5.12.2008   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 311/164

REPORT

on the annual accounts of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction for the financial year 2007 together with the Centre's replies

(2008/C 311/24)

CONTENTS

1-2

 INTRODUCTION

3-6

 STATEMENT OF ASURANCE

7-8

 OBSERVATIONS

Tables 1 to 4

The Centre's replies

INTRODUCTION

1.

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (hereinafter the Centre) was established by Council Regulation (EEC) No 302/93 of 8 February 1993 (1). Its main task is to collect data on drugs and drug addiction in order to prepare and publish information that is objective, reliable and comparable at European level. The information is intended to provide a basis for analysing the demand for drugs and ways of reducing it, as well as, in general, phenomena associated with the drug market.

2.

Table 1 summarises the Centre's competences and activities. Key data taken from the financial statements drawn up by the Centre for the financial year 2007 are presented inTables 2, 3 and 4for information purposes.

STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE

3.

This Statement of Assurance is addressed to the European Parliament and the Council in accordance with Article 185(2) of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 (2). It was drawn up following an examination of the Centre's accounts, as required by Article 248 of the Treaty establishing the European Community.

4.

The Centre's accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2007 (3) were drawn up by its Director, pursuant to Article 11 of Regulation (EEC) No 302/93, and sent to the Court, which is required to give a statement of assurance on their reliability and on the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions.

5.

The Court conducted its audit in accordance with the IFAC and ISSAI (4) International Auditing Standards and Codes of Ethics, in so far as these are applicable in the European Community context. The audit was planned and performed to obtain reasonable assurance that the accounts are reliable and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular.

6.

The Court has thus obtained a reasonable basis for the Statement below:

Reliability of the accountsThe Centre's accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2007 are, in all material respects, reliable.Legality and regularity of underlying transactionsThe transactions underlying the Centre's annual accounts, taken as a whole, are legal and regular.The observations which follow do not call the Court's Statement into question.

OBSERVATIONS

7.

The Centre's 2007 final budget amounted to 14,4 million euro, as compared with 13,1 million euro the previous year. The Centre's budget is mainly financed by subsidies from the Commission. The final budget, adopted on 23 October 2007, included supplementary appropriations of 469 000 euro; most of these, i.e. 420 000 euro, increasing by more than 80 % the initial amount of the budget line for IT operations.

8.

The Centre is in disagreement with Norway concerning the calculation of Norway's financial contribution for its participation in the Centre's work (applicable from 2007 onwards). The disagreement is due to the fact that the formula in the signed original agreement (applied by the Centre) differs from the formula in the agreement as published in the Official Journal (applied by Norway). The Centre has accounted for this contribution using its interpretation of the formula. The Centre should seek to resolve this disagreement as soon as possible as it has an impact on the budget and on the Centre's financial statements (5).

This report was adopted by the Court of Auditors in Luxembourg at its meeting of 24 and 25 September 2008.

For the Court of Auditors

Vítor Manuel da SILVA CALDEIRA

President

(1)  OJ L 36, 12.2.1993. This Regulation was amended by Regulations (EC) No 3294/94 of 22 December 1994 (OJ L 341, 30.12.1994, p. 7) and (EC) No 1651/2003 of 18 June 2003 (OJ L 245, 29.9.2003, p. 30).

(2)  OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1.

(3)  These accounts were drawn up on 30 June 2008 and received by the Court on 7 July 2008.

(4)  International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAI).

(5)  The Centre's estimation is approximately 80 000 euro higher than that of the Norwegian authorities.

 

Table 1

European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (Lisbon)

Areas of Community competence deriving from the Treaty

The Centre's powers as defined in Regulation (EC) No 1920/2006 of the Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006

Governance

Resources available to the Centre in 2007

(Data for 2006)

Products and services supplied in 2007

(Data for 2006)

The Community complements the Member States' action in reducing drugs-related health damage, including information and prevention.

(Article 152 of the Treaty)

Objectives

To provide the Union and its Member States with factual, objective, reliable and comparable information at Community level concerning drugs, drug addiction and their consequences.

The Monitoring Centre should focus on the following priority areas:

1.

monitoring the state of the drugs problem, and emerging trends, in particular those involving multi-drug use;

2.

monitoring the solutions and providing information on best practices;

3.

assessing the risks of new psychoactive substances and maintaining a rapid information system;

4.

developing tools and instruments to help Member States to monitor and evaluate their national policies and the Commission to monitor and evaluate EU policies.

Tasks

—

To collect and analyse data.

—

To improve data-comparison methods.

—

To disseminate data.

—

To cooperate with European and international bodies and organisations and with third countries.

—

To identify new developments and changing trends.

1.   The Management Board

Comprises one representative from each MemberState, two representatives of the Commission and two independent experts designated by the European Parliament.

It adopts the work Programme, the general activities report and the budget.

2.   Director

Appointed by the Management Board at the Commission's proposal.

3.   Scientific Committee

Delivers opinions. It consists of at most fifteen well-known scientists appointed in view of their excellence by the Management Board following a call for expressions of interest. The Management Board may also appoint a panel of experts to the extended Scientific Committee for risk assessment of new psychoactive substances.

4.   External audit

Court of Auditors.

5.   Discharge authority

Parliament acting on a recommendation from the Council.

Final budget

14,4 million euro (13,1 million euro). Community subsidy 93 % (92 %).

