Drawing up of the budget
1. Estimates of all the revenue and expenditure of the Agency shall be prepared for each financial year, corresponding to the calendar year, and shall be shown in the budget of the Agency.
2. The revenue and expenditure shown in the budget of the Agency shall be in balance.
3. The revenue of the Agency shall, without prejudice to other resources, comprise a subsidy from the Community, entered in the general budget of the European Union (Commission section).
This revenue may be complemented by:
(a)
payments received for services rendered in the framework of the implementation of tasks listed in Article 4; and
(b)
financial contributions from the organisations or countries referred to in Articles 8, 9 and 28.
4. The expenditure of the Agency shall include staff remuneration, administrative and infrastructure costs and operating expenses.
5. Each year the Management Board, on the basis of a draft drawn up by the Director, shall produce an estimate of revenue and expenditure for the Agency for the following financial year. This estimate, which shall include a draft establishment plan, shall be transmitted by the Management Board to the Commission by 31 March at the latest.
6. The estimate shall be transmitted by the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council (hereinafter the budgetary authority) together with the preliminary draft budget of the European Union.
7. On the basis of the estimate, the Commission shall enter in the preliminary draft general budget of the European Union the estimates it considers necessary for the establishment plan and the amount of the subsidy to be charged to the general budget, which it shall place before the budgetary authority in accordance with Article 272 of the Treaty.
8. The budgetary authority shall authorise the appropriations for the subsidy to the Agency. The budgetary authority shall adopt the Agency's establishment plan.
9. The Agency's budget shall be adopted by the Management Board. It shall become final following the adoption of the general budget of the European Union. Where appropriate, it shall be adjusted accordingly.
10. The Management Board shall, as soon as possible, notify the budgetary authority of its intention to implement any project which may have significant financial implications for the funding of the Agency's budget, in particular any projects relating to property such as the rental or purchase of buildings. It shall inform the Commission thereof.
Where a branch of the budgetary authority has notified its intention to deliver an opinion, it shall forward its opinion to the Management Board within six weeks from the date of notification of the project.
Implementation of the budget
1. The Director shall implement the Agency's budget.
2. By 1 March at the latest following each financial year, the Agency's accounting officer shall communicate the provisional accounts to the Commission's accounting officer, together with a report on the budgetary and financial management for that financial year. The Commission's accounting officer shall consolidate the provisional accounts of the institutions and decentralised bodies in accordance with Article 128 of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 ( 10 ) (the Financial Regulation).
3. Not later than 31 March following each financial year, the Commission's accounting officer shall transmit the Agency's provisional accounts to the Court of Auditors, together with a report on the budgetary and financial management for that financial year. The report on the budgetary and financial management for that financial year shall also be transmitted to the European Parliament and the Council.
4. On receipt of the Court of Auditors' observations on the Agency's provisional accounts, pursuant to Article 129 of the Financial Regulation, the Director shall draw up the Agency's final accounts under his own responsibility and forward them to the Management Board for an opinion.
5. The Management Board shall deliver an opinion on the Agency's final accounts.
6. The Director shall, not later than 1 July following each financial year, transmit the final accounts to the European Parliament, the Council, the Commission and the Court of Auditors, together with the Management Board's opinion.
7. The final accounts shall be published.
8. The Director shall send the Court of Auditors a reply to its observations not later than 30 September. He/she shall also send this reply to the Management Board.
9. The Director shall submit to the European Parliament, at the latter's request, any information required for the smooth application of the discharge procedure for the financial year in question, as laid down in Article 146(3) of the Financial Regulation.
10. The European Parliament, on a recommendation from the Council acting by a qualified majority, shall, before 30 April of year N + 2, give a discharge to the Director in respect of the implementation of the budget for year N.
11. The financial rules applicable to the Agency shall be adopted by the Management Board after the Commission has been consulted. They may not depart from Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2343/2002, unless specifically required for the Agency's operation and with the Commission's prior consent.
Combating fraud
1. In order to combat fraud, corruption and other unlawful activities, the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 1073/1999 shall apply without restrictions to the Agency.
2. The Agency shall accede to the Inter-institutional Agreement of 25 May 1999 between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the Commission of the European Communities concerning internal investigations by the European Anti-fraud Office (OLAF) ( 11 ) and shall issue, without delay, the appropriate provisions applicable to its entire staff.
3. The decisions concerning funding and the implementing agreements and instruments resulting from them shall explicitly stipulate that the Court of Auditors and OLAF may carry out, if necessary, on-the-spot checks on the recipients of the Agency's funding and the staff responsible for allocating it.
