The European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the Administrative Director of the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) for the financial year 2018 and to approve the closure of the accounts for the financial year in question.
Noting that the Court of Auditors has stated that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the Agency’s annual accounts for the financial year 2018 are reliable and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Parliament adopted by 626 votes to 59 with 7 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:
Eurojust’s financial statement
The final budget of Eurojust for the financial year 2018 was EUR 38 606 737, representing a decrease of 20.71 % compared to 2017. The budget decrease relates to reduction in administrative expenses.
Budget and financial management
The budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2018 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 99.94 %, representing a slight decrease of 0.03 % compared to 2017. The payment appropriations execution rate was 86.91 %, representing an increase of 2.96 % in comparison to 2017.
Other observations
Members also made a series of observations regarding performance, staff policy and internal controls.
In particular, they noted that:
- Eurojust was able to measure and assess the achievement of 98 of the 119 key performance indicators (82 %) set for 2018, of which 72 % of the initial targets were achieved or exceeded;
- Phase II of Eurojust’s organisational restructuring, refining the operational function and redesigning the administrative and support services, was developed during 2018;
- Eurojust continues to develop strong operational cooperation with the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) and with other justice and home affairs partners as well as with third countries;
- in 2018, Eurojust started negotiations for a cooperation agreement with the European Border and Coast Guard Agency;
- the number of new cases as well as the number of ongoing cases has grown over recent years and that the workload is expected to increase further due to the new mandate which entered into force at the end of 2019, also bearing in mind the additional resources required to allow Eurojust to support the work of the European Public Prosecutor's Office;
- on 31 December 2018, the establishment plan was 99.04 % executed, with 207 temporary agents appointed out of 209 temporary agents authorised under the Union budget (compared to 208 authorised posts in 2017);
- following the successful completion of the move to its new premises in June 2017, the carry-over of EUR 2 339 809 predominantly concerned costs to be invoiced retroactively by the Host State in 2018. All but EUR 73 000 of those carried over commitments were delivered and paid and that the most significant part of that figure related to planned changes that were not executed by the Host State.