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2013 discharge: European Asylum Support Office (EASO)

2014/2126(DEC)

The European Parliament adopted by 551 votes to 136, with 4 abstentions, a decision to grant discharge to the Executive Director of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) for the financial year 2013. The vote on the discharge decision approved the closure of the accounts (in accordance with Annex VI, Article 5(1) of the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament).

Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the annual accounts of the Office for the financial year 2013 are reliable, and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Parliament adopted by 566 votes to 108, with 12 abstentions, a resolution containing a number of recommendations that form an integral part of the discharge decision and as well as the general recommendations that appear in the resolution on performance, financial management and control of EU agencies:

  • Office’s financial statements: Parliament noted that the final budget of the Office for the financial year 2013 was EUR 10 500 000, the entire budget deriving from the Union budget.
  • Carryovers: It noted that budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2013 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 87.34%, and that the payment appropriations execution rate was 87.18 %. It noted with concern that the budgetary needs were overestimated by 13 % and that committed appropriations carried over were at 24 % of the total committed appropriations, of which 13 % were not covered by a legal commitment. It took note of the carry-overs of committed appropriations and the measures taken by the Office in order to reduce and safeguard the level of commitment appropriations carried over.

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

As regards the reliability of the accounts, Parliament is concerned from the Court’s report that the basis for an accrual amounting to EUR 40 000 relating to expenses and allowances for staff who entered into service in 2013 was not made available in the course of the audit. Overall, Parliament called on the Office to make both its conflicts of interests policy and the conflicts of interests forms signed by the members of the Management Board and the Executive Director publically available.