Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

Change 9 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed7.10. Notes that in 2022,2022 the Agency also started an infrastructure capacity optimisation exercise to minimise any excess capacity in the IT infrastructure,infrastructure and that the results from the second half of the year show,show that the Agency was able to reduce the usage of such infrastructure (both CPU i.e. processors and RAM i.e. memory) by roughly 25 %; welcomes the effortefforts onmade in the optimisation exercise and encourages the Agency to continue its efforts in this regard;

Change 10 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed8.11. Observes that the Agency continues to share its internal audit capability with the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA,(formerly formerlythe European Global Navigation Satellite Systems Agency); notes that the Agency and EFSAthe European Food Safety Authority maintain regular contacts at working and senior management level, where cooperation opportunities are routinely assessed (by conducting a detailed review of the work programmes) and exploited;

Change 11 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed9.12. Notes furthermore that the Agency continued its strategic cooperation with EFSAthe European Food Safety Authority on providing the data format IUCLID as a service, delivered from its Cloud Services, for EFSA’sthe European Food Safety Authority’s work under theRegulation Plant(EC) ProtectionNo Products1107/2009 Regulationof the European Parliament and of the Council and, as a result, economies of scale were achieved by building on existing IT platforms;

Change 12 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Added13. Recalls the importance of increasing 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; insists on the need to step up action against cyberattacks or infiltration attempts particularly those originating from Russia or China;

Added14. Welcomes the fact that the Agency, in cooperation with the European Food Safety Authority, has taken steps to promote the 'one substance - one assessment' principle to ensure greater consistency in the hazard and risk assessment of active substances;

Change 13 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed10.15. Notes that, on 31 December 2022, the establishment plan was 98,07 % executed, with 458 temporary agents appointed out of 467 temporary agents authorised under the Union budget (same number of authorised posts as in 2021); notes that in addition 128 contract agentsagents, 48 interims, five consultants and 2 seconded national experts worked for the Agency in 2022;

Change 14 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed11.16. WelcomesRecalls the importance of ensuring staff gender balance and welcomes in this regard the fact that the Agency has put ininto effect an action plan to implement the objectives of its Charter on Diversity and Inclusion adopted in 2022, aiming to achieve gender balance in the management teamteam, among other inclusion measures; asks the Agency to report to the discharge authority about the implementation of its action plan; acknowledges that achieving results in this area takes time; howevernotes, noteshowever, that the gender balance within the Agency’s senior and middle management has slightly decreased with 76 % positions occupied by men (82 % in 2021) and 24 % by women (18 % in 2021); notes that gender balance in the staff overall is 261 men (45 %) and 317 women (55 %);

Change 15 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Removed12. Observes that the Agency made use of more internal mobility to respond to the evolving needs for scientific-technical and administrative expertise in its work; notes that this offered career enhancement opportunities and thereby contributed to motivating the Agency staff and maintaining a culture of high performance, continuous improvement and responsiveness; welcomes that to motivate employees and build skill sets, it also introduced new initiatives including mentoring and coaching;

Added17. Notes with satisfaction that, as of 31 December 2022, the Agency employed staff from 26 Member States; notes that 32 % of its staff are nationals of the Member State where the Agency is located; recalls the importance of geographical balance and encourages the Agency to continue to take the necessary measures to have a balanced and fair geographical representation; is, however, concerned about the geographical balance within the Agency’s senior and middle management having only one director from Central-Eastern Europe; insists that improvements have to be made; asks the Agency to report back on this to the discharge authority;

Added18. 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; looks 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;

Added19. Notes that, as of March 2022, the Agency’s staff started to return gradually to the Agency’s premises, ending with the implementation of new hybrid working rules in October 2022; notes in this context that the new rules promote flexibility and staff empowerment while maintaining social cohesion and collaboration through regular weekly presence at the office;

Added20. Observes that the Agency made use of more internal mobility to respond to the evolving needs for scientific, technical and administrative expertise in its work; notes that this offered career enhancement opportunities and thereby contributed to motivating the Agency’s staff and maintaining a culture of high performance, continuous improvement and responsiveness; welcomes the fact that, to motivate employees and build skill sets, it also introduced new initiatives including mentoring and coaching;

Added21. Underlines the necessity of ensuring adequate staffing reflecting the needs of the European Green Deal and the Union Chemical Strategy for Sustainability, Circular Economy Action Plan and, in particular, the zero pollution target and the associated increase in tasks;

