BETA

28 Amendments of Tomáš ZDECHOVSKÝ related to 2021/2107(DEC)

Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
10. Notes with concern, the specificthe finding by the Court, in its annual report on the implementation of the budget concerning the financial year 2020, of minor errors in two payments (i) an over-payment for IT-services caused by an incorrect application of contract terms and (ii) an incorrect payment of a subsistence allowance to a Member, following a mistake in an attendance list; regretnotes that the control system in place did not prevent nor detect thoese two mistakes; calls on Parliament to implement the necessary changes to ensure that it only pays daily allowances to Members who qualify for them by the end of 2022 and to inform Parliament’s Budget Control Committee when those changes will enter into force, but recognises that the main control mechanisms function well taking into account the significant number of transactions per year;
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 – indent 2
- with regard to the first phase of the audit of financing of European political parties and European political foundations, acknowledging that the Authority for European Political Parties and European Political Foundations (the Authority) had very limited resources at its inception for setting up new management and control procedures; considering that there remain areas of joint or overlapping responsibilities between the Authority and DG FINS that provide scope for further enhancement of the cooperation foreseen by the main legislation governing the registration process (Regulation (EU) 1141/20142[1] with subsequent amendments), notably under its Article 28; identifying a number of provisions governing the registration process in the Regulation for which there may be scope to enhance the clarity, comprehensiveness and ease of application; _________________ 2Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2014 on the statute and funding of European political parties and European political foundations (OJ L 317, 4.11.2014, p. 1).underlines the necessity for Member States to ensure that their contact points are available to the Authority for regular meetings;
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25 a (new)
25 a. Appreciates the remarkable efforts of Parliament and its IT services during 2020 to immediately provide members, staff, accredited parliamentary assistants and trainees with electronic devices to work remotely; asks, however, to know the buying criteria for the devises and which practical considerations influenced the decision to buy the currently used surface devices; underlines with concern the amount of technical issues with the devices among Members and assistants, such as abrupt disconnections, lost documents, overheating, short battery capacity, and poor connectivity during video calls;
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 a (new)
28 a. Underlines that interpretation is vital for the functioning of committees and parliamentary life; recognises that due to the sudden and disruptive changes caused by the pandemic and consequent sanitary restrictions, the administration had to quickly find feasible solutions to provide interpretation services; stresses that some committee sessions did not have all required languages, thus complicating participation of some members and diminishing their options to interact; understands that the three working languages are English, French, and German but strongly highlights that any of the 24 official languages should be provided upon request of members;
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30
30. DeplorNotes the fact that there is no system in place to ensure that Members who are temporarily absent for a justified reason, such as maternity leave, parental leave, long-term sick leave or career’s leave, can continue to carry out their core duties, first and foremost to speak in debates and to vote; calls on the Committee on Constitutional Affairs to provide for the continuation of remote participation and for providing for the substitution of a Member - whether female or male - while on parental leave and in the above mentioned cases; urges the Bureau to find feasible and temporarily limited solutions for members who are absent for justified reasons, such a maternity leave, paternity leave, serious health matters, or temporary carer's leave, to continue to carry out their core duties, first and foremost to speak in debates and vote; recalls that daily allowances remain linked to physical presence at Parliaments places of work;
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34
34. Calls on Parliament to re-evaluate its EMAS target for 2020 in light of the COVID-19 pandemic; reiterates its call to amend its current CO2 reduction plan for reaching carbon neutrality by 2030 using an internal carbon price;deleted
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 40
40. Calls for the removal of remaining individual printers, encouragingEncourages Parliament’s staff to use high quality printer stations shared by several offices; encourages staff to request the removal of remaining individual printers on a voluntary basis bearing in mind the lifecycle of printers and the potential waste volumes of such devices; encourages Parliament’s staff to use high quality printer stations shared by several offices;
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 45
45. Welcomes the introduction of a wider and more sustainable food choice, including the introduction of a greater variety of vegetarian and vegan products, in Parliament’s canteens; reiterates that plant-based food not only has health advantages but also has a much lower carbon footprint; calls on Parliament to increase the variety of vegetarian and vegan meals further and incentivise the consumption of such meals with a view to reducing the consumption of meat, fish and other animal-based products in Parliament’s canteens as much as possible; further requests that minimum one fresh gluten-free meal option is available each day and that allergy and diet information is displayed visibly on the food cards next to the counters;
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 69 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 49
