Activities of Luke Ming FLANAGAN related to 2019/2057(DEC)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2018, Section II – European Council and Council
Amendments (13)
Amendment 2 #
Proposal for a decision 1
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Grants the Secretary-General of the Council discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Council and of the Council for the financial year 2018 / Postpones its decision on granting the Secretary-General of the Council discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Council and of the Council for the financial year 2018;
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Regrets, as an overall remark, that chapter 10 ‘Administration’ of the 2018 Annual Report of the Court has a rather limited scope and conclusions, even if the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) Heading 5 'Administration' is considered low risk;
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Notes that the Court selected a sample of 45 transactions from the Multiannual Financial Framework (MMF) Heading 5 “Administration” of all Union institutions and bodies; notes that the sample was designed to be representative of the range of spending under Heading 5, which represents 6,3 % of the Union budget; notes that the Court’s work indicates administrative expenditure as low risk; considers, however, the amount of transactions selected in relation to the “other institutions” as not sufficient and asks the Court to increase the number of transactions to be examined by 10 % at least; requests that the audit work related to chapter 10 be more focused on issues of high relevance or even critical for the Council;
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Notes that appropriations carried over from 2018 to 2019 amounted to a total of EUR 56 599 584, equivalent to 10,7 % (compared to EUR 60 576 175 or 11,5 % in 2017), coming mainly from categories such as computer systems (EUR 18,3 million), buildings (EUR 16,0 million) and interpretation (EUR 11,9 million); reminds the Council that carry-overs are exceptions to the principle of annuality and should reflect actual needs; takes note of the cancelled appropriations in 2018 of EUR 46 348 862 (compared to EUR 35 025 789 in 2017); calls on the Council to strengthen its efforts to avoid budget over- estimates;
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15 a. Notes the European Ombudsman's recommendation that the President and Cabinet of the European Council publish a full list of any lobby meetings held; is disappointed that the new President of the European Council has yet to implement this recommendation; notes that while the President of the European Council does not appear to meet with many lobbyists, the principle of lobby transparency is nonetheless important; urges the President of the European Council to ensure that he and his Cabinet refuse all meetings with unregistered lobbyists and proactively publish a comprehensive list of lobby meetings held; calls upon the secretariat of the Council to ensure that the ethics rules governing the President of the European Council are brought into line with those of the President of the European Commission so that 'revolving door' rules apply for three years and formal approval is required for any new roles with a link to the activities of the Union;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Notes that related to the proposal for a new Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory Transparency Register for interest representatives covering the Parliament, the Council and the Commission two negotiating rounds took place in 2018 under the Bulgarian Presidency and one in 2019 under the Romanian Presidency; regrets that the Council has still not joined the Transparency Register despite all these negotiations; calls on the Council to follow-up negotiations to reach a successful outcome which will finally include the Council in the registry; calls on all Presidency trios to lead by good example by refusing meetings with unregistered lobbyists, proactively publishing the lobby meetings of permanent representation staff, and by proactively publishing the lobby meetings of national ministers that deals with Union matters;
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Asks the Council to strengthen its efforts to make the legislative process more traceable and reader friendly, to centre transparency around milestones in the legislative process and to normalise the publication of Member States inputs (statements, proposals for amendments) into legislative debates; acknowledges the Council’s efforts to improve transparency with ongoing changes to its website and the activities of its internal transparency team; encourages the Council to introduce further measures in order to reach a successful transparency policy allowing the public to follow the Union legislative process with greater easenotes, however, that national parliamentarians, through the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union (COSAC) forum, have repeatedly expressed their concern that the secrecy in the Council prevents national parliaments from fulfilling their monitoring and scrutinising role with respect to their governments' Union law- making; encourages the Council to introduce further measures in order to reach a successful transparency policy allowing the public to follow the Union legislative process with greater ease such as the formal minute-taking of all Council preparatory bodies, to include full reporting of all discussions including of member state contributions, and the prompt publication of such minutes;
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)
Paragraph 18 a (new)
18 a. Reiterates its concerns about the corporate sponsorship of Member States hosting the Union Presidency and echoes the concerns expressed by Union citizens and Members of Parliament; acknowledges that the Member States are expected to finance their own Presidencies and regrets that resorting to corporate sponsorship to cover some of their expenses in this regards has become common practice in recent years; is highly concerned about the possible reputational damage and the risk of loss of trust that this practice may incur on the Union, its institutions and especially to the Council in the eyes of the citizens of the Union; suggests that the Council adopt guidelines in order to promote the financial transparency and independency of the Presidencies; recommends strongly the Council to envisage budgetisation of the Presidencies; requests the Council to forward this concern to the Member States, in particular to the current trio Presidency;
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 b (new)
Paragraph 18 b (new)
18 b. Welcomes the recommendation of the European Ombudsman on sponsorship of the Presidency of the Council which finds that Council inaction on the matter amounts to maladministration, and invites the Council to ban all sponsorship of Council presidencies by third parties in view of the 'reputational risk' that the Ombudsman has highlighted;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 c (new)
Paragraph 18 c (new)
18 c. Regrets that the Council again failed to provide answers to the written questions sent by Parliament and that the Secretary-General of the Council did not attend the hearing organised on 12 November 2019 in the context of the annual discharge which shows the continued and complete lack of cooperation on the Council's side; stresses that the expenditure of Council must be scrutinised in the same way as that of other institutions and points out that the fundamental elements of such scrutiny have been laid down in its discharge resolutions of the past years; points out that Parliament is the only institution directly elected by Union citizens and that its role in the discharge procedure is directly connected with citizens' right to be informed on how public money is spent;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20 a (new)
Paragraph 20 a (new)
20 a. Emphasises Parliament's prerogative to grant discharge pursuant to Articles 316, 317 and 319 TFEU in line with current interpretation and practice, namely to grant discharge in respect of each heading of the budget separately in order to maintain transparency and ensure democratic accountability towards Union taxpayers;
Amendment 41 #
24. Notes the lack of cooperation forom the Council in the discharge procedure which has resulted in Parliament’s refusal to grant discharge to the Secretary-General of the Council since the financial year 2009;
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25 a (new)
Paragraph 25 a (new)
25 a. asks the Council to fulfil its particular role and to give discharge recommendations with respect to the other Union institutions;