43 Amendments of Martina DLABAJOVÁ related to 2015/2154(DEC)
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Welcomes furthermore the Court’'s recommendations that the Europe2020 strategy and the MFF need to be better aligned, the high-level political aims need to be translated into useful operational targets, and the focus on results should be reinforcedstresses the importance of focussing on performance and results as well as on added value, particularly in the cases of the employment and social headline targets, where the Commission does not have the competence to create a legally binding framework;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Notes the Court’s observations about the increased risk of irregularities in cases of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) participating in Horizon 2020; supports the Commission’s reply that SMEs' involvement in the programme is crucial for the creation of growth and jobs and welcomes that the administrative rules for SMEs have been simplified, stresses the importance of creation of sustainable jobs through SMEs;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Expresses its regretNotes that the intangible nature of investments in human capital, the diversity of the activities and the involvement of multiple, often small-scale partners in the implementation of projects continue to be the main risks to regularity of spending of European Social Fund (ESF) expenditure; calls on the Commission to continue with specific mitigating actions, including both preventative and corrective measures;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Considers that the promotion of broader use of simplified cost options can lead to the reduction of the administrative burden on the beneficiaries, to fewer errors and more orientation on performance and results;
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Expresses its concerns about the fact that out of 1708 transactions examined by the Court in the employment and social affairs policy area 602 (354.8 %) were affected by error, out of which 12 were quantifiable errors exceeding 20% (6.7%); urges the Commission to implement corrective measures and apply strict procedures to reduce the risk of irregularities in this policy area as well as to follow up the cases of ineligible expenditure identified by the Court;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Calls on the Commission to follow the Court’s recommendations in order to ensure that the implementafurther increase the contribution of the Union budget contributes to the achievement of the employment and social headline targets of the Europe 2020 strategy.
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Stresses that the architecture of the Europe 2020 Strategy is extremely complex (comprising five headline targets, seven flagships initiatives and 11 thematic objectives for the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIFs)); regrets that those various tools are not designed to translate the political objectives of the strategy into practical operational objectives, especially in the means of synergetic effects;
Amendment 41 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Deplores the fact that high-level Europe 2020 Strategy targets are not systematically translated into operational objectives in partnership agreements and programmes and that current legislation does not require the European Agricultural Funds for Regionural Development (EAFRD) and European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) to be structured around thematic objectives;
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Fears thatCalls upon the Commission will not be able to report consistently on the thematic objectives for all five ESIFs and hence on the contribution of these funds to the Europe 2020 Strategy;
Amendment 49 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 – point b
Paragraph 18 – point b
(b) except for two funds (the European Ruregional Development Fund (ERDF)) and the Cohesion Fund (CF), common indicators are not shared between different funds;
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Regrets that a lack of reliability of the first-level checks performed by the Member States in shared management and weaknesses in excluding ineligible land from the Landfill Parcel Identification System (LPIS) still persist; notes however that considerable remedial work had been carried out;
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26 a (new)
Paragraph 26 a (new)
26a. Stresses that from the point of view of the Parliament it is unsatisfactory when adversarial procedures end in "the Commission and the Court conclude differently"; calls therefore on both institution to avoid such an outcome;
Amendment 87 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 48
Paragraph 48
48. Underlines that the level of error rate does not mean a case of fraud, inefficiency, or waste, but an estimate of financial flows that should not have been paid out as they were not used in line with rules and regulations; recognizes that the error rate is not well understood by European citizens and asks the Court in this context to launch a debate with the Commission with a view to identifying potential methodological shortcomings and agreeing on common standards in reporting the error rate;
Amendment 105 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 65 a (new)
Paragraph 65 a (new)
65a. Calls on the Court to develop a system, together with national audit authorities, which will allow the Court to evaluate the follow-up Member States have given to its recommendations;
Amendment 107 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 66 a (new)
Paragraph 66 a (new)
66a. Deems useful that the Parliament and the Council find together a way how to address the issue of Member States' spending under the shared management;
Amendment 164 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 124 a (new)
Paragraph 124 a (new)
