On discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the EU agencies for the financial year 2023

The Committee on Culture and Education calls on the Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following into its motion for a resolution:

Discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union

1. Notes the efforts of the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union (‘the Centre’) to enable and promote multilingualism in the Union, for example as regards communications of the Union agencies and the development of terminology in specialised subject areas to improve the quality of translations;

2. Welcomes the setting up of a working group on artificial intelligence (AI) in June 2023 and the decision to take the work of that group further in a new advisory group on AI;

3. Is pleased with the Centre’s multi-engine machine translation strategy, which allows for clients’ documents to be translated on site in combination with the intervention of human translators, which is essential for delivering high-quality translations; encourages the Centre to continue its efforts in that area;

4. Welcomes the fact that the Court of Auditors, in its annual report on EU agencies for the financial year 2023, confirms the legality and regularity of the revenue and payments underlying the Centre’s accounts;

5. Observes with concern the Court’s findings with regard to various public procurement procedures, which led to irregular payments; encourages the Centre to continue its efforts in improving its monitoring of contracts and its procurement procedures;

6. Notes that women are underrepresented in senior and middle management positions and the management board; urges the Centre to work towards gender balance at all levels of staff;

7. Welcomes the fact that the Centre approved its 2023-2024 internal control and anti-fraud action plan, with a focus on raising awareness among staff with regard to identifying and registering exemptions and non-compliance events, on the prevention of fraud and on ethics;

8. Notes the fact that the Centre has contracted a specialist consultancy to design and implement an EMAS-compliant environment management system; strongly encourages the Centre to pursue its efforts to obtain an EMAS certificate.