Legislative Observatory
European Parliament
Please fill in this field to find a procedure

2015 discharge: European GNSS Agency (GSA)

2016/2180(DEC)

The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Inés AYALA SENDER (S&D, ES) on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European GNSS Agency for the financial year 2015.

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

Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it had obtained reasonable assurance that the annual accounts of the Agency for the financial year 2015 were reliable and that the underlying transactions were legal and regular, Members called on Parliament to approve the closure of the Agency’s accounts. They made, however, a number of recommendations that needed to be taken into account when the discharge is granted, in addition to the general recommendations that appear in the draft resolution on performance, financial management and control of EU agencies:

  • Agency’s financial statements: Members noted that the Union subsidy to the final budget of the European GNSS Agency for the financial year 2015 was EUR 27 606 414, representing an increase of 8.82 % compared to 2014.
  • Reliability of the accounts: Members noted that the move of the Agency to Prague did not result in any changes in the financial circuits, processes and information flow.
  • Budget and financial management: Members noted that the Agency managed a large amount of delegated budget in 2015 following the signature of three new delegation agreements (EGNOS Exploitation, Galileo Exploitation and Horizon 2020) with the Commission in the course of 2014. They observed that an amendment to the Galileo Exploitation delegation agreement was signed in December 2015, assigning a further EUR 300 million to the Agency. A total of EUR 116 067 789 delegated budget was committed in 2015 and EUR 183 108 199 made in payments.

Members also made a series of observations regarding transfers, commitment and carry-overs, the prevention and management of conflicts of interests, procurement and recruitment procedures and internal audits and controls.

Lastly, Members noted that the Agency is a main partner in, and the initiator of, the European Space Expo project that visited Luxembourg, Milan, Oslo, Zagreb, Stockholm, Riga, Ljubljana and Athens in 2015, and welcomed hundreds of thousands of local citizens. Each Expo visit was the result of collaboration with many local actors including local industry, municipalities and academia/

They noted that the Agency’s 2015 annual work programme was adopted only in March 2015 and that the adoption of its 2014 to 2020 multi-annual work programme (MAWP) is outstanding. The late adoption of key planning documents puts the achievement of the Agency’s objectives at risk. Members acknowledged that, following the development of further versions of the MAWP and in discussion with the Commission, it was finally decided to include the MAWP as part of the single programming document relating to the period 2017 to 2020.