Procedure completed
Role | Committee | Rapporteur | Shadows |
---|---|---|---|
Lead | CONT | STAVRAKAKIS Georgios (S&D) | MACOVEI Monica Luisa (PPE), GERBRANDY Gerben-Jan (ALDE), STAES Bart (Verts/ALE) |
Lead | CONT | STAVRAKAKIS Georgios (S&D) | |
Opinion | LIBE | BUSUTTIL Simon (PPE) |
Activites
- 2011/11/25 Final act published in Official Journal
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2011/10/25
Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
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T7-0446/2011
summary
Following the postponement of the discharge decision in May 2011, the European Parliament adopted by 519 votes to 67, with 52 abstentions, a decision on granting discharge to the Director of the European Police College on the implementation of College's budget for financial year 2008. The decision to grant the discharge shall also constitute the closure of CEPOL’s accounts.Furthermore, Parliament adopted a resolution with observations which are an integral part of the decision to grant discharge. These may be summarised as follows:General assessment: Parliament acknowledges measures taken by the new management and governance of the College to tackle its deficiencies in response to Parliament's request for action, following the serious irregularities in the implementation of the budget for 2009 and welcome, in particular, the following actions taken in time to respond to Parliament's requests: (i) the revision of the Financial Regulation of the College by introducing a derogation concerning the exclusion for tender with regard to the selection of educational experts in order to use experts from national police training institutes and, therefore, ensuring the cost effectiveness and the representation of these institutions as part of the College's network; (ii) the assurance from the Court of Auditors and from the IAS that the College's MAP for 2010-2014 gives an overview of the status of its different milestones and that the College is progressing according to its targets; (iii) a report on the application by the College of the procurement manual for the period covering 1 July 2010 - 1 July 2011; (iv) the decision of the Governing Board of the College to grant voting rights to the Commission.Parliament looks forward to the Commission's presentation in 2012 of the College's new legal framework to integrate the abovementioned Commission's voting rights in the proceedings of the Governing Board. It notes that the final report on the five-year external evaluation of the College established that there is a case for the College's relocation and calls on the Court of Auditors to prepare a special report, during 2012, setting out the costs and benefits in financial and operational terms of merging the College's responsibilities with those of Europol.Specific observations: Parliament also makes a series of more technical observations in the following areas:improving the procurement procedure;strengthen technical elements to avoid carry-overs;improving financial discipline and internal control of the College;better management of human resources;improvement of the legality of certain expenses.The College's MAP for 2010-2014: Parliament notes that the enhanced transparency provided by the current Director and its management team has led to an improved understanding of the challenges the College is facing and has fostered the necessary changes. It welcomes, in this respect, the policy of the College to publish a monthly newsletter and regular progress reports on its activities for its Governing Board in order to provide them with a clearer analysis of the status of the College's activities. In addition, it calls on the College to consult Parliament regularly and to continue to update it with its progress report on the MAP implementation.
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T7-0446/2011
summary
- 2011/10/06 Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
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2011/10/03
Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
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2011/05/10
Results of vote in Parliament
- Results of vote in Parliament
- Debate in Parliament
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T7-0164/2011
summary
The European Parliament adopted by 569 votes to 9, with 10 abstentions a decision to postpone granting the discharge to the Director of the European Police College (CEPOL) for implementation of CEPOL’s budget for the financial year 2009. Furthermore, Parliament adopted a resolution to postpone the closure of the College’s accounts.Noting that the Court of Auditors qualified its opinion on the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions, Parliament made a number of recommendations (in addition to the general recommendations that appear in the draft resolution on financial management and control of EU agencies - see DEC/2010/2271) that are attached to the decision to postpone the discharge:weaknesses in procurement procedures: Parliament refuse to grant discharge because of the College's persistent lack of compliance with the Financial Regulation with regard to public procurement rules and irregularities regarding tendering rules. It deplores the fact that, in certain instances, no investigations were ever carried out even when someone within CEPOL was appointed to do deal with the matter; failure to comply with the rules governing expenditure on courses: severe shortcomings were identified in the administrative and financial rules governing expenditure