Having examined the revenue and expenditure accounts
for the financial year 2011 and the balance sheet at 31 December
2011 of the European Medicines Agency, as well as the Court of
Auditors' report on the annual accounts of the Agency for the
financial year 2011, accompanied by the Agency's replies to the
Court's observations, the Council recommends the European
Parliament to give a discharge to the Executive Director of the
Agency in respect of the implementation of the budget for the
financial year 2011.
The observations in the Court of Auditors' report in
relation to the financial year 2011 call for some comments by the
Council, which may be summarised as follows:
- the Council welcomes the Court's opinion that, in all
material respects, the Agency's annual accounts present fairly its
financial position as at 31 December 2011 and the results of its
operations and its cash flows for the year then ended, in
accordance with the provisions of the Agency's Financial
Regulation, and that the underlying transactions for that financial
year are legal and regular;
- the Council, nevertheless, urges the Agency to improve
its financial programming and its monitoring of the budget
implementation in order to reduce the amounts carried over to the
next financial year, in line with the budgetary principle of
annuality;
- it notes the Court's findings in relation to the
Agency's decision to increase the financial envelope of a framework
contract where the Court had found irregularities, and which had
given
- rise to the Court's qualified opinion in 2009. It
notes that the Agency started preparing in 2011 a new framework
contract. Moreover, the Council calls on the Agency to take
actions to remedy the weaknesses found by the Court in the
transparency of its procurement procedures;
- the Council regrets the shortcomings detected by the
Court in the transparency of the recruitment procedures, including
the irregularities found regarding the conflict of interest
declarations of the Selection Board members, and expects this to be
fully remedied by the Agency.