Brussels, 05/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's budgetary control committee decided on Monday 4 April to postpone granting discharge for the implementation of the 2014 budgets of three European programmes: Artemis, ENIAC and ITER.
These three “joint undertakings” of eight projects launched as European partnerships with private companies failed to persuade the budgetary control committee that European funding had been properly managed.
The Stockholm-based Artemis project (now merged and renamed Electronic Components and Systems for European Leadership - ECSEL) and the Brussels-based nanoelectronics project ENIAC (European Nanoelectronics Initiative Advisory Council) were criticised for not delivering information necessary to calculate the error rates. They should provide additional documents and information from their respective national audit bodies, MEPs recommended.
The ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) project based in Barcelona is also in MEPs' sights. In adopting the report by Marian-Jean Marinescu (EPP, Romania), the Parliament's budgetary control committee decided (as it had done in 2015 at this same stage in the procedure, see EUROPE 11281), to postpone its decision on granting the director of the ITER joint undertaking discharge in respect of the implementation of the joint undertaking's budget for the financial year. The MEPs pointed out that the annual report on budgetary and financial management lacked coherence and was often incomplete and that the “ITER Council” failed to publish a new action plan. The MEPs were concerned that, in view of the complexity of the joint undertaking's activities, there was a significant risk that costs in the construction phase of the project could rise.
Postponement of granting discharge recommended. With the adoption of the report by Ryszard Czarnecki (ECR, Poland) and for the sixth consecutive year, the budgetary control committee recommended that Parliament postpone granting discharge to the Council of Ministers and the European Council due to their failure to cooperate with Parliament by supplying the figures it needs to make an assessment of spending.
Igor Soltes (Greens/EFA, Slovenia) was critical of a “costly” project, poor management of the ITER joint enterprise and the negative impact on other EU budget lines.
The Budgetary Control Committee voted on Monday on the management of EU funds at 33 EU decentralised agencies, eight joint undertakings and eight EU institutions. Voting will continue on Thursday 7 April on the European Commission budget (the general EU budget), the European Parliament, the European Development Funds and the European External Action Service (EEAS). The committee's recommendations will be put to a vote by Parliament as a whole on 28 April. Parliament will take its final decision on the postponed discharges in October. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)