PURPOSE: to grant discharge to the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen (FCH) Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2016.
NON-LEGISLATIVE ACT: Decision (EU) 2018/1445 of the European Parliament on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2016.
CONTENT: the European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the Executive Director of the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking for the implementation of the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking's 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 welcomed the fact that the FCH2 has set up ex-ante control procedures based on financial and operational desk reviews, and performs ex-post audits of grant cost claims under the Seventh Framework Programme. It welcomed that the residual error rate for the ex-post audits reported in the FCH2’s 2016 annual activity report was 1.24 %.
Parliament recognised the need for the FCH2 to communicate with Union citizens, through the Union institutions, concerning the significant research and collaboration that it is undertaking. It stressed the importance of highlighting the real improvements achieved as a consequence of its work, which are an important part of its mandate, as well as the fact that it works with other joint undertakings in promoting public awareness of the benefits of their work.
Lastly, the Commission is called on to ensure the direct involvement of the Joint Undertaking in the process of the Horizon 2020 mid-term review in the sphere of the further simplification and harmonisation of joint undertakings.