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having regard to the final annual accounts of the SESAR Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2009,

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having regard to the Court of Auditors’ report on the annual accounts of the SESAR Joint Undertaking for the financial year ended 31 December 2009, together with the replies of the Joint Undertaking (1),

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having regard to the Council’s recommendation of 15 February 2011 (05894/2011 — C7-0051/2011),

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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 Council Regulation (EC) No 1361/2008 of 16 December 2008 amending Regulation (EC) No 219/2007 on the establishment of a joint undertaking to develop the new generation European air traffic management system (SESAR) (3), and in particular Article 4b thereof,

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having regard to the Financial Rules of the SESAR Joint Undertaking adopted by the SESAR Administrative Board on 28 July 2009 (hereinafter ‘SESAR Financial Rules’),

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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 (A7-0124/2011),

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 the SESAR Joint Undertaking was set up in February 2007 to run the Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research (SESAR) programme,

C.

whereas the Joint Undertaking is in a start-up phase and had not yet fully established its internal control and financial reporting systems by the end of 2009,

D.

whereas the Joint Undertaking will own all the tangible and intangible assets which it creates or which are transferred to it for the development phase of the SESAR project in accordance with specific agreements with its members,

E.

whereas in April 2010 the Court of Auditors delivered Opinion No 2/2010 on the SESAR Joint Undertaking Financial Rules,

1.

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

2.

Notes that the Joint Undertaking received EUR 55 000 000 in commitment appropriations and EUR 27 689 788 in payment appropriations from the Union budget for 2009;

3.

Notes that the Joint Undertaking final 2009 budget included commitment appropriations of EUR 325 000 000 and payment appropriations of EUR 157 000 000; further acknowledges that the utilisation rates for commitment and payment appropriations were 97,1 % and 43,2 % respectively;

4.

Recognises that the Joint Undertaking is still in a start-up period given that Regulation (EC) No 1361/2008, modifying the basic act of the SESAR Joint Undertaking (EC) No 219/2007, was only adopted on 16 December 2008;

5.

Notes that year-end bank deposits totalling EUR 86 800 000 represent a breach of the budgetary principle of equilibrium;

6.

Considers it important to set out the conditions under which, if the balance of the outturn account is positive, it shall be entered in the budget of the Joint Undertaking of the following financial year in order to specify the application of this derogation from the general budgetary principle of equilibrium;

7.

Is concerned that an integrated management system, allowing costs to be allocated to specific work packages and funding sources of operational costs to be identified, was not in place by December 2009;

8.

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;

9.

Calls on the Joint Undertaking to harmonise the presentation of members’ contributions in the accounts under the guidance of the Commission;

10.

Calls on the Joint Undertaking to further develop in its Implementing Rules Articles 97 and 98 of the SESAR Financial Rules with provisions on membership and co-financing and, in particular, on:

11.

Urges the Joint Undertaking to complete the implementation of its internal controls and financial information system;

12.

Welcomes the Court of Auditors’ finding that important steps were taken in 2009 to establish control systems but expresses concern that an integrated tool to manage financial, budget and operational information was not in place at year-end; notes the Joint Undertaking’s response that financial systems were in place by May 2010;

13.

Calls on the Joint Undertaking to include in its Financial Rules a specific reference to the powers of the Internal Audit Service (IAS) as its Internal Auditor, on the basis of the provision set out in the framework Financial Regulation for Community bodies;

14.

Considers, in particular, that the role of the IAS as Internal Auditor should be to advise the Joint Undertaking on dealing with risks, by issuing independent opinions on the quality of management and control systems and by issuing recommendations for improving the conditions of implementation of operations and promoting sound financial management; considers it to be also essential that the Joint Undertaking submit to the discharge authority a report drawn up by its director summarising the number and the type of internal audits conducted by the Internal Auditor, the recommendations made and the actions taken regarding these recommendations;

15.

Is of the opinion that, in view of the size of its budget and the complexity of its tasks, the Joint Undertaking should establish an audit committee, reporting directly to the Administrative Board;

16.

Acknowledges that following the entry into force of Regulation (EC) No 1361/2008 amending Regulation (EC) No 219/2007, the Administrative Board adopted new SESAR Financial Rules on 28 July 2009; considers that these rules are largely based on the principles of the framework Financial Regulation although is of the opinion that further improvement could be made in relation to: