41 Amendments of Ramona STRUGARIU related to 2022/2081(DEC)
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Notes with concern that, despite the fact that Member States stepped up implementation of their national programmes in 2021, for both the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and the Internal Security Fund (ISF) significant amounts remain undisbursed; deeplycalls on the Commission to step up its efforts towards assisting Member States in the effective implementation of their respective national programmes; regrets that its previous calls for splitting the AMIF lines by priority has not been followed up; stresses that such splitting could help increase transparency and accountability in budget spending and therefore reiterates its call to do so;
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Recalls its strong commitment to the fundamental principles and values enshrined in the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), including sound financial management as set out in Article 317 and the combating of fraud and protecting the financial interest of the Union as set out in Article 325;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Stresses that transparency, accountability, and integrity are essential ethics principles within the Union institutions; recalls the Court’s conclusions and recommendations in its special report 13/2019 on the ethical frameworks of Union institutions, as well as Parliament’s resolution of 16 September 2021 on strengthening transparency and integrity in the Union institutions by setting up an independent Union ethics body with, on the one hand, a preventive role via awareness-raising and ethical guidance, and, on the other hand, a compliance and advisory role with the ability to issue recommendations on ethical matters, including conflicts of interest;
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Emphasises the role of the EPPO, the EU Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust), Europol and OLAF in the fight against corruption; calls for the capacities of and cooperation between the EPPO and OLAF to be strengthened further; calls for common anti-corruption rules applicable all staff of EU bodies;
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Recalls the importance of an ex post evaluation including for financial programmes created to respond to a crisis; The evaluation of the performance of the programme in relation to effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, coherence and EU added value would be in line with the financial regulation, the “Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Law-Making” and the “Better Regulation Guidelines”;
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Underlines the relevance of reporting on the performance of the Union budget’s programmes for the discharge procedure; draws attention to the fact that the added value of the invested resources is closely linked to the results achieved and their contribution to improving the daily life of Union citizens and the economic impact within the EU;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. Welcomes the adoption in 2021 of the EU Strategy to tackle Organised Crime 2021-2025, setting out tools and measures to disrupt criminal organisations across borders, both online and offline; further welcomes the Commission legislative proposals of 2021 in the area of anti-money laundring and the financing of terrorism, area in which the justice and home affairs EU decentralised agencies, bodies and other institutions have a fundamental role in the implementation of the relevant EU legislation;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Reiterates its deep concerns regarding the situation concerning the rule of law in a number of Member States, which is deeply worrying in its own right and leads to serious losses for the Union budget; underlines that Union funds must not be used for anti-democratic activities or for strengthening authoritarianism; welcomes the first application of the conditionality mechanism in the case of Hungary, procedure launched in November 2021 and concluded in December 2022 with the freezing of 55% of three cohesion policy programmes (around EUR 6,35 billion); reiterates its strong conviction that Member States must respect democracy and the rule of law in order to receive Union funds and draws attention to the Commission that the rule of law situation has also been deteriorating in other Member States, calls therefore on the Commission to trigger without delay the application of the conditionality mechanism whenever breaches of the principles of the rule of law are identified to be affecting or are in serious risk of affecting the sound financial management of the Union budget or the protection of the financial interests of the Union in a sufficiently direct way; moreover stresses that Parliament, Council and the Commission need to closely co-operate together as alliese need for a strong cooperation between Parliament, Council and the Commission; underlines its strong and repeated requests to the Commission and executive agencies to ensure the protection of the Union budget by making global and systematic use of digital and automated systems for reporting, monitoring and audit and by a common anticorruption rule and by making the interinstitutional Transparency register [AS1] mandatory for all EU institution even agencies;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6 b. Notes that by November 2021, 75% of the measures under the 2019 Commission Anti-Fraud Strategy had been implemented; calls on the Commssion to continue towards the full implementation of this strategy and to continue strengthening its cooperation with OLAF and the EPPO towards protecting the financial interests of the Union; reminds that prevention is a key aspect in the fight against crime against the financial interests of the Union and calls on the Commission to enhance the usability its prevention tools such as the Early Detection and Exclusion System (EDES), or the ARACHNE pre-detection tool, ensuring their better effectiveness through regular updates with reliable data from Member States; calls on the Commission to enhance its dialogue with the national authorities towards increasing the quantity and reliability of data fed to such