17 Amendments of Charlie WEIMERS related to 2021/2106(DEC)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Recalls that 2020 was highly affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, which required swift and significant modifications of the Union budget in responding to the pandemicpandemic, which originated in Wuhan, China, and had a substantial impact on the EU’s finances; notes furthermore that 2020 was the last year of the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework;
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Notes with grave concern that, according to the Annual Management and Performance Report 2020, the total financial impact of all reservations by Directors-General to declarations of assurance amounted to EUR 1219 million for 2020, 16% higher than in 2019;
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes that for expenditure specifically for Heading III (Security and Citizenship) the Court of Auditors (the ‘Court’) chose to examined a sample of 27 transactions designed to contribute to the Court's overall statement of assurance; deeply regrets that the Court did not estimate the error rate for Heading III as the audit scope was not designed to be representative for this Heading; regrets this choice by the Court despite multiple calls from Parliament to calculate the estimated level of error; deplores the fact that eight out the 27 transactions examined by the Court contained errors among which four contained quantifiable errors which had a financial impact on the amounts charged to the Union budget; highlights that such cases may have an importantrevelations have a negative reputational impact; urges the Commission to address thatany and all such situations and report to the discharge authority about the progress achieved;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1 b. Notes with grave concern that the financial impact of the reservations for the policy area 'External relations' increased from EUR 16 million in 2019 to EUR 21 million in 2020; calls for immediate action to be taken by the Commission to address this issue;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Regrets that under MFF heading 3 (Security and citizenship) only 25,3 % was spent on Migration and security while the most significant area of expenditure under that heading, 40,5 %, was the Emergency Support Instrument (ESI);
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Underlines that expenditures in heading 4 ‘Global Europe’ are considered high-risk, except for budget support payment; notes that most errors found by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) in this area concern absence of essential supporting documents, non-compliance with public procurement rules, costs not incurred and ineligible costs; fully supports the recommendations formulated by the ECA and calls on taking stepssteps to be taken so that international organisations provide the ECA with complete, unlimited and timely access to documents necessary to carry out outheir task in accordance with the TFEU, questions the wisdom of parliament granting discharge to the Commission while these issues remain to be addressed;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Takes note of the Court's findings for MFF heading 3 (Security and citizenship) and welcomes the recommendation of the Court that the Commission by the end of 2021 carefully check the eligibility of ESI project costs under the Emergency Support Instrument (ESI), submitted by beneficiaries of ESI actions, in particular the regularity of procurement procedures;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Underlines that expenditures in heading 4 ‘Global Europe’ are considered high-risk, except for budget support payment; notes that most errors found by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) in this area concern absence of essential supporting documents, non-compliance with public procurement rules, costs not incurred and ineligible costs; fully supports the recommendations formulated by the ECA and calls on taking stepssteps to be taken so that international organisations provide the ECA with complete, unlimited and timely access to documents necessary to carry out outheir task in accordance with the TFEU;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Stresses that the Union in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic securprioritized financial support amounting to more than EUR 40 billion for partner countries and fragile populations amounting to more than EUR 40 billion; welcomesover the interests of citizens in Member States; takes note of the increasing financial burden of Team Europe efforts in addressing the immediate effects of the health crisis and the resultnever ending humanitarian needs in the partnerird countries, as well as its contribution to the COVAX Facility which provides fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines in low- and middle- income countries;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Notes with grave concern that of two AMIF-funded projects audited in Greece, implemented by a non- governmental organisation (NGO), consisting of provision of accommodation and other services (meals, personal hygiene products, leisure activities, counselling, etc) to unaccompanied minors in shelters located in four Greek towns, with the NGO receiving funding based on a standard daily unit cost per accommodated unaccompanied minor, the Court found non-satisfactory documentation of services provided and that the internal rules of the shelters did not include clear indicators for how the NGO was to prove that certain services covered by the standard unit cost (e.g. supervision, organisation of activities, cleaning, meals) had been delivered and were of sufficient quality and that the NGO was therefore not able to demonstrate that it had actually provided these services at an appropriate level; notes another issue namely that young people stayed on in the shelters without proper justification (e.g. schooling or health problems) after reaching adulthood;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Stresses that the Union in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which originated in Wuhan, China, secured financial support for partner countries and fragile populations amounting to more than EUR 40 billion; welcomes Team Europe efforts in addressing the immediate effects of the health crisis and the resulting humanitarian needs in the partner countries, as well as its contribution to the COVAX Facility which provides fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines in low- and middle- income countries;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3 b. Notes that in the Court's examination of the internal control systems of four authorities responsible for auditing their respective Member States' AMIF/ISF annual accounts and providing the Commission with an annual control report (ACR), the Court identified shortcomings in the ACR's relating to sampling units not being clearly defined, audit samples being too small, responsible authorities submitting draft accounts to the audit authority before completing their own on-the-spot controls and before including technical assistance payments, error rates being calculated and presented inaccurately in the body of the ACR's, value and coverage of the audit samples being incorrectly reported and failures to report that some audit work was outsourced; further notes that the Court found shortcomings in the work of audit authorities relating to checks of project selection processes, inadequate testing of the eligibility of expenditure, insufficient audit trails or poor documentation of audit work, ineligible costs that were not always reported, procurement issues wrongly classified and inadequate reviews of outsourced audit work; regrets any shortcomings that make audit conclusions less reliable and that limit the assurance provided by the audit authority's work;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Regrets that the residual error rate has increased by comparison to the previous year (2,69 % in 2020 as compared to 2,65 % in 2019) for grants under direct management of the Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers (DG JUST); notes that the main cause of error is the lack of supporting documents which has even worsened in 2020 by the fact that due to the COVID-19 crisis the audits had to be performed remotely without access to the bookkeeping of the beneficiaries; deplores such practices and calls on the Commission to urgently address this issue and make use of digital tools that allow remote access to bookkeeping of beneficiaries; welcomes the corrective action plan outlined by DG JUST; recalls the importance of regular monitoring visits for ensuring sound financial management;
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Notes the ECA’s Special Report “Reducing grand corruption in Ukraine” focused on the Union’s contributions to anti-corruption and judicial reforms between 2016-2019; is concerned that grand corruption is still prevalent in Ukraine and has negative effects on the rule of law and economic development in the country as well as spillover effects on foreign elections; notes, however, that in comparison to the period before 2014 the country has clearly developed positively through huge efforts of real political reformers, civil society activities and comprehensive Union support and cooperation to this end; calls for implementing ECA’s recommendations to the Commission, the EEAS and the European Advisory Mission in Ukraine.
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Regrets that while the Commission did fund circus workshops to integrate lone-arrival migrants by way of grants to the Swedish branch of the NGO Clowns Without Borders from 2017until December 2020, the Commission did not fund physical border barriers as the Commission does not consider physical barriers such as fences to be the most efficient tool to improve border management; calls on the Commission to urgently reassess its stance on the funding of border barriers and the funding of clown shows;1a _________________ 1a https://www.migrationsverket.se/Andra- aktorer/EU-fonder/Beviljade- projekt/Flikar/Asyl/Cirkus-for-hopp-och- styrka.html
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Is repulsed and appalled by the EEAS note dated 15 November 2021 on the Political and Strategic Environment of CSDP Missions in the Central African Republic (CAR) and media reports that an EU-trained battalion, certified by EUTM RCA, is raping, pillaging and plundering under the command of Russia-linked Wagner Group mercenaries; calls for an immediate independent evaluation of all related budget lines and for those responsible to be held to account.