14.12.2010   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 338/144

REPORT

on the annual accounts of Eurojust for the financial year 2009, together with Eurojust’s replies

2010/C 338/25

CONTENTS

 

Paragraph

Page

INTRODUCTION…

1-2

145

STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE…

3-12

145

COMMENTS ON THE BUDGETARY AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT…

13

146

OTHER MATTERS…

14

146

Table…

147

Eurojust’s replies…

148

INTRODUCTION

1.

Eurojust, located in The Hague, was set up by Council Decision 2002/187/JHA (1) with a view to stepping up the fight against serious organised crime. Its objective is to improve the coordination of investigations and prosecutions covering the territories of several Member States of the European Union, as well as that of non-member States (2).

2.

After the adoption of amending budget No 1, the Eurojust 2009 final budget amounted to 28,2 million euro compared with 24,8 million euro the previous year. The number of staff employed by Eurojust at the end of the year was 248 as compared with 222 the previous year.

12.

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

COMMENTS ON THE BUDGETARY AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

13.

In its 2007 and 2008 annual reports (12), the Court commented on the high rate of vacant posts at Eurojust (33 % and 26 % respectively). In 2009, no recruitment plan was prepared. As a result, the rate of vacant posts remains high (24 % at year end). In addition, three out of six middle management (Head of Unit) posts at Eurojust were filled on a temporary basis by ‘acting’ members of staff. This situation indicated difficulties in attracting and retaining the right staff as well as continuing shortcomings in the planning of recruitments.

OTHER MATTERS

14.

With regard to staff selection procedures, neither the thresholds candidates had to meet in order to be invited to interview nor those necessary to be put on the reserve list were fixed in advance. They were set by the selection boards after the evaluation and ranking of the candidates. In addition, important criteria set in the vacancy notices, such as relevant university degree and professional experience, were not taken into account in the final evaluation of the candidates, which was based only on the results of the written and oral tests. These practices put at risk the transparency of the recruitment procedures.

This Report was adopted by Chamber IV, headed by Mr Igors LUDBORŽS, Member of the Court of Auditors, in Luxembourg at its meeting of 14 and 16 September 2010.

For the Court of Auditors

Vítor Manuel da SILVA CALDEIRA

President

Table

Eurojust (The Hague)

Areas of Union competence deriving from the Treaty

Competences of Eurojust as defined in Council Decision 2002/187/JHA

Governance

Resources made available to Eurojust in 2009

(Data for 2008)

Products and services 2009

(Data for 2008)

Eurojust’s mission shall be to support and strengthen coordination and cooperation between national investigating and prosecuting authorities in relation to serious crime affecting two or more Member States or requiring a prosecution on common bases, on the basis of operations conducted and information supplied by the Member States’ authorities and by Europol.

(Article 85 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union)

Objectives

Article 3 Eurojust Decision

—

To stimulate and improve the coordination, of investigations and prosecutions between the competent national authorities of the Member States.

—

To improve cooperation, in particular by facilitating the exchange of information, mutual legal assistance and the implementation of extradition requests.

—

To support the competent authorities of the Member States in order to render their investigations and prosecutions more effective.

—

To provide support with procedures involving a Member State and a non-member State.

—

To provide support with procedures involving a Member State and the Union.

Tasks

Articles 5, 6 and 7 Eurojust Decision

To organise cooperation between the various national legal systems, Eurojust acts:

—

through its national members, or

—

as a College.

If the competent authorities of the Member State concerned decide not to respond to the requests which Eurojust has issued as a College, they shall inform Eurojust of the reasons for their decision.

1 —   The College is responsible for the organisation and operation of Eurojust.

2 —   The College is composed of national members who are seconded by each Member State in accordance with its legal system and who are prosecutors, judges or police officers of equivalent competence.

3 —   The College elects its President from among the national members.

4 —   The Joint Supervisory Body checks the processing of personal data.

5 —   The Administrative Director is unanimously appointed by the College.

6 —   External audit

Court of Auditors.

7 —   Discharge authority

Parliament, acting on a recommendation from the Council.

Budget

26,4 million euro subsidy plus 1,8 million euro assigned revenue (24,8 million euro subsidy)

Staff at 31 December 2009

185 (175) planned in the EP

of which occupied:

 

141 (130)

 

+

60 (43) other positions:

 

32 contract agents,

 

18 seconded national experts, 10 agency staff.

47 (49) others:

 

27 National members,

 

2 Liaison prosecutors,

 

12 deputies and 6 assistants.

Total staff: 248 (222)

Allocated to

Operational tasks: 131 (117)

Administrative tasks 89 (80)

Combined tasks: 28 (25)

Number of coordination meetings:

132 (132)

dealing with

Standard cases: 1 222 (1 025)

Complex cases: 150 (168)

Total number of cases:

1 372(1 193)

Fraud: 612 (810)

Fraud %: 45 % (68 %)

Drug trafficking: 230 (223)

Drug trafficking %: 17 % (19 %)

Terrorism: 19 (23)

Terrorism %: 14 % (2 %)

Murder: 90 (86)

Murder %: 6 % (7 %)

Trafficking in human beings:

74 (83)

Trafficking in human beings:

5 % (7 %)

Source: Information supplied by Eurojust.

EUROJUST’S REPLIES

13.

Eurojust acknowledges the Court’s observation. A recruitment plan was prepared towards the end of 2009 for recruitment activities in 2010 to ensure that the backlog in recruitment procedures could be significantly reduced by year end 2010.

14.

Eurojust acknowledges the Court’s findings. Since 1 March 2010 thresholds that applicants must meet in order to be invited for interview and thresholds necessary to be put on the reserve list are fixed in advance. As regards the final assessment of applicants, Eurojust will determine the importance and weight to be granted to each of the elements and start applying a holistic approach to staff selection procedures.

(1)  Decision of 28 February 2002 setting up Eurojust (OJ L 63, 6.3.2002, p. 1).

(2)  The Table summarises Eurojust's competences and activities. It is presented for information purposes.

(3)  These accounts are accompanied by a report on the budgetary and financial management during the year which gives, inter alia, an account of the rate of implementation of the appropriations with summary information on the transfers of appropriations among the various budget items.

(4)  The financial statements include the balance sheet and the economic outturn account, the cash-flow table, the statement of changes in capital and the annex to the financial statements which includes the description of the significant accounting policies and other explanatory information.

(5)  The budget implementation reports comprise the budget outturn account and its annex.

(6)  OJ L 248, 16.9.2002, p. 1.

(7)  Article 33 of Commission Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2343/2002 of 19 November 2002 (OJ L 357, 31.12.2002, p. 72).

(8)  Article 38 of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2343/2002.

(9)  The rules concerning the presentation of the accounts and accounting by the Agencies are laid down in Chapter 1 of Title VII of Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2343/2002 as last amended by Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 652/2008 of 9 July 2008 (OJ L 181, 10.7.2008, p. 23) and are integrated as such into Eurojust's Financial Regulation.

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

(11)  The Final Annual Accounts were drawn up on 15 June 2010 and received by the Court on 29 June 2010. The Final Annual Accounts, consolidated with those of the Commission are published in the Official Journal of the European Union by 15 November of the following year. These can be found on the following website http://eca.europa.eu or http://www.eurojust.europa.eu/adm_budg_finance.htm

(12)  See paragraph 14 of the 2008 Annual Report (OJ C 304, 15.12.2009, p. 131) and paragraph 9 of the 2007 Annual Report (OJ C 311, 5.12.2008, p. 142).