The European
Parliament adopted by 555 votes to 31, with 55 abstentions, a decision on
discharge to be granted to the Executive Director of the European Network and
Information Security Agency (ENISA) in respect of the implementation of its
budget for the financial year 2008.
Furthermore,
Parliament adopted a resolution with observations which are an integral part
of the decision to grant discharge.
The main
points are as follows:
- performance: Parliament congratulates the Agency on its performance in
2008. It calls on it to set out a comparison of operations carried out
during the year for which discharge is to be granted and in the previous
financial year so as to enable the discharge authority to assess more
effectively its performance from one year to the next;
- budgetary
and financial management: Parliament notes
that the Agency continues to take all possible measures to obtain from
the tax authorities of the host Member State a refund of EUR 45 000,
corresponding to the amount of VAT paid in advance by the Agency. It also notes the Agency’s enormously high cash
reserves over long periods which, as of 31 December 2008, amounted to
EUR 2 436 694. It calls on the Commission to examine ways of ensuring
that the principle of needs-based cash management is implemented to the
full and what changes in approach are needed to ensure that the Agency’s
cash reserves are kept as low as possible on a long-term basis;
- internal
audit and human resources: Parliament
congratulates the Agency on the full implementation of the
recommendations made by the Internal Audit Service (IAS).
Noting that
the Agency’s annual accounts for the financial year 2008 are reliable, and
the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Parliament approves the
closure of the Agency’s accounts. However, it makes a number of
recommendations that need to be taken into account when the discharge is
granted, in addition to the general recommendations that appear in the draft
resolution on financial management and control of EU agencies (see 2010/2007(INI) adopted in parallel).