Activities of Marco VALLI related to 2017/2044(BUD)
Plenary speeches (2)
General budget of the European Union for 2018 - all sections (debate) IT
General budget of the European Union for 2018 - all sections (debate) IT
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the Council position on the draft general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2018 PDF (993 KB) DOC (188 KB)
Amendments (61)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Stresses that Parliament's reading of the 2018 Budget fully reflects the political priorities adopted by an overwhelming majority in its abovementioned resolutions of 15 March 2017 on general guidelines and of 5 July 2017 on a mandate for the trilogue; recalls that jobs, growthe fact that the Union budget is not delivering concrete answers to the political priorities which Union is facing; recalls that jobs, economic recovery, migration and security are at the core of those priorities;
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Highlights that the Union continues to face numerous challenges and is convinced that the necessaryits financial resources need to be deployed from the Union budget, in order to meet the political priorities and allow the Union to delivermust deliver concrete answers and effectively respond to those challenges;
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Reaffirms its commitment to financing Union policies that enhance jobs and growtheconomic recovery through investments in research, education, infrastructure, SMEs and employment, in particular among young people; fails to understand how the Union can achieve progress in these fields considering the cuts proposed by the Council under subheading 1a; decides instead to additionally reinforce research and innovation programmes that have a very high implementation rate and which, due to oversubscription, are faced with a particularly low success rate for applications;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Calls on the Committee on Budget of the European Parliament, in coordination with the sectorial committees of this Parliament, to promote a real culture of results in respect of the optimisation of the use of expenditure by removing expenditures from programmes showing low performance; calls for the Commission, in this regard, to submit a detailed assessment of those programmes which have not hitherto demonstrated any added value from an economic, social and environmental point of view, so that steps can be taken to abandon them;
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Remains committed to its pledges made during the EFSI negotiations, namely to minimise the impact of EFSI-related cuts on Horizon 2020 and the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) in the framework of the annual budgetary procedure; proposunderlines, therefore, to offset those cuts by restoring the original annual profile of those two programmes, in order to allow them to fully accomplish the objectives agreed during theat EFSI has proved to be ineffective in reducing the investment gap in Europe, and stresses that the results achieved so far are insignificant and do not deliver any adopdition of the relevant legislationality or added- value in comparison with the existing EIB programmes;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Underlines that Parliament, as discharge authority, is called upon to express views on the political objectives and indicators presented by the Commission in the draft budget and thatthe Parliament should scrutinise the European added value of each budget lines, not only from a purely financial standpoint but also by assessing the economic, social and environmental impact of the projects funded;
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Is deeply concerned by the fact that youth unemployment remains at unprecedented levels and is convinced that in order not to jeopardise the future of an entire generation of young Europeans, additional actions need to be undertaken; decides therefore to reinforce the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) beyond the level proposed by the Commission for 2018; stresses that such reinforcement should be considered as additional to the overall allocation that was politically endorsed for YEI in the context of the MFF mid-term revision, and not as a mere frontloading of that allocation in the 2018 Budget;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Stresses the importance of considering the option of excluding from the calculation of national deficits, in the framework of the Stability and Growth Pact, the share of funding that is committed to cohesion programmes and that which is co-financed through the ESI Funds and allocated to Thematic Objective 5 (prevention, promoting climate change adaptation, risk prevention and management);
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Takes note that the Commission considered that it is “difficult if not impossible to provide an estimated cost paid for migrants/seeker country by country as the management of migratory flows comprises a wide range of activities”2; would therefore like to be informed on how the Commission has been able to draft precise estimates regarding that policy area and what criterion has hitherto been used to determine the allocation of AMIF funds in the various Member States; _________________ 2 Reply to written question 23- CONT hearing of Commissioner AVRAMAPOLOS of 29 November 2016
