2022 discharge: European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (EUROPOL)

The European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the Executive Director of the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) for the financial year 2022 and to approve the closure of the accounts for that year.

Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it had obtained reasonable assurance that the Agency's annual accounts for the financial year 2022 were reliable and that the underlying transactions were legal and regular, Parliament adopted, by 565 votes to 18 with 16 abstentions, a resolution containing a series of recommendations which form an integral part of the discharge decision and which complement the general recommendations contained in the resolution on the performance, financial management and control of EU agencies.

Europol's financial statements

The Agency's final budget for the financial year 2022 was EUR 197 759 722, representing an increase of 10.91 % compared to 2021.

Budget and financial management

Budget monitoring efforts resulted in a budget implementation in 2022 of 96.62 % in commitment appropriations, representing a decrease of 2.10 % compared to 2021. Payment appropriations execution rate was 79.73 %, indicating a decrease of 3.78 % compared to 2021. The Agency’s efforts to further reduce its payments delays from 32.8 % in 2020 and 7.8 % in 2021, to 7.2 % in 2022. The Agency still faces challenges regarding late payments and Parliament shares the opinion of the Court that this recurrent weakness exposes the Agency to reputational risks.

The resolution noted a low implementation rate (85 %) of the funds carried over from 2021 to 2022, leading to an unused amount of EUR 3.8 million of appropriations. Appropriations related to the current budget carried forward from 2022 to 2023 are at a relatively high level of 17 % or EUR 32.5 million.

Other observations

Parliament also made a series of observations concerning performance, staff policy and conflits of interest.

In particular, it noted that:

- the Agency monitored 15 key performance indicators and 56 work programme indicators;

- the Agency was commended for its prompt responsiveness and its support to Member States in combatting crime in the wake of the illegal and unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine, by, for example, deploying experts and guest officers to support local law enforcement authorities in countries bordering Ukraine or supporting financial investigations targeting criminal assets owned by individuals and legal entities sanctioned in the context of that war;

- the Agency continued to work closely with eu-LISA on establishing automated checks of travel application data from the European Travel Information & Authorisation System (ETIAS) against Europol data;

- on 31 December 2022, the establishment plan was 99.41 % implemented, with 682 temporary agents appointed out of 686 authorised under the Union budget (615 in 2021);

- the Agency should consider measures preventing also the revolving doors phenomena;

- concern was expressed over media reports regarding conflicts of interest occurring among the Agency’s staff;

- the Agency was also commended for adopting in 2022 its revised Anti-Fraud Strategy for the period 2022-2024, reflecting the principles, the fraud risk assessment, anti-fraud objectives and actions, and an implementation review of Anti-Fraud Strategy 2017-2020 actions;

- measures should be taken to ensure full compliance with Union transparency rules as well as fundamental rights, data protection standards and accountability, including when cooperating with other Agencies.