What changed between the draft committee report and the plenary report

Changed:3. Notes that as in previous years, the Agency’s management monitored the achievement of the Workwork Programmeprogramme objectives through the Agency’s KPIskey performance indicators (KPIs) using the Agency’s ‘traffic light’ system; also notes that according to the Agency most KPIs usually remain the same from year to year to ensure consistency in comparisons, but the targets to be achieved in the year in question are set on an annual basis; recommends however that the Agency addresses the indicators that have not yet been achieved or are lagging behind and that the Agency fine tunes KPIs on a regular basis in order to optimise its performance;

Changed:4. Observes that 82 % of the work programprogramme was achieved or achieved with a small issue and 18 % was not achieved or the related tasks deprioritised or postponed due to the limitation in available human resources; recommends that the Agency reassess the feasibility of the work programme in relation to the human resources available, as the limitation of human resources has proved to be an explanatory factor in the implementation of the work programme in previous years as well; notes furthermore that the Key Performance Indicator (KPI)KPI targets were met, with the exception of the payments appropriation rate that reached 70.170,1 % (target 75 %) in 2022 as compared to 65,9 % in 2021;

Changed:5. Acknowledges that the Russian aggressioninvasion onof Ukraine in February 2022 called for extraordinary policy actions to preserve energy security of supply and protect consumers which increased the responsibilities of the Agency and affected the Agency's work in various ways; notes that in this context several additional comprehensive tasks were assigned to the Agency throughout the year (e.g. publication of the Final assessment of the EUUnion Wholesalewholesale Electricityelectricity market , publication of the liquefied natural gas price assessment/benchmarkassessment or benchmark and application of the Marketmarket Correctioncorrection Mechanism);mechanism); welcomes the efforts of the Agency to deliver on thesethose additional tasks and the additional support to the policy-makers provided in the high price energy environment;

Changed:8. Takes note that the Agency conducted a Workload Activityworkload Analysisactivity (WAA)analysis with the support of an external consulting company to assess its current state of task/activitytask or activity distribution and to identify potential organisational gaps and issues, as well as space for synergies and improved spans of control and task allocation; notes that this resulted in an Actionaction Planplan which is monitored during Seniorsenior Managementmanagement Meetingsmeetings and dedicated sessions for this purpose;

Added:10. Recalls the importance to increase the digitalisation of the agency in terms of internal operation and management but also in order to speed up the digitalisation of procedures; stresses the need for the agency to continue to be proactive in this regard in order to avoid a digital gap between the agencies; draws attention, however, to the need to take all the necessary security measures to avoid any risk to the online security of the information processed, insist on the need to step up action against cyberattacks or infiltration attempts particularly originating from Russia or China;

Changed:11.12. Notes that given the long-term contracts of the Agency’s senior management members (excluding that of the Director, who is not selected by the Agency and has a fixed-term mandate), the Agency is currently not in a position to alter in the short term the existing gender balance of its senior management; notes that the Agency’s administrative board is composed of ten women (53 %) and nine men (47 %); regretsreiterates that among its staff overall, the underrepresentation of women persists, 40 women (35 %) to 73 men (65 %), (37 % and 63 % in 2021); recalls the importance to ensure staff gender balance and calls on the Agency to take this aspect into consideration with regard to future recruitments of staff and appointments within its senior management; is aware that the Agency endorsed the Chartercharter on Diversitydiversity and Inclusion,inclusion, and confirmed its commitment in improving its policy and endeavours with regards to gender equality, diversity, and inclusion; strongly reiterates its call for concerted efforts to address the underrepresentation of women and report back to the discharge authority on quantifiable targets for its achievement within the Agency;

Added:13. Notes that the Agency has a policy on protecting the dignity of the person and preventing psychological and sexual harassment, and that the Agency is part of the interagency task force of confidential counsellors; looking forward to receiving their report and recommendations; notes that there were no reported cases of harassment in 2022 and encourages the Agency to continue and develop the work to prevent cases in the future as well;

Added:14. Encourages the agency to pursue the development of a long-term human resources policy framework which addresses work-life balance, lifelong learning and career development, gender balance, teleworking, geographical balance and the recruitment and integration of people with disabilities;

Changed:12.15. Takes note of the fact that the Agency has partially resolved previous procurement weaknesses identified by the Court, especially with its orders of out-of-price list items that resulted in a qualified opinion; welcomes that the Agency has in place a complete set of guidelines for its project managers including templates and detailed instruction for the workflows in place in line with the requirements of the financial regulation in public procurement; notes that the observation of the Court will be kept open until the underlying framework contracts expire;

