Activities of Claudia SCHMIDT related to 2016/2202(DEC)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh European Development Funds for the financial year 2015 PDF (401 KB) DOC (97 KB)
Amendments (57)
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K
Recital K
K. whereas the global population projections for 2100, coupled with the effects of new migratory flows, armed conflicts, global warming and numerous economic and social crises, require immediate attention by the Union, in particular within its development policy's objectives; whereas that development aid is an essential tool that, whose multiple methods of implementation must be optimized to face those many global challenges,
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L
Recital L
L. whereas the migration crisis has not only questioned the international aid principles and objectives but highlighted that the principle of solidarity required by theneeds to be applied more uniformly and unconditionally by all Member States,
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10 a. Expresses strong concern that of a recovery order of EUR 1 million, EUR 623 000 were waived after an amicable settlement between the Commission and the debtor1a ; acknowledges the coherence with the Financial Regulation as well as the principle of proportionality concerning recovery orders; stresses, however, the fact that tax payers' money is at stake and needs to be protected by the necessary means; _________________ 1aCommunication CAB D(2016) Ares 06675546
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Expresses, furthermore, its long- standing concern on the weaknesses of ex- ante checks insofar as 16 out the of 28 final transactions were subject to ex-ante checks were subsequently authorise on the basis of quantifiable errors in the ex-ante checks; regrets that most of the errors found concerned, as in previous years, programme estimates, grants and operations managed with international organisations; notes that budget support operations were free of regulatory errors;
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15 a. Stresses the inherent risk related to the notional approach, which declares the Commission's contributions to multi- donor projects regulatory free of error when pooled with those of other donors and are not earmarked for specific identifiable items of expenditure, as the Commission assumes that Union eligibility rules are complied with as long as the pooled amount includes sufficient eligible expenditure to cover the Union contribution;
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 b (new)
Paragraph 15 b (new)
15 b. Expresses concern that the notional approach substantially limits the Court's work, particularly in light of the fact that for the budget year 2015, EUR 763 million were disbursed via budget support, which amounts to 24% of 2015 EDF spending2a ; _________________ 2aEuropean Court of Auditors, Annual Report 2015
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Welcomes the shift from a general reserveation to the issuance of differentiated reservesation as requested by Parliament in its previous EDF resolutions, namely (i) one thematic reserveation for the two high- risks pending domains of grants in direct management (18 % of the total amount paid in 2015) and indirect management with international organisations; and (ii) a specific reserveation for the African peace facility;
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Invites the Commission to continue refining the risk assessment of its activity based budgeting to further ensure an adequate level of sectorial assurance; asks, in that context, to evaluate the level of risk and vulnerabilities of indirect management, the latter being potentially a risky spending activity or to examine the risks encountered by the Commission Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development with cross sub-delegated funds;
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 a (new)
Paragraph 21 a (new)
21 a. Expresses concern over the risky nature of indirect management, particularly due to the lack of traceability of funds when they are disbursed by the Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO) to local actors and subcontractors;
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Welcomes the fact that a residual error rate (RER) study was carried out for the fourth consecutive year and ihas becominge a key tool within the control strategy while the 2015 RER related to contracts closed and included in the annual activity report was estimated at 2,2 %, or about EUR 174 million, including EUR 98 million for the EDF; calls on the Commission to maintain high methodological standards in its RER assessment, monitoring and auditing strategy;
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 a (new)
Paragraph 23 a (new)
23 a. Stresses that the RER is calculated by deducting from the audit authorities' annual error rates the multiannual financial corrections imposed at national and Union levels;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 b (new)
Paragraph 23 b (new)
23 b. Expresses strong concern over the fact that the 2015 RER of contracts closed included in the annual activity report was estimated at 2,2 %, which is still over the materiality threshold of 2% and equal to about EUR 174 million including EUR 98 million for the EDFs;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 c (new)
Paragraph 23 c (new)
23 c. Calls on the Commission to maintain high methodological standards in its RER assessment as well as to extensively monitor and enforce financial corrections by Member States;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Invites the Commission to integrate into its ex-ante and ex-post evaluation, management and performance assessment tools in line with the Commission's Budget for Results initiative targeted to analyse the impact of other Union external policies and actions on the situation of the beneficiary countries;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Considers it to be necessary to refrain from focusing on budgetary outturn as the sole management objective which can be detrimental to the principle of sound financial management and the achievement of results; believes that an incentiv performance- based approach, founded on a 'positive conditionality' system resulting to incentives for the well-performing beneficiaries and stricter controls for the ill-performing beneficiaries, could improve performance and achievement of results overall;