49. Notes with satisfaction that, since the start of the new legislature, the necessary infrastructure to enable Members to publicise scheduled meetings with interest representatives has been available on Parliament’s website with a view to improving transparency; calls on Parliament’s services to expand the infrastructure to allow assistants and policy advisers to voluntarily publish their meetings with interest representatives; recalls that Rule 11 of the Rules of Procedure obliges Rapporteurs, Shadows and Committee Chairs to publish their meetings with interest representatives; notes with concern that as of 30 April 2021, only 380 out of the 705 current Members had publicised at least one meeting with an interest representative on Parliament’s website; further notes that 10 out of the 24 Committee Chairs have published none or just a single meeting with an interest representative since the start of this legislature; recalls that the nature of competences of different committees does not necessarily warrant a significant number of meetings that fall under current transparency obligations; recalls that the information, reminder notices and emails on the obligation to publish meetings should be sent to all Members at more regular intervals;
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 81 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 55
55. CRecalls onthat the Advisory Committee on the Conduct of Members tois regularly publish on Parliament’s website any investigations,sponsible for investigations and making a recommendation to the President, but decisions and sanctions arelated to potential or real breaches of the Code of Conduct, rather than doing so in the annual report; further calls on Parliament to publish decisions and sanctions imposed by the Advisory Committee against Members on the respectiv a sole matter for the President as established in Article 176(2) of the Rules of Procedure; recalls that that committee is the body to provide advice, which represents an interim and non-binding stage, thus preventing the committee from publishing information on investigations and sanctions; strongly underlines that the publication of information on individuals cases before a final decision is not compatible with the principle of confidentiality of investigations, thus running contrary to legal principles of a sound conduct of investigation, presumption of innocence, and protection of personal rights; opposes the mentality to publicly hunt and accuse Members pawith charges on Parliament’s websitef misbehaviour, which have not been proven;
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 92 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 58
58. ExpStresses its strong regret over the fact that the Bureau still refuses to implement the will of the Plenary expressed on numerous occasions to reform the General Expenditure Allowance (GEA), thereby actively preventing Union taxpayers' money, which amounts to 40 million Euro per year, from being spent in a more transparent and accountable manner; repeats its call for a reform of the GEA that would establish sample checks annually by Parliament’s services on 5% of Members’ GEA expenditure, and that would oblige Members to keep all receipts pertaining to the GEA, to annually publish an overview of expenditure by category as well as an independent auditor’s opinion on Parliament’s website, and to return the unspent share of the GEA at the end of the mandate; notes that the requested sample checks would pertain to checking 36 randomly selected Members per year and, bthat the general expenditure allowance is a lump-sum allowance and underlines the necessity of independence of the free mandate as stated in the Rules of Procedure; stresses that the management of the general expenditure allowance should not lead to increased level of bureaucracy for Members’ offices and Parliament’s administration; recalls that based on calculations by the Directorate-General for Finance, by pro-rata projection, switching the payment of the general expenditure allowance into a reimbursement regime would require at least 75 full time equivalent positions, which constitutes an unrealistic increased on a calculation by DG FINS, would require an estimated maximum of 4 to 6 FTE postsf staff and rises the administrative burden;
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 59
59. Recalls that pursuant to Rule 11(4) of Parliament’s Rules of Procedure, Parliament provides Members already with the possibility of which provides that “The Bureau shall provide the necessary infrastructure on Members’ online page on Parliament’s website for those Members who wish to publishing a voluntary audit or confirmation of their GEA expenses; regrets that only five voluntary declarations on the use of the GEA were submitted during the calendar year 2020, as provided for under the applicable rules of the Statute for Members and its implementing rules, that their use of the general expenditure allowance complies with the applicable rules of the Statute for Members and its implementing measures”; notes that such publications are made individually and optionally under the Members’ own responsibility and that Parliament’s administration is not responsible for compiling the information provided; recalls that members are tasked with the correct and proper spending of funds; calls on Parliament’s services to send an annual yearly reminder to Members in relation to this possibility; calls on Parliament to regularly inform the discharge authority of how many Members follow these recommendations in order for the spending of Union taxpayers’ money to become more transparent and accountable;
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 98 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 60
60. Recalls that the European Ombudsman, in her recommendation of 29 April 2019 in case 1651/2018/THH, found that Parliament’s refusal to grant public access to documents related to the revHighlights the fact that the 2018 Bureau decision ofn the list of expenses that might be covered by the GEA constituted maladministration and recommended granting public access to a proposal from the Parliament Bureau’s ad hoc Working Group, includgeneral expenditure allowance stipulates that the Bureau will maintaing the options listed in that proposal; regrets that Parliament rejected the Ombudsman’s recommendation and urges Parliament’s administration to reconsider granting public access to the documents in questionis decision until the end of 2022 and will evaluate it on the basis of the experience gained during the 9th parliamentary term;
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 108 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 62 a (new)
