2007 discharge: European Maritime Safety Agency EMSA

2008/2265(DEC)

PURPOSE: to present the report of the Court of Auditors on the 2007 accounts of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).

CONTENT: the Court of Auditor’s report includes a detailed section on the European Maritime Safety Agency’s expenditure and an analysis of the expenditure, as well as the Agency’s replies.

  • Analysis of the accounts by the Court: in its report, the Court makes a number of observations, particularly with regard to the presentation of the budget. The Agency’s budget is mainly financed by subsidies from the European Commission. The procedures for establishing the budget were not sufficiently rigorous, which led to a high number of budgetary transfers, incorrect budget presentation and irregular modification of the funding source for anti-pollution appropriations. With regard to recruitment procedures, the selection criteria were not applied sufficiently. The Staff Committee was never invited by the Appointing Authority to participate in the recruitment procedures. This situation did not ensure transparent and non-discriminatory procedures;
  • The Agency’s replies: the Agency takes note of the Court’s observation and notes that it will continue its efforts to limit budgetary transfers. Following the observations made by the Court, measures have been taken to ensure that selection criteria and threshold scores are defined at an earlier stage in the selection procedure.