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2013 discharge: European Police Office (Europol)

2014/2118(DEC)

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Ryszard CZARNECKI (ECR, PL) on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Police Office for the financial year 2013.

It called on the European Parliament to grant the Director of EUROPOL discharge in respect of the implementation of the Office’s budget for the financial year 2013.

Noting that the Court of Auditors had stated that it had obtained reasonable assurances that the Office’s annual accounts were reliable and that the underlying transactions were legal and regular, Members called on Parliament to approve the closure of the accounts of EUROPOL for the financial year 2013. At the same time, they made 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.

  • EUROPOL’s financial statements: Members noted that the final budget of the “the Office for the financial year 2013 was EUR 82 520 500, representing a decrease of 1.94% compared to 2012.
  • Commitments and carryovers: Members noted that budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2013 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 98.6% and that the payment appropriations execution rate was 87.2%. They acknowledged that the level of committed appropriations carried over decreased but that the level of carry-overs of committed appropriations was still high at 41% for administrative expenditure. They called on the Office to increase its efforts to reduce future carry-overs.

Members also made a series of observations on procurement procedures, recruitment, internal audits and the prevention and management of conflicts of interests.

With regard to the legality and regularity of transactions, Members observed that the effectiveness of the procurement procedures in 2013 was affected by some decisions not being based on sufficiently specific selection criteria or realistic price offers, as well as by not being in accordance with the established professional requirements. They called on the Office to inform the discharge authority on the outcome of the review and planned improvements to the procurement process. The committee recalled the Court’s comment in its 2011 report that the Office's Financial Regulation referred to detailed rules and procedures laid down in the Office's Implementing Rules which had not yet been adopted. It urged the Office to take corrective actions in this regard.

Lastly, Members noted that it was envisaged that the Europol Pension Fund would be consolidated with the annual accounts of the Office with effect as of 1 January 2016.