The European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the Acting Executive Director of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for the financial year 2022 and to approve the closure of the accounts for that year.
Noting that the Court of Auditors has stated that it has obtained reasonable assurance that the Agency's annual accounts for the financial year 2022 are reliable and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Parliament adopted, by 543 votes to 17 with 44 abstentions, a resolution containing a series of recommendations which form an integral part of the discharge decision and which complement the general recommendations set out in the resolution on the performance, financial management and control of EU agencies.
Agency’s financial statements
The Agency's final budget for the financial year 2022 was EUR 224 265 965, representing an increase of 10.04 % compared to 2021.
Budgetary and financial management
The budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2022 resulted in a budget implementation rate of current year commitment appropriations of 97.08 %, representing an increase of 0.77 % compared to 2021. Payment appropriations execution rate was 87.18 %, showing a slight decrease of 0.16 % compared to 2021.
The Agency ended the year with a fees and charges budgetary result of negative EUR 8.2 million (compared to EUR 11.2 million in 2021). Given that the Agency’s accumulated fees and charges, surplus was brought down from EUR 72.1 million to EUR 63.9 million. The rate of cancelled appropriations relating to commitments carried over to 2022 was at 2.82%, below the 5 % ceiling set by the Commission.
Other observations
Parliament also made a series of observations concerning performance, staff policy and anticorruption.
In particular, it noted that:
- the Agency had a very good performance with a 97 % implementation rate of its 2022 Annual Work Programme and 77 % of the Agency’s key performance indicators on-track;
- its main achievements and progress in 2022 were in emerging areas linked to green solutions and digitalisation;
- the Agency’s work on the Single European Sky 2+ reform was welcomed which seek to reduce cost and increase capacity for ATM, and provide significant added value for the Single European Sky 2+ package of initiative;
- the Agency complied with the sanctions and policies set by the Commission after the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and all cooperation activities with Russia were suspended, while the Agency focussed its attention on activities supporting Ukraine;
- on 31 December 2022, the establishment plan was 95.59 % implemented, with 651 temporary agents appointed out of 681 temporary agents authorised under the Union budget (compared to 680 authorised posts in 2021);
- significant investments were made on reinforcing technical capabilities during 2022 and on offering career progression opportunities with a renewed competence policy;
- the Agency should re-evaluate its position and take steps towards setting up an internal anticorruption strategy.