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Document 52013TA1213(30)
Report on the annual accounts of the Euratom Supply Agency for the financial year 2012, together with the Agency’s replies
Report on the annual accounts of the Euratom Supply Agency for the financial year 2012, together with the Agency’s replies
Report on the annual accounts of the Euratom Supply Agency for the financial year 2012, together with the Agency’s replies
OJ C 365, 13.12.2013, p. 213–220
(BG, ES, CS, DA, DE, ET, EL, EN, FR, HR, IT, LV, LT, HU, MT, NL, PL, PT, RO, SK, SL, FI, SV)
13.12.2013 |
EN |
Official Journal of the European Union |
C 365/213 |
REPORT
on the annual accounts of the Euratom Supply Agency for the financial year 2012, together with the Agency’s replies
2013/C 365/30
INTRODUCTION
1. |
The Euratom Supply Agency (hereinafter ‘the Agency’), located in Luxembourg, was created in 1958 (1). Council Decision 2008/114/EC, Euratom (2) replaced the preceding Statutes of the Agency. The Agency's main tasks are to provide the Union with expertise on the market in nuclear materials and services and to monitor it. |
2. |
From 2008 up to and including 2011, the Agency did not receive a budget of its own to cover its operations. The Commission bore all costs incurred by the Agency when implementing its activities. For 2012, the Agency was granted its own budget by the Commission, which however only covers a minor part of its expenditure as further explained in an emphasis of matter (paragraphs 10 and 11). |
STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE
3. |
Pursuant to the provisions of Article 287 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the Court has audited:
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The management’s responsibility
4. |
In accordance with Articles 33 and 43 of Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2343/2002 (5), the management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the annual accounts of the Agency and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions:
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The auditor’s responsibility
5. |
The Court’s responsibility is, on the basis of its audit, to provide the European Parliament and the Council (6) with a statement of assurance as to the reliability of the annual accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions. The Court conducts its audit in accordance with the IFAC International Standards on Auditing and Codes of Ethics and the INTOSAI International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions. These standards require the Court to plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance as to whether the annual accounts of the Agency are free from material misstatement and the transactions underlying them are legal and regular. |
6. |
The audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions. The procedures selected depend on the auditor’s judgement, which is based on an assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the accounts and material non-compliance by the underlying transactions with the requirements in the legal framework of the European Union, whether due to fraud or error. In assessing these risks, the auditor considers any internal controls relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of the accounts, as well as the supervisory and control systems that are implemented to ensure the legality and regularity of underlying transactions, and designs audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances. The audit also entails evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies, the reasonableness of accounting estimates and the overall presentation of the accounts. |
7. |
The Court considers that the audit evidence obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for its statement of assurance. |
Opinion on the reliability of the accounts
8. |
In the Court’s opinion, the Agency’s annual accounts present fairly, in all material respects, its financial position as at 31 December 2012 and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with the provisions of its Financial Regulation and the accounting rules adopted by the Commission’s accounting officer. |
Opinion on the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying the accounts
9. |
In the Court’s opinion, the transactions underlying the annual accounts for the year ended 31 December 2012 are legal and regular in all material respects. |
Emphasis of matter
10. |
Without calling into question the opinion expressed in paragraph 9, the Court wishes to draw attention to the following matter. Between 2008 and 2011, the Agency did not receive its own budget and the European Commission directly financed and discharged all expenditure. The Court had considered this situation to be at odds with the Statutes of the Agency. |
11. |
For 2012, following the Court’s comments, the Commission granted the Agency its own budget amounting to 98 000 euro (104 000 euro including financial revenue from own investments). Whereas Article 54 of the Treaty Establishing the European Atomic Energy Community and Article 6 of the Agency’s Statutes provide that it shall have financial autonomy, most of the Agency’s expenditure (staff, office space and IT systems) is still financed directly by the Commission. As far as staff costs are concerned, this is foreseen in Article 4 of its Statutes. The provisions are contradictory which goes against the required financial autonomy of the Agency. |
FOLLOW-UP OF PREVIOUS YEAR'S COMMENTS
12. |
An overview of the corrective actions taken in response to the Court's previous year's comments is provided in Annex I. |
This Report was adopted by Chamber IV, headed by Dr Louis GALEA, Member of the Court of Auditors, in Luxembourg at its meeting of 15 July 2013.
For the Court of Auditors
Vítor Manuel da SILVA CALDEIRA
President
(2) OJ L 41, 15.2.2008, p. 15.
(3) These include the balance sheet and the economic outturn account, the cash flow table, the statement of changes in net assets and a summary of the significant accounting policies and other explanatory notes.
(4) These comprise the budgetary outturn account and the annex to the budgetary outturn account.
(5) OJ L 357, 31.12.2002, p. 72.
(6) Article 185(2) of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 (OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1).
