PURPOSE: presentation of the EU Court of
Auditors’ report on the annual accounts of the Fuel Cells and
Hydrogen Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2010, together
with the Joint Undertaking’s reply.
CONTENT: in accordance with the tasks conferred on the
Court of Auditors by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European
Union, the Court presents to the European Parliament and to the
Council, in the context of the discharge procedure, a Statement of
Assurance as to the reliability of the annual accounts of each
institution, body or agency of the EU, and the legality and
regularity of the transactions underlying them, on the basis of an
independent external audit.
This audit concerned, amongst others, the annual
accounts of the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen (FCH) Joint
Undertaking.
In the Court’s opinion, the FCH Joint
Undertaking’s Annual Accounts fairly present, in all
material respects, its financial position as of 31 December
2010 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for
the year then ended, in accordance with the provisions of its
Financial Regulation.
The Court also considers that the transactions
underlying the annual accounts of the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen
Joint Undertaking for the financial year ended 31 December 2010
are, in all material respects, legal and regular.
The report confirms that the maximum EU contribution
to the FCH Joint Undertaking to cover running costs and research
activities is EUR 470 million financed from the budget of the
Seventh Framework Programme, of which the proportion earmarked for
running costs must not exceed EUR 20 million. The Industry Grouping
should contribute 50 % of the running costs (up to a maximum of EUR
10 million) and should contribute to the funding of research
activities through in-kind contributions at least equal to the EU
financial contribution.
The report also makes a series of observations on the
budgetary and financial management of the Joint Undertaking,
accompanied by the latter’s response. The main observations
may be summarised as follows:
The Court’s observations:
- delayed financial autonomy: the Court is of the view that the period of 28
months from the date the Council Regulation came into force to the
date of the actual financial autonomy on 15 November 2010 is
excessive. As a result of the delayed financial autonomy, all the
2010 operational payments to beneficiaries were made during the
last 6 weeks of 2010;
- internal control systems: at the end of 2010, the underlying business
processes had not yet been formalised and had not been validated by
the Accounting Officer as required by the Joint Undertaking’s
financial rules. The limited review of the IT controls showed that
the Joint Undertaking has an adequate level of IT governance and
practice for its size and mission, but the formalisation of
policies and procedures is lagging behind in certain
areas;
- lack of host agreement:
according to the Council Regulation setting up the Joint
Undertaking, a host agreement should be concluded between the Joint
Undertaking and Belgium concerning office accommodation, privileges
and immunities and other support to be provided by Belgium.
However, as at the end of 2010, no such agreement had been
signed.
The Joint Undertaking’s response:
- implementation of the budget: the Joint Undertaking shares the Court’s view
that the period from the entry into force of the Council Regulation
setting up the Joint Undertaking to the date of the actual
financial autonomy was long. However, the Joint Undertaking would
like to point out that all necessary steps were taken by the JU
towards the autonomy (e.g. a readiness assessment report proving
compliance with the autonomy criteria was submitted to the
Commission on time) and therefore the delay in granting autonomy
was the result of events out of the JU’s control;
- audit: the Commission
and the Joint Undertaking have taken action to ensure that the
respective roles of the Commission’s Internal Audit Service
(IAS) and the Joint Undertaking’s Internal Audit Manager (IAM)
are clearly defined. The FCH Joint Undertaking is of the opinion
that there is no need to amend the Joint Undertaking’s
financial rules. However, after finalisation of the revision of the
Commission’s Framework Financial Regulation, the Joint
Undertaking will assess the need and appropriateness to amend its
financial rules on all relevant aspects, including the audit
function;
- host state: the Joint
Undertaking has again contacted the Belgian authorities early June
2011 to finalise an agreeable text based on the Belgian proposal
and the comments from the Commission.
Lastly, the Court of Auditors’ report contains a
summary of the Joint Undertaking’s activities in 2010.
The main tasks of the FCH Joint Undertaking may be described as
follows:
- revision of the Multi Annual Implementation Plan
(MAIP), launched in November 2010 with the focus on updating
programme targets and priorities;
- drafting of the RTD priorities and 2010 call topics
(25) with an indicative Joint Undertaking funding of EUR 89.1
million;
- publication of the 2010 call for proposals in June
2010 and evaluation of the proposals;
- development of the international cooperation with key
partners (USA, Japan and Korea),
- exchange of information with the Member States and the
Associated countries (information sessions);
- cooperation with the European Regions (via
HyRaMP).