What changed between the draft committee report and the plenary report

41. Continues to reject the Court’s assessment and decision not to join the EU Transparency Register, set up by the interinstitutional agreement of 20 May 2021 between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission on a mandatory transparency register, and encourages the Court to reflect again on the matter, reiterating its strong call for the Court to join the EU Transparency Register in order to adhere to basic principles of transparency while at the same time not creating any obstacles to the full independence of the Court;

42. Notes that European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) opened one investigation concerning a selection procedure of the Court in 2022, concluding that the conduct of the person concerned did not influence the outcome of the procedure;

Change 20

Changed:38.43. Notes that the European Ombudsman conducted one inquiry following a complaint in 2022,2022 which was closed after the Court replied to the complainant;

Change 21

Changed:39.44. Reiterates its satisfaction that, in 2022, the Court established a register for the attendance of members of the Court at meetings;meetings, following reiterated requests by Parliament in that respect; welcomes that, on request, the register has been made available to the Parliament rapporteur for the discharge procedure as part of the discharge procedure; invites the Court to further pursue practices that enhance transparency and accountability, such as a public calendar of meetings;

Change 22

Changed:40.45. Welcomes that no conflicts of interest were detected in 2022; notes furthermore that no members of staff leaving the Court because their contract came to an end or for any other reason informed the Court that they wanted to join a private company or notified the Court about taking up activities related to work outside of the Court during the last three years of their service; notesnotes, finallyfinally, that no former Member of Parliament, Commissioners or high-level officials received remuneration from the Court;

46. Notes that, in 2022, there were no cases of whistleblowing at the Court;

Change 23

Added:47. Regrets that an annual list of contracts, including those worth between EUR 15 000 and EUR 60 000 that were concluded in 2022 following a negotiated procedure, is not available on the website of the Court as mentioned in the report of the authorising officer by delegation; calls on the Court to publish that list into a separate document and ensure user-friendly access to it;

Digitalisation, cybersecurity and data protection

Change 24

Changed:42.48. Welcomes that the Court has a wide-ranging cyber security plan for 2022-2024 and planned to reassess its cybersecurity framework towards the end of 2023 to ensure full compliance with the upcoming regulation laying down measures for a high common level of cybersecurity of the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies; further appreciates that the Court discontinued a contract with a supplier which was bought by a company from the United States of America as the takeover would result in changes to how personal data would be processed;

49. Welcomes that the Court did not experience any serious cyberattacks in 2022 and that phishing emails continued to be the most dangerous threat; encourages the Court, nevertheless, to stay vigilant and engage with the relevant interinstitutional Union bodies in order to strengthen the overall cybersecurity of Union institutions;

50. Notes that no enquiries concerning the Court were launched, continued or closed by the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) during 2022;

Change 25

Changed:45.51. Welcomes all efforts to improve the digitalisation of the audit work, thus improving the efficiency and accuracy of such work; in particular, welcomes the launch of the ‘data warehouse as a service’ model in October 2022, allowing users to process and analyse structured data with different degrees of autonomy; notes that the digitalisation of audit work depends not only on the Court itself, but also to a large extent on the data that auditees provide, and that limitations still exist in the format of the data and the variety of systems used; appreciates, furthermore, that the number of days of audit fieldwork was 2 984 in 2022, significantly up from both 2021 and 2020 which years were hugely impacted by limitations imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the added value and efficiency of on-the-spot visits has been enhanced by combining them with work done remotely;

Change 26

Changed:46.52. AppreciatesNotes that the Court has implemented several elements of open source software as part of their systems, including Linux, Belenios and Nagios; encourages the Court to continue to use open-source software when possible;

Buildings

Change 27

Changed:47.53. Notes that the Court carried out significant renovation works on the K2-buildingK2 building during 2022 which was completed in early 2023 and entailed the renovation of four floors in order to provide a modern workplace that is appreciated by members of staff and is more environmentally friendly;

5 unchanged paragraphs

54. Appreciates that the Court, in 2022, initiated an accessibility audit of all the Court’s buildings with a view to improving accessibility and responding to the needs of people with reduced mobility or other disabilities, which audit was delivered in early 2023; asks the Court to keep Parliament informed about concrete initiatives to implement the actions proposed as part of the audit;

