Legislative Observatory
European Parliament
Please fill in this field to find a procedure

2013 discharge: European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE)

2014/2119(DEC)

PURPOSE: presentation of the EU Court of Auditors’ report on the annual accounts of the European Institute for Gender Equality for the year 2013, together with the Institute’s reply.

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

This audit concerned, amongst others, the annual accounts of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE).

Statement of assurance: pursuant to the provisions of Article 287 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the Court has audited:

  • the annual accounts of the Institute, which comprise the financial statements and the reports on the implementation of the budget for the financial year ended 31 December 2013;
  • the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying those accounts.

Opinion on the reliability of the accounts: in the Court’s opinion, the Institute’s annual accounts present fairly, in all material respects, its financial position as at 31 December 2013 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with the provisions of its Financial Regulation and the accounting rules adopted by the Commission’s accounting officer.

Opinion on the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying the accounts: in the Court’s opinion, the transactions underlying the annual accounts for the year ended 31 December 2013 are legal and regular in all material respects.

The report also makes a series of observations on the budgetary and financial management of EIGE, accompanied by the latter’s response. The main observations may be summarised as follows:

The Court’s observations:

  • budgetary management: in 2013, the Institute further reduced the overall level of carry-overs of committed appropriations which mainly relate to operational expenditure. They mainly concerned procurement procedures that were concluded late in the year due to reasons mostly beyond the Institute’s control.

EIGE’s reply:

  • budgetary management: the EIGE stated that operational appropriations delays are due to the circumstances outside EIGE’s control, i.e. a delayed decision by the Presidency of the Council of the EU regarding a subject of study. In order to improve the procurement planning and monitoring EIGE has now in place a monitoring tool which follows the expected dates of each step of the annual procurement proceedings.

Lastly, the Court of Auditors’ report contains a summary of the Institute’s activities in 2013. This is focused on the following:

Budget: EUR 7.5 million of which the Union subsidy is 100%.

Activities:

  • comparable and reliable data and indicators on gender equality;
  • collecting and processing methods and good practices for gender equality work;
  • awareness-raising;
  • networking and communication;
  • studies;
  • additional meetings were held in the framework of the LT presidency of the Council of the EU;
  • international conferences;
  • research reports;
  • annual reports.