The European Parliament decided to grant the
Executive Director of the ECSEL Joint Undertaking (formerly the
ENIAC Joint Undertaking and the ARTEMIS Joint Undertaking)
discharge in respect of the implementation of the joint
undertaking’s budget for the financial year
2014.
At the same time, Parliament approved the closure
of ITER’s accounts.
Parliament also adopted by 498 votes to 108, with 18
abstentions, a resolution containing a number of recommendations
that form an integral part of the discharge decision granted in
plenary.
The principal observations made by Parliament may be
summarised as follows:
- Budgetary and financial management: Parliament noted the Joint Undertaking’s
accounts for the period 1 January 2014 to 26 June 2014 present
fairly, in all material respects, its financial position on 26 June
2014. It recalled that the Joint Undertaking and the ENIAC Joint
Undertaking were merged to create the Electronic Components and
Systems for European leadership Joint Technology Initiative
(‘ECSEL JTI’), which started its activity in June 2014
and will run for 10 years. It was concerned that the Court of
Auditors in its report on the annual accounts of the Joint
Undertaking for the financial year 2014 issued a qualified
opinion regarding the regularity and legality of the underlying
transactions on the grounds that the administrative agreements
signed with the national funding authorities regarding the audit of
project cost claims do not include practical arrangements for
ex-post audits. Members noted that ECSEL JTI carried out an
extensive assessment of the effectiveness of the assurance systems
for a sample of 10 ARTEMIS and ENIAC Member States and noted that
the assessment demonstrated that the coverage rate is three
times higher than the threshold of 20% above which the national
systems are considered sufficient as per the ex-post audit
strategy. Parliament further noted that the ECSEL JTI has invited
NFAs to produce evidence that the implementation of the national
procedures provide a reasonable assurance on the legality and
regularity of transactions. It remarked that by the deadline of 30
June 2016, 76 % of the NFAs so invited submitted the documents
required and confirmed that the implementation of the national
procedures provides a reasonable assurance on the legality and
regularity of transactions.
- Internal control:
Parliament was concerned concern that the Joint Undertaking took no
action regarding some internal control standards relating to
information and financial reporting and that this was due to the
impending merger. In the meantime, ECSEL JTI achieved substantial
progress with regard to the implementation of the ICS and
establishing internal audit capability.