The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report
by Gerben-Jan GERBRANDY (ADLE, NL) on discharge to be granted to
the Executive Director of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in
respect of the implementation of the Agency's budget for the
financial year 2011.
Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it has
obtained reasonable assurances that the annual accounts of the
Agency for the financial year 2011 are reliable and that the
underlying transactions are legal and regular, Members approve the
closure of the Agency’s accounts. However, they make 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 performance,
financial management and control of EU
agencies:
- Financing, budget and financial
management: Members recall that the
Agency's budget for 2011 was EUR 208 863 000, which represents a
nominal increase over the financial year 2010. They recall that the
total Union contributions amounted to EUR 39 765 191.39 for
2011, which represents an 8.65% increase compared to the previous
year and that the rest was financed by fees paid by the
pharmaceutical industry when applying for, obtaining or
maintaining Union marketing authorisations. Members state that a
large amount of the Agency's revenue is estimated to have derived
from the fee revenue, which continues to increase year on year.
Members are concerned as regards the need to introduce a system of
remuneration for services provided by Member States’
authorities, based on their real costs.
- Implementation rate of appropriations: Members observe that in terms of committed and paid
appropriations, the Agency's execution rate stands at 95.21% and
81.97% respectively. They call on the Agency to continue its
efforts to improve its execution rate of payment. They are
concerned that once again, the Court of Auditors reported that
payment appropriations for Title II ("Administrative expenditure")
have been carried over to 2012, representing 29% of the budget
which is excessive and at odds with the principle of
annuality.
- Conflicts of interest:
noting the problems as regards the conflict of interest in the
light of the previous discharge procedure, Members welcome the
efforts made but state that the Agency did not adequately manage
conflict of interest situations. They welcome the Agency's
commitment to undertake in the first half of 2013 a review of the
implementation of its revised policy on the handling of conflicts
of interests and that an ex ante and ex post check on
the handling of conflicts of interests is currently being developed
for implementation in the second quarter of 2013. The Agency is
called upon to keep the discharge authority informed on their
respective outcomes.
Lastly, Members made a series of observations
concerning the recruitment and procurement procedures and controls
carried out by this Community Agency.