30.12.2004   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 324/75

1

2-5

6-12

1.

The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (hereinafter referred to as the Foundation) was set up by Council Regulation (EEC) No 1365/75 of 26 May 1975 (1). Its aim is to contribute to the planning and establishment of better living and working conditions in the European Union by increasing and disseminating knowledge which is relevant to this subject. Table 1 summarises the powers and activities of the Foundation on the basis of information supplied by it.

2.

This report is addressed to the European Parliament and the Council in accordance with Article 185(2) of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 (2).

3.

The Court has examined the Foundation's annual accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2003. In accordance with Article 16 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 1365/75, the budget was implemented on the responsibility of its Director. This responsibility includes the drawing-up and presentation of the accounts (3), in accordance with the internal financial provisions provided for in the same article. The Court of Auditors is required under Article 248 of the Treaty establishing the European Community to examine these accounts.

4.

The Court carried out its audit in accordance with its auditing policies and standards. These have been adapted from generally accepted international auditing standards to reflect the specific nature of the Community context. It examined the accounting documents and applied the audit procedures it considered necessary in this context.

5.

The Court thus obtained reasonable assurance that the annual accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2003 were reliable and that the underlying transactions were, taken as a whole, legal and regular. The content of the observations which follow does not call into question the audit opinion expressed by the Court in this report.

6.

Table 2 shows the implementation of appropriations for the financial year 2003 and the appropriations carried over from the previous financial year. The Foundation's revenue and expenditure account and the balance sheet for the financial year 2003 are summarised in Tables 3 and 4.

7.

The Foundation signed an agreement with the Commission in the context of the Phare programme. Under this agreement, the Foundation received an allocation of one million euro, of which 639 000 euro were received in 2003. These funds were managed outside the budget. An amending budget should have been drawn up.

8.

The revenue and expenditure account shows a loss which has accumulated over several financial years and which the Foundation has asked the Commission to reimburse. The Commission has regarded the corresponding payment as part of the subsidy for the financial year 2003, which means that the loss has not been discharged. Under the new provisions of the Foundation's financial regulation, if the balance of the outturn account for a particular year is negative, an amending budget (4) must be drawn up for the following year.

9.

The Foundation's new financial regulation and its implementing rules were adopted by the Governing Board on 28 March 2003. These rules (5) provide for the introduction of a new internal control system (including internal audit), which was not finalised until the beginning of 2004.

10.

Article 43(1)(e) of the Foundation's financial regulation provides that the accounting officer is to validate the systems laid down by the authorising officer to supply or justify accounting information. This validation did not take place during the financial year.

11.

According to the basic regulation drawn up in 1975, the Foundation's principal aim is to contribute to the establishment of better living and working conditions by increasing and disseminating knowledge which is relevant to this subject. In particular, the Foundation is required to consider the following areas: man at work, organisation of work, problems peculiar to certain categories of workers, long-term aspects of the improvement of the environment and the distribution of human activities in space and in time. Certain aspects of these subjects have in practice been dealt with by other Agencies which have been set up since then (European Environment Agency, European Agency for Safety and Health at Work). The Foundation on the other hand has developed the analysis of other, more specific, aspects such as industrial relations.

12.

The Foundation's activities are governed by four-year rolling programmes, the most recent of which covers the period 2001 to 2004. While the main aim of the most recent programme was to achieve a greater concentration on certain key areas, in 2002 the Foundation added a further area to the three already selected. The planning of the Foundation's work programme ought to be reviewed in consultation with the other Agencies that deal with subjects related to its area of activity so as to ensure that the basic priorities are well covered, to develop possible synergies and to avoid repeating work already carried out. The review of the Foundation's basic regulation which has been proposed by the Commission ought to be the occasion to do it.