EU Auditors’ report about the EU’s Joint Undertakings

On Wednesday 13 November 2024, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) will publish its annual report on the Joint Undertakings, the EU’s public-private partnerships with industry and research groups.

About the audit

Each year the ECA examines the accounts of all Joint Undertakings of the EU, and verifies whether their income and spending transactions comply with the relevant rules. The auditors also check the implementation rate of the Joint Undertakings’ activities according to their respective contribution targets, which are partly dependent on the nature of the research and the varying duration of projects and their operability. Specific findings and recommendations for each Joint Undertaking are provided.

About the JUs

The Joint Undertakings (JUs) have evolved since the creation of the first six under the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) for the 2007-2013 multiannual financial framework (MFF). Changes were made for 2014-2020 under the Horizon 2020 and Connecting Europe Facility (CEF 1) programmes, and for 2021-2027 under the Horizon Europe, Digital Europe and CEF 2 programmes. In 2021, the Council of the EU adopted new regulations giving the seven JUs already operating under Horizon 2020 new names and increased or slightly changed remits to operate under the new programmes. The lifetime of the European High Performance Computing JU was extended to 2033 and two new JUs were also established: Smart Networks and Services and Global Health, both audited by the ECA for the first time this year. The European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC), also established in 2021, will be audited when it attains its financial autonomy, which is expected for the end of 2024. Finally, in September 2023 the Key Digital Technologies (KDT) JU has turned into the Chips JU. The Chips JU aims to foster the development of innovative next-generation semiconductor technologies and reinforce the European chip-production capability with significant funding from the Digital Europe Programme.

The JUs operating under the 2021-2027 MFF implement their specific research and innovation agenda in transport, energy, health, circular bio-based industries, key electronic components, supercomputing, and network systems. Fusion for Energy (F4E), established under the Euratom Treaty in 2007 for a period of 35 years, deals with the European part of the implementation of the ITER nuclear fusion project in Cadarache (France).

The annual report on the JUs and a press release will be published on the ECA’s website at 5.00 p.m. CET on Wednesday 13 November 2024. The ECA member responsible for this annual report is Ildikó Gáll-Pelcz.