2001 discharge: European Agency for safety and health at work

The European Parliament gave discharge to the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work in respect of the implementation of its budget for the financial year 2001. (Please see the document dated 20/10/03.) The rapporteur was Freddy BLAK (EUL/NGL, Denmark.) Parliament felt that appropriate consideration should be given to the Agency's position in favour of a multiannual programme for health and safety issues in SMEs, based on a decentralised approach and aimed at developing a safety culture in SMEs through partnership and developing networks. The Agency should improve the programming of its work with regard to the national focal points. An appropriate planning of their tasks and an enhanced monitoring of implementation will help achieve positive results. Parliament commended the fact that the Agency and the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions have very recently concluded a specific cooperation agreement in order to improve complementarity and remove any risk of duplication of their work. Notwithstanding these efforts, a solution should be found, in the context of the upcoming enlargement, with regard to the composition of boards which, as a general rule, are already ponderous. As a general point with regard to the agencies, Parliament expressed its concern that the Commission's Internal Audit Service does not carry out any checks on the Agencies. This implies that Articles 71 and 72 of Regulation 2343/2002/EC are not being adhered to and that, in practice, an outside control of the quality of management and control systems of the agencies is left to be carried out in the context of the Court of Auditors control. It called on the Commission to ensure that the necessary resources are made available so that the IAS is in a position to fulfill its tasks with regard to the internal control systems in the Agencies.