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1. The Executive Director shall be responsible for the management of Eurofound 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 Eurofound.

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

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

(b) implementing decisions adopted by the Management Board;

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

(d) taking into account the needs relating to Eurofound's activities and sound budgetary management, deciding on Eurofound's internal structures and, where necessary, their amendment;

(e) selecting and appointing the Deputy Director who shall support the Executive Director in carrying out Eurofound's functions and activities;

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

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

(h) preparing the consolidated annual report on Eurofound's activities and presenting it to the Management Board for assessment and adoption;

(i) establishing an effective monitoring system to enable the regular evaluations referred to in Article 28 to be carried out and a reporting system to summarise their results;

(j) preparing draft financial rules applicable to Eurofound;

(k) preparing Eurofound's draft statement of estimates of revenue and expenditure, as part of Eurofound's programming document; and implementing Eurofound's budget;

(l) 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;

(m) aiming to ensure gender balance within Eurofound;

(n) 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;

(o) preparing an anti-fraud strategy for Eurofound and presenting it to the Management Board for approval;

(p) 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 Eurofound's tasks in an efficient and effective manner to establish a liaison office in Brussels to further Eurofound'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 Eurofound's administrative functions.