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having regard to the final annual accounts of the European Aviation Safety Agency for the financial year 2009,

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having regard to the Court of Auditors’ report on the annual accounts of the European Aviation Safety Agency for the financial year 2009, together with the Agency’s replies (1),

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having regard to the Council’s recommendation of 15 February 2011 (05892/2011 — C7-0052/2011),

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having regard to Article 276 of the EC Treaty and Article 319 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

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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 (2), and in particular Article 185 thereof,

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having regard to Regulation (EC) No 216/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council (3) establishing a European Aviation Safety Agency, and in particular Article 60 thereof,

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having regard to Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2343/2002 of 19 November 2002 on the framework Financial Regulation for the bodies referred to in Article 185 of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities (4), and in particular Article 94 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 and the opinion of the Committee on Transport and Tourism (A7-0123/2011),

A.

whereas the Court of Auditors stated that it has obtained reasonable assurances that the annual accounts for the financial year 2009 are reliable and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular,

B.

whereas on 5 May 2010 Parliament granted the Executive Director of the European Aviation Safety Agency discharge for implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2008 (5), and in its resolution accompanying the discharge decision, inter alia:

C.

whereas the budget of the Agency for 2009 was EUR 92 500 000, which is an increase of 6 % on the financial year 2008; whereas the reserve for fees and charges activities for 2009 was EUR 29 500 000,

1.

Welcomes the fact that the Court of Auditors found the Agency’s accounts for 2009 to be reliable and the underlying transactions to be, in all material respects, legal and regular;

2.

Notes that the Agency’s budget increased by 28 % from 2007 to 2009;

3.

Notes that the Agency received EUR 31 540 000 in commitment appropriations and EUR 29 180 000 in payment appropriations from the 2009 Union budget;

4.

Notes, in addition, that the Agency’s overall budget increased by almost 20 % from EUR 102 000 000 to EUR 122 000 000 from 2008 to 2009 and that staff numbers rose from 440 to 509;

5.

Stresses, once more, how important it is for the Agency to set SMART objectives and RACER indicators in its programming so as to assess its achievements; notes the reply from the Agency, which gives an assurance that it has improved its work programme for 2010, establishing objectives and key performance indicators and a better resource planning system; calls, in addition, on the Agency to consider making a Gantt diagram part of the programming for each of its operational activities, with a view to indicating in a concise form the amount of time spent by each staff member on a project and encouraging an approach geared towards achieving results;

6.

Urges the Agency to implement an activity-based structure for the operational budget in order to establish a clear link between the work programme and the financial forecasts and improve performance monitoring and reporting; notes that the Agency prepares a multiannual plan every year, discussed with all stakeholders and approved by the Management Board, in which the budget per activity is presented; acknowledges the view of the Court of Auditors that the structure of the Agency’s operational budget (Title III) remained partially input-related and that the budget amendments were made without updating the work programme, even when they had a significant impact on the allocation of human and financial resources;

7.

Calls once more on the Agency to set out, in a table to be annexed to the Court of Auditors’ next report, a comparison of the operations that were carried out during the year for which discharge is to be granted and during the previous financial year so as to enable the discharge authority to assess more effectively the Agency’s performance from one year to the next;

8.

Draws attention to the fact that once again the Agency carried forward to 2010 a high level of appropriations for operating expenditure (65 % from Title III — Operational activities — when assigned revenues are excluded from the carryovers, the percentage of commitments carried forward is 13 %); stresses that this is at odds with the principle of annuality; acknowledges that a certain uncertainty about the level of fees and charges is inherent in the Agency’s initial business cycle because of the multiannuality of the projects; stresses, in addition, that this situation reveals weaknesses in the Agency’s resource planning system resulting from a delay in signing the service contract; calls, accordingly, for more accurate and timely management of contracts and for far more realistic forecasts to be presented to Parliament and the Commission for the next financial year, allowing sufficient time for these to be analysed;

9.

Requests that a report be attached to each year’s budget on the unspent appropriations carried over from previous years, explaining why those monies have not been used and how and when they will be used;

10.

Notes that 2009 was the second full year of implementation of certification tasks under Commission Regulation (EC) No 593/2007 of 31 May 2007 on the fees and charges levied by the European Aviation Safety Agency (6);

11.

Calls once more on the Agency to improve its monitoring system for certification projects to make sure that, over the entire project duration, the fees levied do not deviate significantly from the actual cost;

12.

Calls on the Agency, specifically, to correctly estimate, for the establishment of the 2010 financial statements, the accrued expenditure related to the management of certification tasks outsourced to national aviation authorities; notes, in fact, that the Court of Auditors reported that the related accrued expenditure at the year end was estimated by assuming an overall percentage of completion not justified by historical experience; acknowledges, nevertheless, the Agency’s intention to introduce a ‘flat-rate agreement’ for certain services (minor changes, minor repairs, standard Supplemental Type Certificates, organisations oversight) to provide for the availability of reliable project costs at the time a service is outsourced;

13.

Notes, in addition, deficiencies in staff selection procedures which put at risk the transparency of these procedures; acknowledges, that the Court of Auditors reported in respect of these procedures that the decisions by the selection boards were insufficiently justified and documented since thresholds for being invited to interview or put on the reserve list were not defined in advance and minutes were missing;

14.

Urges the Agency to inform the discharge authority on the actions taken to redress this situation and make the selection procedures of its experts/staff more transparent; stresses that the impact of these deficiencies is even more crucial when considering that the Agency has the objectives of issuing certification specifications, taking decisions regarding airworthiness and environmental certification and conducting standardisation inspections of the competent authorities in the Member States;

15.

Acknowledges that the Agency has implemented 20 out of the 26 recommendations made by the Internal Audit Service (IAS) since 2006;

16.

Acknowledges that the Agency has sent the discharge authority a report drawn up by its Executive Director summarising the content of the IAS recommendation as provided for in Article 72(5) of the framework Financial Regulation; nevertheless, calls on the Executive Director of the Agency to provide specific information on the content of all open recommendations of the IAS in 2009;

17.

Refers, in respect of the other observations accompanying its Decision on discharge, which are of a horizontal nature, to its resolution of 10 May 2011 (7) on the performance, financial management and control of the agencies.