on the organisation of courses and seminars. Parliament considers it unacceptable that the main irregularities are due to the fact that the revised College’s Financial Regulation has never entered into force (because it did not receive a favourable opinion from the Commission on certain points). It recommends that the College, in the interest of fostering transparency, provides direct access to its detailed budget (with the exception of those contracts for which publication might entail a security risk);carryover of appropriations: noting that more than EUR 3.8 million of the 2009 payment appropriations (43% of the total budget) was carried forward to 2010 and that 46% of the appropriations carried over from 2008 had to be cancelled, Parliament calls for these shortcoming to be rapidly remedied. It welcomes, however, the fact that, in 2010, measures were taken to begin to rectify this problem; accounting system: Parliament regrets the significant delays and errors in the preparation of the 2009 provisional accounts (a backlog of unprocessed invoices totalling EUR 900 000 at the end of 2009) due to difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff qualified and experienced in financial and accounting matters. It notes that the College, in its Financial Statements for 2009, quantified the total impact on accumulated reserves of its errors prior to 1 January 2008 as EUR 929 670.27 (10.56% of its total budget for 2009) and the total impact on accumulated reserves of its errors from 2008 as EUR 284 718.77 (3.2% of its total budget for 2009);human resources management: the Court of Auditors reported several weaknesses with regard to staff selection procedures that put at risk the transparency of these procedures. Parliament is concerned about practices which are not allowed under the Staff Regulations or are illegal (e.g. a staff member with management responsibilities was authorised to be based outside the United Kingdom, but to work on the College’s premises in Bramshill for a limited number of days per year while the College was reimbursing the travel expenses). Parliament wonders how the College intends to address these recurrent human resources management issues, especially considering the fact that the location of the College's Secretariat in Bramshill significantly impedes its capacity to attract and retain duly qualified people;appropriations used to finance private expenditure: among the most serious problems brought to light by the Court of Auditors and Parliament, Parliament highlights the issue of CEPOL appropriations used to finance private expenditure. These amounts were finally reimbursed, but not in their totality. It would appear that there is not even a real possibility for the further recovery of certain sums. In this context, Parliament underlines, once again, the responsibilities of the former Director for these deficiencies and irregularities and regrets the fact that, out of concern not to harm the Agency's image, the Governing Board decided not to take disciplinary action mainly because of the possibility of legal action by the former Director. It reiterates its position that the Governing Board of the College must be held accountable and calls again for a reconsideration of the position of the Commission in the Governing Board by granting it the right to vote;College’s MAP (2010-2014): Parliament notes that the College’s Governing Board finally approved the MAP in May 2010 and that this is being implemented gradually, even if the first progress reports highlights some shortcomings. The College is called upon to take further measures: i) better application of control standards, ii) better application of certain financial procedures, iii) enhanced ex-ante and ex-post verification capacity, iv) reduced reliance on interim staff, v) improved Human Resource (HR) management. Information on these various points should be sent to Parliament by 30 June 2011 at the latest. Parliament recalls that the progression of the College in implementing the MAP is primarily linked to its capacity in recruiting and retaining qualified staff experienced in financial and accounting matters.Structural deficits: Parliament highlights the shortcomings in the College that appear to be the hardest to overcome. These relate, in particular, to:the impossibility of applying the complex EU financial and staff regulations, given the limited mission and corresponding small size of the College; the location of the College's secretariat, in Bramshill, some 70 kilometres from London; the College's governance costs which are very high as compared to its activities, given that while employing only 28 staff, the College had a 27-voting member Governing Board during 2009.It also notes that the College and Europol are two Union bodies evolving in similar fields and are performing complementary activities. It believes that if these activities were brought together under a common agency, unnecessary additional costs would be avoided. It recommends, therefore, merging the College within Europol in the near future as such a merger would engender greater rationality and efficiency in expenditure (although some Member States have already rejected this proposal). Parliament calls on the Commission to examine, before 1 September 2011, the possibility of attaching the College to Europol as a concrete solution to the College's structural and chronic problems and calls on the Council and the Commission to provide the Parliament with a report on the merging of the College with Europol by the end of 2011.