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Points out that the 2018 programme statements contain paragraphs referring to financial instruments financed by specific programme but that the Commission considers that such information does not constitute the official reporting on the financial instruments financed by the Union budget as provided for under Article140(8) of the Financial Regulation"; calls on the Commission to supply a full set of data on the allocation of financial instruments and on the results hitherto achieved from an economic, social and environmental point of view, also with regard to the expected and actual leverage effect;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Recalls that the cohesion policy plays a primary role in the development and growtheconomic recovery of the Union; stresses that in 2018, cohesion policy programmes are expected to catch-up and reach cruising speed; and emphasises Parliament’s commitment to ensuring adequate appropriations for those programmes that represent one of the core policies of the Union; is however preoccupied by the unacceptable delays in the implementation of operational programmes at national level; calls on Member States to ensure that the designation of managing, auditing and certifying authorities is concluded and implementation is accelerated;
Amendment 36 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Believes that, while the peak of the migratory and refugee crisis seems to have passed,is still ongoing and the Union must stand ready to respond to any unforeseen event in this area; therefore urges the Commission to continuously monitor the adequacy of the use of allocations under Heading 3 and make full and efficient use of all available instruments to respond in a timely manner to any unforeseen event that might require additional funding; decides therefore to reinforce in a limited manner; recognizes therefore the role played by the Asylum Migration and Integration Fund and the Internal Security Fund; notes, once again,stresses the fact that the Heading 3 ceiling is vastly insufficient to provide for appropriate funding forfunds must be appropriate and properly managed in order to provide concrete answers to the internal dimension of the migration and refugee crisis as well as to other priority programmes, such as culture programmes;
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Underlines that Heading 3 has been largely mobilised in recent years to address challenges arising from the migratory and refugee crisis and that such actions should continue for as long as needed; insists however that in the light of recent security concerns across the Union, funding under that heading should also pay particular attention to measures which will lead to enhancing security of Union citizens; drecides for this reason to reinforcognizes the role of the agencies in the field of Justice and Home Affairs which due toare facing increased workload and additional tasks, have been facing shortage of staff and funding in the past years;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Reiterates that part of the solution to the migratory and refugee crisis as well as to the security concerns of Union citizens lies in addressing the root causes of migration and devoting sufficient financial means to external instruments that aim at tackling issues such as poverty, lack of employment, education and economic opportunities, instability, conflict and climate change; is of the opinion that the Union should make an optimal use of financial means under Heading 4 which proved to be insufficienteffective to equally address all external challenges;
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Regrets that, while preparing its position, Parliament has not been sufficiently informed about the budgetary impact of a possible political decision to extend the Facility for Refugees in Turkey (FRT); reiterates its longstanding position that new initiatives shall not be financed to the detriment of existing EU external projects; calls therefore on the Commission, in the event of the prolongation of the FRT, to propose its financing through freshstresses the fact that the Heading 4 funds must be appropriate and properly means; notes that the Heading 4 ceiling is vastly insufficientaged in order to provide a sustainable and effective response to the current external challenges, including the migration and refugee crisis;
Amendment 56 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Restores allthe cuts proposed by Council to the DB; fails to understand the reasoning behindor the item related to the disaster prevention and preparedness within the Union; welcomes the proposed cuts, for example those to Horizon 2020 and Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), two programmes already affected by redeployments to EFSI, as well as those to external policies; contests, in any event, Council’s declared intention to target budget lines with a low execution rate or absorption capacity, as this is not substantiated by the actual implementation figures and ignores the varying implementation patterns of certain programmesthe Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), since EU appropriations should not be used to finance projects characterized by controversy and without a real economic, environmental and social added value, such as the new Lyon- Turin rail link; welcomes Council’s declared intention to target budget lines with a low execution rate or absorption capacity;
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. SetsRegrets that the overall level of appropriations for 2018 has been set at EUR 162 547 930 901 in commitment appropriations and at EUR 146 637 004 930 in payment appropriations; asks for a reduction on those lines where it is possible to get savings, in order to avoid any waste of taxpayers' money;
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Rejects Council’s unjustifiedTakes note of the Council’s EUR 750 million cuts to subheading 1a, which alone represent almost two thirds of the overall Council cuts in commitments in MFF headings; notes that such cuts contradicts Council’s own stated political priorities;