62 a. Calls on the Bureau to establish a system to allow APAs to take unpaid leave for longer periods of time similar to other staff, which can take up to six months unpaid leave during their career;
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 128 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 73
73. Recalls that article 1.7 of the cleaning contract specifies that contractors must comply with social and labour law obligations as provided for by EU law, national law and collective agreements or by international obligations in social and labour law; recalls that where the responsible Parliament services detect or receive any alert on possible breaches, and on the condition that the persons concerned have raised in vain the issue with their managers, the union representatives and the external service for prevention and well-being of the company, the relevant authorities need to be contacted;deleted
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 129 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 74
74. Notes that neither an inspection of the national service 'Contrôle des lois sociales/Direction de Bruxelles' (2020) nor an analysis by the psychosocial department of the external service for prevention and protection at work in Brussels (2020) found any legal breaches related to social laws and working conditions for cleaning staff; supports the launch of internal surveys, by the end of 2021, aiming to reflect the actual state of the company’s employee satisfaction levels, engagement, commitment, loyalty, motivation, etc. and to identify weaknesses, problems or opportunities for improvement within the current cleaning company Köse; calls on Parliament to take all necessary precautions to ensure that the highest standards of labour law for cleaning staff, are being upheld by external contractors, in particular as regards psychological pressure and working conditions;deleted
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 135 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 79
79. Calls forSupports a debate on the space needs of Parliament in light of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, current and future increase in teleworking and, if appropriate, for the adaptation of its long- term building strategy; requests, in particular, that the building policy be reviewed to ensure a dedicated office space for each staff member, as this policy would result in significant office space being unused during large parts of the working weekcalls the work done by the focus groups and the working group on buildings and requests their involvement in this debate; encourages the review of the building policy to see if a dedicated office space for each staff member remains necessary, as a change might result in office space savings; considers that voluntarily e.g. two staff members teleworking for 3 days a week should be able to share one work station; recalls that many members, APAs, and staff appreciate the working setting at Parliament's three places of work and consider it part of their professional well- being to have enough office space to work;
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 140 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 79 a (new)
79 a. highlights that the mopping-up practice has favoured savings of more than EUR 100 million over the last years in interest payments and thus constitutes best practice for the use of taxpayers money in public institutions; encourages the Bureau to identify additional budget lines that could benefit from this practice; notes that this practice has helped prevent the spending of remaining funds for unnecessary expenses at the end of the year; recalls that the “mopping-up transfer” supports the long-term building strategy of Parliament of owning buildings instead of renting them; recalls that the ramassage enabled Parliament to buy the strategically important Scholl building in 2020 and pay the full buying price in one transaction thus avoiding further financing costs
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 144 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 83
83. Raises concerns on the clearly overpriced purchase price of the SCHOLL building, purchased at 74.9 million EUR, while the market price of the building was previously estimated to be between 42 and 65 million EUR;deleted
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 146 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 83 a (new)
83 a. Points out the purchase price of the Scholl building, purchased at EUR 74,9 million; underlines that the difference of EUR 10 590 000 between the purchase price (EUR 74 900 000) and the estimation by the external expert (EUR 64 310 000) should be analysed against the situation where Parliament would not have acquired the building; notes that the usufruct contract signed by Parliament in 2009 did not include an exit clause, entailing that Parliament would have in any case had to pay the full amount of due usufruct payments for the remaining contractual period (~ EUR 24 000 000); stresses that if Parliament had not acquired the building, it would have paid in any case the usufruct and in addition would have lost already realised investments; notes that in total this potential loss in case of a non-acquisition amounts to EUR 39 300 000; emphasises that Parliament, by acquiring the Scholl building in 2020, with a price of EUR 74 900 000, has guaranteed the safeguarding of EUR 39 300 000, as well as avoided the future increase of the real estate market value and the risk of losing the building to a potential new undesirable investor in closest proximity; notes that while bearing in mind the calls by the Committee on Budgetary Control for cost-efficiency in real estate transactions, the purchase of the Scholl building seems justified given the financial and strategic explanations;
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 148 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 84
84. Highlights that, in Brussels, some buildings either currently occupied by Parliament or of major strategic interest due to their location and the related security aspects, are not part of Parliament's propertyortfolio, as was the case with the SCHOLLScholl building before it was acquired by Parliamentsition; notes that Parliament's Building Strategy Beyond 2019 underlines the importance of owning and interconnecting Parliament’s central buildings and mentions TREVESreves II as a building that is in Parliament’s interest to acquire; notes that while these criteria are important, they should not be the ultima ratio foressential and that they should be carefully analysed when proposing the purchase of a new building and cannot justify the purchase of additional office space at a price that lies significantly above market value, which must be concluded at a price representing an acceptable negotiation result and be the best offer in line with the quality-price ratio established for the procurement;
