17.12.2013   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 369/49

1.

The SESAR Joint Undertaking, located in Brussels, was set up in February 2007 (1) in order to manage the activities of the SESAR (Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research) project.

2.

The SESAR project aims to modernise air traffic management (ATM) in Europe and is divided into three phases:

3.

The Joint Undertaking was designed as a public-private partnership. The founding members are the European Union represented by the Commission, and Eurocontrol, represented by its Agency. Following a call for expressions of interest, 15 public and private enterprises from the air navigation industry became members of the Joint Undertaking. They include air navigation service providers, representatives of the ground and aerospace manufacturing industry, aircraft manufacturers, airport authorities and airborne equipment manufacturers.

4.

The budget for the development phase of the SESAR project is 2,1 billion euro, to be provided in equal parts by the EU, Eurocontrol and the participating public and private partners. The EU contribution is funded from the Seventh Research Framework Programme and the Trans-European Networks – Transport programme. Around 90 % of the funding from Eurocontrol and the other stakeholders is in the form of in-kind contributions.

5.

The SESAR JU started to work autonomously on 10 August 2007.

6.

The audit approach taken by the Court comprises analytical audit procedures, testing of transactions at the level of the Joint Undertaking and an assessment of key controls of the supervisory and control systems. This is supplemented by evidence provided by the work of other auditors (where relevant) and an analysis of management representations.

7.

Pursuant to the provisions of Article 287 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the Court has audited:

8.

In accordance with Articles 33 and 43 of Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2343/2002 (4), the management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the annual accounts of the Joint Undertaking and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions

9.

The Court’s responsibility is, on the basis of its audit, to provide the European Parliament and the Council (6) with a statement of assurance as to the reliability of the annual accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions. The Court conducts its audit in accordance with the IFAC International Standards on Auditing and Codes of Ethics and the INTOSAI International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions. These standards require the Court to plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance as to whether the annual accounts of the Joint Undertaking are free from material misstatement and the underlying transactions are legal and regular.

10.

The audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions. The procedures selected depend on the auditor’s judgement, which is based on an assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the accounts and material non-compliance by the underlying transactions with the requirements in the legal framework of the European Union, whether due to fraud or error. In assessing these risks, the auditor considers any internal controls relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of the accounts, as well as the supervisory and control systems that are implemented to ensure the legality and regularity of underlying transactions, and designs audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances. The audit also entails evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies, the reasonableness of accounting estimates and the overall presentation of the accounts.

11.

The Court considers that the audit evidence obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for the opinions set out below.

12.

In the Court’s opinion, the Joint Undertaking’s annual accounts present fairly, in all material respects, its financial position as at 31 December 2012 and the results of its operations and cash flows for the year then ended, in accordance with the provisions of its financial rules and the accounting rules adopted by the Commission’s accounting officer.

13.

In the Court’s opinion, the transactions underlying the annual accounts for the year ended 31 December 2012 are, in all material respects, legal and regular.

14.

The following comments do not call the Court’s opinions into question.

15.

The final 2012 budget adopted by the Administrative Board reported commitment appropriations of 156,6 million euro and payment appropriations of 124,2 million euro. The utilisation rates for commitment and payment appropriations were 95,0 % and 86,3 % respectively.

16.

The provisional 2012 budget outturn account shows 12,4 million euro, with receipts comprising member contributions and other sources of revenue of 107,4 and 0,1 million euro respectively, plus the previous year’s budget surplus of 15,6 million euro. This total is netted against payments of 107,3 million euro. Year-end cash and cash equivalents amount to 15,7 million euro.

17.

At 31 December 2012, the SESAR Joint Undertaking development phase consisted of work by 16 members on programme activities involving more than 100 private and public entities and subcontractors. Of the 336 projects selected, 312 (92,8 %) were being implemented.

18.

Of the co-financing contributions paid to members by the European Union and Eurocontrol (595 million euro), 437,5 million euro had been committed and 233,8 million euro had been paid at 31 December 2012. It is anticipated that the remaining 158 million euro will be committed by 31 December 2013, and that 361,2 million euro will be paid by 31 December 2016.

19.

The accounting officer confirmed the validation of the underlying business processes in April 2013, reflecting the fact that no significant changes were made to the internal control system during the 2012 financial year.

20.

On the basis of the award of programme activities as formalised in the Multilateral Framework Agreement and subsequent amendments, net in-kind contributions over the life of SESAR are estimated, at 31 December 2012, to be 1 300 million euro. The Executive Director validated net in-kind contributions of 139,2 million euro during 2012.

21.

The Court notes that improvements are required in the following ex ante control areas:

22.

In accordance with the IAS/IAC coordinated strategic audit plan for the SESAR Joint Undertaking for 2012-2014, a programme/project audit and an IT risk assessment were carried out by the IAS. The SESAR IAC examined three calls for tenders and audited the implementation of four internal control standards. It also provided follow-up to the IAC’s 2010 and 2011 reports, as well as other assurance services.

23.

The SESAR Joint Undertaking’s policies and practices on the protection, dissemination and transfer of research activities and intellectual property rights (IPR), and the related monitoring and reporting systems, are governed by Regulation (EC) No 219/2007 (7).

24.

Detailed rules are given in membership agreements (MA) and the Multilateral Framework Agreement (MFA) between the SESAR Joint Undertaking and its members. In particular, Article 15 of the MFA states that the Administrative Board must further define how the rules on IPR are to be implemented.

25.

The IPR provisions of these three documents are largely based on the rules set out in the FP7 and TEN-T, account being taken of the particular characteristics of the SESAR Joint Undertaking as a public-private partnership.

26.

Implementation of these provisions is monitored by the SESAR Joint Undertaking at different stages of the funded projects, and reports are issued to the Administrative Board. In June 2013, the Joint Undertaking reported on IPR monitoring by providing the Administrative Board with a report devoted exclusively to the Joint Undertaking’s monitoring of the IPR provisions to date.