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Warns thatelcomes such cuts would jeopardize programmes with real European added value and a direct impact on job and growth creation, such as Horizon 2020 or CEF; points out, in particular,on those programmes which finance projects without a real economic, environmental and social added value, such as the new Lyon-Turin rail link; points out that sufficient funding for Horizon 2020 is essential tomight allow for the development of research and innovation in Europe and for SMEs; recalls that this programme has demonstrated a strong European added- value with 83% of Horizon 2020-funded projects that would not have gone ahead without Union-level support; reiterates the importance of the CEF funding instrument for the completion of the TEN-T network and for achieving a Single European Transport Areanot financing projects marked by controversy such as the new Lyon-Turin rail link; consequently decides to not reverse allthe cuts made by the Council and, furthermorhence, to not fully restore the original profile of the Horizon 2020 and CEF lines that were cut for the provisioning of the EFSI Guarantee FundCEF line;
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. DRecidognizes, therefore, to further reinforce beyond the DB and the pre- EFSI and pre-ESC profiles importance of guaranteeing appropriate funds for those programmes thatwhich are key to boosting sustainable economic growth and jobs and that reflect widely agreed Union priorities, namelysuch as Erasmus+, Horizon 2020 (Marie Curie, European Research Council, SME Instrument), COSME, and EaSI (Progress and Eures);
Amendment 73 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Stresses the importance of stimulating cooperative defence research in Europe for addressing key capability shortfalls at a time when international developments increasingly require Europe to step up its efforts on defence; fully supports the increased allocation for the Preparatory Action on defence research; reiterates, nevertheless, its longstanding position that new initiatives should be financed through fresh appropriations and not believes that the new initiatives should be financed through the dismissing of the existing EU programmes that could not demonstrate the expense of existing EU programmesir real economic, social and environmental added value;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
Amendment 81 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. DisapprovesTakes note of Council's proposed cuts of EUR 240 million in payments under Subheading 1b, including on support lines and reverses them, pending updated forecasts from the Commission;
Amendment 84 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Recalls that youth unemployment rates remain unacceptably high in the Union; emphasises that, in order to address this issue, it is of importance to ensure proper funding of the Youth Guarantee schemes through the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) and the ESF; welcomes the agreement on the need to provide fresh funding for the YEI, and the inclusion of the corresponding appropriations in the DB 2018; considers nevertheless that, given the challenges and risks posed by youth unemployment, the YEI should benefit from increased appropriations and therefore decides to bring the YEI to EUR 600 million in commitments in 2018;
Amendment 86 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Underlines that part of the solution to address youth unemployment lies in adequately supporting young people in rural areas; proposes therefore an increase of EUR 50 million above the level of the DB for payments for young farmersto ensure an adequate level of appropriations in order to support young farmers as well as to ensure that these resources are allocated in an efficient and transparent way;
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28
Paragraph 28
28. IncreaseSupports therefore the proper commitment appropriations by EUR 78,1 million in commitment appropriations, excluding pilot projects and preparatory actions, leaving a margin of EUR 635,346 million below the ceiling for commitments in Heading 2;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 a (new)
Paragraph 28 a (new)
28 a. Recalls that taxpayers’ money should not be used to support the rearing or breeding of bulls for fighting activities; believes that breeding or rearing for these purposes should not be eligible for basic payments and asks the Commission a proposal in order to amend the current legislation on this issue;
Amendment 103 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32
Paragraph 32
32. Highlights the crucialTakes note of the role played by the EU agencies in the area of justice and home affairs in addressing pressing concerns of Union citizens; decides therefore to increase; underlines that budgetary appropriations and staffing of Europol, Eurojust, EASO and CEPOL; reiterat should be optimized and properly managed; acknowledges the contribution of these agencies to enhancing cooperation and mutual trust between Member States in the fieldaddressing key challenges;
Amendment 106 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 35
Paragraph 35
35. Reiterates its conviction that it is time to boost funding for important EU programmes in the areas of culture and citizenship, in particular Creative Europe and Europe for Citizens and in view of the European elections in 2019; reiterates that all institutions must honour the political agreement found on the 2018 funding for the European Year of Cultural Heritage by providing sufficient appropriations for it through Creative Europe’s Culture sub- programme, in the absence of a separate budget line for the Year;
Amendment 109 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 37
Paragraph 37
Amendment 118 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 42
Paragraph 42
