2014 discharge: European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA)

The European Parliament decided to grant the Executive Director of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) discharge in respect of the implementation of Authority’s budget for the financial year 2014. The vote on the decision on discharge covers the closure of the accounts (in accordance with Annex 5, Article 5 (1) (a) to Parliament’s Rules of Procedure.

Noting that the Court of Auditors has stated that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the Authority’s annual accounts for the financial year 2014 are reliable and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Parliament adopted by 511 votes to 112 with 11 abstentions, a resolution containing a series of recommendations, which form an integral part of the decision on discharge and which add to the general recommendations set out in the resolution  on performance, financial management and control of EU agencies:

• Agency’s financial statements: Parliament noted that the final budget of the Agency for the financial year 2014 was EUR 21 582 772, representing an increase of 15% compared to 2013, which can be explained by the Agency’s recently established nature.
• Carryovers: Parliament noted that the rate of carryovers of commitments amounted to 26% overall and 66% for operational expenses, in particular for multi-annual IT investments.

Parliament also made a series of observations regarding transfers, budgetary and financial management, contract award procedures, recruitment, as well as internal audit.

With regard to prevention of conflicts of interest, Parliament called on the Authority to pay special attention to the protection of whistle-blowers in the context of the forthcoming Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure.

Transparency: Parliament stressed that, while making sure that all assignments are carried out in full, the Authority must carefully stick to the tasks assigned to it by the Union legislator and must not seek to de facto broaden its mandate beyond those assignments. It also stressed that when carrying out its work and in particular when drafting technical standards and technical advice, the Authority needs comprehensively to inform the European Parliament about its activities, regretting that this has not always been done in the past. It called on the Authority to supplement communication with the Parliament on draft advice or technical standards relating to the calibration of prudential formulae with a full description of the data and methodology used in such calibrations.