PURPOSE: presentation of the EU Court of Auditors’ report on the annual accounts of the European Maritime Safety Agency, together with the Agency’s reply.
CONTENT: in accordance with the tasks conferred on the Court of Auditors by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the Court presents to the European Parliament and to the Council, in the context of the discharge procedure, a Statement of Assurance as to the reliability of the annual accounts of each institution, body or agency of the EU, and the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying them, on the basis of an independent external audit.
This audit concerned, amongst others, the annual accounts of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).
In the Court’s opinion, the Agency’s Annual Accounts fairly present, in all material respects, its financial position as of 31 December 2010 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with the provisions of its Financial Regulation.
The Court also considers that the transactions underlying the annual accounts of the Agency for the financial year ended 31 December 2010 are, in all material respects, legal and regular.
The report confirms that the Agency’s 2010 budget amounted to EUR 50.1 million and that the number of staff employed by the Agency at the end of the year was 219.
It should be noted that the report makes no observations on the budgetary and financial management of the Agency.
Lastly, the Court of Auditors’ report contains a summary of the Agency’s activities in 2010. This is focused on the following:
- organising workshops and other events;
- training sessions for Port State Control officers;
- inspections et visits;
- launching version 2 SafeSeaNet (available 99.4% of time 2010) ;
- ordering 2 651 satellite images analysing 2366 of them through CleanSeaNet ;
- EU Long Range Identification and Tracking Data Centre (LRIT) was available during 99.9 % of time throughout the year;
- 59 drills and 14 exercises with the anti-pollution vessels;
- EMSA Maritime Support Services operating on a 24/7 basis;
- launching THETIS, the information system in support of the new Port State Control inspection regime.