A.

whereas, according to its statement of revenue and expenditure (1), the final budget of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (the ‘Centre’) for the financial year 2020 was EUR 18 048 883, representing a minimal decrease of 0,71 % compared to 2019; whereas the Centre’s budget derives mainly (90 %) from the Union budget;

B.

whereas the Court of Auditors (the ‘Court’), in its report on the Centre’s annual accounts for the financial year 2020 (the ‘Court’s report’), states that it has obtained reasonable assurance that the Centre’s annual accounts are reliable and that the underlying transactions are legal and regular;

1.

Notes with satisfaction that the budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2020 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 100 %, the same rate as in 2019; notes that the payment appropriations execution rate was 94,73 %, representing a decrease of 3,56 % compared to the previous year;

2.

Highlights the important role of the Centre in providing policy-makers and practitioners with analyses and information concerning drugs and drug addiction as well as emerging trends with a view to effectively countering illicit drug use and trafficking and in contributing to a healthier Europe by addressing important drug-related public health concerns; recalls that drug trafficking has been identified as a main source of profit and a channel of recruitment for organised crime and terrorism, and therefore highlights the contribution of the Centre also to a more secure Europe;

3.

Notes with satisfaction the 35 publications by the Centre, including strategic and situational analyses and threat assessments, which inform policy and practice; welcomes the close cooperation between the Centre and other Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) agencies, such as the Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and Europol, and the joint publications issued in 2020;

4.

Welcomes the organisation of the 2020 European Drugs Summer School in a fully digital format, attracting 49 participants from 30 countries; considers it is crucial to continue raising awareness of the importance that all drugs policies have a prevention and mental-health-based approach;

5.

Highlights the contribution of the Centre, by means of its annual reports, to the development of the EU Agenda and Action Plan on Drugs 2021–2025, and the role the Centre is going to play in its implementation;

6.

Notes that the Centre’s performance measurement model identifies a limited number (10) of composite key performance indicators (KPIs), which are used to measure the effectiveness of delivering the desired outputs and the efficiency of using resources allocated, and which are complemented by higher level KPIs that focus on outcomes and impacts; notes that the Centre set out 55 targets for the higher level performance indicators; notes that in 2020 two targets turned out to be not applicable, 81 % were achieved, and 19 % were partially achieved;

7.

Notes that most of the Centre’s work in 2020 was dedicated to investigating the impact of COVID-19 on the drug situation in Europe and that the Centre launched twelve new resources in 2020, including special reports and web pages, in an effort to timely contribute with information and resources to the fight against COVID-19;

8.

Notes that the Centre partially achieved its target for the number of training days per member of staff (target of 3 days, achieved 1,9 days) since as a result of the pandemic several planned trainings had to be cancelled due to force majeure; notes that the target for the supporting documents made available to the national focal points (NFPs) two weeks prior to the meetings was partially achieved, given the uncertainty around many of the Centre’s meetings caused by the unexpected lockdown and the uncertainty regarding the format of the meetings; notes that the KPIs concerning the delivery of the work programme and the efficient implementation of the technical assistance projects with third countries were all only partially achieved due to the effect of the pandemic;

9.

Welcomes the Centre’s cooperation with other agencies and its contribution to the JHA agencies’ network;

10.

Notes that, on 31 December 2020, the establishment plan was 93,69 % implemented, with seven officials and 62 temporary agents appointed out of 10 officials and 66 temporary agents authorised under the Union budget (compared to 76 authorised posts in 2019); notes that, in addition, 34 contract agents, one seconded national expert and three interims and consultants worked for the Centre in 2020;

11.

Reiterates its concern that the Court has identified a recurrent shortcoming applying to several agencies in the use of external staff and interim workers; calls for the dependency on external recruitment in this important area to be addressed and for applicable labour law to be respected; notes the judgment of the Court of Justice of 11 November 2021 in Case C-948/19 (2) which considered temporary agency workers at Union agencies to be part of the scope of application of Directive 2008/104/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (3); calls on the Centre to rely as much as possible on permanent staff and on the Commission to ensure appropriate human resources allocations for that purpose;

12.

Notes with concern the lack of gender balance on the Centre senior management with two women (22,2 %) and seven men (77,8 %) and on its management board with 22 men (69 %) and 10 women (31 %); notes that the staff overall is composed of 46 men (45,1 %) and 56 women (54,9 %); asks the Centre to ensure gender balance at the management level in the future; asks the Commission and the Member States to take into account the importance of ensuring gender balance when nominating their members to the Centre’s management board;

13.

