Activities of Andrey NOVAKOV related to 2021/2106(DEC)
Opinions (1)
OPINION on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Union for the financial year 2020, Section III – Commission and executive agencies
Amendments (24)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Notes that, at the end of 2020, Innovation and Networks Executive Agency under Horizon 2020 Transport had a portfolio of 291 ongoing R&I implementation activities in the transport area for EUR 1,9 billion; to contribute to the achievement of a resilient, environmentally friendly and affordable European transport system; calls for the creation of incentives for further massive investments in technological development for the Union to become a technological leader in the green and digital innovations in energy and related sectors, and propulsion technologies in transport, calls on the Commission to establish Union-level governance to provide for faster standardisation, harmonisation and investment into technological measures.
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Welcomes the progress of the Horizon Europe to prepare for the launch of new EU partnerships in areas such as clean hydrogen, batteries, clean aviation, rail, connected and automated mobility, zero-emission road and waterborne transport, in particular for the Work Programme 2021-2022;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4 b. Notes that in 2020, several Research and Innovation activities under Horizon 2020 took place to support innovation in smart and sustainable mobility and to advance the progress in digitalisation and automation of aviation and rail through the SESAR and Shift2Rail Joint Undertakings;
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 c (new)
Paragraph 4 c (new)
4 c. Notes with regret that current modal split of inland freight transport in EU is highly disproportional, e.g. 76.3 % for road freight transport, followed by rail and inland waterway transport (17.6 % and 6.1 % respectively); calls for further actions to create incentives and intensify investments in railway and inland waterway transport and its harmonisation and standardisation to achieve more competitive, climate-resilient and affordable transport system of the future;
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Welcomes the fact that, in 2020, the 2019 multi annual call for proposals under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) was successfully completed, selecting 125 projects with an overall contribution of more than EUR 2 billion; notes that more than 90% of the CEF contribution was allocated to projects expected to address climate related objectives and in particular railway, inland waterways and maritime ports infrastructures and deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Is convinced that the work on the modernisation of the railway sector is contributing both to the objectives of A Europe fit for the digital age and of the European Green Deal; welcomes in this regard the fact that in 2020 twelve actions related to European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) were supported, under both the 2019 MAP call and the CEF Transport Blending Facility in order to improve interoperability, sustainability and security of railway transport; regrets however that currently roughly 30 national signalling systems exist across the Union; it is therefore necessary to foster the cooperation between European Commission, Member States, Infrastructure Managers and Railway Undertakings while improving funding opportunities to incentivise investments in ERTMS;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Regrets the low implementation rate of CEF during the 2014-2020 period: calls on Member States to significantly speed up investments to deliver the European Green Deal objectives, and on the Commission to step up its monitoring in view of the urgent need for infrastructure investment in order to facilitate a swift recovery from the Covid- 19 crisis; is concerned that a significant under- execution of payments for transport infrastructure financed by the Cohesion Fund contribution to CEF for 2021 is expected, and that implementation delays and decommitment of funds might occur;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Welcomes the positive evaluation of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) policy progress and the agreement on the Streamlining Directive, which will play a key role in accelerating pre-identified cross-border projects on the core network; notes however that there are bottlenecks along the corridors where more focus is needed to guarantee connectivity and cohesion across the Union and the timely completion of the core network by 2030; is concerned that phased and new projects along the TEN-T network are at risk due delays insuch as Struma Motorway (Bulgaria), Albert Canal (Belgium), E75 railway line, Czyzew-Bialystok (Poland), the West Link - Kvarnberget railway tunnel (Sweden), Lefkosia South Orbital Motorway (Cyprus) are at risk due delays in the implementation of the 2014-2020 period and the adoption of partnership agreements and cohesion programmes for the 2021- 2027 period; commends the progress achieved by the Commission implementing the Action Plan on military mobility and defining the dual - military and the TEN-T - uses requirements, following the modification of the military requirements, agreed by the Member States;
Amendment 21 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7 a. Regrets that poor planning, diverging priorities and procedures of the Member States impact the pace of implementation of cross-border transport projects; calls, therefore for the fast adoption of the European Cross-Border Mechanism; calls also for initiation of a legislation to further reduce administrative burden and increase efficiency in transport services;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7 b. Is concerned that the price hike in construction and raw materials change the total budget for many projects and could lead to underbudgeting, missed milestones, impossible implementations and therefore undermines the TEN-T core network completion;
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 c (new)
Paragraph 7 c (new)
7 c. Welcomes the fact that EU reaffirms road safety policy as a long- term strategic goal of the Union and welcomes the adoption of the Stockholm Declaration on Road Safety in February 2020; points out that investments in existing infrastructure and the construction of new infrastructure are essential elements in improving road safety in different EU regions and therefore contribute to the goal of reducing deaths and serious injuries by 50% by 2030;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Stresses that the COVID-19 pandemic placed transport and tourism in Union under an unprecedented pressure and welcomes the Commission’s efforts to provide relief to the sectors and financing using the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiatives (CRII and CRII+), CEF, RRF, Cohesion Fund, InvestEU, ERDF; welcomes in this regard the Commission’s initiatives such as the green lanes to ensure that freight vehicles are moving freely across the Union, the temporary relief on airport slots and the platform Re-open EU; regrets however that the lack of coordination between the Member States and the individual measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 do not facilitate the recovery of transport and tourism sectors;
