Activites

• 2018/04/18 Results of vote in Parliament
  • Results of vote in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
  • T8-0146/2018 summary

    The European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the Executive Director of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in regard to the implementation of the authority’s budget for the 2016 financial year and to approve the closure of the accounts for the financial year in question. Noting that the Court of Auditors has stated that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the authority’s annual accounts for the financial year 2016 are reliable and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular, Parliament adopted by 552 votes to 40 with 8 abstentions, a resolution containing a series of recommendations, which form an integral part of the decision on discharge and which add to the general recommendations set out in the resolution on performance, financial management and control of EU agencies: ·         Authority’s financial statements: the final budget of the European Food Safety Authority for the financial year 2016 was EUR 79 492 944, representing a decrease of 1.10 %. The entire budget derived from the Union budget. ·         Budget and financial management: Members noted with satisfaction that the budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2016 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 100 %, representing an increase of 0.19 % compared to 2015. ·         Commitments and carry-overs: carry-overs from 2016 to 2017 were at EUR 8.2 million and predominantly related to infrastructure and operations. Members also made a series of observations regarding staff policy, as well as internal audits and controls. In particular, they called on the authority as a matter of urgency to aim for a more gender-balanced staff composition, especially at the senior post level. Members also expressed their concern over the fact that the scope of the authority’s new policy on independence remains too narrow, underlining that the authority ignored the repeated calls of Parliament to include research funding in the list of interests to be covered by the two-year cooling-off period. The authority should continue paying special attention to public opinion and commit itself to openness and transparency. Members recalled that a group of Members of Parliament filed a lawsuit against the authority on grounds of limiting of access to documents in the “glyphosate” case. They expect the authority to fully implement the court’s ruling once it is known. Parliament noted that close cooperation with the Commission’s DG SANTE is well on track towards its preparation related to the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the Union. It noted however that a critical uncertainty remains on the future availability of resources hampering thereby the thorough preparation of the authority for its programming after 2020.  It called on the authority to remain proactive on this issue, anticipating and planning for any likely problems. Members noted that the authority adopted in 2016 the strategy called ‘EFSA Strategy 2020: trusted science for safe food’, based on five strategic objectives: (i) prioritising public and stakeholder engagement in the process of scientific assessment, (ii) widening the authority’s evidence base and optimise access to its data, (iii) building the Union’s scientific assessment capacity and knowledge community, (iv) preparing for future risk assessment challenges and (v) creating an environment and culture that reflects the authority’s values.

• 2018/03/23 Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
  • A8-0091/2018 summary

    The Committee on Budgetary Control adopted the report by Indrek TARAND (Greens/EFA, EE) on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Food Safety Authority (ESFA) for the financial year 2016. The committee called on the European Parliament to grant the Executive Director of the Authority discharge in respect of the implementation of the Authority’s budget for the financial year 2016. Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it had obtained reasonable assurance that the annual accounts of the Authority for the financial year 2016 were reliable and that the underlying transactions were legal and regular, Members called on Parliament to approve the closure of the Authority’s accounts. They made, however, a number of recommendations that needed to be taken into account when the discharge is granted, in addition to the general recommendations that appear in the draft resolution on performance, financial management and control of EU agencies: Authority’s financial statements: the final budget of the European Food Safety Authority for the financial year 2016 was EUR 79 492 944, representing a decrease of 1.10 %. The entire budget derived from the Union budget. Budget and financial management: Members noted with satisfaction that the budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2016 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 100 %, representing an increase of 0.19 % compared to 2015. Commitments and carry-overs: carry-overs from 2016 to 2017 were at EUR 8.2 million and predominantly related to infrastructure and operations. Members also made a series of observations regarding staff policy, as well as internal audits and controls. They noted that a close cooperation with the Commission’s DG SANTE is well on track towards its preparation related to the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the Union. The Authority is well aware of the financial risks due to the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the Union, such as a restricted budget availability, contractual issues for ongoing and new contracts and related payments, and unemployment allowances, and the operational risks such as access to United Kingdom citizens as members of staff or as experts, access to United Kingdom entities for services and information/data, change in the volumes of work and access rights to documents. Members noted that the Authority adopted in 2016 the strategy called ‘EFSA Strategy 2020: trusted science for safe food’, based on five strategic objectives: prioritise public and stakeholder engagement in the process of scientific assessment, widen the Authority’s evidence base and optimise access to its data, build the Union’s scientific assessment capacity and knowledge community, prepare for future risk assessment challenges and create an environment and culture that reflects the Authority’s values.

• 2018/03/20 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • CONT CONT/8/10798 TARAND Indrek Verts/ALE
  • ENVI VĂLEAN Adina-Ioana EPP
• 2017/09/13 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
  • CONT CONT/8/10798 TARAND Indrek Verts/ALE
  • ENVI VĂLEAN Adina-Ioana EPP
• 2017/06/26 Non-legislative basic document published
  • COM(2017)0365 summary

    PURPOSE: presentation by the Commission of the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2016, as part of the 2016 discharge procedure. Analysis of the accounts of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). CONTENT: the organisational governance of the EU consists of institutions, agencies and other EU bodies whose expenditure is included in the general budget of the Union. This Commission document concerns the EU's consolidated accounts for the year 2016 and details how spending by the EU institutions and bodies was carried out. The consolidated annual accounts of the EU provide financial information on the activities of the institutions, agencies and other bodies of the EU from an accrual accounting and budgetary perspective. It is the responsibility of the Commission's Accounting Officer to prepare the EU's consolidated annual accounts and ensure that they present fairly, in all material aspects, the financial position, the result of the operations and the cash flows of the EU institutions and bodies, including the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), with a view to granting discharge. Discharge procedure: the final step of a budget lifecycle is the discharge of the budget for a given financial year. It represents the political aspect of the external control of budget implementation and is the decision by which the European Parliament, acting on a Council recommendation, "releases" the Commission (and other EU bodies) from its responsibility for management of a given budget by marking the end of that budget's existence. The European Parliament is the discharge authority within the EU. The discharge procedure may produce three outcomes: (i) the granting; (ii) postponement or; (iii) the refusal of the discharge. The final discharge report including specific recommendations to the Commission for action is adopted in plenary by the European Parliament and are subject to an annual follow up report in which the Commission outlines the concrete actions it has taken to implement the recommendations made. Each agency is subject to its own discharge procedure, including the EFSA. The European Food Safety Authority: the Authority, which is located in Parma, was established by Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council in order to provide scientific opinions and scientific and technical support for the legislation and policies which have a direct or indirect impact on food and feed safety. As regards the Authority’s accounts, these are presented in detail in the document on the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for 2016: Commitment appropriations: available: EUR 80 million; made: EUR 80 million. Payment appropriations: available: EUR 88 million; made: EUR 79 million. For further details on expenditure, please refer to the final accounts of the EFSA.

  • DG {u'url': u'http://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/budget_en', u'title': u'Budget'}, OETTINGER Günther

Documents

• Non-legislative basic document published: COM(2017)0365
• Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A8-0091/2018
• Results of vote in Parliament: Results of vote in Parliament
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T8-0146/2018

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)