Change 16 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed13.22. Notes thatthat, based on a thorough risk assessment of its activities, the Agency has identified the processes and sub-processes that require conflicts of interest to be managed; notes furthermore that in all of thesethose processes, a review of the annual declarations of interest is performed by the process owner each time a task is assigned to a staff member, while for some sensitive processes this is complemented with a case-specific declaration of no interest by the staffmember member;of staff;

Change 17 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed14.23. Welcomes thatthe fact that, to improve the post-employment Conflictconflict of Interestinterest practice, the Agency’s Conflictconflict of Interestinterest policy was last revised by the Management Board in June 2023; notes that the introduced changes introduced strengthen the systematic monitoring of compliance with post-employment duties by former Agency staff members, in line with the recommendations of the European Court of Auditors and observations of the Dischargedischarge authority in previous years;

Change 18 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed15. Takes24. noteObserves that the Agency publishes inon its website the meetings held by its senior management with interest group representatives;

Change 19 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed16.25. Welcomes thatthe fact that, during 2022, the Agency introduced a new electronic tool for collecting and reviewing the annual declarations of interest of the external experts contributing to the Agency’s work, providing further assurance to the process;

Change 20 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed17.26. Notes with satisfaction that the AgencyAgency’s Anti-Fraud Strategy was last revised by the its Management Board in December 2022 and focuses on maintaining and further developing the anti fraudanti-fraud culture in the Agency and regularly reviewing key policies and procedures; notes that the strategy strengthens the internal anticorruptionanti-corruption mechanism by specifying the roles and responsibilities for fraud prevention and the means and resources which are engaged in tackling fraud; welcomes the fact that all the Agency’s staff participated in an anti-fraud training in 2022; notes with satisfaction that the Agency has guidelines in place for whistleblowers so that the Agency’s employees can notifyprovide aboutnotification of any activity which goes against the public interest;

Change 21 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed18.27. Recalls that the decision-making processes of the Agency are designed to be clear, open and to ensure a balanced outcome based on a reasoned scientific approach; notes that information on the intentions of the Agency and the Member StatesStates, for example, to look into substances or create dossiers is available online, so companies have access to the data they need to make informed business decisions; notes furthermore that accredited stakeholder organisations may participate in scientific meetings as observers, except where confidential business information requires sessions to be closed; notesnotes, furthermorefurthermore, that the reflections, opinions and conclusions of the Agency’s scientific committees are recorded in opinions and minutes and these are published online;

Change 22 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Added28. Recalls the importance for the Agency of developing greater visibility in the media, internet and social media, in order to make its work known to the citizens;

Change 23 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed19.29. Welcomes the fact that in 2022 the Agency adopted a cyber securitycybersecurity policy and performed an IT-wide risk assessment exercise; notesnotes, furthermorefurthermore, that the Agency has introduced the possibility forof biometric authentication andauthentication, improved the visibility forof the security operations centre as welland ashas conducted failover testing between datacentres;

Change 24 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed20.30. Notes with satisfaction that in 2022,2022 the Agency joined PPMT (the European Commission’s Public Procurement Management Tool) trial phase in order to test this e-procurement tool (before its complete on boardingonboarding in 2023); takes notenotes that the Agency had already on boarded in the pastonboarded other e-procurement tools such as eTendering or eSubmission and in parallel, it renewed in 2022 its subscription to Cloudia – the e-procurement platform of Hansel (central purchasing body for Finnish public authorities) so that all administrative procurement rancarried out through Hansel areis fully digitalised;

Change 25 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed21. Takes31. noteObserves that the Agency’s Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) and 14001ISO Agency’s14001 certificates were successfully renewed in 2022; notes with satisfaction from the Court’s report that the AuthorityAgency is among the agencies that issue an annual environmental statement;

Change 26 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed22.32. Highlights the fact that the Agency has continued its efforts to phase out animal testing in Europe to the extent possible under the current regulatory framework; notes that ECHAthe Agency promotes alternatives to animal testing in three ways: focusing on groups of substances through a separate strategy, investing in international activities that promote alternatives and new approach methodologies, and making the data the Agency holds available; reiterates its call on the Agency to speed up the phasing out process; notes in addition that the Agency is collaborating with the Commission and other stakeholders to support the Commission in developing a roadmap towards the full replacement of animal testing for chemicals;

Change 27 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Added33. Welcomes the fact that the Agency has continued to implement different measures to increase its public and online presence through new releases and numerous updates on its website, the launch of a joint Instagram channel with four agencies called ‘One Health One Environment’, and its presence in social media; notes in this context a growth of the general media coverage and an increase in the Agency’s social media metrics in 2022 compared to 2021;