2016 discharge: ECSEL Joint Undertaking

PURPOSE: to grant discharge to the ECSEL Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2016.

NON-LEGISLATIVE ACT: Decision (EU) 2018/1442 of the European Parliament on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the ECSEL Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2016.

CONTENT: the European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the Executive Director of the ECSEL Joint Undertaking in respect of the implementation of the Joint Undertaking's 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 once again highlighted as a matter of particular concern that the Court issued a qualified opinion on Joint Undertaking's payments related to projects taken over from its legal predecessors, the ARTEMIS and ENIAC Joint Undertakings. It invited the Court to reconsider the methodology that results in repetitive qualified opinions based on this reoccurring issue that cannot be solved until the Seventh Framework Programme projects are terminated.

The Commission is called on to ensure the direct involvement of the Joint Undertaking in the process of the Horizon 2020 mid-term review in the sphere of the further simplification and harmonisation of joint undertakings.