2018 discharge: European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA)

The European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the Director of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) for the financial year 2018 and to approve the closure of the accounts for the financial year in question.

Noting that the Court of Auditors has stated that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the Centre’s annual accounts for the financial year 2018 are reliable and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Parliament adopted by 631 votes to 60 with 2 abstentions, a resolution containing a series of recommendations, which form an integral part of the decision on discharge and which add to the general recommendations set out in the resolution on performance, financial management and control of EU agencies:

Centre’s financial statements

The final budget of the Centre for the financial year 2018 was EUR 16 174 200.21, representing an increase of 2.18 % compared to 2017.

Budget and financial management

The budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2018 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 100 %, the same rate as in 2017. Payment appropriations execution rate was 98.02 %, representing an increase of 3.31 % compared to the previous year.

Other observations

Members also made a series of observations regarding performance, staff, procurement and internal controls.

In particular, they noted that:

- the Centre has reached 85 % of the applicable outputs and results planned in the 2018 work programme and that it successfully implemented the first year of its Strategy 2025; - its mandate was expanded in 2018, inter alia, to include new responsibilities and formal partnerships with other Union agencies, such as Europol; - on 31 December 2018, the establishment plan was 96.05 % executed, with 9 officials and 64 temporary agents appointed out of 10 officials and 66 temporary agents authorised under the Union budget;

- a good gender balance has been reported within the management board for 2018, namely 15 male members and 14 female members;

- the Centre put in place a procurement plan which was successfully executed in close collaboration with all units;

- several recommendations included in the 2015 IAS audit on IT project management have been only partly implemented and that, at the end of 2018, two recommendations were still outstanding.