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2012 discharge: European Union's Judicial Cooperation Unit (Eurojust)

2013/2216(DEC)

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Petri SARVAMAA (EPP, FI) on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of Eurojust for the financial year 2012, and called on the European Parliament to grant the Administrative Director of Eurojust discharge in respect of the implementation of Eurojust’s budget for the financial year 2012.

Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it had obtained reasonable assurances that the annual accounts of Eurojust for the financial year 2012 are reliable, and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Members approved the closure of Eurojust’s accounts. They made, however, a number of recommendations that needed to be taken into account when the discharge is granted, in addition to the general recommendations that appear in the draft resolution on performance, financial management and control of EU agencies.

·        Financing, budget and financial management: Members recalled that the budget of Eurojust for the financial year 2012 was EUR 33.33 million.

·        Legality and regularity of operations: Members were concerned that a framework contract for security services was signed in 2008 and amended in 2009, and that the amended formula to calculate prices progressively increased them by 22 %, whereas the original framework contract had provided for a maximum increase of 4 %. They expressed concern that such a significant increase may undermine the transparency and fairness of the initial procurement procedure and distort competition.

·        Rate of implementation and carryovers: they acknowledged that the Court of Auditors' annual audit had found no notable issues as regards the level of carry-overs in 2012, and commended Eurojust for adhering to the principle of annuality and for the timely execution of its budget.

Members also made a series of observations ontransfers, procurement and recruitment procedures as well as comments on internal controls.

Lastly, they asked Eurojust to strengthen transparency and prevent conflicts of interests, as well as make publicly available the Declarations of Interests of certain members.