2015 discharge: IMI 2 Joint Undertaking

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Miroslav POCHE (S&D, CZ) on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI2) Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2015.

The committee called on the European Parliament to grant the joint undertaking’s Executive Director discharge in respect of the implementation of the joint undertaking’s budget for the financial year 2015.

Noting that the Court of Auditors issued a statement of assurance as to the reliability of the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions for the financial year 2015, Members called on Parliament to approve the closure of the joint undertaking’s accounts.

They made, however, a number of recommendations that need to be taken into account when the discharge is granted. They may be summarised as follows:

Financial management: the final budget of the Joint Undertaking in 2015 available for implementation included commitment appropriations of EUR 315 269 000 and payment appropriations of EUR 195 411 000. Budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2015 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 91.04 %, representing a decrease of 1.34 % compared to the year 2014. The execution rate was at 72.68 %, representing a decrease of 1.22 % compared to 2014 mainly due to delays in the negotiations for several Horizon 2020 projects.

Members welcomed the fact that the Commission presented clear guidelines for the budgetary reporting and financial management of IMI2 on 20 December 2016 following the Court’s recommendation.

Other observations: the report also contained a series of observations on the anti-fraud strategy and the prevention and management of conflicts of interests.

Members regretted to discover that one case of suspicion of fraud was submitted to the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) for assessment and the latter decided not to open an investigation. They highlighted the important role of whistle-blowers and internal auditing procedures in detecting irregularities.

The Joint Undertaking is encouraged to continue in its effort towards higher participation of SMEs in its projects. 15.6 % of beneficiaries in 2015 were SMEs, which represents a slight decrease in comparison to 2014.