124a. Welcomes the positive outcomes estimated by the High-level Expert Group carrying out the ex-post evaluation of FP7, namely: that the programme created directly over 1,3 million job years (through projects funded over a period of 10 years) and indirectly 4 million job years over a period of 25 years; that each euro spent by FP7 generated approximately 11 euros of direct and indirect economic effects through innovations, new technologies and products and that its financial contribution to SMEs exceeded the target of 15% and reached 17% (5 billion euro);
Amendment 181 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 139
Paragraph 139
139. Welcomes DG REGIO´the Commission's efforts to further enhance the contribution of cohesion policy to Union economic governance screening all the 2014-2020 Partnership Agreements and operational programmes so as to ensure that that the relevant CSRs adopted by the end of June 2014 were adequately reflected in Member States' development and competitiveness strategies;
Amendment 185 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 142
Paragraph 142
142. Attaches particular importance to the Youth Guarantee; notes therefore with satisfaction that 110,300 unemployed young people participated in actions financed by the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) in 2014; EUR 1,3 billion are already allocated to projects on the ground; in this context is grateful for the guidance provided in the Court's Special Report 3/2015 and the Commission's constructive reaction to the findings; however stresses that in some Member States there still are some difficulties in ensuring the functioning of the payment under the Youth Guarantee andimplementing the Youth Guarantee and in ensuring a sufficient project pipeline for the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI);
Amendment 190 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 144 a (new)
Paragraph 144 a (new)
144a. Welcomes the achievements from the implementation of 2007-2013 ERDF/CF programmes, illustrated by some core indicators annually reported by the Member States and results from preliminary assessment of latest available data showing that approximately 950 000 jobs were created, 36 000 enterprises cooperated with research institutions, more than 270 000 enterprises received support and the additional capacity of renewable energy production was more than 4 000 megawatt;
Amendment 205 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 155 a (new)
Paragraph 155 a (new)
155a. Takes note that in 2014 as a result of the strict supervision and interruption policy of DG REGIO and DG EMPL and growing number of action plans EUR 840 million of financial corrections were confirmed and EUR 854 million were implemented for ERDF/CF for all programming periods (decided in 2014 and in previous years), as well as that for ESF 2007-2013 period EUR 209 million of financial corrections were accepted/decided and EUR 155,9 million were implemented (decided in 2014 and in previous years);
Amendment 206 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 155 b (new)
Paragraph 155 b (new)
155b. Observes with satisfaction that in 2014 due to the Commission supervisory role certifying authorities applied financial correction for EUR 782 million before declaring expenditures to the Commission concerning ERDF/CF which has preserved the EU budget from payments of incorrect expenditures;
Amendment 208 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 161
Paragraph 161
161. Regrets that Member States have not yet fully embraced the simplified cost options (SCO) under the ESF; whereas the Commissionelcomes the report "Simplified Cost Options in the European Social Fund" where DG EMPL expects the that under the programming period 2014-2020 on average 35% of costexpenditure will be claimed under the SCO; supports DG EMPL's efforts to promote the use of SCO by Member States and urges the Member States to fully embrace the potential of SCO;
Amendment 221 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 168 a (new)
Paragraph 168 a (new)
168a. Points out that according to the figures provided in the 2014 annual activity report of DG Regional and Urban policy the risk of error as a weighted average of the estimation for each operational programme supported by the European Regional Development Fund and the Cohesion Fund is below 1% in 9 Member States (in 2013 - in 6 Member States) and that only in 2 Member State this percentage is 4% or more (in 2013 - in 5 Member States);
Amendment 222 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 168 b (new)
Paragraph 168 b (new)
168b. Points out that according to the figures provided in the 2014 annual activity report of DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion the risk of error as a weighted average of the estimation for each operational programme supported by the European Social Fund is below 1% in 9 Member States as it was in 2013 and that this percentage is 4% or more in 6 Member States (7,9% highest) while in 2013 this percentage was above 4% in 5 Member States ((8,8% and 9,3% highest);
Amendment 239 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 189 – point c
Paragraph 189 – point c
(c) continue in its already started simplification process, including the promotion of SCO;
Amendment 242 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 195
Paragraph 195
195. Calls on DG REGIO and DG EMPL to publish, in their respective annual activity reports, their contributions to the Commission's CSR in a comprehensive and detailed waypreparation of the Commission's CSRs and on how they support Member States for implementing them, as these recommendations should demonstrate how the DGs facilitate Member States' progress towards achieving the Europe 2020 Strategy objectives;
Amendment 247 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 205
Paragraph 205
205. Notes with concern that an underestimation of the level of error reported for the financial year by a certifying body in the framework of a "reinforcement of assurance procedure"91 can happen; stresses that overall, for the 6 Member States which had opted for the voluntary application of this procedure, the Court found that the weaknesses in its implementation mostly render the reported levels of error unreliable, and that the Commission has to apply top-ups to the reported error rates; __________________ 91 See 2014 Court's annual report point 7.44 to 7.50.
