The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report
by Marian-Jean MARINESCU (EPP, RO) on discharge in respect of the
implementation of the budget of the European Joint Undertaking for
ITER and the Development of Fusion Energy for the financial year
2014.
The parliamentary committee calls on the European
Parliament to postpone its decision to grant the Director of the
joint undertaking the discharge in respect of the implementation of
the joint undertaking's budget for the financial year
2014.
Accordingly, Members call on Parliament to delay the
approval the closure of the joint undertakings
accounts.
They made, however, a number of recommendations that
need to be taken into account when the discharge is granted. They
may be summarised as follows:
- Budget and financial management: Members note that the Court of Auditors, in its
report, emphasised the fact that the Council, in 2011, had approved
EUR 6.6 billion (in 2008 values) for the Joint Undertaking
contribution to the ITER construction phase of the project. That
figure is double the initial budgeted costs for this phase of
the project and did not include EUR 663 million proposed by the
Commission in 2010 to cover potential contingencies. Although the
ITER Organization set up a Reserve Fund with the aim of providing a
clearer mechanism that compensates the domestic agencies for design
changes, Members call on ITER to adopt solutions that minimise
costs in an attempt to rectify the weakness identified by 2013 ITER
Management Assessment. Members consider that the significant
increase of the project costs may put in danger other programmes
which are also financed by the Union budget and may be
contradictory to the ''value-for-money'' principle. They also note
with concern that the amount of the contribution to the
construction phase of the project by the Joint Undertaking is
exposed to significant risks of increase due to changes in the
scope of the project deliverables and delays in the current
schedule which was considered to be unrealistic. They also
note that the latest estimate of the shortfall (negative
contingency) until the finalisation of the construction phase,
calculated by the Joint Undertaking in November 2014, was EUR 428
million (2008 values).
- Action plan: Members
stress that because of the problems currently faced by the ITER
project, the new Director-General of the ITER Organisation
presented an action plan setting out specific measures to tackle
the main issues facing the project's progress. They note that the
Commission publically stated that it had rejected the
proposed action plan made by the new Director General of the ITER
Organization. They urge the new Director General of the ITER
Organization to present publically the new ITER action plan which
clearly avoids any further delay or additional costs to the ITER
Project.
Members make a series of observations on conflicts of
interest in the joint undertaking, procurement, the headquarters
agreement with Spain, working conditions, controls in the joint
undertaking, and its legal framework, as well as intellectual
property rights in regard to exclusive exploitation rights over
intellectual property produced in fields outside fusion.