Activities of Davor ŠKRLEC related to 2014/2075(DEC)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2013, Section III – Commission and executive agencies
Amendments (6)
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Notes that the Court detected serious errors in public procurement (39 % of estimated error rate), a high frequency of non-compliance with state aid rules (17 % of the estimated error rate), as well as; is concerned about the extremely low rates of disbursement of financial engineering instruments to final recipients in 2013;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Notes that the Court underlined the importance of external assistance and controls for the detection of errors; suggests to the Commission and its representatives to increase the number of their on-the-spot audits;
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Acknowledges the corrective actions taken by the Commission in terms of suspension and interruption of payments; recalls that these measures may hinder the smooth implementation of projects as they do not contribute to reaching the goals of cohesion policy, due to the short time required for the proper absorption of Union funds; urges the Commission to undertake interruption and suspension of payments only as a last resort in cases where serious deficiencies in management and control systems are identified; requests the Commission to report to Parliament on the real contribution of interruptions and suspensions of payments to reducing irregularities and errors; maintains that interruption and suspension of payments are necessary steps to be taken by the Commission in cases of fraudulent use of Union funds;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Notes that 80 % of funding is administered under shared management at Member State level and that the Court found that for the majority of errors identified there was sufficient information available for Member States to detect these errors themselves; points out, therefore, that measures such as improving administrative and institutional capacity on procurement, eligibility rules and state aid through training, exchange of good practices and awareness raising, and focusing on simplification and on a risk- based approach should be implemented at Member State level; calls on the Commission to ensure further harmonisation of public procurement law and its effective transposition;
Amendment 28 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Stresses that existing instruments such as the designation of anti-fraud coordination services (AFCOS) and their effective operation should be reinforced;
Amendment 31 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Welcomes the reinforced procedures foreseen in the regulatory framework for the 2014-2020 programming period, and in particular regarding the management verifications and controls before the certification to the Commission of programme annual accounts and the submission of management declarations by the managing authorities; notes that the Commission’s corrective capacity was further improved by removing, under certain conditions, the possibility for Member States to re-use funds, resulting in net financial corrections; welcomes the establishment of a Competence Centre on administrative capacity building to support public administrations managing ERDF and the Cohesion Fund; supports the enhanced result-orientation and thematic concentration of cohesion policy that should ensure a shift from mere absorption of funds towards quality of spending and high added value of the co- financed operations.