2009 discharge: European Union's Judicial Cooperation Unit EUROJUST

PURPOSE: presentation by the Court of Auditors of its report on the annual accounts of Eurojust for the financial year 2009, together with Eurojust’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 Eurojust.

In the Court’s opinion, Eurojust’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 Eurojust’s annual accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2009 were, “in all material respects, legal and regular”.

The report again confirmed that after the adoption of amending budget No 1, the Eurojust 2009 final budget amounted to EUR 28.2 million compared with EUR 24.8 million the previous year. The number of staff employed by Eurojust at the end of the year was 248 as compared with 222 the previous year.

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

The Court’s comments:

·         problems with recruitment plans: in its previous reports, the Court had made remarks on the high rate of vacant posts in Eurojust. In 2009, no recruitment plan was prepared. As a result, the rate of vacant posts remains high (24% at year end). This situation indicated difficulties in attracting and retaining the right staff as well as continuing shortcomings in the planning of recruitments;

·         lack of transparency in the staff selection procedures.

Eurojust’s replies:

·         a recruitment plan was prepared towards the end of 2009 for recruitment activities in 2010 to ensure that the backlog in recruitment procedures could be significantly reduced by year end 2010;

·         an overall improvement to the selection procedures has been made.

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

·         organisation of coordination meetings concerning open cases;

·         treatment of cases dealing with fraud, drug trafficking, terrorism, murders and trafficking in human beings: 1 372 cases.