1.

Notes that in 2008 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) had commitment appropriations available amounting to a total of EUR 297 million (2007: EUR 275 million), with a utilisation rate of 98,20 %, higher than the average of the other institutions (95,67 %);

2.

Notes that the Court of Auditors indicated in its annual report that its audit of a contract the ECJ concluded for the provision of services (following a joint open tender procurement procedure with a Member State) showed weaknesses in the internal control system for performing this tendering procedure; notes that the Court of Auditors found that these led to an overly short deadline for tenderers to obtain the tender specifications (breach of Article 98 of the Financial Regulation), the announcement in the contract notice both of the obligation to submit tenders in one language only (breach of Article 125c of the Implementing Rules (6) (IR) of the Financial Regulation) and the holding of a closed meeting for the opening of tenders (breach of Article 118(3) IR);

3.

Notes the clarification offered by the ECJ, in particular, that the timetable, although tight, observed the time limits formally prescribed by the Financial Regulation; notes that the short deadline was caused by the need to award the contract at a date enabling the successful tenderer to be operational when the new building complex was delivered, as well as the necessity to provide for a sufficient time to allow the tenderers to prepare their tender;

4.

Notes also the ECJ’s clarification that the contract notice provided for tenders to be submitted in French only (the custom in practice in the Member State concerned) due to a lack of coordination, whereas the contract documents provided that tenders could be submitted in any of the official languages of the European Union, as well as the clarification that, if any tenderers had wished to attend the committee meeting for the opening of tenders, they would have been allowed to do so;

5.

Endorses the suggestion of the Court of Auditors that enhanced procurement procedures should be established by the ECJ in order to help authorising services organise tendering procedures and control adherence to regulatory obligations;

6.

Notes that apart from the comments on the abovementioned tender procurement procedure, the annual report of the Court of Auditors did not point out any other observations as regards the ECJ;

7.

Notes with satisfaction the effective operation of the recently established ECJ’s Internal Audit Unit, and welcomes its recommendations on validation, authorisation and payment of expenditure, as well as the fact that the recommendations were put into operation, in particular, revision of the system of delegating and the terms of subdelegation, the self assessment of internal control systems, increased number of ex-post verifications and improvements in the documentation procedures; notes also the results of the audit on compliance with the legislative obligations in relation to reporting and disclosing budgetary and financial information, which led to measures improving the management and internal control of public contracts, as well as audits on procurement procedures for the library and on compensatory allowance;

8.

Welcomes the constant reduction in the duration of proceedings before the ECJ, in particular, a significant reduction in the duration of preliminary ruling procedures; considers that this reduction is not yet satisfactory; notes the decrease in the number of cases completed (333 judgements and 161 orders compared to 379 and 172 respectively in 2007), however, takes notice that the number of preliminary ruling cases was markedly higher; also notes that in 2008 the number of cases submitted (592) was the highest since 1979, which led to a minor increase in the number of cases pending at the end of 2008 (767 cases; 741 cases at the end of 2007);

9.

Welcomes the fact that the Court of First Instance in 2008 showed a 52 % increase in the number of cases decided, as well as a certain decrease in the duration of proceedings, which is not yet satisfactory; notes, however, that the number of new cases in 2008 was exceptionally high, (629 new cases compared to 522 in 2007), therefore the backlog of pending cases continued to increase also for the Court of First Instance (from 1 154 in 2007 to 1 178 in 2008);

10.

Notes that while the Civil Service Tribunal, which in 2008 saw its first partial triennial renewal, closed fewer cases than in 2007, nevertheless, the number of pending cases dropped slightly (from 235 in 2007 to 217 in 2008) due to a considerably lower number of new applications (111 compared to 157 in 2007);

11.

Welcomes the new integrated system for management and financial control (SAP), in operation since 1 January 2008, which has enabled budget savings and gains in efficiency for the three institutions involved (the Council, the ECJ and the Court of Auditors);

12.

Welcomes the ongoing successful interinstitutional cooperation with the Court of Auditors as regards training;

13.

Notes the follow-up by the ECJ of the observations made by the Parliament and the Court of Auditors in previous discharge decisions and reports, in particular, welcomes the measures taken to set up a selection procedure for the recruitment of auxiliary contract agents; however, regrets the reluctance of the ECJ to publish its members’ declarations of financial interests, and requests that it implements this practice without delay;

14.

Praises the ECJ for its established practice of including in its activity report a chapter outlining the follow-up during the year to Parliament’s previous discharge decisions and to reports of the Court of Auditors.