Changed:14.17. Notes that in 2022 the Agency continued to implement its comprehensive policy for the prevention and management of conflicts of interest, including provisions related to staff, its boards, working groups and task forces; also notes that the Administrativeadministrative Boardboard adopted in December 2022 more stringent Guidelinesguidelines on the prevention and management of conflicts of interest for the Administrativeadministrative Boardboard and the Boardboard of Appeal;appeal; notes furthermore that the Guidelinesguidelines complement the existing Agency’s overall policy on the prevention and management of the conflict of interest that was established in 2015 providing additional understanding to the Board’sadministrative board’s members in fulfilling their duties according to the Agency policy on the prevention and management of conflictconflicts of interest, while they also provide additional guidelines to the Reviewreview Panelpanel in the assessment of circumstances that could lead to conflictconflicts of interests;interest;

Changed:15.18. Observes that in 2022 one case of conflict of interest concerning a staff member was indicated; takes note that the Headhead of Departmentdepartment decidedresolved the matter by deciding that the staff member should not be involved in certain cases involving their former employer which was furthermore confirmed by the legal services of the Agency, Ethicsethics correspondent, HRhuman resources and reflected in a Notenote to the File;file;

Changed:17.20. Is concerned by the observations in the Court's Special Report No 03/2023 on the Internalinternal Electricitymarket Market,for electricity, which indicate that the Agency's governance structure hampers its effectiveness and independence; notes that as highlighted by the Court the Agency’s Directordirector must obtain from the Board of Regulators (BoR) approval for key regulatory outputs; notes furthermore that despite the BoR being composed of one National regulatory authority (NRA) representative per Member State and tasked with acting in sole interest of the EU as a whole, the Agency Regulation has no legislative safeguards to avoid representatives’ involvement in BoR decisions that conflict with specific NRAs’ decisions or national interests (where defended by NRAs in accordance with their legal status); also notes that external expertise at the Agency greatly depends on the involvement of NRAs’ experts in the working groups and task forces and although NRAs’ experts may also be subject to conflicts of interest they are not required to sign any declaration concerning conflicts of interest; calls on the Commission to evaluate and propose improvements to the Agency’s governance by enhancing independence from NRAs and national interests, enforcement powers, and convergence tools;

Changed:18.21. Observes that in the above mentioned special report ,report, the Court also noticed weaknesses in the implementation of the Agency’s internal rules on the management and publication of the declarations of interests for the BoR’s and Administrativethe Board’sadministrative board’s members; highlights that more transparency in the decision making processes of the Agency’s boards and working groups could contribute to the public scrutiny of conflicting interests (e.g. publication of minutes and voting results);

Changed:19.22. Takes note of the fact that the Agency’s meetings with lobbyists are registered at the level of the director’s meetings and published on the Agency’s website;

Added:23. Recalls the importance for the Agency to develop greater visibility in the media, internet, and social media in order to make its work known to the citizens;

Changed:20.24. Notes that with the aim of strengthening the Internalinternal control system a number of internal policies have been revised during 2022 including,including Director Decision 2022-14 of 13 September 2022 establishing the Registerregister of Exceptionsexceptions and non-compliance events, laying down the procedure for requesting exceptions and reporting non-compliance events,events; Director Decision 2022-08 of 21 June 2022 adopting the Policypolicy and procedure for managing Sensitivesensitive Functionsfunctions and repealing Director Decision 2019-06 of 2 April 2019 on the adoption of the Policy and procedure for the management of Sensitivesensitive Functionsfunctions; and Administrativeadministrative Boardboard decision amending Decision No 17/2022 of the Administrativeadministrative Boardboard of 13 December 2018 on the internal control framework of the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators;

Changed:22.26. Notes with appreciation that in 2022 the Agency started implementing a Penetrationpenetration Testingtesting plan to review all existing and newly built applications exposed to the internet with the aim of having regular penetration testing at least once every 3 years;

Changed:23.27. Welcomes the fact that the Agency signed in 2022 the interinstitutional framework contract on consultancy services for implementing and registering an environmental management system (EMAS); notes furthermore that the Agency continued the implementation of its Greening Action Plan 2021-2022 and looked into the possibility of taking further steps to better meet EMAS standards together with the Landlord due to the limitations and constraints imposed by the specificities of the rented premises;