2005 discharge: EC general budget, European Data-protection Supervisor

PURPOSE: presentation of the final annual accounts of the European Community for the financial year 2005 – Other institutions : Section VIII (B) - European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS).

CONTENT: this document sets out the amount of expenditure and the financial statement of the EDPS for 2005 and presents an analysis of its financial management. The available appropriations set out in the Supervisor’s 2005 budget amounted to EUR 2.84 million (following AB 2/2005), with an 82.77% utilisation rate.

Main axes of 2005 expenditure: the institution’s 2nd budget: while 2004 was the first year of activity, during which a new institution was literally built up (including finding appropriate office space and the first phases of recruitment), the second annual report covers a year of consolidation. Major attention has been given to the development of human resources. The EDPS called for the creation of just four posts in 2005. This request was authorised by the budgetary authority, with the number of staff increasing from 15 in 2004 to 19 in 2005.

The main issues of the 2005 budget implementation can be summarised as follows:

• in 2005, interinstitutional cooperation continued in areas where the EDPS is assisted by the other institutions, by virtue of the administrative cooperation agreement with the Secretaries-General of the Commission, the Parliament and the Council, concluded on 24 June 2004. The general infrastructure has been improved upon during 2005. However, with the increased number of staff and further increase expected in 2006, the EDPS is experiencing office space problems, which are hoped to be resolved by acquiring additional space in 2006;
• on the basis of the interinstitutional agreement of 24 June 2004, the Internal Auditor at the Commission was appointed as the Auditor at the EDPS.

Other salient issues of the EDPS’s budget implementation can be summarised as follows:

Title I (Staff costs): the budget implementation was marked by a budget transfer of EUR 35 000 from item “Staff in activity” towards “Members of the Institution” to cover initial operating costs of the EDPS in 2005. A weak rate of implementation for traineeships and missions can be noted.

Title II (Operational expenditure): this heading was characterised by a transfer to finance building investment costs with a view to paying the EP charges relating to the renovations to the EDPS which is situated with the Parliament itself.

There is also a weak rate of utilisation of the “studies” item (barely 10%) : this is linked to the fact that in 2005 the EURODAC audit was supposed to have been carried out. However, this will not happen until 2006. Information costs have been limited because the EPDS’s information campaign started relatively late.

For further details concerning the Supervisor’s expenditure in 2005, please refer to the annexed detailed analysis of expenditure.