systems by the Member States;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Stresses the need to enlarge the areas where the EDES is used beyond direct management and requests the Commission to use it for all Union funds including funds under shared management: notes that, the EDES has to be used systematically to ensure that companies and beneficial owners who have been convicted in relation to fraud, corruption or other serious economic criminal activities cannot benefit from Union funds; stresses the need to harmonise the indicators in ARACHNE with the exclusion grounds of EDES to ensure that excluded economic operators are also visible in ARACHNE; calls for maximum interoperability between ARACHNE, EDES and other software to reduce the need to insert information items into various IT systems multiple times and keep the administrative burden as low as possible; believes that not more but better targeted control systems are needed, including the use of new technologies in order to fight fraud, corruption or other serious economic criminal activities that cannot benefit from Union funds;
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Reiterates the imperative need of a single mandatory integrated and interoperable information and monitoring system provided by the Commission, allowing for the electronic recording and storage of data on the recipients of Union funding, including their beneficial owners and allowing for the availability of this information for data-mining and risk- scoring purposes; underlines that it is essential to get a clear overview of the distribution and potential concentration of Union funds disbursed, including through a functionality that allows for the aggregation of these funds; underlines that this would reduce the bureaucratic burden on the financial actors, on controllers and auditors, as well as on the recipients of Union funds, and should facilitate risk assessment for the purposes of selection, award, financial management, monitoring, investigation, control and audit and would also contribute to effective prevention, detection, correction and follow-up of fraud, corruption, conflicts of interest, double funding and other irregularities; notes that this digitalisation is overdue and indispensable given the cross-border nature of misuse of funds, fraud, misappropriations, conflicts of interests, double-funding and other systemic problems; underlines that this single datamining tool should be easily searchable and available for OLAF, EPPO and the Commission, in order to enhance the protection of the Union budget and Next Generation EU against irregularities, fraud and conflicts of interests;
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Reiterates the need to better balance the further simplification of rules and procedures with better controls over the most repeated areas of irregular spending, develop mandatory training sessions and practical information for applicants, in particular new applicants, and improve the assistance and guidelines for SMEs, spin- offs, start- ups, administration and payment agencies and all other relevant stakeholders;
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Is concerned about the increasing number and complexity of the Commission’s quasi-legal instruments such as opinions, recommendations, communications, non-legislative resolutions, notices, guidance documents and statements of administrative priorities; calls on the Commission to simplify and streamline these instruments; Recalls the REFIT programme to simplify EU rules and reduce unnecessary burdens, while achieving the benefits of legislation (REFIT programme) and by introducing the ‘one in, one out’ approach. Asks for the systematic application by the Commission of the principle that means that newly introduced burdens are offset by removing equivalent burdens in the same policy area;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Reiterates the need to step up the efforts in the fight against fraud both at Union and Member State level, in close cooperation with the EPPO and OLAF; appreciates the remarkable efforts and stresses the role of the EPPO in the investigation and prosecution of fraud and other criminal offences affecting the financial interests of the Union; highlights the importance of the EPPO’s full independence and impartiality for the effective exercise of its functions; recalls the importance of providing the EPPO and OLAF with sufficient financial and human resources; invites the Commission to urgently take action on the requests made by the EPPO on its budgetary implementation, so that the EPPO can become a fully effective prosecution office;
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Welcomes the RRF's contribution to preventing a strong economic downturn following the COVID-19 pandemic; notes that the RRF has been instrumental in making progress with the implementation of the Country Specific Recommendations (CSRs) stemming from the European Semester in almost all Member States; notes however that several CSRs remain unaddressed, despite the financial incentives stemming from the RRF;
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Is concerned by the findings of the Court in its first annual assessment of the RRF; considers that the implementation of the RRF takes place under time pressure, with however a much more straight forward delivery model that puts much, lighter requirements on the Commission, and reduces the control burden from the Commission towards the Member States, in particular in comparison with the cohesion policy; is therefore concerned by the types of findings of the Court which fundamentally calls into question whether the Commission can handle even this reduced control burden; calls on the Commission not to apply the performance based delivery model as used in the implementation of the RRF for other policies until the advantages and disadvantages are more clear, following the evaluation of the implementation of the RRF by 20 February 2024; Recalls the importance to know whether the absorption of funds is on course, as 2023 is the mid-point of the RRF;
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Expresses concern about the limited number of cross-border projects under the RRF, which calls into question the Union added value of this instrument;