Welcomes that the Centre concluded a service-level agreement in 2020 with the Commission’s Directorate-General for Informatics (DIGIT) for the provision of services relating to ICT procurement and e-procurement (e-Prior services); notes that, in terms of procurement execution, the 2020 procurement plan was put in place in line with the Centre’s 2020 management plan, and was successfully executed in close collaboration with all units; welcomes the fact that the Court did not have remarks about the Centre’s application of public procurement rules;

14.

Acknowledges the Centre’s existing measures and ongoing efforts to secure transparency, prevent and manage conflicts of interest, and provide whistleblower protection; notes that the Centre published on its website the curriculum vitaes of the members of its management board, of its director, and of the external experts who are members of its scientific committee; welcomes that the Centre publishes the declarations of interest of the members of its management board;

15.

Notes that the existence of a risk of conflict of interest is assessed under the authority of the Centre’s director, and that the management board, as required, adopts the measures aimed at preventing or avoiding a conflict of interest; notes that no case of conflict of interest was reported, investigated or concluded in 2020;

16.

Welcomes that the Centre established a task force to coordinate the public health response to the pandemic in March 2020 after activating the Centre’s contingency management plan, and putting in place measures to ensure the safety of the staff and business continuity; notes that the Centre activated its business continuity plan and that, in addition to the teleworking of members of staff, the key measures included weekly meetings of the incidence response team (consisting of the Centre’s director, the business continuity manager, the Centre’s medical adviser and other key staff), establishing clear protocols and procedures for accessing the Centre premises and for communicating on COVID-19-related events, redefining the workflows in some key areas in order to switch from paper-based to fully electronic work circuits and ensuring that the ICT infrastructure would support the organisation’s teleworking efforts;

17.

Welcomes the setting up of the COVID-19 hub page to provide resources and raise awareness on the impact of the diseases on people who use drugs and on drugs service providers, including prison services, as well as the 28 new projects designed by the Centre, 11 of which were focused on COVID-19;

18.

Notes that the Centre completed the follow-up for the recommendations of the 2017 audit of the internal audit service (IAS) on the management of data and its related action plan; notes that the IAS strategic internal audit plan 2020–2022 includes two prospective audit topics for the Centre, namely, human resources management and strategic planning and programming, and that the audit plan also includes follow-up activities and a reserve audit topic on international cooperation; notes that the IAS started the preliminary interviews for the audit on human resources management in November 2020 and that the fieldwork was carried out in January 2021;

19.

Acknowledges that the audit report on information technology project management in the Centre included two ‘very important’ recommendations, to define and adopt a process for requirement management, and to adopt a methodology for systems’ development; notes that both recommendations were implemented in 2019 and formally closed by the IAS in 2020; notes that the audit report on the management of data collection, validation and quality assurance in the Centre included one ‘very important’ recommendation aimed at improving the definition of the Centre’s business needs and identifying the related IT functionalities to support data collection, validation and the quality assurance process; welcomes that the Centre agreed with the IAS on an action plan to address that recommendation, which was adequately and effectively implemented and that the recommendation was formally closed by the IAS in January 2020;

20.

Notes that, following the introduction of the new internal control framework (ICF) in 2017 and the establishment of a repository with the state of play of implementation in 2018, the final version of the repository on the new ICF was approved by the Centre’s director in March 2019; notes that the Centre performed an assessment of its internal control system in 2020, concluding that all components are present and functioning and that the assessment identified two internal control principles where some improvements are needed, on the control activities and information and communication, but which did not affect the overall effectiveness of the internal control system; welcomes that the Centre is taking the necessary corrective actions to improve the identified shortfalls;

21.

Notes that the Centre’s anti-fraud strategy dates back to August 2016 and has been reported as fully implemented in the Centre’s consolidated annual activity report; notes that the Centre started the procedure of reviewing the anti-fraud strategy that was expected to be fully renewed by June 2021; calls on the Centre to speed up the update and to report to the discharge authority on the progress made;

22.

Notes that the Centre has been actively monitoring its environmental performance and CO2 footprint with continuous improvement cycles reducing its CO2 footprint over the years in comparison to the established 2014 baseline, from 9,99 tonnes per member of staff, to 5,66 tonnes in 2019; notes the considerable drop for 2020 to 0,82 tonnes per staff member, caused by a COVID-19 related reduction in missions and transport, as well as to the Centre’s switch from to CO2 neutral electricity generated from renewable energy sources; calls on the Centre to keep monitoring its energy consumption and to keep taking measures to reduce its CO2 footprint, while also acknowledging that the Centre has an exemplary system in place;

23.

Refers, for other observations of a cross-cutting nature accompanying its decision on discharge, to its resolution of 4 May 2022 (4) on the performance, financial management and control of the agencies.