2012 discharge: European Environment Agency (EEA)

PURPOSE: to grant discharge to the European Environment Agency (EEA) for the financial year 2012.

NON-LEGISLATIVE ACT: Decision 2014/579/EU of the European Parliament on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Environment Agency for the financial year 2012.

CONTENT: with this Decision, the European Parliament gives discharge to the Executive Director of the European Environment Agency for the implementation of the Agency’s budget for 2012.

The Decision is in line with the European Parliament’s resolution adopted on 3 April 2014 and includes a series of observations that form an integral part of the discharge decision (refer to the summary of the opinion of 3 April 2014).

Amongst the main observations made, Parliament noted the problems regarding internal controls and noted that while the Agency’s ex ante verifications before reimbursement of costs claimed by beneficiaries consist of a desk analysis of cost claims, it does not usually obtain any document from beneficiaries to substantiate the eligibility and accuracy of the staff costs claim. This issue should be resolved.