural resources;

5.  Takes note that the Court of Auditors made no special observations and regards the Agency's accounts of 2010 as reliable, legal and regular;

6.  Is of the opinion, on the basis of the data available, that discharge can be granted to the Executive Director of the European Environmental Agency in respect of the implementation of the Agency's budget for the financial year 2010.

RESULT OF FINAL VOTE IN COMMITTEE

RESULT OF FINAL VOTE IN COMMITTEE

(1) OJ C 366, 15.12.2011, p. 57. (2) OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1. (3) OJ L 120, 11.5.1990, p. 1. (4) OJ L 126, 21.5.2009, p. 13. (5) OJ L 357, 31.12.2002, p. 72. (6) OJ C 366, 15.12.2011, p. 57. (7) OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1. (8) OJ L 120, 11.5.1990, p. 1. (9) OJ L 126, 21.5.2009, p. 13. (10) OJ L 357, 31.12.2002, p. 72. (11) OJ C 366, 15.12.2011, p. 57. (12) OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1. (13) OJ L 120, 11.5.1990, p. 1. (14) OJ L 126, 21.5.2009, p. 13. (15) OJ L 357, 31.12.2002, p. 72. (16) OJ L 250, 27.9.2011, p. 155. (17) OJ L 64, 12.03.2010, p. 677.