2020 discharge: Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union (CdT)

The European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the Director of the Translation Centre for the bodies of the European Union (CdT) for the financial year 2020 and to approve the closure of the accounts for that year.

Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it had obtained reasonable assurance that the Centre's annual accounts for the financial year 2020 were reliable and that the underlying transactions were legal and regular, Parliament adopted, by 580 votes to 52 with 2 abstentions, a resolution containing a series of recommendations which form an integral part of the discharge decision and which complement the general recommendations set out in the resolution on the performance, financial management and control of European Union agencies.

Centre’s financial statements

The final budget of the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union for 2020 was EUR 46 804 684, representing an increase of 2.30 % compared to 2019.

Budgetary and financial management

The budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2020 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 89.99 %, representing a decrease of 3.05 % compared to 2019. The payment appropriations execution rate was 83.36 %, representing a decrease of 1.75 % compared to 2019. The Covid-19 crisis resulted in significant uncertainty for the Centre’s revenue because clients’ budgetary forecasts followed a nonlinear pattern. Parliament noted with appreciation that the Centre, despite that uncertainty, was able to balance its 2020 budget.

Other observations

Parliament made a number of observations concerning performance, staff, procurement, conflicts of interest, internal controls and Covid-19.

In particular, it noted that:

- there has been a near-complete implementation (98 %) of its 2019-2020 Transformation Plan, which was developed on the basis of recommendations following an external study entitled ‘Study on the Translation Centre as the Shared Linguistic Service Provider for the EU Agencies and Bodies’;

- the financial key performance indicators provide a good indication of the Centre’s operational performance;

- with 635 269 pages, the number of pages of documents translated, modified, edited and revised was relatively stable compared to 2019 (639 525 pages), mainly as a result of a decrease in the number of pages of EU trade marks translated for the European Union Intellectual Property Office (down by 13.8 %, compared to 2019) and of an increase in the number of pages of documents other than EU trade marks (up by 15 %, compared to 2019);

- the Centre began using the e-recruitment tool ‘Systal’ and it participated in two joint selection procedures with the European Medicines Agency, which allowed for the sharing of resources and efforts invested in establishing reserve lists for horizontal administrative profiles;

- on 31 December 2020, the establishment plan was 95.85 % implemented, with 47 officials and 138 temporary agents appointed out of 52 officials and 141 temporary agents authorised under the Union budget;

- although 100 % of senior management positions were occupied by men, there is an underrepresentation of men in the Centre’s overall staff (37 % men and 63 % women) therefore gender balance should be improved;

- the implementation of e-tendering and e-submission, to complement the introduction of e-invoicing, has been postponed due to the COVID-19 crisis;

- the Centre should consider updating its anti-fraud strategy;

- almost all administrative procedures were made paperless in the first two weeks of the Covid-19 crisis and the introduction of various communication tools and videoconferencing systems was greatly accelerated, with a teleworking environment set up for all staff within the first few days, making 98 % of the Centre’s functions possible.