Amendment 36 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Considers it to be necessary to refrain from focusing on budgetary outturn as the sole management objective which can be detrimental to the principle of sound financial management and the achievement of results; believstresses that any incentive-based approach, founded on a 'positive conditionality' system, could improve performance and achievement of results should be linked to specific and stringent performance indicators, allowing for a quantifiable approach to assess shortcomings and targets met;
Amendment 37 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29 a (new)
Paragraph 29 a (new)
29 a. Strongly underlines that any system founded on 'positive conditionality' should adhere without exception to the precautionary principle;
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32
Paragraph 32
32. Believes that developing partner countries' capacity building, governance frameworks and ownership is also an important wayinstrumental to mitigate systemic risks in order to favour a conducive environment, to allowing funds to reach their intended purposes and to respond to the 3 Es’ requirements (economy, efficiency and effectiveness); encourages in this regard the use of local audit firms and local services contract;
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32 a (new)
Paragraph 32 a (new)
32 a. Acknowledges that the Financial Regulation allows beneficiaries to contract local audit firms; is, however, strongly concerned by the shortcomings in EuropeAid's management information system on the results and the follow-up of external audits, as mentioned by the Court for the EDF discharge procedure 2014; urges DG DEVCO to put a quality grid to assess the reliability of checks also in place for audits and expenditure verifications done by local audit companies directly contracted by beneficiaries, where the risk of insufficient quality is assessed to be higher and audit and verification reports do not contain sufficient information on the actual work done to enable the current grid to be used effectively;
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 36
Paragraph 36
36. Recalls that the undermining of performance monitoring and results evaluation is detrimental to public accountability and to comprehensive information of policymakers; points out that it is indispensable to provide Parliament with a clear view of the real extent to which the Union’s main objectives have been achieved; stresses the importance of a more balanced approach of less confidentiality and more transparency, particularly regarding the External Assistance Management Reports;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 39
Paragraph 39
39. Believes that simplification of the rules of funds allocation is necessary to ensure better use of the funds and enhancing the effectiveness of the aid delivery; encourages the Commission to initiate simplification of the rules of funds allocation and to support local partners in the implementation of the projects; stresses, however, that simplification cannot be to the detriment of the current system of ex-ante and ex-post checks and balances, which are essential to comprehensive oversight; underlines that there are already persistent weaknesses in the ex-ante checks, an area where simplification needs to be carefully weighed against risks;
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 39
Paragraph 39
39. Believes that simplification of the rules of funds allocation is necessary to ensure better use of the funds and enhancing the effectiveness of the aid delivery; encourages the Commission to initiate simplification of the rules of funds allocation and to support local partners in the implementation of the projects; reminds the Commission, however, to stress the right balance between less administrative burden and effective financial control while simplifying the rules for the allocation of development funds;
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 44
Paragraph 44
44. ORegrets to observes, however, that nine delegations out of 86 have not reached the benchmark of 60 % of their KPIs; calls on the Commission services to closely monitor those delegations which have recently reached the target of 60 % or which stand just above the 60 % target to refine and consolidate the delegations trend analysis;
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 45
Paragraph 45
45. Invites the Commission services both to regularly update the definition of KPIs and related modes of assessment and to further develop the risks assessment, in particular through the setting-up of risk profile (a priori or output risks) of projects in each delegation’s portfolio with a view to better select at early stage only viable projects; strongly suggests a more comprehensive ex-ante risk assessment so only the most viable projects are selected;
Amendment 55 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 47
Paragraph 47
47. Considers it to be essential that the head of delegations continue to be steadily made aware of their key-role in the overall strengthening of assurance, their management and accountability, in particular as regards the weighting of the various components likely to trigger the issuance of a reservation, in addition to their political duties;
Amendment 56 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 47 a (new)
Paragraph 47 a (new)
47 a. Reiterates strongly that the accountability of Union delegations staffed by the European External Action Service (EEAS) needs to be increasingly enforced; believes that this should be done in addition to the external assistance management reports (EAMR), which are prepared and signed by the heads of Union delegations;
Amendment 57 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 47 b (new)
Paragraph 47 b (new)
47 b. Takes the view that Heads of Union delegations should be clearly reminded of their duties and their management and oversight responsibilities and that they should not only concentrate on the political component of their duties;
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 48
Paragraph 48
48. Calls on the Commission to report immediately on the specific remedial actions taken when a project has been classified ‘red’ three years consecutively in relation to the KPI 5 (i.e. percentage of projects with red traffic light for implementation progress) and KPI 6 (i.e. percentage of projects with red traffic light for achieving results) in order to rapidly re- examine the initial programming objectives,; strongly suggests the swift reallocateion of available funds to more appropriatviable projects and aid needs, or even consider to possiblyor even stopping the projects;