Number of posts in establishment plan: 82 (77)

Posts occupied: 73 (68)

+25 (23) other staff (auxiliary contracts, contract staff and temporary replacements)

Total staff: 98 (91)

Assigned to the following duties:

operational: 60 (53,5)

administrative and IT support: 29 (30)

mixed: 9 (7,5)

Network:

The Centre runs a computerised network for the collection and exchange of information called the ‘European Information Network on Drugs and Drug Addiction’ (Reitox); this network connects national drug information networks, specialist centres in the MemberStates and the information systems of international organisations working with the Centre.

Publications:

—

Annual report on the state of the drug problem in Europe; 23 language versions, publication and interactive website);

—

Selected issues published alongside the Annual report (3 issues, publication, summaries and interactive website, EN);

—

Statistical bulletin and interactive website containing over 350 (250) tables, 100 (150) graphs and PDF files;

—

General activities report — annual, EN;

—

Drugnet Europe newsletter — 4 issues, EN (4);

—

Drugs in Focus (policy briefings) — 3 issues, 25 language versions;

—

Technical and scientific studies, including Articles and scientific summaries 57 (37);

Other websites:

Set-up/updating/content development of public EMCDDA website:

—

Drug profiles,

—

Country situation summaries,

—

Country data profiles,

—

Drug treatment overviews,

—

European legal database on drugs,

—

Evaluation instruments bank,

—

Exchange on drug demand reduction action,

—

FONTE: a data collection, validation, storage and retrieval system

Promotional brochures: 3 (4) products

Media products: 174 (174) miscellaneous products

Participation in international conferences/meetings: 230 (162)

Organisation of technical and scientific meetings: 41 (27)

Source: Information supplied by the Centre.


Table 2

European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (Lisbon) — Budget implementation for the financial year 2007

(1000 euro)

Revenue

Expenditure

Source of revenue

Revenue entered in the final budget for the financial year

Revenue received

Allocation of expenditure

Final budget appropriations for the financial year

Appropriations carried over from the previous financial year

entered

committed

paid

carried over

cancelled

available

paid

carried over

cancelled

Community subsidies

13 469

13 469

Title I

Staff (NDA)

7 118

7 098

7 011

87

20

95

88

0

7

Other subsidies

412

333

Title II

Administrations (NDA)

2 093

2 064

1 294

770

30

405

307

0

97

 

 

 

Title III

Operational activities (DA)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CA

4 669

4 498

 

 

172

 

 

 

 

PA

4 669

 

4 452

 

218

 

 

 

 

Assigned revenue (Phare and CARDS)

550

0

Assigned revenue (Phare and CARDS)

550

26

0

 

550

584

257

327

0

Other assigned revenue

pm

251

Other assigned revenue

pm

220

177

74

0

144

139

0

5

Total

14 431

14 053

Total CA

14 431

13 906

 

 

772

 

 

 

 

Total PA

14 431

 

12 934

931

818

1 228

791

327

109

NDA

:

non-differentiated appropriations (commitment appropriations equal payment appropriations).

DA

:

differentiated appropriations (commitment appropriations and payment appropriations may differ).

CA

:

commitment appropriations in a system of differentiated appropriations.

PA

:

payment appropriations in a system of differentiated appropriations.

Source: Data supplied by the Centre. This table summarises the data provided by the Centre in its annual accounts.


Table 3

European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (Lisbon) — Economic outturn account for the financial years 2007 and 2006

(1000 euro)

 

2007

2006

Operating revenue

Community subsidy

13 369

13 394

Other revenues

662

93

Total (a)

14 031

13 488

Operating expenditure

Staff expenditure

7 044

6 566

Fixed asset-related expenditure

358

292

Other administrative expenditure

1 289

2 369

Operating expenditure

5 028

4 629

Total (b)

13 719

13 857

Surplus /(deficit) from operating activities (c = a – b)

312

– 370

Revenue from financial operations (e)

—

—

Expenditure on financial operations (f)

17

16

Surplus /(deficit) from non-operating activities (g = e – f)

–17

–16

Economic result for the year (h = c + g)

295

– 385

Source: Data supplied by the Centre — This table summarises the data provided by the Centre in its annual accounts.


Table 4

European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (Lisbon) — Balance sheet at 31 December 2007 and 2006

(1000 euro)

 

2007

2006

Non-current assets

Intangible fixed assets

426

374

Tangible fixed assets

2 725

2 809

Current assets

Short-term receivables

556

416

Cash and cash equivalents

1 847

1 881

Total assets

5 554

5 480

Current liabilities

Provisions for risks and charges

165

149

Accounts payable

2 606

2 843

Total liabilities

2 771

2 992

Net assets

2 783

2 488

Reserves

Accumulated surplus/deficit

2 488

2 872

Economic result for the year

295

– 385

Net capital

2 783

2 488

Source: Data supplied by the Centre — This table summarises the data provided by the Centre in its annual accounts.

THE CENTRE'S REPLIES

7.

The referred supplementary appropriations were entered into the EMCDDA 2007 budget by means of the amending and supplementary budget adopted by the EMCDDA on 23 October 2007. These appropriations aimed at coping with supplementary needs that could not be anticipated when the initial 2007 budget was adopted (December 2006). These needs depended on some factors/events that were only known during the third quarter of 2007, namely the schedule for the EMCDDA's move into its new premises and associated IT technical requirements. However, in accordance with the position expressed by the Court, the EMCDDA is fully committed to pursuing its constant efforts to anticipate and plan, as much as possible, its budget needs.

8.

The EMCDDA is actively trying to reach a compromise with the Norwegian authorities in order to overcome the current impasse, whilst avoiding jeopardising the EMCDDA's activities/operations and its good relations with Norway.