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2009 discharge: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control ECDC

2010/2179(DEC)

PURPOSE: presentation by the Court of Auditors of its report on the annual accounts of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) for the financial year 2009, together with the Centre’s replies

CONTENT: in accordance with the tasks and objectives conferred on it by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the Court of Auditors, in the context of the discharge procedure, addresses to the European Parliament and the Council a Statement of Assurance on the reliability of the annual accounts, as well as of the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying them of each EU institution, body or agency, on the basis of an external, independent audit.

This audit also covered the annual accounts of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

In the Court’s opinion, the Centre’s annual accounts presented “fairly, in all material respects”, its financial position as of 31 December 2009 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with the provisions of its Financial Regulation.

The Court also stated that the transactions underlying the annual accounts of the Centre for the financial year ended 31 December 2009 were, “in all material respects, legal and regular”.

The report again confirmed that the Centre’s 2009 final budget amounted to EUR 51 million and that it employed 199 agents during the financial year.

The report also included comments on the Agency’s budgetary and financial management, together with the Agency’s replies. The main comments are as follows:

The Court’s comments:

  • a large amount of appropriations were carried forward: in 2009, EUR 2.2 million carried over from 2008 had to be cancelled. Appropriations carried forward represented 42% of administrative expenditure and 63% of operational expenditure, which may compromise the 2010 budget implementation and is at odds with the principle of annuality.

The Centre’s replies:

  • measures to improve budget implementation in particular through improved estimates and enhanced planning are under consideration.

Lastly, the Court of Auditor’s report contained a summary of the Centre’s activities in 2009 in the following areas:

  • H1N1 pandemic; risk assessment and support for Member States;
  • weekly threat reports on communicable diseases;
  • conduct of simulation exercises;
  • launch of the new ECDC web portal;
  • scientific publications published and organisation of various awareness exercises.