BETA

41 Amendments of Monika PANAYOTOVA related to 2012/2064(INI)

Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas the European Court of auditors, as a professional audit institution must apply international audit standards applicable to public sector;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
D. whereas public auditors, like the Court and the SAIs of the Member States, play an essential role in restoring confidence and trust in and improving EU public accountability, which is carried out in line with the goals of restoring economic growth and strengthening public finances; whereas it is therefore important to situate any discussion of possible reforms of the Court in the broader context of the challenge of improving EU public accountability;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
G. whereas it is importantessential that the Court of Auditors beis composed of figuremembers who provide, to the highest degree, guarantees of professional competence and independence as required by the Treaty, while avoiding any risks to the reputation of the Court;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J
J. whereas Parliament's opinion falls subject to intense media interest; whereas should persons who had their candidacy previously been publicly and formally repudiatedturned down by Parliament take office as Members of the Court, trust in the institutions concerned would be weakened;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L a (new)
La. whereas the Peer Review 2013 calls for shorter internal procedures in the Court, clarification of the role and mandate towards external stakeholders and underlines that the auditees influence the Court's findings and audit opinions too much;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L b (new)
Lb. whereas Parliament focusses mainly on proposals that avoid the necessity of changes in the Treaty Changes;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 3 a (new)
Parliament's vision for the ECA: The future role of the Court
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
1. Notes that traditionally, the Court has fulfilled its mission mainly by carrying out financial audits and independent evaluations of EU financial management and reporting, as well as providing advice on how such management and reporting could be improved upon to facilitate the EU public accountability process in terms of financial management, financial reporting, public scrutiny and reform;deleted
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. believes that the European Court of Auditors as an external auditor to the Union's institutions may provide the legislators not only with a statement of assurance as to the reliability of the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions in a respective budgetary year, but also that the Court is in an eminent position to provide the legislator and the Budgetary Authority, especially Parliament's Budgetary Control Committee, with valuable opinions on results achieved by the Union's policies, in order to improve the performance and effectiveness of Union financed activities, identify economies of scale and scope as well as spill over effects among national policies of Member State and provide Parliament with external assessments to the Commission's evaluation of public finances in the Member States;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
2. Is of the opinion that the Court should remain committed to independence, integrity, impartiality and professionalism, while building strong working relationships with its partners, namely the European Parliament, and including its responsible committee, but also the specialised committees, in the accountability process of the EU institutions;deleted
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
3. Points out that Parliament and its elected Members should be particularly rigorous when examining the implementation of the EU budget and that the Court should remain committed toIs of the opinion that independence, integrity, impartiality and professionalism of the Court are key for the credibility of the Court in assisting Parliament and the Council into overseeing and to contributinge to the improvement of EU financial management, and into protecting the financial interests of citizens from programming stages throughup to the closing of accounts;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. welcomes the fact that, since 2009, the Court has focused considerable efforts on developing its products and services as well as its annual report; believes, however, that greater effort should be made and more resources used to improve quality further, primarily with respect to the Court's performance audit work, which provides information on the EU budget results; considers that the Court should build upon the DAS model to determine whether results have been achieved and to explain how they have been achieved, so that lessons can be learned and applied in other contexts;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 56 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
12. Believes that the moment has arrived to revisit and ‘re-engineer’ the mandate of the Court to suit present circumstances, taking account of the EU's present and future pressing needs; is of the opinion that the Court should be involved in the preparation of the Commission's work programme, providing advice as to the risks that may be encountered therein;deleted
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Recalls that the one of the best way to improve the control of the European Union accounts and to enhance both performance and effectiveness of EU spending is to have a discharge voted before the 31st of December of the year following the financial year controlled; underlines that that would force the Court to present its annual report the 30th of June;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
15. Recommends, moreover, that the Court intervene in all legislative proposals put forward by the Commission, providing advice during the conception period as to the financial and other risks involved, and also assisting the Commission to develop a new culture of performance, defining in their legislative proposals and in their management procedures a number of targets and key performance indicators which meet the requirements of the Court of Auditors in terms of relevance, comparability and reliability;deleted
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 74 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
16. Insists, therefore, that the Court's mandate, as set out under the Treaty, be fulfilled by means of the following priority actions, listed in order of importance and level of staff resources involved: · provision of support and advice through the issue of comprehensive opinions to the Commission, Parliament and the Council on the preparation and discussion of the Union's programme and new draft legislative proposals; · provision of performance audits evaluating the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of Union policy instruments; · provision of statements of assurance to Parliament and the Council as to the reliability of the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions, in line with Article 287 TFEU;deleted
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 81 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
18. Is of the opinion that while the Treaty of Lisbon re-affirmed the legal framework and independence of the Court in promoting public accountability, thereby tasking it with the important role of holding the Commission to account; notes that Parliament and the Council should also play an influential role in the definition of the Court's multiannual strategy plan;deleted
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 85 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
19. Believes that preparatory tripartite meetings betweenthe current form of meetings of the Court with Parliament, and the Council and the Court could form a basis upon which to establishprovide valuable advice to the drawing up of the Court's annual work programme; stresses that such structured preparatorythese dialogue coulds greatly assists in ensuring the effective and democratic accountability to citizens of the public funds put at stake to meet EU objectives; emphasizes that despite an increased advisory collaboration with Parliament and the Council, the Court should, independent of political or national influence, decide on its annual work program;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 89 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
20. Notes that issues of major interests to external stakeholders, such as the European Parliament, and subsequent audit requests are neither collected in a structured way nor fully treated as preferential; considers this as detrimental to the relevance and impact of the Court's audit results; notes, furthermore, that the added value of the Court is directly linked to the use made of its work by Parliament and other stakeholders in the accountability process; insistvites, therefore, that the Court'e Court to take into consideration in its annual work programme be aligned with the political priorities of the legislators and presented, in this connection, to Parliament's speciaissues of major interest to the EU citizens communicated by the Parliament's Budgetary Control cCommittee as a channel of the EU citizens' concerns;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 100 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
