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2013 discharge: European Union's Judicial Cooperation Unit (Eurojust)

2014/2103(DEC)

The European Parliament adopted by 551 votes to 132, with 1 abstention, a decision to grant discharge to the Administrative Director of Eurojust 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 572 votes to 104, with 5 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:

  • Eurojust’s financial statements: Parliament noted that the final budget of Eurojust for the financial year 2013 was EUR 33 828 256 of which the Union's contribution amounted to EUR 32 358 660, representing a decrease of 1.85% compared to 2012.
  • Commitments and carry-overs: It noted that the level of committed appropriations for the different titles varied between 99% and 98% of total appropriations, indicating that legal commitments were made in a timely manner. Members noted that the level of committed appropriations carried over was high for Operational expenditure at EUR 2 341 825 or 32%. They acknowledged that the high level is mainly explained by the handover of internal software management to a new service provider at the year-end.

Parliament also made a series of observations on transfers, procurement procedures, recruitment, prevention and management of conflicts of interest as well as internal audits. It called on Eurojust to urgently adopt its revised arrangements for the prevention and management of conflicts of interests, to inform the discharge authority and to make public the concrete results until the end of October 2015 as well as the publication of the declarations of interests filled in by its staff and experts until the end of October 2015.

Lastly, Parliament noted that there is an ongoing issue regarding the overlap of responsibilities between the Administrative Director and the College of Eurojust. This issue is still opened, as no corrective measures were taken by the College to reconsider the definition of the respective roles and responsibilities in order to avoid this overlap. Parliament called on Eurojust to inform the discharge authority on the resolution of this issue as a matter of urgency.