What changed

SUGGESTIONS

The Committee on Civil Liberties, JusticeEmployment and HomeSocial Affairs calls on the Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution:

1. Welcomes the fact that the Court of Auditors (the ʽCourtʼ) declared that, overall, the audit of the annual accounts of the agencies for the year ended 31 December 2022 and the revenue and payments underlying them confirmed the positive results reported in previous years and that the Court confirmed the legality and regularity of the annual accounts of all justice and home affairs (JHA) agencies and the revenue underlying those accounts for the financial year 2022;

– having regard to the European Court of Auditors’ Annual report on the implementation of the EU budget for the 2022 financial year;

2. Welcomes that the accounts of the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) include disclosures regarding the impact of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine on their activities; calls on the other JHA agencies to conduct similar disclosures;

– having regard to the European Court of Auditors’ Annual report on EU agencies for the financial year 2022;

3. Notes that for the 2022 financial year, the Court issued unqualified (“clean”) audit opinions on the accounts of 39 agencies; notes that the Court found that the payments underlying the accounts were legal and regular for all agencies except for the European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (eu-LISA) and the European Union Agency of Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL) for which qualified opinions were issued;notes that this was the case for eu-LISA due to six irregular payments in relation to purchase of hardware , custom development and testing, and software licences; acknowledges the resonse of eu-LISA that it has already undertaken the necessary revisions to its contract management practice; further notes that CEPOL had irregular payments in relation to accommodation, shuttle and parking services and travel services; recalls that the CEPOL has taken corrective action to address the issues identified;

– having regard to the Eurofound's Consolidated Annual Activity report 2022;

4. Stresses that the Court issued ‘emphasis on the matter’ paragraphs for eleven agencies, including (i) for the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) due to the implementation of “SUMMA” a new pilot budgetary and accounting system rolled out by the Commission, (ii) for eu-LISA because of delays in the implementation of the Entry/Exit System and the related impact on eu-LISA operations; and (iii) for the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) regarding the accounting system which could not be validated because of missing information relating to an IT system, owned by the Commission, which supplies accounting data and another disclosure regarding the calculation of the contributions from Schengen associated countries;

– having regard to the Cedefop's Consolidated Annual Activity report 2022;

5. Acknowledges the weaknesses in public procurement procedures which are increasing and remain the main source of irregular payments and that the Court reported shortcomings in previous years for 24 EU agencies, including in relation to contracts signed by CEPOL, EUAA, eu-LISA, Eurojust, and Frontex; calls on the agencies to further improve their public procurement procedures;

– having regard to the ETF's Consolidated Annual Activity report 2022;

6. Is concerned that that the Court’s report on the implementation of the budget concerning the financial year 2022 does not contain any remarks about the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS); urges the Court to include the annual accounts of the EDPS in its yearly audit and issue a report, considering the importance of transparency for the proper functioning of all Union bodies;

– having regard to the EU-OSHA's Consolidated Annual Activity report 2022;

7. Notes the Court’s observation that the agreements between the EU and the Schengen associated countries (SAC) serving as legal basis for calculating their contributions to EUAA’s and Frontex’ budget are unclear and allow divergent interpretations, resulting lower contribution by SAC and overstated contribution by the EU; recalls that this is an established practice for calculations of the SAC contributions; calls the Commission to examine these agreements;

– having regard to the ELA's Consolidated Annual Activity report 2022;

1. Stresses the valuable role played by Union agencies in helping Union institutions to design and implement policies, especially in carrying out specific technical, scientific, operational and managerial tasks; appreciates the high quality expertise and work performed by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop), the European Foundation for the improvement of living and working conditions (Eurofound), the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA), the European Training Foundation (ETF) and European Labour Authority (ELA), the agencies working in the area of employment, social affairs and inclusion; reiterates in this regard the need to equip the agencies at a level commensurate to the assigned tasks, with a sufficient number of staff, employed in a stable manner and having sufficient material resources in order to ensure good working conditions, and to prevent knowledge and experience from being lost; reiterates therefore the need of ensuring adequate human and financial resources allowing them to continue implementing their work programmes with a very high activity completion rate; stresses the importance and added value of each agency in their field of expertise and their autonomy; reiterates that the proper functioning of the agencies also requires a high-quality social dialogue, including the close involvement of local staff committees;

2. Welcomes the fact that in its Annual report on Union agencies for the financial year 2022, the European Court of Auditors issued unqualified audit opinions on the reliability of all agencies’ accounts; notes that the Court issued unqualified audit opinions on the legality and regularity of the revenue underlying all agencies’ accounts; notes further that the Court issued unqualified audit opinions on the legality and regularity of the payments underlying the accounts of the agencies working in the area of employment, social affairs and inclusion;

3. Recalls that the yearly exchange of views in the EMPL committee regarding the annual work programmes and the multiannual strategies of the agencies is instrumental in ensuring that the programmes and strategies are aligned to the actual political priorities, especially in the context of the implementation of the principles enshrined in the European Pillar of Social Rights and the achievements of the Porto targets;

