2014 discharge: ENIAC Joint Undertaking for the implementation of the Joint Technology Initiative on nanoelectronics

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the second report by Marian-Jean MARINESCU (EPP, RO) on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the ENIAC Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2014.

The committee called on the European Parliament to grant the Executive Director of the ECSEL Joint Undertaking (formerly the ENIAC Joint Undertaking and the ARTEMIS Joint Undertaking) discharge in respect of the implementation of the ENIAC Joint Undertaking’s budget for the financial year 2014.

In parallel, Members called on the Parliament to close the accounts of the Joint Undertaking for 2014.

They made a series of specific recommendations which may be summarised as follows:

• In general: Members expressed concern that the Court of Auditors issued a qualified opinion for the fourth consecutive year regarding the regularity and legality of the underlying transactions on the grounds that the administrative agreements signed with the national funding authorities (the “NFAs”) regarding audit of project cost claims do not include practical arrangements for ex-post audits. They noted that the ECSEL JTI has invited national funding authorities to produce evidence that the implementation of the national procedures provide a reasonable assurance on the legality and regularity of transactions. It was also noted that by the deadline of 30 June 2016, 76% of the NFAs so invited, representing 96.79% of joint Artemis and Joint Undertaking's spending, submitted the documents required and confirmed that the implementation of the national procedures provides a reasonable assurance on the legality and regularity of transactions.
• Grants: Members acknowledged that, according to the Joint Undertaking, national assurance procedures have been surveyed up to April 2015 for countries receiving 54.2 % of the Joint Undertaking grants. They commended the intention of the Joint Undertaking to continue this exercise by covering up to 92.7% of the total Joint Undertaking grants allocated and welcomed the assurance of the Joint Undertaking that the national procedures provide reasonable assurance with regard to the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions.