2011 discharge: European Union's Judicial Cooperation Unit (Eurojust)

2012/2191(DEC)

Having examined the revenue and expenditure accounts for the financial year 2011 and the balance sheet at 31 December 2011 of Eurojust, as well as the Court of Auditors' report on the annual accounts of Eurojust for the financial year 2011, accompanied by Eurojust's replies to the Court's observations, the Council recommends the European Parliament to give a discharge to the Administrative Director of Eurojust 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, Eurojust'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 Eurojust's Financial Regulation, and that the underlying transactions for that financial year are legal and regular;
  • it urges Eurojust to continue 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 takes note of the Court's observation that there is still scope to reconsider the roles and responsibilities of both its Director and its College in order to avoid any accountability overlap;
  • lastly, the Council regrets that Eurojust has not yet adopted all Implementing Rules of the Staff Regulations and the shortcomings detected by the Court in some recruitment procedures.