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 Network and Information Security 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.

Congratulates the Agency on its performance in 2008, the improvement in the resilience of European electronic communication networks, development and cooperation with Member States;

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.

Notes that the Court of Auditors found deficiencies in procurement procedures, particularly with regard to the under-estimation of the budgets of a framework contract; stresses in particular that underestimating procurement budgets constitutes an obstacle to fair competition as firms are less prone to present offers for limited amounts; notes, nonetheless, the response of the Agency, which, in the third quarter of 2009, issued a new call for tenders in order to remedy its previous deficiencies;

4.

Notes that the Agency continues to take all possible measures to obtain from the tax authorities of the host Member State a refund of EUR 45 000, corresponding to the amount of VAT paid in advance by the Agency;

5.

Notes that the Agency’s accounts for the financial year 2008 show income from interest in the amount of EUR 143 818; concludes from the annual closure of accounts and the amount of interest payments that the Agency maintains enormously high cash reserves over long periods; notes that as of 31 December 2008 the Agency’s cash reserves amounted to EUR 2 436 694; 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 in full and what changes in approach are needed to ensure that the Agency’s cash reserves are kept as low as possible on a long-term basis;

6.

Congratulates the Agency on the fact that all eight recommendations of the Internal Audit Service considered to be ‘very important’ have been implemented; notes that those recommendations related to the follow-up to the implementation of the internal control standard audit and human resources management (e.g. staff policy, renewal of contracts ending in 2008, independence of the selection committees, training services and transparency in the promotion procedure);

7.

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.