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2014 discharge: European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA)

2015/2175(DEC)

PURPOSE: presentation of the EU Court of Auditors’ report on the annual accounts of the European Aviation Safety Agency for the year 2014, together with the Agency’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 Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

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 Agency, which comprise the financial statements and the reports on the implementation of the budget for the financial year ended 31 December 2014, and
  • the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying those accounts.

Opinion on the reliability of the accounts: in the Court’s opinion, the Agency’s annual accounts present fairly, in all material respects, its financial position as at 31 December 2014 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 2014 are legal and regular in all material respects.

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

The Court’s observations:

  • budgetary management: although the Agency reduced further the overall level of carry-overs, this amount remained high at EUR 3.6 million (22 %) for administrative expenditure and at EUR 2 million (38.1 %) for operational expenditure, which is at odds with the budgetary principle of annuality;
  • public procurement: the Court noted that there is room to improve the Agency’s procurement planning, particularly in respect of framework contracts. In 2014, three procedures were launched too late to replace existing framework contracts by the time they expired.

The Agency’s replies:

  • budgetary management: the Agency has continued to reduce the overall level of carry-overs. The 2014 exercise has been affected by exceptional events linked to the Agency’s move to a new headquarter building (MOVE project);
  • public procurement: the Agency hopes to deliver a better organisational oversight on procurement in the future.

Lastly, the Court of Auditors’ report contains a summary of the Agency’s activities in 2014. This is focused on the following:

Budget: EUR 162.3 million of which the Union subsidy amounts to 21.1 %.

Activities:

  • opinions and decisions relating to certification and compliance;
  • notices of proposed amendments;
  • international cooperation including a cooperation agreement with bilateral partners of the Agency;
  • bilateral aviation safety agreements (BASA) with Brazil or the United States and Canada;
  • certification decisions ;
  • standardisation inspections in the field of airworthiness, operations, flight crew licensing, medical flight crew licensing and flight simulation training devices.