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 155 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 85 a (new)
85 a. Notes that the Committee on Budgets is responsible for opinions and decisions concerning buildings-related projects with significant financial implications according to Annex VI to the Rules of Procedure; notes the competences of the Committee on Budgets in Article 266 of the Financial Regulation in relation to buildings of all institutions, bodies and offices, including Parliament; underlines that this includes early information, information on transparent and detailed planning, scrutiny, and decision making as well as the authorisation of projects;
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 186 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 94
94. Notes with interest that, according to Parliament’s Legal Service, it follows from the two judgments that the Court of Justice confirms that acquired rights as such, of Members who have already fulfilled all the necessary conditions for the acquisition of the right to the additional voluntary pension, are fully protected under the general principles of Union law; notes, however, that the judgments also confirm that this does not prevent the Bureau from modifying the conditions as well as modalities of this group of Members on the condition that the principle of proportionality is duly respected, as well as for those Members who have not yet fulfilled all the conditions for the acquisition of pension rights and who therefore only hold future entitlements under the pension scheme, a situation which is further confirmed by the judgement of the Court of Justice of 24 September 2020 in Case C- 223/19:, YS v NK; asks the Secretary- General to guarantee that no taxpayer money is used for any future bail-out; considers that a review of the financial model of the fund would not be sufficient to prevent additional taxpayers money from being used for future payments; urges the Secretary-General therefore to also propose measures on adjusting the modalities of the fund, including a further increase of the retirement age and a reduction of pension benefits paid out;1a; urges the Bureau and administration therefore to propose a future fit solution that takes into account the pension and living situation of entitled Members and former Members as well as the principles of sound financial management and relevant case law of the European Court of Justice; calls on all concerned stakeholders to promptly find a sustainable and feasible solution; _________________ 1aJudgment of the Court of Justice of 24 September 2020, YS v NK, C-223/19, ECLI:EU:C:2020:753.
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 191 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 95 – subparagraph 1 (new)
JSIS
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 192 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 95 a (new)
95 a. Notes with concern the lack of understanding within the decision-making and approval forums at the joint sickness insurance scheme (JSIS) when it comes to new treatments, medical trends and not yet approved drugs particularly linked to novel appearances of nervous diseases, autoimmune disorders as well cancer diseases; requests that the relevant bodies within JSIS duly and regularly take into account recent medical developments and knowledge gains when updating the list of eligible treatments and drugs; requests JSIS to show more flexibility when assessing clinical pictures as well as subsequent treatment and therapies that might help a patient; recommends the introduction of expert groups, which can assess and approve not-yet approved treatments, pharmaceutical drugs, and medications to improve the treatment quality of applicants, decrease bureaucratic burden, and accommodate the most recent medical information when handling reimbursement claims;
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 193 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 95 b (new)
95 b. Calls on the Bureau to ensure that the JSIS shall provide a coherent and individual explanation for declining a reimbursement request; regrets the culture of declining a reimbursement request in pdf format without the possibility to challenge the decision in person; calls on the Bureau to introduce the possibility for local doctors in charge of a treatment of an applicant to talk to the responsible JSIS unit or expert group to explain the treatment and medical benefits; further expresses its wish to improve the user-friendliness of the application enabling a quicker and more direct follow-up of individual requests;
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 196 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 105
105. Notes that the vast majority of EUuropean political parties’ funding comes from public sources and, therefore, requires the highest level of transparency and accountability; underlines that the Authority should provide information covering the registration and financial situation of EUuropean political parties and foundations to the greatest extent possible; welcomes the efforts made by the Authority to make a wide array of information accessible to citizens on its website; calls on the Authority to make sure that the documents published in its website are user-friendly, complete and updated and recognises the announcement of the Authority during its hearing to complete a website accessibility benchmarking exercise;
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT
Amendment 197 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 106
106. Points out that the Authority has limited powers with regard to verifying whether a registered party or foundation is in breach of the EUnion’s core values and has never triggered the complex values compliance procedure thus far; calls for the strengthening of the current administrative set-up of the Authority in order to better monitor its compliance with the relevant rules and the implementation of sanctions, as well as to ensure its complete autonomyindependence and neutrality;
2022/02/04
Committee: CONT