2013 discharge: European GNSS Agency (GSA)

PURPOSE: presentation by the Commission of the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2013, as part of the 2013 discharge procedure.

Analysis of the accounts of the (GSA).

CONTENT: this Commission document sets out the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2013 as prepared on the basis of the information presented by the institutions, organisations and bodies of the EU, in accordance with Article 129 (2) of the Financial Regulation applicable to the EU's General Budget, including the European GNSS Agency (GSA).

The document contains the figures on which the discharge procedure is based.

Discharge procedure of the EU agencies: the EU Budget finances a wide range of policies and programmes throughout the EU. In accordance with the priorities set by the European Parliament and the Council in the multi-annual financial framework (MFF), the European Commission carries out specific programmes, activities and projects in the field with the technical support of some specialised agencies.

The consolidated annual accounts of the EU provide information on the activities of the institutions, agencies and other bodies of the EU from a budgetary and accrual accounting perspective.

The consolidated reports on the implementation of the general budget of the EU include the budget implementation of all Institutions. Agencies do not have a separate budget inside the EU budget; and they are partially financed by a Commission budget subsidy.

Each agency is subject to its own discharge procedure.

GSA: in 2013, the tasks and budget of this Authority were as follows:

• description of the Authority's tasks: the GNSS Supervisory Authority was set up by Council Regulation (EC) No 1321/2004 and its main task is to manage the public interests relating to the European GNSS programmes and to act as the regulatory authority for the programme during the deployment and operational phases of the Galileo Programme. Regulation (EC) No 683/2008 of the European Parliament and the Council reduced the responsibilities of the Authority to the control of the security of Galileo systems and to the preparation of their commercialisation. In 2012, the GSA’s headquarters was relocated to Prague, Czech Republic;
• GNSS' budget for the 2013 financial year: the Authority’s budget for 2013, as presented in the Commission document on the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union, gives the following figures:

§         Commitment appropriations :

- committed : EUR 94 million;

- paid : EUR 81 million;

- carried-over : EUR 13 million.

§         Payment appropriations :

- committed : EUR 75 million;

- paid : EUR 26 million;

- carried-over : EUR 49 million.

Please refer also to the final accounts of the GSA.