2001 discharge: European Environment Agency

PURPOSE : to present the Council recommendation on the discharge to be given to the Director of the European Environment Agency in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Environment Agency for the financial year 2001. CONTENT : based on the observations made by the Court of Auditors concerning the finanical year 2001, the Council recommends the Parliament to give a discharge to the Director of the Agency in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2001. Recalling that EUR 4,4 Million (81%) of the EUR 5,4 million in appropriations carried forward from the financial year 2000 to the financial year 2001 have been used and that EUR 8,1 million in appropriations have been carried forward from the financial year 2001 to the financial year 2002 and EUR 1,4 million have been cancelled, the Council considers that the implementation of the agency's budget calls for certain comments to be made. In particular, the Council welcomes the fact that the Court of Auditors has been able to record a statement of assurance in respect of the reliability of the Agency's accounts for the financial year 2001, and in respect of the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions as a whole. The Council shares the Court's view on the need to improve the quality and monitoring of the planning of operational activities, and to be rigorous in evaluating the validity of amounts carried over, given the cancellations subsequently made, so as to respect the principle of budgetary annuality. The Council notes that the Agency has set up a system enabling an inventory to be kept, and stresses the importance of continuing efforts to make improvements as regards the depreciation of assets. The Agency should also adopt appropriate measures to remedy the weaknesses noted by the Court in the management of contracts, to improve its planning of purchases, and to establish a precise definition of the criteria to be applied by the bid evaluation committee in the tendering procedure.