A.

whereas the Court of Auditors states that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the annual accounts for the financial year 2008 are reliable and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular,

B.

whereas on 23 April 2009 Parliament granted the Executive Director of the European Maritime Safety Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2007 (5), and in its resolution accompanying the discharge decision, inter alia:

1.

Is disappointed that the Agency failed to prepare a multiannual work programme and that its annual work programme was not related to its commitment budget; stresses how important it is for the Agency to set SMART objectives and RACER indicators in its programming so as to assess its achievements; notes, nevertheless, the reply from the Agency, which gives an assurance that it has improved its work programme for 2009, establishing objectives and key performance indicators and a better resource planning system; asks, therefore, that this strategy be presented to Parliament as soon as possible; calls also on the Agency to consider making a Gantt diagram part of the programming for each of its operational activities, with a view to indicating in concise form the amount of time spent by each staff member on a project and encouraging an approach geared towards achieving results;

2.

Calls on the Agency to set out, in its table to be annexed to the Court of Auditors’ next report, a comparison of operations carried out during the year for which discharge is to be granted and in the previous financial year so as to enable the discharge authority to assess more effectively its performance from one year to the next;

3.

Welcomes the fact that the Court of Auditors found the Agency’s accounts for 2008 to be reliable and regarded the transactions underlying them, taken as a whole, as legal and regular;

4.

Notes that the Agency received EUR 44 300 000 in commitment appropriations and EUR 46 890 000 in payment appropriations from the 2008 Union budget;

5.

Considers it a matter for concern that the Court of Auditors has again noted a high number of budget transfers in 2008 (52 in 2008 and 32 in 2007); notes the Agency’s reply mentioning that the transfers for the purpose of administrative expenditure were limited to the period 2008-2009 because of the Agency’s move to its final offices; is concerned, in particular, that more than EUR 2 000 000 of appropriations for personnel expenditure was transferred to administrative expenditure budget lines between June and November 2008, which made it possible to increase the amount of appropriations carried forward to 2009 and reduce the amount to be repaid to the Commission; notes, nevertheless, the reply by the Agency, which undertakes to continue its effort to improve its planning and monitoring and consequently to reduce the number of budgetary modifications;

6.

Notes that, as in 2006 and 2007, the Court of Auditors found again that legal commitments were entered into before the corresponding budgetary commitments were made; calls on the Agency therefore to step up its training and communication efforts in order to avoid this situation in future; requests, moreover, that action taken in this respect be reported in the Agency’s annual activity report for 2009;

7.

Notes that the Agency’s accounts for the financial year 2008 show income from interest as amounting to EUR 519 598,10, of which EUR 472 251,18 have already been paid back to the Directorate-General for Energy and Transport, with the remaining EUR 47 346,92 entered in the accounts as an accrued expense; concludes from the annual closure of accounts and the amount of interest payments that the Agency maintains enormously high cash reserves over long periods; welcomes the fact that as at 31 December 2008 the Agency’s cash reserves had been reduced to EUR 3 610 677,41; calls on the Commission to examine ways of ensuring that the principle of needs-based cash management, as laid down in Article 15(5) of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2343/2002, is implemented to the full and that changes in approach are needed to ensure that the Agency’s cash reserves are kept as low as possible on a long-term basis;

8.

Acknowledges that, at the end of 2008, the Agency has implemented 25 recommendations from the Internal Audit Service (IAS) out of 32 since 2006; notes that the recommendations considered to be ‘very important’ relate to: the adoption of the Staff Regulation Implementing Rules regarding the recruitment of temporary staff in accordance with the Staff Regulations; the controls in the selection procedure to ensure more transparency and equal treatment of candidates; the development of a career planning strategy (including training, coaching and mentoring activities); and better human resources planning;

9.

Refers for other observations accompanying its Decision on discharge, which are of a horizontal nature, to its resolution of 5 May 2010 (6) on the performance, financial management and control of the agencies.