2016 discharge: Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking - S2R Joint Undertaking

PURPOSE: to grant discharge to the Shift2Rail (S2R) Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2016.

NON-LEGISLATIVE ACT: Decision (EU) 2018/1457 of the European Parliament on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2016.

CONTENT: the European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the Executive Director of the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking discharge 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 noted that even though the Commission's research anti-fraud strategy is mandatory for the Joint Undertaking, at the end of 2016, the Joint Undertaking had not yet performed a specific anti-fraud risk assessment, nor had it established an action plan for the implementation of its own anti-fraud strategy. However, in 2017, the Joint Undertaking took the first steps towards establishing its own anti-fraud action plan, i.e. an anti-fraud awareness session for Joint Undertaking staff organised by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), and an anti-fraud risk assessment. This plan will be followed by an impact assessment establishing the key objectives relating to mitigation of identifiable weaknesses (in the 4th quarter of 2017) and an evaluation of the anti-fraud strategy and the action plan by June 2018.

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

Lastly, Parliament insisted on the importance of the cooperation between the Joint Undertaking and the Union Agency for Railways (ERA) and welcomed the involvement of ERA in meetings of the Joint Undertaking governing board. The Joint Undertaking should provide more concrete information on the main achievements of this cooperation in its annual activity report.