Clean bill of health for REA!

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) has signed off the 2017 accounts of the EU’s 41 agencies and issued a clean bill of health on the revenues underlying the agencies’ accounts. In terms of underlying payments, the ECA also issued clean audit opinions to all agencies except one – the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) - where they identified a number of issues.  Once again, REA can be proud to have obtained a clean bill of health.

In 2017, the agencies employed 17% of the total staff hired by EU institutions and agencies, which equals to around 10,000 staff. The total 2017 budget of all the EU agencies except for the Single Resolution Board (SRB), amounted to €3.5 billion, which is equivalent to about 2.7% of the total EU budget. The SRB’s 2017 budget was €6.6 billion, funded through contributions from credit institutions.

Rimantas Šadžius, the Member of the European Court of Auditors responsible for the annual audits of the agencies, said, “The EU agencies form an important part of the EU institutional landscape and bring Europe closer to its citizens and businesses. Our audit for 2017 confirmed the positive results reported in previous years. Nevertheless, there is still room for improvement, mainly in the area of sound financial management”.

The 41 EU agencies carry out specific technical, scientific or managerial tasks that help the EU institutions design and implement policies. They have significant influence on policy and decision-making, and programme implementation in areas such as health, safety, security, freedom and justice. 

More information about the annual report is available in the press release and the full report.