Responsibilities of the Executive Director

1. The Executive Director shall be responsible for the management of Cedefop in accordance with the strategic direction set by the Management Board and shall be accountable to the Management Board.

2. Without prejudice to the powers of the Commission, the Management Board, and the Executive Board, the Executive Director shall be independent in the performance of the duties and shall neither seek nor take instructions from any government or any other body.

3. The Executive Director shall report to the European Parliament on the performance of his or her duties where invited to do so. The Council may invite the Executive Director to report on the performance of his or her duties.

4. The Executive Director shall be the legal representative of Cedefop.

5. The Executive Director shall be responsible for the implementation of the tasks assigned to Cedefop by this Regulation. In particular, the Executive Director shall be responsible for:

the day-to-day administration of Cedefop, including exercising the powers entrusted to him or her in respect of staff matters in accordance with Article 5(2);

implementing decisions adopted by the Management Board;

in accordance with the decision referred to in Article 5(2), taking decisions with regard to the management of human resources;

taking into account the needs relating to Cedefop's activities and sound budgetary management, deciding on Cedefop's internal structures including, where necessary, deputising functions which may cover Cedefop's day-to-day management;

preparing the programming document and submitting it to the Management Board after consulting the Commission;

implementing the programming document and reporting to the Management Board on its implementation;

preparing the consolidated annual report on Cedefop's activities and presenting it to the Management Board for assessment and adoption;

establishing an effective monitoring system to enable the regular evaluations referred to in Article 27 to be carried out and a reporting system to summarise their results;

preparing draft financial rules applicable to Cedefop;

preparing Cedefop's draft statement of estimates of revenue and expenditure, as part of Cedefop's programming document; and implementing Cedefop's budget;

preparing an action plan following-up conclusions of internal or external audit reports and evaluations, as well as investigations by OLAF and reporting on progress twice a year to the Commission and regularly to the Management Board and the Executive Board;

aiming to ensure gender balance within Cedefop;

protecting the financial interests of the Union by applying preventive measures against fraud, corruption and any other illegal activities, by effective checks and, if irregularities are detected, by recovering amounts wrongly paid and, where appropriate, by imposing effective, proportionate and dissuasive administrative and financial penalties;

preparing an anti-fraud strategy for Cedefop and presenting it to the Management Board for approval;

where relevant, cooperating with other Union agencies and concluding cooperation agreements with them.

6. The Executive Director shall also be responsible for deciding whether it is necessary for the purpose of carrying out Cedefop's tasks in an efficient and effective manner to establish a liaison office in Brussels to further Cedefop's cooperation with the relevant Union institutions. That decision shall require the prior consent of the Commission, the Management Board and the relevant Member State. That decision shall specify the scope of the activities to be carried out by that liaison office in a manner that avoids unnecessary costs and any duplication of Cedefop's administrative functions.

CHAPTER III

FINANCIAL PROVISIONS

REGULATION (EU) 2019/128 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 16 January 2019 establishing a European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop) and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 337/75