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having regard to the final annual accounts of the European Maritime 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 Maritime 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 1406/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 June 2002 establishing a European Maritime Safety Agency (3), and in particular Article 19 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 (A7-0132/2011),

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 Maritime 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 48 000 000, which is a decrease of 3,8 % on the financial year 2008,

1.

Welcomes the fact that the Court of Auditors found the Agency’s accounts for 2009 to be reliable and regarded the transactions underlying them, taken as a whole, as legal and regular;

2.

Notes that the Agency received EUR 44 335 000 in commitment appropriations and EUR 48 300 000 in payment appropriations from the 2009 Union budget;

3.

Congratulates the Agency for having adopted in March 2010 its five-year multiannual work programme;

4.

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; calls, accordingly, on the Agency to inform the discharge authority of the steps taken by the Agency in this respect;

5.

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;

6.

Considers it a matter of concern that the Court of Auditors has again noted a high number of budget transfers in 2009 (49 in 2009, 52 in 2008 and 32 in 2007); accordingly, urges the Agency to improve its planning and monitoring in order to reduce the number of budget transfers;

7.

Calls on the Agency to further reduce the number of posteriori commitments (i.e. legal commitments that were entered into before the corresponding budgetary commitments were made); reminds the Agency that, since 2006, the Court of Auditors has reported infringements of Article 62(1) of the framework Financial Regulation; welcomes, nevertheless, the Agency’s efforts to improve this situation by providing ad-hoc training to avoid posteriori commitments;

8.

Urges the Agency to correctly apply procurement procedures; notes with satisfaction that in the Annual Report of 2009 the Agency has included a specific Annex on negotiated procedures, in order to inform the budgetary authority;

9.

Notes deficiencies in staff selection procedures which put at risk the transparency of these procedures; accordingly, urges the Agency to redress the present weaknesses, namely: the lack of respect for the anonymity of candidates completing written tests, the lack of compliance with the predefined criteria, and the inconsistency of criteria for short-listing candidates;

10.

Recalls that the Executive Director of the Agency shall make available the content of all recommendations of the internal audits conducted by the Internal Auditor pursuant to his obligation to report to the discharge authority with a summary of the Internal Audit Service (IAS) Report;

11.

Acknowledges that the IAS performed an audit concerning the management of the fleet of vessels in the area of pollution preparedness in order to assess the adequacy and effectiveness of the internal control system as regards the oil pollution preparedness and response system; calls on the Agency to rapidly implement the IAS ‘very important’ recommendations; stresses in particular the need to:

12.

Acknowledges also that the IAS performed an audit on the follow-up to the implementation of the action plan; notes that the IAS recommendations which still need to be implemented by the Agency include establishing: an internal risk assessment; an inventory of existing internal procedures, a roadmap for the development and implementation of the remaining procedures, a record of the exceptions procedures, and a review of the internal control system;

13.

Welcomes the Agency’s initiative of establishing in 2008 an Internal Audit function (Internal Audit Capability-IAC) which is dedicated to provide support and advice to the Agency’s Executive Director and management on internal control, risk assessment and internal audit; notes that the Agency does not employ a full time IAC but shares the IAC with the Community Fisheries Control Agency (CFCA); acknowledges, to this end, that a Service Level Agreement between the Agency and CFCA was signed on 17 June 2008; considers this shared service a best practice to be promoted by other agencies;

14.

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 (6) on the performance, financial management and control of the agencies.