Amendment 67 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20 a (new)
Paragraph 20 a (new)
20a. Asks the Commission to modify the spending rule N+3 years to the previous rule N+2 years in order to increase the budget execution and reduce the outstanding commitments;
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20 b (new)
Paragraph 20 b (new)
20b. Encourages the Commission, the ECA and the Council to work towards accelerating the discharge process to N+1;
Amendment 69 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20 c (new)
Paragraph 20 c (new)
20c. Calls on the Commission to continue promoting a gender balance and gender budgeting approach as well as a better geographical balance in the allocated funds; calls on the Commission to urgently develop gender mainstreaming methodology in order to integrate a gender equality perspective in all policy areas;
Amendment 82 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33
Paragraph 33
33. Notes that the Court found that low-risk expenditure was free from material error but that high-risk expenditure remained affected by material error; Highlights that the biggest contributors to the 3.0 % error rate were 'Cohesion, Resilience and Values' (1.2 percentage points), followed by 'Natural Resources and Environment' (0.7 percentage points), 'Neighbourhood and the World' (0.4 percentage points) and 'Single Market, Innovation and Digital' (0.4 percentage points);
Amendment 86 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 35
Paragraph 35
Amendment 89 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 37
Paragraph 37
37. Notes that, despite the fact that the Court considers the RRF expenditure accepted in the accounts for the year ended 31 December 2021 as legal and regular in all material respects, there is one milestone in the payment to Spain that is not satisfactorily fulfilled, casting doubt. However doubts remain on the Commission’s assessment of the milestone and targets associated with the related RRF expenditure; recalls that the only reason the identified error was not quantified was the absence of aa strong methodology ofor partial payments by the Commissionwould permit to quantify identified error found in one Member State;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 38 a (new)
Paragraph 38 a (new)
38a. Calls on the Commission to take initiatives such as technical assistance to increase the absorption rate in the Member States on a permanent basis; calls on the Commission to closely monitor the progress of implementation in Member States, in particular in the cases of under-implementation and low absorption rates and to deliver a country- analysis to the discharge authority, identifying the recurrent problems, as well as the measures taken to optimise the situation;
Amendment 95 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 39
Paragraph 39
39. Notes with concern that at the end of 2021, total outstanding commitments reached a record high of EUR 341,6 billion; highlights that outstanding commitments are likely to exceed EUR 460 billion in 2023 but that they will then normally fall as NGEU draws to a close; underlines that a certain level of outstanding commitments is a logical consequence of the Union budget system with commitment appropriations and payment appropriations but recalls that a too important amount of outstanding commitments can constitute a risk for the smooth operation of the budget in the future;
Amendment 103 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 43 – point a
Paragraph 43 – point a
a. ensure the protection of the Union budget by making general and systematic use of digital and automated systems for reporting, monitoring and audit (ARACHNE, EDES etc.) and urgently establish a compulsory integrated and interoperable system building on, but not limited to, existing tools and databases in the context of the upcoming revisions of the Financial Regulation; develop the Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard to ensure that the description of milestones and the target and outcome of the audit are transparent; ensure that all Member States use the systems and central registers to report on beneficial owners and end beneficiaries;
Amendment 108 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 43 – point e
Paragraph 43 – point e
e. work with the Court to align the respective risk categorisation methodologies and the audit working methodologies;
Amendment 128 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 58
Paragraph 58
58. Notes with concern that Customs duties are at risk of either not being declared or being declared incorrectly to the national customs authorities by importers; highlights that these evaded amounts, known as the ‘customs gap’, are not captured in Member States’ TOR accounting systems and do not fall within the scope of the Court’s audit opinion on revenue; notes with concern that the customs gap may affect the amounts of duties established by Member States; is worried that, according to the Court, for a third year in a row, the Union actions taken to reduce the gap and mitigate the risk that TOR are not complete; is worried that serious weaknesses persist since several years in Member States’ accounting and management of TOR; notes with concern the insufficient progress on a number of actions of the Commission’s Customs Action Plan;
Amendment 136 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 71 – point f
Paragraph 71 – point f
f. increase awareness, coherence, and sustainability of the support to SME internationalisation; Reiterates the need to simplify rules and procedures, develop compulsory training sessions and practical information for applicants, in particular new applicants, and improve the assistance and guidelines for SMEs, spin-offs, start-ups, administration and payment agencies and all others relevant stakeholders;
Amendment 154 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 91 – point b
Paragraph 91 – point b
b. make better use and encourage to systematise the use of AI and data from new technologies such as the Union owned Copernicus Sentinel satellites to monitor and control the correct use of all CAP funds;
Amendment 163 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 98
Paragraph 98