- 2011/04/15 Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
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2011/04/11
Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
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2010/10/07
Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
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2010/07/20
Non-legislative basic document published
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SEC(2010)0963
summary
PURPOSE: presentation by the Commission of the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2009, as part of the 2009 discharge procedure.Analysis of the accounts of the European Police College (CEPOL).CONTENT: this Commission document sets out the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2009 as prepared on the basis of the information presented by the institutions, organisations and bodies of the EU, in accordance with Article 129 (2) of the Financial Regulation applicable to the EU’s General Budget, including the European Police College (CEPOL).In 2009, the tasks and budget of this agency were as follows:· description of CEPOL’s tasks: CEPOL, which is located in Bramshill, United Kingdom, was established under Council Decision 2000/820/JHA, as repealed in 2005 and replaced by Council Decision 2005/681/JHA. The College’s main task is to function as a network and bring together the national police training institutes in the Member States to provide training sessions, based on common standards, for senior police officers;· CEPOL’s budget for the 2009 financial year: the College’s 2009 budget amounted to EUR 8.8 million, compared with EUR 8.7 million the previous year. The number of staff employed by the College at the end of the year was 28, as compared to 27 in the previous year. The complete version of CEPOL’s final accounts may be found at the following address: https://www.cepol.europa.eu/index.php?id=final-accounts
- DG {'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/budget/', 'title': 'Budget'}, ŠEMETA Algirdas
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SEC(2010)0963
summary
Documents
- Non-legislative basic document published: SEC(2010)0963
- Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A7-0150/2011
- Results of vote in Parliament: Results of vote in Parliament
- Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
- Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T7-0164/2011
- Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A7-0330/2011
- Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T7-0446/2011
- : Decision 2011/756
- : OJ L 313 26.11.2011, p. 0017
Amendments | Dossier |
61 |
2010/2181(DEC)
2011/02/03
LIBE
10 amendments...
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 1 1. Is highly concerned that
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 9 9.
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 2. Deplores the fact that because the College's revised Financial Regulation was never submitted to the Commission and therefore never entered into force, engagement contracts signed with some advisers and experts were illegal
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 3 3.
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 4. Calls for the improvements in budgetary programming, which should be fully implemented and completed by the end of 2011, to be followed up by the Commission and the Court of Auditors in order that the new procedures may be in force as soon as possible;
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 5 5.
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 7 7.
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 7 7. Deplores the cases where appropriations were used to finance private expenditure; notes that an external audit has been completed and calls for the completion of
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 8 8. Notes that even though there is a new management of the College, mistakes were made in the past which are still unaccounted for;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 8 8. Notes that even though there is a new management of the College, mistakes were
source: PE-458.471
2011/03/09
CONT
35 amendments...
Amendment 1 #
Proposal for a decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Police College for the financial year 2009 Paragraph 1 1.
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 3 a (new) 3a. Notes that the College's Financial Regulation which was submitted to the Commission for an opinion in 2009 contained two provisions which did not get a favourable opinion of the Commission because they were not considered to comply with the revised framework Financial Regulation;
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 3 b (new) 3b. Recommends that the College, in the interest of fostering transparency, provide direct access to its detailed budget, which should include a list of its contracts and procurement decisions, and be published on the College's website; believes that the recommendation does not contravene the principle of personal data protection;
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 5 5. Notes that already for the budget year 2008 31 % of the College's total budget had to be carried over and, in 2007, 41.5% of the College's total budget had to be carried over while more than 20% (EUR 0,5 million ) of the College's appropriations carried over from the preceding year were cancelled;
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 5 a (new) 5a. Is concerned that since 2007 the percentage of the College's total budget that had to be carried over and the percentage of the appropriations carried over that eventually had to be cancelled are increasingly getting worse; questions therefore the legitimacy to increase the amount of Union participation in the College's budget;
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 6 Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 8 8.