ANNEX I
Follow-up of previous year’s comments
Year |
Court’s comment |
Status of corrective action (Completed / Ongoing / Outstanding / N/A) |
2011 |
Without calling into question the opinion expressed in paragraph 10, the Court wishes to draw again attention to the following matter. Article 54 of the Treaty Establishing the European Atomic Energy Community provides that the Agency shall have financial autonomy. Article 7 of the Agency’s Statutes provides that ‘the expenditure of the Agency shall consist of administrative expenses of its staff and of the Committee, as well as expenses resulting from contracts entered into with third parties’. In fact, the Agency has not, since 2008, received a budget. That being the case, the European Commission has directly discharged the Agency’s expenses mentioned in Article 7 above. In the Court’s view, this situation is at odds with the Statutes of the Agency and the Court considers that the Agency and the Commission should, together with all interested parties, consider measures to eliminate this situation. |
Ongoing |
ANNEX II
Euratom Supply Agency (Luxembourg)
Competencies and activities
Areas of Union competence deriving from the Treaty |
Common supply policy for nuclear materials (i.e. ores, source materials, special fissile materials), in accordance with the principles (in particular, equal access for all users) and the objectives (security of supply) set by the Euratom Treaty:
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Competences of the Agency [as defined in the Euratom Treaty, mainly Chapter 6 thereof, and Council Decision of 12 February 2008 establishing Statutes for the Euratom Supply Agency (2008/114/EC, Euratom)] |
Objectives
Tasks As per the Euratom Treaty, the Euratom Supply Agency is endowed with a right of option on ores, source materials and special fissile materials produced in the territories of Member States and with an exclusive right to conclude contracts relating to the supply of ores, source materials and special fissile materials coming from inside the Community or from outside. In the light of the above, the Euratom Supply Agency’s tasks include:
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Governance |
Director-General Appointed by the Commission (Article 53 of the Euratom Treaty), for an indefinite period of time. The Director-General’s duties and powers are determined, in particular, in the Euratom Supply Agency’s Statutes (Article 3, but also 13 and 14). The Euratom Supply Agency’s Supervision by the Commission Pursuant to Article 53 of the Euratom Treaty and Article 5 of the Euratom Supply Agency’s Statutes that:
Advisory Committee
External audit European Court of Auditors. Internal audit European Commission’s Internal Audit Service (IAS). Discharge authority European Parliament. |
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Resources made available to the Agency in 2012 |
Budget
Staff on 31 December 2012 Number of posts earmarked for the Agency in the EU budget: 9 AD (including the Director-General) and 16 AST. Number of posts really allocated to the Agency: 7 AD (one occupied by a temporary agent) and 10 AST (one occupied by a temporary agent). Other staff: 1 END post, vacant (Contract staff and seconded national experts). Total staff number: 17 (including the Director-General). |
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Products and services provided in 2012 |
Security of supply ensured Transactions processed Some 270 transactions, including contracts, amendments and notifications of the front-end activities, were processed by the Agency in 2012 Inter-service Consultations (ISC). Commission decisions prepared The Agency prepared the Commission decision on a procedure based on Article 65 in connection with Article 60 of the Euratom Treaty. The Agency provided input to the procedure in view of its budget for 2013. ISCs dealt with by the Agency: 46; of which 11 were launched by the Commission Directorate-General for Energy. Reports In 2012, the Agency issued:
Participation to activities of the Euratom Supply Agency’s Advisory Committee The Agency’s Advisory Committee held two meetings, with the Agency’s support and participation, as appropriate: one on 10 May 2012 and one on 8 November 2012. The Agency facilitated the activities of two Working Groups of its Advisory Committee. IT Support to operations Further development / maintenance of the PLUTO database for the management of contracts. Implementation of the CIRCABC web-based communication tool to support the Advisory Committee’s Working Groups. Update of the Agency’s Website. Relations with other EU Institutions and International Cooperation The Euratom Supply Agency operates under the supervision of the Commission, which issues directives to the Agency, has a right of veto on its decisions and appoints its Director-General (Article 53 of the Euratom Treaty). Moreover, certain decisions of the Euratom Supply Agency are subject to prior Commission authorisation (as per Article 60 of the same Treaty). Each year the Agency has to submit to the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission a report covering its activities in the previous year, as well as its work programme for the coming year. International Cooperation with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and the OECD NEA (Nuclear Energy Agency). In that context, the participation of the Euratom Supply Agency to:
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Source: Information supplied by the Agency. |
THE AGENCY’S REPLIES
11. |
The Agency agrees with the Court of Auditors that the amount of the subsidy allows it to pay only a minor part of its administrative expenditure, while the main part still needs to be directly financed by the Commission. The Agency does not see a contradiction between the provisions of Article 4(1) and Article 6(1) of its Statutes. |