The European Parliament today postponed the discharge for two EU agencies for the financial year 2009. Monica Macovei is the EPP Group Shadow Rapporteur for the discharge of all EU agencies ('discharge' is the approval of how the EU institutions implemented their budget in that financial year and the closure of that budget).

In the case of the European Police College, almost half of the money carried over to 2009 was not spent and 43% of the 2009 budget was carried over to 2010; moreover serious and repeated violations of public procurement rules were identified, together with irregularities in staff selection.

As for the European Medicines Agency, criticism includes errors in the procurement for an IT contract of about 30 million euro, breach of personnel selection rules and failure to prevent conflicts of interest: soon after leaving the Agency, its former Director joined a consultancy advising, among others, pharmaceutical companies.

The Parliament will consider a second report for the two agencies in the autumn of 2011.

For greater transparency and efficiency, Macovei requested that all 21 Agencies and the Commission publish a list of all contracts awarded over the last three years, report on the staff members changing jobs from one agency to another and implement stricter rules regarding conflicts of interest.

She also advocated the merger of the European Police College with Europol and requested an assessment of the feasibility of merging other Agencies with overlapping activities.

For more information:
Monica Macovei MEP, Tel: +33-3-88-175225
Eugen Sandu, EPP Group Press and Communications Service, Tel: +32-476-330383

Notes to Editors:
The EPP Group is by far the largest political group in the European Parliament with 265 Members.