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 9 – introductory part 9. Voices concern that the Court of Auditors reported several weaknesses with regard to staff selection procedures that put at risk the transparency of these procedures; stresses in particular that the documentation of the procedures was inadequate; finds unacceptable that:
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 10 a (new) 10a. Deplores the fact that a recruitment contract which was executed in the wrong manner is still operative; calls on the College to remedy this irregularity as a matter of priority;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 10 b (new) 10b. Calls on the College to provide the Parliament with a detailed overview of all staff members that were employed with the College during the period when irregularities and illegalities were observed and have since left the College ; the overview shall include their current employer and it shall indicate which former College staff members are still employed with the Commission, an Agency or a Union institution;
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 10 c (new) 10c. Wonders, nevertheless, how the College intends to address these recurrent human resource management issues, especially considering the fact that the location of the College's Secretariat in Bramshill significantly impedes its capacity to attract and retain duly qualified people;
Amendment 2 #
Proposal for a decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Police College for the financial year 2009 Paragraph 1 1.
Amendment 20 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 11 Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 12 12.
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 13 a (new) 13a. Notes that the figures provided, where available, by report 10/0257/KA on the reimbursement of private expenditure are far below the aforementioned figures disclosed by the external audit report;
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 14 14.
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 18 a (new) 18a. Notes that the responsibilities regarding the appropriations used to finance private expenditure have been well-established; deplores consequently the fact that the College's Governing Board did not respond properly to the former Director's managerial failings, out of concern not to harm the Agency's image; considers it unacceptable that the Governing Board decided not to take disciplinary action mainly because of the possibility of legal action by the former Director;
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 18 b (new) 18b. Reiterates, therefore, its position that the Governing Board of the College must be held responsible and suggests that changes be made to prevent this situation from recurring in future; calls again for a reconsideration of the position of the Commission to grant it the right to vote and to constitute a blocking minority on decisions concerning the budgetary, financial and administrative management of the Agency within the Governing Boards of the College and of the other Community agencies;
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 19 19.
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 21 21. Notes that
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 22 22.
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 23 – subparagraph 2 calls then on the College and its Governing Board to inform the discharge authority
Amendment 3 #
Proposal for a decision on the closure of the accounts of the European Police College for the financial year 2009 Paragraph 1 1.
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 23 a (new) 23a. Notes the reply of the College that, if after an internal investigation it could be concluded that personal accountability can be established, it would definitely take the necessary measures in accordance with the applicable regulations;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 24 a (new) 24a. Recalls that the progression of the College in implementing the MAP is primarily linked to its capacity in recruiting and retaining qualified staff experienced in financial and accounting matters;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 24 a (new) 24a. Reiterates its request to the Commission to examine before 1 September 2011 the possibility of attaching the College to Europol as a concrete solution to the College's structural and chronic problems;
Amendment 34 #
Proposal for a decision Paragraph 24 b (new) 24b. Notes the opinion developed by DG Justice, Freedom and Security in its 2009 Annual Activity Report on the College's structural problems; calls again into question the capability of the College to overcome the following problems: - the College cannot apply the complex EU financial and staff regulation given its limited mission and corresponding small size; - the location of the College's secretariat, in Bramshill, some 70 Kilometres from London, which is a disadvantage, inter alia, as regards recruitment and public transport links; - the College's governance costs which are very high as compared to its activities, given that while employing only 28 staff, the College had a 27-member Governing Board during 2009;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 24 c (new) 24 c. a. Notes that the College and Europol are two Community bodies evolving in similar intervention fields and are performing complementary activities; believes that if these activities were brought together under a common agency unnecessary additional costs would be avoided; recalls that the Union budget shall be based on a sound financial management requiring the spending to be relevant, effective, and efficient and unnecessary expenditures to be properly addressed; b. Recommends, therefore, merging the College within Europol in the near future; is convinced that the merger will engender greater rationality and efficiency in expenditure; is convinced that the cost of keeping the College and Europol separate would be higher than the cost of a merger; welcomes, therefore, the Commission's proposal that Europol could take over the training role of the College; regrets that the Member States rejected this proposal and calls for a reevaluation; c. Is confident that merging the College within Europol will be beneficial in terms of the activities performed currently by the two agencies; believes that a merger will not only provide concrete solutions to the aforementioned College's structural and chronic problems but will also enable the College to benefit directly from Europol's expertise regarding international organised crime and terrorism in order to fulfil its mission of providing training for senior police officers; believes that through the merger Europol will benefit from the network as well as the training expertise of the College, and will take advantage of having a unit focusing solely on training- related issues on its premises ; d. Calls on the Council and the Commission to provide the European Parliament with a report on the merging of the College within Europol by the end of 2011;
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution Citation 7 a (new) - having regard to the report of the European Police College of 12 July 2010 on the Reimbursement of Private Expenditure (10/0257/KA),
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution Citation 7 b (new) - having regard to the Annual Activity Report 2009 of the Directorate-General Justice, Freedom and Security,
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution Recital F F. whereas the College's budget for the year 2009 was of EUR 8 800 000, compared to EUR 8 700 000 for the year 2008,
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 2 2. Acknowledges
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 2 a (new) 2a. Requests that the College provide the Parliament with a report on the application of the Procurement Manual for the period covering 1 July 2010 - 1 July 2011, before 31 October 2011;
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 3 3. Voices concern at the fact that the Court of Auditors identified severe shortcomings in the administrative and financial rules governing expenditure on the organisation of courses and seminars, which accounts for a major proportion of the College's operational expenditure;
source: PE-460.804
2011/09/08
CONT
16 amendments...
