2016 discharge: European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA)

PURPOSE: to grant discharge to the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) for the financial year 2016.

NON-LEGISLATIVE ACT: Decision (EU) 2018/1373 of the European Parliament on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Fisheries Control Agency for the financial year 2016.

CONTENT: the European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the Executive Director of the European Fisheries Control Agency for the implementation of its budget for the financial year 2016.

This decision is accompanied by a resolution of the European Parliament containing the observations which form an integral part of the discharge decision in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2016 (please refer to the summary dated 18.4.2018).

In this resolution, Parliament acknowledged the quality and relevance of the joint work carried out by the Agency as part of the pilot common project with EMSA and Frontex on the creation of a coastguard function. However, it reminded the Commission that the Agency should be given sufficient resources for that type of project or any other future project, in particular those linked to the use of new technologies in monitoring (drones) or training (e-learning).

Parliament also stressed the need to increase the allocation of resources in order to boost the Agency’s operational capacity to cope with the uncertainties linked to Brexit and the resulting additional checks.

It was proposed to include a Member of the European Parliament on the Administrative Board of the Agency in order to strengthen its institutional transparency, particularly during the approval of the budget by the Board. That Member should be chosen from within Parliament’s Committee on Fisheries.