4. Welcomes the fact that, following a formal decision by the Management Board of Eurofound, the Executive Directors of ETF, ELA, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) participated in person or were represented at the Management Board meeting for the first time, joining colleagues from EU-OSHA and Cedefop, who already joined the meetings in the past; notes that such participation is in line with the reinforced cooperation foreseen in the Commission’s 2019 staff working document on the evaluation of the EU agencies working in the employment and social affairs policy field; appreciates and encourages the close collaboration among the agencies under the remit of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs in order to ensure synergies, complementarity and sharing resources;

5. Recalls that the agencies are the most qualified at assessing the use of resources and play a crucial role in supporting the right sustainable projects in line with the European Green Deal; welcomes the fact that corporate plans to improve energy efficiency and climate neutrality of their operations were incorporated by nearly two in three EU agencies; welcomes the fact that the EU Agencies Network (EUAN) set up a working group to promote the introduction of sustainability reporting and the sharing of good practices in this area; calls on all agencies to further improve their public procurement procedures as well as to lead by example and make use of the social clause in the existing EU Public Procurement Directive to ensure that economic operators involved in public contracts comply with all applicable obligations in the fields of environmental, social and labour law established by Union law, national law or collective agreement, or by applicable international environmental, social or labour law provisions;

6. Highlights that transparency and citizens' awareness of the existence of the agencies are essential for their democratic accountability;

7. Notes that one observation regarding legality and regularity of transactions, and one regarding budgetary management were made to Cedefop; notes that two observations regarding legality and regularity of transactions, three observations on management and control systems, and two observations on budgetary management were made to ELA, notes that two observations regarding legality and regularity of transactions were made to ETF, notes that one observation related to budgetary management was made to EU-OSHA, notes that two observations regarding management and control systems were made to Eurofound; urges the EU agencies to undertake the necessary measures to address the observations and to improve their internal procedures to ensure compliance with applicable rules;

8. Welcomes the corrective actions undertaken by the agencies to address the Court’s observations related to the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2021 and calls on the agencies to complete the identified actions that remain open;

9. Welcomes the deepened cooperation between the agencies within the framework of the European Union Agencies Network (EUAN) which is an important inter-agency cooperation platform to enhance agencies’ visibility, identify and promote possible efficiency gains, add value and ensure efficient communication between the agencies and relevant stakeholders with a focus on sharing services, knowledge and expertise; appreciates and encourages the close collaboration among the agencies under the remit of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs in order to ensure synergies, complementarity and sharing resources;

10. Calls on the Commission to ensure access to relevant funding to promote social dialogue; notes that EU agencies have a crucial role in enhancing social dialogue with the EU institutions;

11. Welcomes the Commission communication entitled ‘Long-term competitiveness of the EU: looking beyond 2030’ aiming to rationalise and simplify reporting requirements by 25 % for each of the green, digital and economic thematic areas, and calls on the EU agencies to streamline their internal procedures to reduce unnecessary administrative burdens;

12. Recalls that gender balance must be ensured within the Agencies in accordance with the basic regulations establishing them; regrets the fact that gender equality is absent in the multiannual strategy 2021-2027 for the EU Agencies Network (EUAN); reiterates its call on the EUAN to integrate gender equality in their strategies, on the Agencies to collect and present data on gender balance for all categories of management staff and to align their ambition with the aim of the Commission to reach a gender balance of 50 % at all levels of its management by the end of 2024 and to pursue gender mainstreaming in all fields.

ANNEX: ENTITIES OR PERSONS FROM WHOM THE RAPPORTEUR HAS RECEIVED INPUT

The rapporteur declares under her exclusive responsibility that she did not receive input from any entity or person to be mentioned in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.

INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION

Date adopted

11.1.2024

Result of final vote

+:

–:

0:

34

2

3

Members present for the final vote

João Albuquerque, Atidzhe Alieva-Veli, Dominique Bilde, Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, Milan Brglez, Jordi Cañas, David Casa, Leila Chaibi, Ilan De Basso, Jarosław Duda, Estrella Durá Ferrandis, Lucia Ďuriš Nicholsonová, Cindy Franssen, Helmut Geuking, Elisabetta Gualmini, Agnes Jongerius, Radan Kanev, Ádám Kósa, Katrin Langensiepen, Elena Lizzi, Sara Matthieu, Jozef Mihál, Max Orville, Dennis Radtke, Antonio Maria Rinaldi, Mounir Satouri, Monica Semedo, Eugen Tomac, Romana Tomc, Nikolaj Villumsen, Maria Walsh

Substitutes present for the final vote

Catherine Amalric, Romeo Franz, Lina Gálvez Muñoz

Substitutes under Rule 209(7) present for the final vote

Chiara Gemma, José Gusmão, Maria Noichl, Carina Ohlsson, Vera Tax

FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION

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