On discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop)

The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs calls on the Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution:

–having regard to the European Court of Auditors’ Annual report on the implementation of the EU budget for the 2022 financial year;

–having regard to the European Court of Auditors’ Annual report on EU agencies for the financial year 2022;

–having regard to Cedefop’ Consolidated Annual Activity Report (CAAR) 2022;

1.Expresses its satisfaction that the European Court of Auditors (the ‘Court’) has declared the transactions underlying the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop) annual accounts for the financial year 2022 to be legal and regular and that its financial position as at 31 December 2022 is fairly represented;

2.Welcomes that the budget of the Cedefop for the financial year 2022 increased up to EUR 26 million (25 million in 2021) ; expresses its satisfaction that the Cedefop utilised essentially all of its available funding with an overall budget implementation rate of 99,98%;

3.Appreciates the Cedefop’s activities and high-quality work, providing research, analyses and technical advice and expertise in vocational education and training (VET), qualifications and skills policies with the aim of promoting high-quality training tailored to the needs of individuals and of the labour market; highlights the need to keep ensuring adequate human and financial resources allowing the Centre to fulfill its mandate and continue implementing its work programme with a high activity completion rate;

4.Welcomes the Centre's work in helping to analyse the impact of the pandemic and digital transition on adapting business practices to the new realities in the Union labour market through e.g. the COVID-19 European Company Survey in conjunction with Eurofound; moreover, welcomes the Centre’s role in compiling and disseminating research on skills mismatches; highlights, in this regard, the Centre’s sectoral skills foresight exercises, thus a forward-looking approach to understand which are the skill profiles that are needed for the twin transition;

5.Recalls the importance of the Centre's role in ensuring digital skills are integrated into VET across the Union and monitoring the implementation and impact of the Council Recommendations on the Skills Agenda for Europe, vocational education and training (VET) for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience and the Digital Education Action Plan;

6.Notes the fact that due to the high inflation rates, and the related salary adjustment, salary increases above the initial projections coupled with an increase of the weighting factor, the flexibility for securing additional resources to the core business was limited;

7.Congratulates Cedefop for its commitment to the European Year of Youth and for successfully co-leading with Eurofound the 5-Agency event ‘Youth first! Employment, skills and social policies that work for young Europeans in times of uncertainty’, hosted by the European Parliament in September 2022; appreciates that the event was an additional opportunity to discuss youth policies as well as opportunities and challenges young people are facing, in terms of employment, working conditions, wellbeing and mental health;

8.Regrets the fact that the Court found irregularities related to the payment of daily subsistence allowances made by Cedefop to two seconded national experts (SNEs) employed by it; acknowledges the fact that Cedefop identified and documented such irregularities in the registry of non-compliance and rectified the situation based on external legal advice; welcomes the Centre’s aim to amend its rules to make it possible for any SNE that has to change their place of living and relocate to Thessaloniki to be eligible to receive allowances, as this would also ensure equal treatment of SNEs independently of their nationality;

9.Regrets that the Court found observations on budgetary management, particularly that the contribution calculation method was not correctly applied and calls on the Cedefop to improve its internal procedures in this regard;

10.Commends Cedefop for having established a corporate plan to improve energy efficiency and climate neutrality of its operations;

11.Welcomes the fact that the Cedefop has completed all actions taken to the Court’s observations related to the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2021;

12.Recommends, on the basis of the facts available, that discharge be granted to the Executive Director of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training in respect of the implementation of the Cedefop’s budget for the financial year 2022.

The rapporteur declares under her exclusive responsibility that she did not receive input from any entity or person to be mentioned in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.