Amendment 59 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 48 a (new)
Paragraph 48 a (new)
48 a. Acknowledges the diplomatic consequences of stopping project funding as well as direct budget support disbursement stops but strongly underlines the importance of the protection of the financial interests of the Union;
Amendment 60 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 49
Paragraph 49
49. Asks to the Commission to pay particular attention to the monitoring of operations carried out with international organisations and related bodiesuch as the United Nations as well as its sub-organisations, the old RAL,, especially in the EDF context and to the reliability of the Common External Relations Information System data and values used for the preparation of EAMRs;
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 49
Paragraph 49
49. AskUrges to the Commission to pay particular attention to the monitoring of operations carried out with international organisations and related bodies, to the old RAL,outstanding commitments, especially in the EDF context and to the reliability of the Common External Relations Information System data and values used for the preparation of EAMRs;
Amendment 62 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 49 a (new)
Paragraph 49 a (new)
49 a. Underlines that the total resources of the eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh EDFs amount to EUR 76,88 billion, of which EUR 41,98 billion are indicated as payments; is highly concerned that outstanding commitments amount to EUR 11,61 billion and the available balance at the end of 2015 amounts to EUR 23,27 billion;3a _________________ 3aEuropean Court of Auditors, Annual Report 2015, page 295 - Figure 2, Use of EDF Resources at 31 December 2015
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 60
Paragraph 60
60. Considers necessary to strengthen the political and policy dialogue, aid conditionality and the logical chain framework in order to ensure both the coherence between decision and preconditions of payments or disbursements in financing agreements by clearly linking payments to the achievement of actions and results as well as the relevance of selected objectives andresults, selected objectives and predefined key performance indicators; invites the Commission services to further consolidate its supervision framework accordingly; calls on the Commission to closely monitor and report more systematically on performance and results;
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 61
Paragraph 61
61. Calls on the Commission services toto regularly report on the implementation of the Addis Tax Initiative launched in 2015 particularly on the actions launched to tackle tax avoidance, tax evasion and illicit financial flows; considers also that the government effectiveness and public financial management, corruption and fraud risks are the main risks dimension to be steadily and thoroughly scrutinised;
Amendment 67 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 62
Paragraph 62
62. RecognisAcknowledges the rationale for developing dedicated trusts funds as pooling instruments of financial resources from various stakeholders with a view to increase flexibility and speed up the Union response to global international issues, major crises or emergency situations; believes, nevertheless, that small-scale projects with clearly identified objectives, operators and beneficiaries, producing concrete results and responding to a long- term strategy can also effectively participateare instrumental in the Union response to thoserecent challenges;
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 63
Paragraph 63
63. Believes that the consistency of thoseherence and complementarity of any new development tools with the EDFs should be duly taken into account from a perspective of aid impact, as well as theirregarding aid impact, management orand administrative costs against total contributions; calls on the Commission to ensure that those new development tools are always in line with the Unions overall strategy and development policy objectives;
Amendment 69 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 64
Paragraph 64
64. Expresses concern about the multiplicity of trust funds and blending platforms, which raisesare financed by Member States with substantial amounts but are not part of the Union budget; strongly underlines possible issues regarding governance, effectiveness, transparency and accountability; warns the Commission about the risk of outsourcing and dilution of the objectives of the development policy;
Amendment 73 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 66
Paragraph 66
66. Calls on the Commission to implement sufficientcomprehensive control mechanisms to ensure political scrutiny, especially from Parliament, on the governance and, management of budgetand implementation of these new instruments in the context of the discharge procedure; considers it to be important to develop specific supervision strategies ofor those instruments, with specific objectives, targets and reviews;
Amendment 74 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 67
Paragraph 67
67. DeploresExpresses strong concern over the insufficiency oftly specific objectives, indicators and targets to measure the operationallack of binding indicators and measureable targets to assess performance of the Trust Funds; asks that performance monitoring arrangements (or results matrix or frameworks) relating to planned actions to be further enhanced;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 77
Paragraph 77
77. Considers that OCTs should benefit from an increased attentionAcknowledges that the EDFs mainly focus on African countries and considers that OCTs should not be sidelined in terms of political objectives; calls on the Commission to implement more synergies with the Union internal and horizontal policies, and ensure withe concrete OCTs- participation of the OCTs to those latter;
Amendment 81 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 78
Paragraph 78
78. Believes that attention should be brought on the aid performance and impact of the development policy but also other European and international policies on countries located in the same geographical area than OCTs; calls for particular attention to be paid to the specific situation of Mayotte which converted from being an OCT to becoming an Outermost Region in 2014;
