Activities of Barbara WEILER related to 2011/2212(DEC)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth European Development Funds for the financial year 2010 PDF (278 KB) DOC (176 KB)
Amendments (17)
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas one year after its establishment the European External Action Service (EEAS) which shares the responsibility of managing the European Development Aid with the Commission has been criticised for inefficiency as well as serious structural and transitional problems in the Union Delegations;
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Urges the Council and the Member States to respond positively to the Commission's proposal and to agree that the EDF will be fully incorporated in the Union's budget from 2020 onwards; believes this measure to be long overdue; expects the Commission to honour this commitment and to take all necessary measures to start preparing for EDF budgetisation;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Notes with satisfaction that, according to the Court of Auditors, the revenue and commitments are free from material error; deplores, however,but is highly concerned about the significant frequency of non-quantifiable errors affecting commitments in terms of compliance with tendering rules and legal deadlines for the signature of contracts;
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Regrets the Court of Auditors' opinion on the legality and regularity of payments underlying the accounts according to which the payments were materially affected by error; recalls that the Court of Auditors' estimate for the most likely error rate for payments from the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth EDFs is 3,4 % which is above the materiality threshold of 2 %; deplores and the fact that quantifiable and non-quantifiable errors were found for all types of projects, except for supply contracts;
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. DeploRegrets the persistent high frequency of non-quantifiable errors affecting payments; notes that the non-quantifiable errors mainly concerned performance guarantees, non-compliance with authorisation and contracting procedures for administrative expenditure, insufficient supporting documents and inconsistencies with contractual rules;
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Regrets the lack of compatibility between the Court of Auditors' estimation of the most likely error rate based on the annual approach of the Court of Auditors and current methodology, on one hand, and the Commission's practice to refer to the net residual error rate covering more than one year, on the other hand; believes that the approach based on the residual error rate in its current form does not provide comparable data for the annual discharge procedure; notes with satisfaction that the Commission agrees with the Court of Auditors that further quantified evidence should be found; calls on the Commission to complete the process of developing the key indicator to estimate the financial impact of residual error within the set timeframe, i.e. by 2013;
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. DeploresRegrets the Court of Auditors' finding according to which the overall supervisory and control systems of the EDFs managed by the Commission are only partially effective; notes that the monitoring and supervision of EuropeAid's Control Services were effective, whereas they were partially effective for Union Delegations;
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. DeploRegrets the fact that the drawbacks in the supervisory and control systems of Union Delegations have a recurrent character; recalls that the Court of Auditors' findings included poorly documented and ineffective checks at most National Authorising Officers in EDF beneficiary countries, lack of institutional capacity, resource constraints and high staff turnover rates in Union Delegations; therefore calls for the strengthening of the institutional capacity in the National Authorising Officer's administration, resource cons by providing additional financial traintsing and high staff turnover rates in Union Delegationstargeted guidance to overcome these weaknesses in financial management;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. RegretNotes the Court of Auditors' findings that the ex-ante controls by both the authorising officers of EuropeAid's central services and in the Union Delegations were only partially effective; recalls that EuropeAid's ex-ante checks largely rely on certificates from external supervisors or external audits and expenditure verifications; regrets that as a result of the high frequency of errors the Court of Auditors found the assurance that can be derived from this is limited; notes that the Commission introduced mandatory standard Terms of Reference for auditors in order to address this issue;
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20 a (new)
Paragraph 20 a (new)
20 a. Welcomes the introduction in June 2010 of a new format for Delegations' annual reporting on Public Finance Management reforms in recipient countries and urges Delegations to apply this new framework consistently;
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Notes that 2010 was the year when the European External Action Service (EEAS) took shape and commenced operation; reiterates its concerns that the initial division of competences between the Commission and EEAS staff in the Union Delegations in terms of the implementation of Union development assistance have been a subject ofgave rise to confusion and justified criticism; is concerned that thecalls for improved effectiveness of European development aid suffers due toto overcome the fragmented way in which it is managed;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Recalls that the Court of Auditors found in its Annual Report on the EDFs concerning the financial year 2010 that budget support payments were affected by a high frequency of non-quantifiable errors in 2010 - 35 %, just as high a rate as it was in 2009; deplores the, showing persistently high level of errors in budget support payments; notes that in order to address this issue the Commission strengthened its training provisions and introduced the Financial Management Toolkit for recipients of Union funds for external actions; calls upon the Commission to follow up the issue and to report whether these measures improve the situation;
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 a (new)
Paragraph 28 a (new)
28 a. Considers the Green Paper launched in 2010 a positive contribution to the reflection on how to turn budget support into a more efficient and effective instrument for poverty reduction;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 b (new)
Paragraph 28 b (new)
28 b. Urges the Commission once again to help partner countries develop parliamentary control and audit capacities and increase transparency and public access to information;
Amendment 51 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 41
Paragraph 41
41. Stresses that democracy and, respect of human rights, and poverty reduction must be integrated goals of the implementing organisations in countries where EDF support is distributed;
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 48
Paragraph 48
48. Believes that the current acute food crisis in the Horn of Africa is also the tragic consequence of failed coherence and complementary between the international humanitarian and development aid as well as abusive speculation on foodstuffs; points out that unlike natural disasters, this has been a slow-onset crisis that has gradually escalated to humanitarian disaster; recalls that unfortunately droughts and food shortage are of a chronic character in the Horn of Africa; deplores the fact that despite this and the vast amount of development assistance that has been flown to the region during the past decades, there are no visible results of a strengthening of self-sufficiency a the local farmers thus ensuring sustainability;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 64
Paragraph 64
64. Is highly concerned by the fact that according to the reports of a non- governmental organisation, there wereabout alleged cases when EIB funds flowed to companies, the leadership of which was either under investigation or accused of corruption and money laundering; stresses that investing mainly in the mining sector cannot be the key to sustainable development;