2007 discharge: European Union's Judicial Cooperation Unit Eurojust

Based on the observations contained in the revenue and expenditure account and the balance sheet of EUROJUST for the financial year 2007, as well as on the Court of Auditor’s report and EUROJUST’s replies to the Court’s observations, the Council recommends that the Parliament grant the Director of EUROJUST discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2007.

In doing so, the Council confirms that EUR 2 million (79%) of the appropriations carried over from 2006 to 2007 (EUR 2.6 million) were used, that the appropriations carried over from 2007 to 2008 amount to EUR 5.2 million and that a total of EUR 300 000 was cancelled.

Recalling that the Court of Auditors was able to obtain reasonable assurance that EUROJUST’s annual accounts were, in all material aspects, reliable, the Council believes that there is a certain number of observations that must be taken into consideration when granting discharge in respect of the implementation of the 2007 budget, particularly regarding the following points:

• Carry-overs: the Council notes with concern the persisting high carry-over rates for administrative and operational expenditure and calls on EUROJUST to improve the programming and monitoring of its activities, in order to comply with the budgetary principle of annuality;
• Procurement: while taking note of EUROJUST's efforts to centralise its procurement management and to improve the quality of the procedures, the Council calls on EUROJUST to remedy the remaining weaknesses in its procurement implementation regarding the planning and the management.
• Recruitment: the Council asks EUROJUST to improve its recruitment planning and execution by accelerating the recruitment of temporary staff for vacant posts in accordance with the available budget appropriations.