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Document 52017TA1212(02)
Report on the annual accounts of the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2016, together with the Joint Undertaking’s reply
Report on the annual accounts of the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2016, together with the Joint Undertaking’s reply
Report on the annual accounts of the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2016, together with the Joint Undertaking’s reply
OJ C 426, 12.12.2017, p. 8–14
(BG, ES, CS, DA, DE, ET, EL, EN, FR, HR, IT, LV, LT, HU, MT, NL, PL, PT, RO, SK, SL, FI, SV)
12.12.2017 |
EN |
Official Journal of the European Union |
C 426/8 |
REPORT
on the annual accounts of the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2016, together with the Joint Undertaking’s reply
(2017/C 426/02)
CONTENTS
|
Paragraph |
Page |
||
INTRODUCTION |
1-9 |
9 |
||
Establishment of the BBI Joint Undertaking |
1-2 |
9 |
||
Governance |
3-5 |
9 |
||
Objectives |
6 |
9 |
||
Resources |
7-9 |
9 |
||
OPINION |
10-22 |
10 |
||
Opinion on the reliability of the accounts |
11 |
10 |
||
Opinion on the legality and regularity of revenue underlying the accounts |
12 |
10 |
||
Opinion on the legality and regularity of payments underlying the accounts |
13 |
10 |
||
Responsibilities of management and those charged with governance |
14-16 |
10 |
||
Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the accounts and underlying transactions |
17-21 |
11 |
||
BUDGETARY AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT |
23-27 |
11 |
||
Implementation of the 2016 budget |
23 |
11 |
||
Multiannual budget implementation under Horizon 2020 |
24-27 |
11 |
||
INTERNAL CONTROLS |
28 |
12 |
||
Internal control framework |
28 |
12 |
||
|
13 |
INTRODUCTION
Establishment of the BBI Joint Undertaking
1. |
The Bio-based Industries (BBI) Joint Undertaking, located in Brussels, was set up in May 2014 (1) for a period of 10 years and started working autonomously on 26 October 2015. |
2. |
The BBI Joint Undertaking is a public-private partnership in the bio-based industries sector. The founding members are the European Union (EU), represented by the Commission, and industrial partners represented by the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC). |
Governance
3. |
The governance structure of the BBI Joint Undertaking includes the Governing Board, the Executive Director, the Scientific Committee and the States’ Representatives Group. |
4. |
The Governing Board is composed of five representatives of the Commission, on behalf of the Union; and five representatives of members other than the Union, at least one of which should be a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) representative. The Governing Board has overall responsibility for the strategic orientation and operations of the Joint Undertaking and supervises the implementation of its activities. The Executive Director is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Joint Undertaking. |
5. |
The Scientific Committee and the States’ Representatives Group are advisory bodies. The Scientific Committee provides advice on the scientific priorities to be addressed in the Joint Undertaking’s annual work plans. The States’ Representatives Group provides opinions on strategy and achievement of targets. |
Objectives
6. |
The objective of the BBI Joint Undertaking is to implement a programme of research and innovation activities in Europe that will assess the availability of renewable biological resources that can be used for the production of bio-based materials, and on that basis support the establishment of sustainable bio-based value chains. Those activities should be carried out through collaboration between stakeholders along the entire bio-based value chain, including primary production and processing industries, consumer brands, SMEs, research and technology centres, and universities. |
Resources
7. |
The maximum EU contribution to the activities of the BBI Joint Undertaking is 975 million euro, to be paid from Horizon 2020. The industry members of the Joint Undertaking are to contribute resources of at least 2 730 million euro over the period of the Joint Undertaking (2), consisting of at least 975 million euro of in-kind and cash contributions to the Joint Undertaking’s operational activities (3) and at least 1 755 million euro of in-kind contributions to the Joint Undertaking’s additional activities (4). |
8. |
The administrative costs of the BBI Joint Undertaking are limited to 58,5 million euro, to be covered through financial contributions divided equally on an annual basis between the EU and the industry members (5). |
9. |
In 2016, the payments budget for the BBI Joint Undertaking was 66 million euro (2015: 21,1 million euro). At 31 December 2016, the Joint Undertaking employed 20 staff (2015: 13) (6). |
OPINION
Opinion on the reliability of the accounts
Opinion on the legality and regularity of revenue underlying the accounts
Opinion on the legality and regularity of payments underlying the accounts
Responsibilities of management and those charged with governance
Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the accounts and underlying transactions
|
22. |
The comments which follow do not call our opinions into question. |
BUDGETARY AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT
Implementation of the 2016 budget
23. |
Taking into account unused payment appropriations from previous years (1,2 million euro), the final 2016 budget available for Horizon 2020 programme implementation included commitment appropriations of 194,3 million euro and payment appropriations of 67,2 million euro. The utilisation rates for commitment and payment appropriations were 97,1 % and 95,8 %, respectively. The payment appropriations were mainly used for the pre-financing of grant agreements resulting from the 2014 and 2015 calls for proposals. |
Multiannual budget implementation under Horizon 2020
24. |
Out of the 975 million euro of Horizon 2020 funds allocated to the BBI Joint Undertaking, by the end of 2016 the Joint Undertaking had made commitments of 414,3 million euro (42,5 %) and payments of 79,5 million euro (8 % of the allocated funds) for the implementation of its first wave of projects. |
25. |
Out of the 975 million euro of contributions to be made by the industry members to the operational activities and administrative costs of the Joint Undertaking, by the end of 2016 industry members had reported in-kind contributions of 15,4 million euro for operational activities, and the Governing Board had validated cash contributions by the members to the Joint Undertaking’s administrative costs of 3 million euro. The low level of in-kind contributions reflects the fact that most BBI projects were only in their preliminary stages in 2016. |
26. |
Out of the 1 755 million euro of industry members’ contributions to be made to additional activities, 294,8 million euro had been reported and certified (10) by the end of 2016. |
27. |
Consequently, by the end of 2016, the total contributions from the industry members amounted to 313,2 million euro, compared to the EU’s cash contribution of 65 million euro. The significant difference between the EU’s and the industry members’ contributions is explained by the fact that the industry members had already declared a significant amount of in-kind contributions to additional activities. |
INTERNAL CONTROLS
Internal control framework
28. |
In 2016, most payments by the BBI Joint Undertaking were pre-financing payments for Horizon 2020 projects, paid upon signature of the first grant agreements. Ex post audits of project cost claims by independent external auditors are to be launched in 2017. |
This Report was adopted by Chamber IV, headed by Mr Baudilio TOMÉ MUGURUZA, Member of the Court of Auditors, in Luxembourg at its meeting of 19 September 2017.
For the Court of Auditors
Klaus-Heiner LEHNE
President
(1) Council Regulation (EU) No 560/2014 of 6 May 2014 establishing the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking (OJ L 169, 7.6.2014, p. 130).
(2) Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) No 560/2014.
(3) According to Article 12(4) of the Statutes of the BBI Joint Undertaking (Annex of Regulation (EU) No 560/2014), the cash contribution by the members other than the Union to the operational costs shall be at least 182,5 million euro.
(4) As provided for in Article 4(2)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 560/2014, additional activities are contributions in kind for activities outside the work plan and the budget of the Joint Undertaking but contributing to the objectives of the BBI Initiative. In line with Article 4(4) of the same regulation, the cost of additional activities must be certified by an independent external auditor and are not subject to audit by the Joint Undertaking, the ECA or by any other EU body.
(5) Article 12(2) of the Statutes of the BBI Joint Undertaking (Annex of Regulation (EU) No 560/2014).
(6) Further information about the BBI Joint Undertaking and its activities are available on its website: https://www.bbi-europe.eu
(7) The financial statements comprise the balance sheet, the statement of financial performance, the cash flow statement, the statement of changes in net assets and a summary of significant accounting policies and other explanatory notes.
(8) The reports on the implementation of the budget comprise the reports which aggregate all budgetary operations and the explanatory notes.
(9) Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L 298, 26.10.2012, p. 1).
(10) A further estimated amount of 523,8 million euro were reported for 2016 but not certified.
ANNEX
Follow-up of previous years’ comments
Year |
ECA’s comment |
Status of corrective action (Completed/Ongoing/Outstanding/N/A) |
|
Conflict of interest |
|
2015 |
In July 2015, the Commission issued guidelines to the Joint Undertakings related to rules on conflicts of interest, including a common template for the declaration of absence of a conflict of interest, which should be incorporated by the Joint Undertaking into its procedures. |
Completed |
THE JOINT UNDERTAKING’S REPLY
The Joint Undertaking has taken note of the Court’s report.