mr president i wish to thank this house for putting the issue of european agencies on the agenda
the commission attaches great importance to the european union agencies efficient functioning
part of this is related to the governance arrangements which apply to all of them
as you are aware the agencies functioning and governance are currently being discussed within the interinstitutional working group involving the commission parliament and the council on the basis of a multi-agency evaluation carried out for the commission in two thousand and nine
indeed the time has come to shape a new overall approach to eu agencies improving their overall coherence effectiveness accountability and transparency
the ultimate aim of the interinstitutional working group is through a step-by-step approach to develop a general agreement between the three eu institutions on the various issues at hand
we hope this can be achieved by the end of this year or the beginning of next year
cooperation with parliament has been very positive so far and we trust that we can count on parliament's support for the next steps
as you know eu agencies are legally autonomous bodies whose governance rules are laid down in the funding regulations
in general agencies are overseen by a governing board whose membership may vary according to the nature of the agency
three of the agencies in the field of employment and education for example eurofund osha and cedefop have tripartite governing bodies with representatives of both sides of industry the member states and also the commission
i wish to reassure you that this house has access to a lot of information either because this information is in the public domain or because parliament as part of the budgetary authority holds hearings with the directors of agencies on the annual work programmes and on budgetary discharge in the employment and social affairs committee
each of the agencies eurofund osha the european training foundation and cedefop has a specific role to play
for example the european training foundation and cedefop although both working on vocational education and training have different geographical scope
the former works outside the eu the latter inside the eu and they have different objectives
the european training foundation assists essentially the neighbourhood countries with reforms of education and training systems while cedefop promotes information gathering and research on the vocational training policies of the member states
the commission is keen to ensure synergies between the two agencies notably through exchanges of information joint work programmes the joint organisation of conferences and seminars and joint projects