Amendment 250 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 207
Paragraph 207
207. Deplores the fact that, in rural development, the majority of error types and system weaknesses detected by the Court were not addressed by the action plan that the Member States dreveloped to reduce the level of error in rural development spendingiewed by the Court;
Amendment 251 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 209
Paragraph 209
209. Considers with deep concern that conformity procedures awere still too lengthy in 2014; points out that the 15% reduction in the backlog compared to end 2013 was not sufficient, resulting in a significant backlog of 180 open files: 180 remaining files at the end of 2014;
Amendment 255 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 215
Paragraph 215
215. Stresses that it is crucially important to have a reliable and flexible (up-to-date) LPIS, which should reduce errors;
Amendment 256 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 217
Paragraph 217
217. Stresses that while in 2014 the certification bodies gave a positive assessment on all EAGF-IACS control statistics reported by the Member States, the Commission hasd to correct upwards the error rates communicated by 17 out of 69 paying agencies with a residual error rate above 2%, of which five were above 5%92 ; points out that overall, the reported error rate for CAP direct payments increased from 0,55% to 2,54% as a result of adjustments made by DG AGRI; __________________ 92 See Table: Annex 10- 3.2.8 on the DG AGRI annual activity report 2014.
Amendment 258 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 218
Paragraph 218
218. Stresses that while in 2014 the certification bodies gave a positive assessment on 88% of the EAFRD control statistics reported by the Member States, the Commission hasd to correct upwards the error rates communicated by out 43 out of 72 paying agencies with an adjusted error rate above 2% (of which 14 were above 5%); points out that overall, the reported error rate for rural development payments increased from 1,52% to 5,09% as a result of adjustments made by DG AGRI;
Amendment 260 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 219
Paragraph 219
219. Stresses that there is risk of underestimation of the adjusted error rate by the Commission, as the adjustments made relate only to the part of expenditure for which at individual paying agency level, as the adjustments are made only when Commission's or Court's audit are available;
Amendment 261 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 219 a (new)
Paragraph 219 a (new)
219a. Notes however that the Court considers the Commission's methodology to be a valid approach which can provide sufficient basis for reservations at the level of individual paying agencies;
Amendment 262 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 221
Paragraph 221
221. Notes that since the average financial corrections over the last three years for EAGF corresponds to 1,2% of the expenditure concerned and for EAFRD to 1%, the Commission has applied financial corrections covering slightly less than half of the level of the adjusted error rate for EAGF (2,6% in 2014) and one fifth for the EAFRD adjusted error rate (5,1% in 2014); notes also that over the last three years, recoveries amounted to 0,3% of the expenditure for EAGF and 0,9% for EAFRD;
Amendment 264 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 223
Paragraph 223
223. Regrets in consequenceNotes that the declaration of assurance given by the Director General of DG AGRI is not based on data but on hopeful opinionncludes three reservations in respect of 2014 expenditure in shared management with the Member States and one reservation in respect of indirect management concerning in total EUR 1 446,9 million (EUR 1 451,9 million in 2013); observes that the highest amount in risk in 2014 is under ABB03 - Direct payments;
Amendment 266 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 227 a (new)
Paragraph 227 a (new)
227a. Asks DG AGRI to report in its annual activity report 2015 on a broad mix of economic and environmental indicators giving a well-balanced overview of the state of Union agriculture and its broader context, to enable the co- legislators to better assess the performance of the CAP and engage in an informed reflection on its future orientation;
Amendment 268 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 228
Paragraph 228
228. Asks DG AGRI to adopt a new objective in its management plan accompanied with KPI targeting a fairerreport on the distribution of CAP support and to report on this in its annual activity report;
Amendment 269 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 229 a (new)
Paragraph 229 a (new)
229a. Welcomes the results achieved by the 2007-2013 Rural Development policy implementation according to preliminary data (end 2014) referring to micro enterprises (73 300) and young farmers (164 000) supported as well as to innovation support for introduction of new products or technologies in 136 000 farms;
Amendment 275 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 233
Paragraph 233
233. Notes the Court's detailed analysis of whether Union support was targeted at clearly-defined obstacljectives reflecting identified structural and territorial needs and structural disadvantages; and that it also tested the performance criterion as part of targeting and selection; considers that the improved Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (CMEF) developed by DG AGRI, with respect to the performance approach, there is a very positive case for creatcontaings a set of specific indicators to measure progress, to be developed by DG AGRIhat will allow the Commission to measure and report on progress;
Amendment 276 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 234 – point c
Paragraph 234 – point c
(c) facilitate synergies in thie natural resources area to eliminate its current heterogeneity of supportive actions;
Amendment 279 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 235 – point a
Paragraph 235 – point a
(a) the Commission consider take into consideration the number of farmers as an element of key performance of DG AGRI with respect to "farmer income" and include a new objective of "a fairer distribution of CAP support" in its management plan, accompanied with a key performance indicator and reporting on thisreporting on the distribution of CAP support in its annual activity report;
Amendment 351 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 281
Paragraph 281
281. Regrets the delay in the Commission'sWelcome's the Commission's report on the assessment ofn the PMI tobacco agreements; calls on the Commission to provide this as soon as possible, outlinregrets, however, the timing of the results of the investments made using the money paid by tobacco companies under these agreedelivery of the technical assessments;