Amendment 83 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 79
Paragraph 79
79. Invites the Commission to ensure that funding benefits fairly and equally to all OCT, in particular the most isolated territories; calls on the Commission to further support OCT administrations forin the implementation of EDF and projects, in particular through training and technical assistance in order to ensure aid performance;
Amendment 86 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 80
Paragraph 80
80. Recalls that given theire geographic characteristics of OCTs are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and loss of biodiversity; calls on the Commission to better integrate resilience, climate change adaptation, biodiversity conservation, energy self- sufficiency and sustainable development in; calls on the Commission to better integrate targeted key performance indicators for funding in OCTs;
Amendment 88 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 81
Paragraph 81
81. Recalls that the main goal of Union development policy is to reduce and eventually eradicate poverty and that EDF have so far achieved progress in ACP countries and in the OCTs; believes that successful development aid and migration issues are interconnected as migration can result from social and economic vulnerabilities and as the success of migration flows can contribute to themitigation of root causes of migration can be traced back to targeted development aid;
Amendment 90 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 84
Paragraph 84
84. Believes that the magnitude of the migratoryion crisis has changed prism and volume, requiring rapid adaptation towards more effective aid delivery and response; considers that it may betriggered the need for more rapid and effective response and aid delivery; considers it useful to develop an appropriate sector code for ‘migration’ in the OECD Development Assistance Committee to better integrate migration into the development agenda and goals, to facilitate the encoding and use of funds and to better track and monitor the amounts targeted for external action on the fight against root causes of migration;
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 85
Paragraph 85
85. Takes note ofWelcomes the fact that it is intended to launch an external investment plan in Africa on the model of the European Fund for Strategic Investment to address specific bottlenecks in investment; considers this as one of the most appropriate and efficient tools to achieve the Parliament's long-term aim to provide people with adequate living conditions, and hence also address the root causes of excessive migration from Africa;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 91
Paragraph 91
91. Believes that climate change and its challenges, migration and development are closely intertwined; warns of the impact of climate change on the development of ACP countries and OCTs and calls for a better understanding of this realitycorrelation in the allocation of development aid and in the development policy objectives;
Amendment 95 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 95
Paragraph 95
95. Invites the EIB to insist and give priority to long-term effect of investments and their contribution to sustainable development in all economic, social and environmental aspects;
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 97
Paragraph 97
97. Invites the EIB to ensure that ongoing project are regularly followmonitored and that original objectives and criterion are effectively met during the life time of the project; believes that the EIB should take into account the possible evolution of a project and of its objectives;
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 99
Paragraph 99
99. Believes that the framework measuring results and performance of the iInvestment fFacility should measure for every project the impact on development andthe impact on development for every project; underlines the importance of targeting globally the same objectives and strategy thanies as the Union's development policies; invites the EIB to further align its activities with Union development policies objectives;
Amendment 98 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 100
Paragraph 100
100. Calls for a systematic disclosure of the ACP investment facility on lending agreements and access toincreased transparency on the board decisions and steering documents;
Amendment 99 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 101
Paragraph 101
101. Considers the audit on the iInvestment fFacility to be good practice in terms of cooperation and collaborative scrutiny between Parliament and the Court; regrets, however, that projects implemented in and funds allocated to the OCTs are not covered by the audit; deplores the fact that the iInvestment fFacility does not fall within the scope of the Court’s annual statement of assurance audit and is not subject to Parliament’s discharge procedure;
Amendment 100 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 102
Paragraph 102
102. Acknowledges the EDF achievements so far while considering that new prospects should be considered in order to take into account the changes in the landscape of the ACP countries and the OCTs and in the development of new sustainable objectives, in particular the new linkcorrelation between peace, humanitarian aid, climate change and its challenges, loss of biodiversity ands well as migration;
Amendment 101 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 107
Paragraph 107
107. Calls for recognition of the impact of climate change and its challenges and loss of biodiversity on all development factors; believes that the post-Cotonou agreement should be more focused on the sustainable development of beneficiary countries and especially on the issue of energy self- efficiency;
Amendment 102 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 108
Paragraph 108
Amendment 104 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 109
Paragraph 109
109. Calls onSuggests to the Commission to provide a priori assessment and to report more systematically on the impact of development policy on the OCTs and Outermost Rcountries and regions in the same geographical area than the beneficiary countries and to allow for more synergies between all Funds available in those regions;