On discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the Single European Sky ATM Research 3 Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2022

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

1.Welcomes the finding of the Court of Auditors that the accounts of the Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research (SESAR) Joint Undertaking (‘JU’) for the 2022 financial year are legal and regular in all material respects;

2.Welcomes the smooth transition to SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking, operational since 30 November 2021 and acknowledges its effective coordination mechanisms;

3.Notes that for 2022, the execution rate was 87% in commitment appropriations and 25% in payment appropriations; recognizes that low execution of payments is consequence of the COVID 19 crisis, and expects the closure of all SESAR 2020 projects by the end of 2023;

4.Welcomes that the JU continued to manage 71 projects in exploratory, industrial and validation research, with 300 different beneficiaries, of which nearly 20% are SMEs, 17% are higher education institutions and 9% are research organisations;

5.Notes SESAR 3’S revenue of EUR 143.47 million for 2022, with EUR 139.57 million from the Union, EUR 0.918 million from Eurocontrol and EUR 2.05 million from other Members;

6.Notes the 2022 surplus of EUR 107.2 million, attributed to the late adoption of the Single Basic Act;

7.Stresses the importance of the Undertaking in achieving the Digital European Sky; highlights that the very late adoption of the Single Basic Act had an impact on the adoption by the Governing Board of the first SESAR 3 Annual Work Programme and therefore on the date when the first calls could be started;

8.Proposes that Parliament grants the Executive Director of the Undertaking discharge in respect of the implementation of its budget for the financial year 2022.