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having regard to the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2010 (1),

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having regard to the annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2010 (COM(2011) 473 – C7-0260/2011) (2),

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having regard to the Court of Auditors’ annual report to the discharge authority on the internal audits carried out in 2010,

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having regard to the Court of Auditors’ annual report on the implementation of the budget concerning the financial year 2010, together with the institutions’ replies (3),

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having regard to the statement of assurance (4) as to the reliability of the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions, provided by the Court of Auditors for the financial year 2010 pursuant to Article 287 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU),

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having regard to Article 314(10) and Articles 317, 318 and 319 of the TFEU,

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having regard to Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities (5), and in particular Articles 50, 86, 145, 146 and 147 thereof,

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having regard to Rule 77 of, and Annex VI to, its Rules of Procedure,

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having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A7-0091/2012),

1.

Emphasises that the audit of the Court of Auditors’ financial statements for 2010 was carried out by an external auditor; notes that, in her report, the independent auditor reached the following conclusion: ‘In our opinion, the financial statements give a true and fair view of the financial position of the European Court of Auditors as of December 31, 2010, and of its cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002, the Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2342/2002 of 23 December 2002 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of the said Council Regulation, and the Accounting Rules of the European Union.’ (6);

2.

Notes, however, that the audit carried out was of a ‘traditional’ nature, examining ‘(…) whether financial operations have been properly recorded and disclosed, legally and regularly executed and managed so as to ensure economy, efficiency and effectiveness’ (Independent Auditor’s report, point 1, third indent); would like future audits to consider performance indicators and objectives;

3.

Calls for improvements to be made to the summary of the number and type of internal audits carried out, the recommendations made and the action taken on those recommendations; calls also for that summary to be more informative and relevant;

4.

Notes that in 2010 the Court of Auditors’ commitment appropriations amounted to a total of EUR 148 600 000 (EUR 188 000 000 in 2009), and that the implementation rate for those appropriations was 93 % (92,1 % in 2009); emphasises that the Court of Auditors’ budget is purely administrative in nature, with 80 % of it being spent on persons working within the institution and 20 % on buildings, furniture, equipment and miscellaneous operating expenditure;

5.

Notes that the implementation rate for Title 1 (Persons working within the institution) increased from 87,6 % in 2009 to 92,3 % in 2011, and that 98 % of the appropriations under Title 2 (Buildings, furniture, equipment and miscellaneous operating expenditure) were used in 2010;

6.

Welcomes the fact that, following a reorganisation, the Court of Auditors has reduced the annual cost of security services by EUR 500 000, while making for more effective delivery of service and better risk control;

7.

Asks the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) to speed up the investigation related to allegations of irregularities reported by the Court of Auditors to OLAF in 2010;

8.

Welcomes the fact that the Court of Auditors has already revised the Code of Conduct for its Members and that the Code now provides for declarations of Members’ financial interests to be published on the internet;

9.

Notes that in 2010 the Court of Auditors published two annual reports, 40 special annual reports (2009: 37), 14 special reports (2009: 18) and six opinions (2009: 1); strongly suggests that the Court of Auditors evaluates the effects and the implementation of its conclusions contained in the special reports within a reasonable period of time, informing the Committee on Budgetary Control of its findings;

10.

Considers that preventing and identifying conflicts of interest is of high relevance for the efficient and correct use of resources as well as for public confidence in the Union institutions; awaits the Court of Auditors’ Special Report on conflicts of interest management in the European Aviation Safety Agency, the European Chemicals Agency, the European Food Safety Authority and the European Medicines Agency, as planned, by the end of June 2012;

11.

Welcomes the professional and courteous cooperation between the Court of Auditors and the Committee on Budgetary Control; welcomes, in this connection, the steps taken by the Court of Auditors to improve its role in line with Parliament’s request, with a view to having a broader and deeper impact so that its opinions and reports are more effective and useful and its systems and procedures more reliable, thereby strengthening the synergies between the two institutions;

12.

Commends the good cooperation between the Court of Auditors and the Committee on Budgetary Control regarding the 2010 discharge for the Joint Undertakings; invites the Court of Auditors to provide the discharge authority with a special report on the effectiveness of the Joint Undertakings’ establishment and on their added value for the efficient execution of Union research, technological development and demonstration programmes;

13.

Recalls that the Court of Auditors adopted an audit strategy for the 2009-2012 period, setting the following objectives: 1) maximising the overall impact of audits, and 2) increasing efficiency by making the best use of resources; is pleased to note that the Court of Auditors achieved the following priorities in 2010 (7):

14.

Welcomes the fact that the number of posts dedicated to audit tasks increased by 6 % (8);

15.

Notes that in 2010 the Court of Auditors had 889 officials, 48 contract agents and 17 seconded national experts; 557 officials were in audit chambers, including 123 in the Members’ private offices; would like the annual activity report, in future, to include a comprehensive table of all the human resources at the Court’s disposal, broken down by category, grade, gender, participation in professional training and nationality;

16.

Considers that for additional optimisation of the Court of Auditors’ activity, an even more substantial number of the Court’s officials should be specialised in, and performing exclusively audit tasks; expects to see an increase of this proportion in the future;

17.

Also notes that the Court of Auditors undertook a total of 376 audit missions – 351 to Member States and 25 elsewhere (France: 52, Germany: 38, United Kingdom: 32, Italy: 30; Spain: 26, Netherlands: 23, Sweden: 15, Portugal: 14, Greece: 13, Denmark: 12; Luxembourg: 11, Hungary: 10, Poland: 10);

18.

Requests the Court of Auditors to incorporate into its future work programmes a systematic follow-up of specific past audits, following a sufficient time lapse, to assess progress;

19.

Is pleased that the Court of Auditors uses key performance indicators to measure the efficient and effective use of resources; takes note of the ongoing progress made; would, however, like the Court of Auditors further to step up the presentation of preliminary findings issued on time (enabling it to confirm with the auditee the factual accuracy of its main findings) (9);

20.

Notes that the draft future Financial Regulation provides that, after consulting the Court of Auditors, agencies can appoint an independent external auditor to check whether their budget implementation complies with the provisions of the Financial Regulation; notes that the Court of Auditors would then take the external auditor’s report into account in drawing up its opinion; notes that in 2011 the Court of Auditors launched a pilot project with Eurofound (the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions);

21.

Follows with interest the pilot project and its outcome; acknowledges the benefits this new procedure could generate in streamlining the workload of the Court of Auditors; considers, none the less, that the outcome should be mainly evaluated via quality versus time and cost indicators;

22.

Encourages the Court of Auditors to perform an in-depth assessment of supervisory and control systems in the Council before the end of 2012, as mentioned in Parliament’s resolution on discharge for 2009 (10) (paragraph 8);

23.

Awaits with interest the ‘follow-up peer review’ that the Court of Auditors intends to launch in 2012; confirms its intention to produce an own-initiative report on improvements that could be suggested to the Court of Auditors; would like to be informed about the implementation of the conclusions of the last peer review;

24.

Also confirms its intention to propose a revision of the rules on appointing candidates to the Court of Auditors, with a view to improving the requirements so that the Court is better equipped to deal with current and future challenges.