2014 discharge: European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)

PURPOSE: to grant discharge to the in European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in respect of the budget for the financial year 2014.

NON LEGISLATIVE ACT: Decision (EU) 2016/1522 of the European Parliament on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Food Safety Authority for the financial year 2014.

CONTENT: with the present decision, the European Parliament grants discharge to the Executive Director of the European Food Safety Authority the implementation of its budget for the financial year 2014.

This decision is in line with the European Parliament's resolution adopted on 28 April 2016 and comprises a series of observations that form an integral part of the discharge decision (please refer to the summary of the opinion of 28 April 2016).

Amongst Parliament’s main observations in the resolution accompanying the discharge decision, it called on those Union institutions and agencies which have introduced codes of conduct, including the Parliament, to step up their implementation measures, such as checks of declarations of financial interests. It reiterated its call for the Authority to apply a two-year cooling-off period on all material interests related to the companies it regulates while welcoming its independence and conflicts of interest policy concerning expert groups.