2016 discharge: European Police Office (Europol)

PURPOSE: to grant discharge to the European Police Office (Europol) for the financial year 2016.

NON-LEGISLATIVE ACT: Decision (EU) 2018/1424 of the European Parliament on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Police Office (Europol) for the financial year 2016.

CONTENT: the European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the Director of the European Police Office for the implementation of its budget for the financial year 2016.

This decision is accompanied by a resolution of the European Parliament containing the observations which form an integral part of the discharge decision in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2016 (please refer to the summary dated 18.4.2018).

In this resolution, Parliament noted that on 1 May 2017 the management board adopted rules for the prevention and management of conflicts of interest in respect of its members, including in relation to their declarations of interests.  However, it noted with regret that Europol's approach has been to declare that there are no conflicts of interest. Europol should report back to the discharge authority if management board members have actually published their declarations of interests by the set deadline.

Parliament noted that, according to Europol, there are substantial financial and operational risks due to the Brexit. It called on Europol to remain proactive in identifying and addressing those risks and to keep the discharge authority fully informed of the future impact of Brexit on Europol.

Europol is urged to publish its annual reviews in time for future discharge procedures in order to allow the discharge authority to perform its work in a fully informed manner.

Lastly, noting the ever-increasing demand for Europol’s services from Member States, Parliament regretted the fact that the tight ICT resources available have resulted in a re-prioritisation of core systems development activities, project delays and have also triggered an exploration of further outsourcing possibilities with the increased risks that that implies.