2007 discharge: European Food Safety Authority EFSA

Based on the observations contained in the revenue and expenditure account and the balance sheet of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for the financial year 2007, as well as on the Court of Auditor's report and the Authority's replies to the Court's observations, the Council recommends that the Parliament grant the Director of the Authority discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2007.

In doing so, the Council confirms that EUR 6.4 million (81.1%) of the appropriations carried over from 2006 to 2007 (EUR 7.9 million) were used, that the appropriations carried over from 2007 to 2008 amount to EUR 8.6 million and that a total of EUR 4.8 million was cancelled.

Recalling that the Court of Auditors was able to obtain reasonable assurance that the Authority's annual accounts were, in all material aspects, reliable, the Council believes that there are 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 that the carry-over and cancellation rates remain high, which is an indication of weaknesses in the programming, budgeting and implementation of the Authority's activities and urges the Authority to intensify its efforts in addressing these issues;
• Recruitment: the Council calls on the Authority to remedy the remaining deficiencies in its recruitment procedures as detected by the Court;
• Procurement: the Council regrets the number of irregularities in the Authority's procurement procedures, as identified again by the Court. While noting the measures taken by the Authority to address this issue, the Council emphasises that every effort must be made by the Authority to strengthen its public procurement system in order to prevent, to the largest extent possible, the occurrence of any irregularity.