Amendment 1 #
Proposal for a decision on discharge Citation 11 a (new) - having regard to the final report on the five-year external evaluation of the European Police College (Contract Ref. N° CEPOL/CT/2010/002),
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 4 4. Welcomes the first report of the College
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 7 7. Welcomes the Commission's subsequent decision C(2011)4680 of 30 June 2011 which granted consent to the abovementioned derogation;
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 7 a (new) 7a. Takes the view that the College should grant direct access to its detailed budget, which should include a list of its contracts and of its public procurement decisions, and considers that it should publish that list on its internet site, excluding details of any contracts whose disclosure might pose a security risk;
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 9 9. Takes note that, despite the significant delays and errors in its provisional accounts for 2009, the College has assured Parliament that since 2010 it increased its financial discipline and internal control; looks forward to
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 14 14. Acknowledges that the level of implementation of the College's recruitment guide bringing the procedures in line with the Commission's Staff Regulation, was considered to be sufficient by the College; calls also on the Court of Auditors to assure the Parliament on the level of implementation of this guide;
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 15 15. Acknowledges that, as a result of an external audit on an ex-post check, the current Director initiated a recovery order requiring the former Director to return the sum of EUR 2014,94 of which only EUR 43,45 have been recovered to date; regrets the small amount recovered compared to the financial loss that the College incurred under the management of the former Director; takes note that a final reminder for payment has been issued in 2011 and that the next step is to institute proceedings before an English court to establish the legality of the debt, dating from 2007, and, should the appropriate judgement be obtained, the enforcement service will seek to recover the remainder of the unpaid debt; calls on the current Director to keep the discharge authority updated with regard to the development of this matter;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 18 18. Calls on the College to consult Parliament regularly and to continue to update
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 1 – introductory part 1.
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 1 – point c a (new) ca. the decision of the Governing Board of the College to grant voting rights to the Commission;
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 1 a (new) 1a. Looks forward to the Commission's presentation in 2012 of the College's new legal framework to integrate the abovementioned Commission's voting rights in the proceedings of the Governing Board;
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 1 b (new) 1b. Underlines that the discharge authority will continue to carefully monitor the level of implementation of the measures undertaken during the upcoming discharge procedures;
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 1 c (new) 1c. Notes that the final report on the five- year external evaluation of the College established that there is a case for the College's relocation; calls, therefore, on the Court of Auditors to prepare a special report, during 2012, setting out the costs and benefits in financial and operational terms of merging the College's responsibilities with those of Europol;
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 1 d (new) 1d. Notes that the final report on the five- year external evaluation of the College established that there is a case for the College's relocation; calls, therefore, for an independent impact assessment on the merging of the College with Europol or at least on its relocation to the Hague, taking into consideration all the relevant aspects, costs and consequences;
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 2 2. Acknowledges that the College has finally developed and implemented its procurement manual for internal use as requested by Parliament in its discharges to the College for 2008 and 2009; acknowledges that this manual was adopted by the College on 8 June 2010 and entered into force on 1 July 2010 and that a public procurement coordinator has been appointed;
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 3 source: PE-472.107
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