The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Martina DLABAJOVÁ (ALDE, CZ) on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2017.
The committee called on the European Parliament to grant the joint undertakings Executive Director discharge in respect of the implementation of the Joint Undertakings budget for the financial year 2017.
Noting that the Court of Auditors issued a statement of assurance as to the reliability of the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions for the financial year 2017, Members called on Parliament to approve 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:
Budgetary and financial management
The Joint Undertakings final budget for 2017 included commitment appropriations of EUR 313 429 392 and payment appropriations of EUR 243 503 223. The commitment appropriations utilisation rate was 99.6 % and the rate of payment appropriations was 98.5 %.
Other observations
The report also contained a series of observations on calls for proposals, performance and internal audits. It noted in particular:
- the successful closure of the Clean Sky programme with the delivery in 2017 of a total of 28 significant demonstrators (ground and flight tested) together with having selected all its Core Partners and having achieved the addition of the Partners to the programme, bringing the total to 497 participants;
- that the Internal Audit Service (IAS) finalised an audit on the performance management of the joint activities. It noted that the audit identified two 'very important' issues, in the area of measuring the achievement of the strategic objectives and the impact of the Joint Undertaking activities;
- the setup of a working group in 2017 on synergies between national and regional programmes and the Joint Undertaking, aiming at identifying areas of cooperation and contribute to the Joint Undertaking action plan and activities on synergies with the European Structural and Investment Funds and cooperation with Member States and Regions.