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Asks the Commission to modify the spending rule N+3 years to the previous rule N+2 years in order to increase the budget execution and reduce the outstanding commitmentsNotes that the new Common Provisions Regulation allows for a more gradual transition of the decommitment rules for the current programming period 2021-2027 with regards to shared management funds; notes that the N+3 (2021-2026) and the N+2 (2027) combination would contribute to increase the budget execution and reduce the outstanding commitments; reminds that the Parliament has shown great support for this approach in plenary when voting on the agreement on the Common Provisions Regulation;
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Notes that the annual absorption rate for EFSI fFunds in 2020 was 15 %, which is the same as the final year of the previous 2007-2013 MFF but that the cumulative absorption rate is still only 55 %, which is 7 % lower than at the end of 2013. Notes that this implies that 45 % of the total commitments under the EFSI fFunds for the period 2014-2020 equal to EUR 209 billion has still not been paid out and constitutes the main part of the total outstanding commitments (RAL) of EUR 303 billion;
Amendment 100 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 37
Paragraph 37
37. Regretminds that for the cCommon pProvisions rRegulation for the EFSI fFunds, was not subject to an impact assessment was not carried out and, but each of the shared management funds covered by the Regulation is accompanied by its own impact assessment; notes that important evaluations of the CAP were not available before the impact assessment was made concerning the CAP reform;
Amendment 147 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 69
Paragraph 69
69. Underlines that specific instruments gave the Member States financial incentives to achieve results ande performance reserve that the new performance framework has foreseen which entails 6% of the resources to be frozen and consequently allocated on the basis of a performance review after the annual implementation report in 2019, to the programmes which have achieved their set milestones, so that Member States are incentivised to optimise their use of funding; regrets that according to recent data the Commission and the Member States were found to be only partially successful in using these instruments to makemaking the financing of Cohesion policy more performance-based; is worried that the Member States were found to show very limited interest in using some of the new performance-based funding models, i.e. 'joint action plans' and 'financing not linked to costs'; encourages wider use of the simplified cost options which the ECA considers have the potential to reduce beneficiaries’ administrative burden and are considered less prone to error;
Amendment 148 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 69 a (new)
Paragraph 69 a (new)
69 a. Welcomes the contribution of cohesion policy to provide emergency support to Member States throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing for a rapid redirection of the available 2014-2020 funding towards the most severely affected sectors while proposing considerable simplifications such as: extension of deadlines, accelerated payments and retroactive reimbursement of COVID-19 related expenditure and the use of the temporary increase of the EU co-financing rate to 100%; notes, in this regard, that flexibility and speed did not lead to increased risks for the EU budget and contributed to performance;
Amendment 166 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 77 a (new)
Paragraph 77 a (new)
77 a. Is concerned that the price hike in construction and raw materials change the total budget for many projects and could lead to under budgeting, missed milestones, impossible implementations and therefore undermines the TEN-T core network completion;
Amendment 172 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 78 – point e
Paragraph 78 – point e
e. ensure that the Member States take into account and promote the implementation of the partnership principle and of gender equality throughout the preparation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of all programmes as laid down in Regulation (EU) 1303/2013 and Regulation (EU) 2021/1060;
Amendment 173 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 78 – point h
Paragraph 78 – point h
h. propose a legislative revision to ensure that the payment retention is adequately protected before it is released, to improve its audit work, audit documentation and review process, to strengthen the main elements of the regularity of information provided in the AARs, and to ensure that the College of Commissioners provide relevant and reliable information in the AMPR; notes that the Common Provisions Regulation for the 2021 - 2027 programming period contains an overhauled enabling conditions and performance framework, paired with a new approach in programming, monitoring and control; welcomes the performance-enhancing provisions such as the single audit principle that represents a risk-proportioned audit conditioned by collaboration with the EPPO, enhanced obligations on conflict of interest, the use of simplified cost options of financing not linked to costs; acknowledges that the newly-reformed system will reveal its advantages in the years to come; discourages therefore opening the texts of the agreement with regards to a legislative revision, unless that would be a necessary alignment with the upcoming revision of the Financial Regulation; notes that before the mid- term review such initiative would only negatively affect the performance of the funds;
Amendment 179 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 78 – point l
Paragraph 78 – point l
l. ensure that sufficient resources are available for Horizon Europe in order to launch new Union partnerships in areas such as clean hydrogen, batteries, clean aviation, rail, connected and automated mobility, zero-emission road and waterborne transport, in particular for the Work Programme 2021-2022 and welcomes the progress of Horizon Europe in this sense; stresses the need to support projects that contribute, in particular, to a future-proof, sustainable, smart and climate-friendly European transport network;
Amendment 180 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 78 – point l a (new)
Paragraph 78 – point l a (new)
l a. calls for further actions to create incentives and intensify investments in railway and inland waterway transport and its harmonisation and standardisation to achieve more competitive, climate-resilient and affordable transport system of the future; notes that such initiative will improve the monitoring of the spending in transport investments, enhance the implementation of funds and reduce potential error rates;
Amendment 184 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 78 – point n a (new)
Paragraph 78 – point n a (new)
Amendment 185 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 78 – point n b (new)
Paragraph 78 – point n b (new)
n b. calls on the co-legislators to adopt the European Cross-Border Mechanism (ECBM) in order to tackle red tape in the next implementation period; recalls that the ECBM proposal would facilitate the implementation significantly and will reduce the risks of errors; calls, in this regard, on the Council to unblock the file as soon as possible; underlines that analyses and studies clearly show the negative consequences of not adopting the ECBM regulation; notes that the ECBM has the potential of increasing efficiency in transport services planning as diverging priorities and procedures of Member States impact the pace of implementation of cross-border transport projects;