23. Notes that the regulations covering the main areas of expenditure for the period 2014-2020 have substantially changed the financial and legal frameworks governing the implementation of the EU budget; points out that these reforms imply significant changes that will alter the landscape of financial management risk by simplifying funding rules, increasing conditionality and leveraging the EU budget; insists, therefore, that the Court increase its focus on results providing adequate reporting on risks and performance of such new instrumentsSuggests to the Court to synchronize its multiannual work programme with the MFF and include a midterm review as well as a comprehensive review of the Commission's closure of accounts to the respective MFF;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 102 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 a (new)
23a. expects from the Court full transparency about the Court's time needs for its products and calls on the Court to publish within each respective Performance Audit the time schedule and the different phases the respective product underwent in its development, i.e. the time that was needed to go through each of the different phases in place, currently these phases are: - Preliminary Study - Issue Analysis - Audit Planning Memorandum - Statement(s) of Preliminary Findings - Drawing Conclusions - Draft Report - Contradictory Procedure;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 103 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 b (new)
23b. notes that Performance Audits including a preliminary study of the Court take two years which made in several cases the audit findings outdated and prevent the implementation of adequate measures; expects the Court to streamline the drawing up of its Performance Audits and cut down on redundant procedural steps ,
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 104 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 b (new)
23b. expresses its wish that the Court should in the future not only publish the Commission's comments on its findings, conclusions and recommendations, but shall clearly express a final counter reply where appropriate;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 106 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 c (new)
23c. emphasis that despite the need to be fair and to refer to arguments of the auditee in the respective report, it is not necessary to reach consensus with the auditee;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 107 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 d (new)
23d. notes that in some cases parliamentary deliberations about issues addressed by special reports were already concluded, therefore, it was not possible to put the results of the Court's audit to effective use; notes furthermore, that in some cases key recommendations of the Court had already been implemented by the Commission once a Court's report was presented; expects from the Court to bear all external time constraints and developments in mind when conducting its audits;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 110 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
24. Recalls that the Europe 2020 Strategy relies heavily on non-budgetary instruments, such as regulatory measures and guarantees, as well as coordinated Member State actions and intergovernmental actions making use of public funds which fall outside the remit of the Treaty; recalls that this situation presents a particular challenge for the Court in its audit activities to help Parliament hold the Commission and national authorities to account for the totality of the public funds put at stake to achieve EU objectives;deleted
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 116 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 6
Reshaping the Court's governance structure
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 119 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28
28. Supports the adaptation of the Court's governance structure, in particular regarding the selection and composition of high-level management, as a precondition to enhance its core mandate, and to seek a macro-prudential diagnostic role that renders the institution a stronger public independent systemic risk evaluation agency, evolving from an almost exclusive auditing and accounting agency into a broader accountability body;deleted
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 125 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31
31. Takes the view that the present geographic representation rule relating to high-level management, according to which there may be one member per Member State, has by far outlived its initial usefulness and credibility and that it could be replaced by a light management structure tailored to a broader accountability mandate, with proper provisions to guarantee independence in all of the Court's activities, and complemented by a governing board which could be based on Member State representation;deleted
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 130 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32 – introductory part
32. Proposes, therefore, that the Court should be composed of the following bodies:have the same number of members as the Commission; members should have at least professional experience in auditing as well as in management; members of the Court should be especially qualified for their function and their independence must be assured beyond doubt;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 133 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32 – point 1
· a governing board consisting of the 28 heads of the national SAIs, which would meet three times per year to define the Court's annual and multiannual work programme, the possible improvement in the Court's functions and methodology, and the follow-up required on activities; the board should be chaired by the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union;deleted
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 136 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32 – point 2
· a management board, of not more than nine members, composed of a representative sample of large and small Member States, with an appropriate gender balance, which would decide on how the mandate should be aligned with the Commission's term of office; the management board should be headed by the president of the Court and eight vice- presidents;deleted
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 139 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32 – point 3
· the management board should be diverse and broad in its composition, and board members should have professional experience in management or auditing, in academic life or experience in political bodies; members of the Court should be especially qualified for their function and their independence must be assured beyond doubt;deleted
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 146 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33 – point c
(c) in the Committee on Budgetary Control, hearings will be public and the discussions will be relayed via video. At public hearings, discussion will be kept to a minimum, so as to prevent candidates from being subjected to to personal criticism in public;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 156 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34 – point b
(b) where necessary, proof of prior discharge of applicants from management duties previously carried out;deleted (moved below)
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 158 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34 – point c
(c) an impeccable management record, in the case of those who have performed management duties in the public or private sectors good auditing record and evidence of very good knowledge of at least one of the working language of the European Union;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 159 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34 – point c a (new)
(ca) where necessary, proof of prior discharge of applicants from management duties previously carried out;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 161 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34 – point d a (new)
(da) recognised high standards of integrity and morality of the candidate;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 163 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34 – point e
(e) in view of the nature of the work to be done, the age of candidates will also be taken into account, with it being deemed reasonable, for example, to stipulate that Members should not be over 65 years of age at the endtime of their first term of office or over 70 years of age at the end of their secondappointment;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 166 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34 – point f
(f) it would be desirable for members shall not to serve for more than two terms of office;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT
Amendment 168 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34 – point g
(g) finally, further to its assessment of individual merit and good character, Parliament will ensure that a balance is maintained in the composition of the Court as a whole in tParliament will take the issue of gender balance among the Court's Memberms of gender representation among its Membervery serious;
2013/11/14
Committee: CONT