42. Is of the opinion that in order to adequately tackle disinformation campaigns, especially those coming from the Russian Federation, and to promote an objective image of the Union outside its borders, additional financial means are needed; calls therefore to step up funding to counter disinformation campaigns and cyberattacks; decides therefore to increase resources for strategic communication actionCalls to step up funding to counter disinformation campaigns and cyberattacks;
Amendment 128 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 45
Paragraph 45
Amendment 130 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 46
Paragraph 46
Amendment 134 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 46 a (new)
Paragraph 46 a (new)
46 a. Asks for a full transparent accountability on the missions expenditures of the Commissioners and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy; regrets that the number of travel reports has been so limited and asks for a general reduction of the missions travel costs;
Amendment 135 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 46 b (new)
Paragraph 46 b (new)
46 b. Asks for a renegotiation of the current Union Institutions' rent contracts in order to reduce the EU costs as much as possible through an efficient and economical optimization of the EU resources;
Amendment 136 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 47
Paragraph 47
Amendment 140 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 48
Paragraph 48
Amendment 144 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 49
Paragraph 49
49. In the context of the challenges the Union is still facing in terms of migration and security, and bearing in mind the necessity for a coordinated European response, decides to reinforcetakes note of the appropriations for the European Police Office (Europol), the European Union’s Judicial Cooperation Unit (Eurojust), the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL), the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) and the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA);
Amendment 147 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 53
Paragraph 53
53. Reiterates that, as agreed in the IIA of 2 December 2013, 2018 iscould be the last year of implementation of the 5% staff reduction and redeployment pool approach to the staffing of agencies; considers that the new posts adopted in its position are needed to fulfil additional tasks due to new policy developments and new legislation; reaffirms its openness to release posts by means of achieving efficiency gains between agencies through increased administrative cooperation or even mergers where appropriate and through pooling certain functions with either the Commission or another agency;
Amendment 156 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 58
Paragraph 58
Amendment 160 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 59
Paragraph 59
59. RegretWelcomes the repeated Council practice of increasing the abatement rate for all of the other sections; believes this to have a particularly distorting effect on the budgets of institutions with historically accurate abatement rates; considers that this approach does not constitute a targeted reduction nor sound financial management; restores theref and stresses the fact that all administrative expenditures related to the EU Institutions should be reduced as much as possible through an efficient and economical optimization of the EU costs; decides hence to not restore the abatement rate for all of the other sections in which Council introduced an increase;
Amendment 162 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 60
Paragraph 60
60. Maintains the overallRegrets that the level of its budget for 2018, has adopted in its abovementioned resolution of 5 April 2017, at EUR 1 953 483 373; incorporates budgetary-neutral technical adjustments to reflect updated information which was not available earlier this yearbeen set aside at EUR 1 953 483 373 and has not been reduced compared to 2017;
Amendment 163 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 61
Paragraph 61
61. Notes that the level of estimates for 2018 corresponds to 18,88 %, which is just slightly lower than that achieved in 2017 (19,25 %); and the lowest part of Heading 5 in the past fifteen yearssks for a substantial weighted cut of the Parliament's costs in order to give a strong signal to Union citizens who are facing a difficult economic situation;
Amendment 165 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 62
Paragraph 62
62. Reiterates Parliament’s priorities for the forthcoming financial year, namely, consolidating the security measures already taken and improving Parliament’s resilience to cyber-attacks; improving the transparency of the Parliament’s own internal budgetary procedure; and focusing the Parliament’s budget on its core functions of legislating, representing citizens and scrutinising the work of other institutions;
Amendment 171 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 64
Paragraph 64
64. WelcomesTakes note of the exchange of views on Parliament’s building policy held on 11 July 2017 between the Committee on Budgets, the Secretary General and the Vice-Presidents responsible for Parliament’s building policy; considers that this dialogue ought to be a continuousstresses the fact that this dialogue must aim at being a continuous, well-detailed and transparent process, particularly in the light of upcoming Bureau discussions on the refurbishment of the Paul Henri-Spaak building;
Amendment 172 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 65
Paragraph 65
