2009 discharge: European Chemicals Agency ECHA

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Georgios STAVRAKAKIS (S&D, EL) on discharge to be granted to the Executive Director of the European Chemicals Agency in respect of the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2009.

Noting that the Agency’s annual accounts for the financial year 2009 are reliable, and the underlying transactions are legal and regular, MEPs approve the closure of the Agency’s accounts. However, they make a number of recommendations that need to be taken into account when the discharge is granted, in addition to the general recommendations that appear in the draft resolution on financial management and control of EU agencies (see DEC/2010/2271):

• performance: Members note that the Agency has increased the number of completed registration dossiers (500 in 2009 and 70 in 2008), the number of enquiries (1000 in 2009 and 250 in 2008). They note, in addition, an increase in both the number of compliance checks completed (14 in 2009 and 1 in 2008) and the number of proposals for harmonised classification and labelling (30 in 2009 and 14 in 2008). In this context, they welcome the progress of this agency and the smooth and relatively rapid establishment of its activities. They also congratulate the Agency for enhancing its customer focus and feedback procedures and for having increased assistance activities for industry (such as offering a phone advice service for lead-registrants, workshops, network meetings, public consultations, etc);
• carryover appropriations: Members note that the Agency carried forward 29% of its appropriations (i.e. EUR 20 million) because certain contracts could not be concluded before the end of 2009. They also note that 5% of the appropriations (EUR 3 million) were cancelled. They welcome the Agency's commitment to reduce for 2010 the carryover of commitment appropriations to below 20% and limit the cancelled appropriations to a considerably lower level as compared to 2008;
• human resources: Members note that the total number of posts in the establishment plan has increased by 47% compared to 2008 and that at the end of the year the Agency had achieved 90% execution of the establishment plan. They recall, nevertheless, the importance for the Agency to keep monitoring the implementation of its budget and recruitment plan;
• internal audit: Members call on the Executive Director of the Agency to inform the discharge authority of the content of its audit plan and to inform the discharge authority of the steps taken to improve its control system.