Address https://gelex.eu/eli/EU/act/oj/L/2016/2158@2016-10-27/en

Contents

1. Preamble
2. A.
3. B.
4. C.
5. D.
6. E.

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT,

having regard to its decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of Artemis Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2014,

having regard to Rule 94 of and Annex V to its Rules of Procedure,

having regard to the second report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A8-0276/2016),

A.

whereas the Artemis Joint Undertaking (the Joint Undertaking) was set up in December 2007 for a period of 10 years to establish and implement a research agenda for the development of key technologies for embedded computing systems across different application areas in order to strengthen Union competitiveness and sustainability and to allow for the emergence of new markets and societal applications,

B.

whereas the Joint Undertaking started to work autonomously in October 2009,

C.

whereas the maximum contribution for the period of 10 years from the Union to the Joint Undertaking is EUR 420000000, to be paid from the budget of the Seventh Research Framework Programme,

D.

whereas financial contributions from Artemis Member States should amount, in total, to at least 1,8 times the Union's financial contribution and the in-kind contribution of research and development organisations participating in projects over the duration of the Joint Undertaking is to be equal to or greater than the contribution of public authorities,

E.

whereas the Joint Undertaking and the ENIAC Joint Undertaking (ENIAC) were merged to create the Electronic Components and Systems for European Leadership Joint Technology Initiative (ECSEL JTI), which started its activity in June 2014 and will run for 10 years,

Notes that the Joint Undertaking's accounts for the period 1 January 2014 to 26 June 2014 present fairly, in all material respects, its financial position on 26 June 2014 and the results of its operations and cash flows for the period then ended, in accordance with the provisions of its financial rules and the accounting rules adopted by the Commission's accounting officer; Is concerned that the Court of Auditors (the Court) in its report on the annual accounts of the Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2014 (the Court's report) issued a qualified opinion regarding the regularity and legality of the underlying transactions on the grounds that the administrative agreements signed with the national funding authorities (NFAs) regarding the audit of project cost claims do not include practical arrangements for ex post audits; Notes from the Court's report that the Joint Undertaking did not assess the quality of the audit reports received from the NFAs concerning the costs relating to completed projects; notes, furthermore, that after an assessment of the audit strategies of three of the NFAs it was not possible to conclude whether ex post audits were functioning effectively due to the different methodologies used by NFAs which did not allow the Joint Undertaking to calculate either a weighted error rate or a residual error rate; Notes that ECSEL JTI carried out an extensive assessment of the effectiveness of the assurance systems for a sample of 10 Artemis and ENIAC Member States representing the largest share of ECSEL JTI operational budget and covering 89,5 % of the Joint Undertaking's total grants allocated and notes that, based on the End of Project certificates up to 13 June 2016, the assessment demonstrates that the coverage rate is three times higher than the threshold of 20 % above which the national systems are considered to be sufficient as per the ex post audit strategy; Notes that the ECSEL JTI has invited NFAs to produce evidence that the implementation of the national procedures provide a reasonable assurance on the legality and regularity of transactions and notes that by the deadline of 30 June 2016, 76 % of the NFAs so invited, representing 96,79 % of joint Artemis and ENIAC JUs spending, submitted the documents required and confirmed that the implementation of the national procedures provides a reasonable assurance on the legality and regularity of transactions; Takes note of the fact that, according to the Court's report, the Joint Undertaking's final budget for the financial year 2014 included commitment appropriations of EUR 2554510 and payment appropriations of EUR 30330178 (operational); Notes with concern that the Joint Undertaking took no action regarding some internal control standards relating to information and financial reporting: in particular, evaluation of activities, assessment of the internal control systems and internal audit capability (IAC); observes that this was due to the impending merger; notes that, in the meantime, ECSEL JTI has achieved substantial progress with regard to the implementation of the internal control systems and establishing IAC.

Versions

1. 2016-10-27