65. Reiterates Parliament’s position as expressed in its abovementioned resolution of 5 April2017 that there is further room for improvement on the control mechanismCalls for a complete annulation of the expenditures related to the European political parties and political foundations; notes in this regard the Commission’s proposal to amend Regulation No 1141/20149 and welcomes any effort to improve the accountability and transparency of spending; _________________ 9 2017/0219(COD).stresses the fact the European political parties and foundations should become totally reliant on own resources and cut their dependency on Parliament’s budget; considers that contributions or grants should be totally cut; maintains that only a complete reliance on own resources would eliminate the risk to the Parliament’s budget in recovering amounts erroneously or fraudulently spent;
Amendment 174 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 65 a (new)
Paragraph 65 a (new)
65 a. Believes that the EP car service should be used by Members exclusively for reaching Parliament premises from the airport/station or vice versa, and that EP minivans and minibuses should be used in this regard; calls for a restricted weekday budget for taxi reimbursement requests; recalls that Members have the opportunity to freely use rail transport in Belgium;
Amendment 175 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 65 b (new)
Paragraph 65 b (new)
65 b. Calls for a reduction of at least 15% in Members’ monthly salaries, daily allowances and economic benefits, including GEA, in order to give a strong signal to European citizens, who are facing a difficult economic social and historical situation; invites the Bureau to review the implementing measures of the Statute for Members in order to provide as more savings as possible with regard to Members’ benefits;
Amendment 176 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 65 c (new)
Paragraph 65 c (new)
65 c. Takes the view that the Decision 2005/684/CE on the Statute for Members needs to be revised, in order to amend Article 14 and bring the pension entitlements of the MEPs into line with the social security systems for ordinary citizens of individual Member States, as regards both the calculation of the amount and the age, and contribution- related requirements which entitle them to a pension; calls for a recalculation of the pensions paid out from the EU budget for former members who accrued such an entitlement prior to, and following, the entry force of the current Statute;
Amendment 177 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 65 d (new)
Paragraph 65 d (new)
65 d. Asks for a single seat of the European Parliament in order to consider as more savings as possible and to avoid the waste of taxpayers’ money, since the additional yearly running costs of a multi- seat European Parliament are around EUR 180 million;
Amendment 178 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 66
Paragraph 66
66. RDecides to not restores the DB on all budget items cut by the Council which are essential to the functioning of the Court and restores the estimates for two budget items in order to enhance the Court’s ability to deal with increasingly high translation demandand asks for as more savings as possible in order to reduce EU administrative expenditures;
Amendment 179 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 68
Paragraph 68
68. RDecides to not restores the DB on all items cut by Council, in order to implement the work programme of the Court of Auditors and deliver the planned Audit Report and asks for as more savings as possible in order to reduce EU administrative expenditures;
Amendment 180 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 70
Paragraph 70
70. RDecides to not restores the DB on all items cut by the Council and asks for as more savings as possible in order to reduce EU administrative expenditures;
Amendment 181 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 71
Paragraph 71
71. IDecides to not increases the two lines above the DB in relation to the work of Domestic Advisory Groups;
Amendment 183 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 72
Paragraph 72
72. RDecides to not restores the DB on all items cut by the Council and asks for as more savings as possible in order to reduce EU administrative expenditures;
Amendment 184 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 73
Paragraph 73
Amendment 185 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 74
Paragraph 74
74. Welcomes the excellentTakes note of the work done by the Ombudsman in finding efficiency savings in her own budget when compared with the previous year; asks for as more savings as possible in order to reduce EU administrative expenditures;
Amendment 187 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 75
Paragraph 75
75. Questions why the Council would reduce the budget of the European Data Protection Supervisor given the additional tasks conferred upon the institution by Parliament and the Council; restores therefore all the budget lines cut by Council to enable the European Data Protection Supervisor to fulfil his obligations and commitmentDecides to not restore all the budget lines cut by Council and asks for as more savings as possible in order to reduce the EU administrative expenditures;
Amendment 190 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 76
Paragraph 76
76. RDecides tores not restore the DB on all lineitems cut by the Council and asks for as more savings as possible in order to reduce EU administrative expenditures;
Amendment 191 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 77
Paragraph 77
Amendment 192 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 79
Paragraph 79
79. Provides an additional amount above the EEAS estimates forRegrets the European External Action Service’s practice of offering unpaid traineeships in EU Ddelegations, in response to the findings of the European Ombudsman’s inquiry into unpaid traineeships10 ; _________________ 10 since it may lead to a discriminatory situation, endorsing only those who can afford it; asks for more savings as possible in the EEAS’ administrative expenditures in order to provide, same annual EEAS’ budgetary resources, appropriate allowances in this case of maladministration; European Ombudsman, 454.2014/PMC.