Environment and sustainability

55. Welcomes that, in 2022, the Court presented its second annual report on the environmental sustainability of its operations in line with internationally accepted reporting standards;

56. Notes that the Court has achieved impressive results in several areas concerning the reduction of its general consumption since 2014 with the consumption of electricity having been reduced by 34,5 %, heating by 22,2 %, paper by 83,5 % and water by 45,3 % and greenhouse gas emissions by 29,5 % and waste by 33,7 %; encourages the Court to continue its efforts in further reducing the consumption of those inputs and welcomes that the Court launched a study in 2023 concerning the K2 building with the aim of renovating the roof and installing solar panels;

57. Welcomes that the Court has taken several initiatives to support sustainable mobility, including the reinforcement of the Court’s shuttle service, providing members of staff with free subscriptions to the City of Luxembourg’s bicycle service, increasing the number of bicycle parking spaces, including spaces for electrical bikes, and installing chargers for hybrid and electrical cars; calls on the Court to further support sustainable mobility including by exchanging best practices with other institutions and keeping Parliament informed about further initiatives;

Change 28

Changed:52.58. Notes that the Court will analyse how to integrate environmental aspects of missions in an updated mission guide; notes furthermore that a reduction of business travel per Fullfull Timetime Equivalentequivalent by 5 % for the period 2023-2025 has been proposed; calls on the Court to try to implement that target while at the same time ensuring that necessary audit missions are done;

Interinstitutional cooperation

Change 29

Changed:53.59. Notes that several service level agreements and other interinstitutional cooperation agreements were updated during 2022, including agreements with the Commission's Investigationinvestigation and Disciplinarydisciplinary Officeoffice and with the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union;

60. Notes the triparty agreement between the Court, the Commission and the European Investment Bank (the ‘EIB’) from November 2021; welcomes that the Court is of the opinion that that agreement has clarified and streamlined some processes and that the Court has gained improved access to information that relates to operations financed or guaranteed by the Union budget; regrets, nevertheless, that that agreement does not, as a minimum, ensure that the Court can audit performance aspects of activities carried out while implementing Union policies;

61. Stresses that Parliament is of the opinion, fundamentally, that the current limitations in the Court’s role as an auditor of the EIB creates a regulative and supervisory gap and that the Court should be enabled to audit all of the EIB group operations; stresses at the same time that Parliament, as the democratically elected body, should be entrusted to grant discharge to the EIB in order to strengthen the democratic legitimacy of that important Union institution and, thus, improve transparency and accountability and good governance of financial and human resources;

Change 30

Changed:56.62. Welcomes that the Court cooperates closely with both OLAF and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), including through organising workshops, awareness raising events and exchange of knowledge and experience; furthermore notes with appreciation that the Court, in 2022, forwarded 14 cases of suspected fraud to OLAF and 6 cases to the EPPO; underlines its opinion that suspicions of fraud should always be thoroughlytransmitted investigated;to OLAF and EPPO for a thorough investigation;

Change 31

Changed:57.63. Notes that the Court cooperates with the EDPS via its data protection officer (DPO) and consults the EDPS concerning issues related to data protection, and that a case concerning a personal data breach was closed in 2022 with a few recommendations; welcomes that the Court’s DPO participates in a network of DPOs,DPO, which works on recurrent issues, shares examples of best practises and helps organise the bi-annual meeting of DPOs;

64. Notes that the Court has been cooperating with the European Ombudsman and has provided all information requested in investigations opened by the European Ombudsman; welcomes that the Court has taken part in the interinstitutional discussions on modern communication, including instant messaging, and that the Court is taking the guidelines of the European Ombudsman in this area as a benchmark;

Communication

Change 32

Removed:59. Regrets that the Court has not yet engaged in any open-source social media platforms and continues to encourage the Court to engage with the EDPS with a view to utilising the two open-source social media platforms EU Voice and EU Video;

65. Welcomes that the Court adopted a new communication strategy in January 2022 which puts the general public at the centre of its communication efforts and commends that the Court is now able to hold press briefings and web-streamed conferences to a good technical standard; welcomes, further, that the Court updated its website in 2023 to provide a better experience for users and created a portal which can makes data related to audits more accessible for a broad audience including students, academia and the general public.