98. Furthermore, calls on the Commission to consider the activities employed by DG CNECT for the Horizon Europe Funds in support of SMEs, such as webinars and coordinator days, and copy successful elements of DG CNECT’s approach to the EDF, notably to give more specific knowledge of Union funding to SMEs and decrease the administrative burden for them;
Amendment 164 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 20
Subheading 20
Neighbourhood and the world
Amendment 182 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 116 – point b
Paragraph 116 – point b
b. continue its work to ensure a fair geographical balance of its staff at all levels, and especially at senior management level, where strong imbalances persist, while at the same time fulfilling the requirements in the staff regulation regarding competences and merits of candidates; Stresses that according to the Article 27 of the Staff Regulations of Officials, the Commission like all European institutions, must ensure that all Member States are proportionally represented;
Amendment 210 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 124
Paragraph 124
124. Notes the Court’s observation regarding the RRF in its 2021 Annual Report concerning the first payment request from Spain; notes that the Court assessed the Commission’s ex-ante work on all milestones associated with the payment to Spain in 2021; observeregrets that it will not be possible for the Court to assess all milestones associated with future payments and urges the Commission to put in place a serious ex ante and ex post work to check if all milestones and targets are really implemented;
Amendment 215 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 125
Paragraph 125
125. Is worried by the Court’s serious finding that for the payment made to Spain in 2021, one milestone was not satisfactorily fulfilled; regrets to note that the Court was not able to quantify this error because of the absence of a methodology to quantify the impact of (partially) not achieving a milestone or target; notes the Commission’s Internal Auditor also observed the absence of this methodology; considers it grave negligence ofregrets that the Commission todid not have thisa stronger methodology in place before making payments, as this calls into question the Commission’s sincerity of assess; regrets that not all Member States make use of the Commission’s data-mining and risk- scoring tool for identifying projects, beneficiaries and contractors at risk of fraud, conflict of interest and irregularities under the RRF; notes that five of the Member States ing the satisfactory fulfilment of milestonCourt's audit sample (Greece, Spain, France, Croatia and Italy) will use the Commission’s data mining and risk scoring tool; recalls that a common data- mining and risk-scoring tool is a key element in protecting the EU’s financial interests and, more specifically, in preventing fraud, conflicts of interest and targetsdouble funding, and in increasing transparency and accountability;
Amendment 228 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 126
Paragraph 126
126. NoteRegrets that the Commission’s Internal Audit Service did not perform any audit engagement as regards the NGEU programme in 2021; notes that the Internal Auditor draws attention to the need to continue work on control design and implementation of appropriate financial management, and audit and control strategies; considers the Internal Auditor to be an essential element of internal checks and balances within the Commission and that independent and objective information derived from its own audit activities is indispensable for the Internal Auditor to function effectively; underlines that the work by the Court as external auditor cannot substitute the work of the Internal Audit Service;
Amendment 230 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 127
Paragraph 127
127. Recalls the CONT committee’s opinion to the committee on Budgets and the committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs on the proposal for a European Parliament and Council regulation establishing the RRF; recalls the call therein for a list of all final beneficiaries and projects of the Facility; considers that Article 22(2) (d) of that Regulation puts the requirement on the Member States to keep these records, and that the provisions in Article 22(3) call for making the data concerned available in the framework of discharge, for the discharge authority; regrets the lack of information on how the Commission protects the European Union’s financial interests while disbursing payments;
Amendment 293 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 146
Paragraph 146
146. Notes that it is important that all funds allocated to the Member States under the RRF will result in investments and reforms, as only then the discharge authority can be sure that all funds were allocated to final beneficiaries in full respect of the principle of additionality; recalls the criticism expressed in previous discharge reports of the practice that some Member States systematically overbook funding programmes in shared management and withdraw projects from Union funds when irregularities and/or fraud are discovered in its related expenditure, thereby effectively evading Union investigations and/or an effective follow-up and possible corrections; deplores that the burden of these irregularities and possible fraud is shifted to the national budget, and thus, the national tax-payer;
Amendment 362 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 153 – point r
Paragraph 153 – point r
r. address the tension between cohesion and the RRF, in particular concerning the involvement of local, regional, economic and social partners and civil society organisations, that makes it easier to absorb RFRF funding in comparison to cohesion funding, by putting more emphasis on involvement of these actors in the implementation of the RRF;
Amendment 364 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 153 – point s
Paragraph 153 – point s
s. strongly encourage Member States that seek to amend their RRPs to include cross-border projects in their investments and to put more emphasis on such truly European projects in general; Recalls that cross-border projects should address existing bottlenecks in energy transmission, distribution and storage, thus providing European added value;