2022 discharge: European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT)

The European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the Director of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) for the financial year 2022 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 Institute's annual accounts for the financial year 2022 were reliable and that the underlying transactions were legal and regular, Parliament adopted, by 535 votes to 47 with 7 abstentions, a resolution containing a series of recommendations which form an integral part of the discharge decision and which complement the general recommendations contained in the resolution on the performance, financial management and control of EU agencies.

Institute's financial statements

The Institute's final budget for the financial year 2022 was EUR 406 585 390.99 representing an increase of 12.65 % compared to 2021.

Budgetary and financial management

Budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2022 resulted in a current year commitment appropriations implementation rate of 94.03 %, representing a decrease of 3.88 % compared to 2021. Payment appropriations execution rate was 98.42 % representing a decrease of 1.06 % compared to 2021.

The amount of the Institute’s final budget is the result of an amendment of EUR 656 930.67 adopted by its governing board due to modifications made to the Institute’s annual work programme 2022.

Regarding the error rate which is still below the materiality level of 2 %, the critical risks due to increased budget, mandate and activities under Horizon Europe coupled with an increase in the number of Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) may strain the Institute’s ability to supervise and monitor KICs effectively which could result in higher error rates and undetected irregularities in the future. Therefore, the Institute should take concrete steps to reduce the error rate.

Other observations

Parliament also made a series of observations concerning performance, staff policy, public procurement and internal controls.

In particular, it noted that:

- the Institute achieved with some delays approximately 95 % of its Work Programme 2022;

- the Institute continued to increase its impact during 2022, enabling almost 1 670 innovative products and services, training thousands of entrepreneurs and supporting 5 600 start-ups and scale-ups that attracted close to EUR 6 billion in investments;

- the Institute supported the people of Ukraine after the illegal and unprovoked invasion of Russia in February 2022, providing assistance to students, entrepreneurs, researchers and higher education institutions and business;

- on 31 December 2022, the establishment plan was 93 % implemented, with 40 temporary agents appointed out of 45 temporary agents authorised under the Union budget (the same number of authorised posts as in 2021);

- gender and geographical balance should be improved;

- the Institute adopted a policy regarding the prevention and management of conflicts of interest for staff, including procedures for issuance and assessment of annual declarations of interest and procedure regulating the breach of trust of the Institute’s rules on declaration of interest.