Activities of Romeo FRANZ related to 2023/2129(DEC)
Opinions (1)
OPINION on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission and executive agencies
Amendments (14)
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Notes that, despite a challenging context created by long-lasting effects of the pandemic, the impact of rising inflation and energy prices on beneficiaries and Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the Erasmus+ programme could in 2022 fully resume its long-standing mission to support transnational learning mobility, with the number of mobilities supported comparable to pre-pandemic years;
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Appreciates that the Commission and the EACEA managed to achieve nearly full budget execution for Erasmus+ and full budget execution for the European Solidarity Corps in 2022, making it even necessary to redeploy credits from other programmes to cover payment needs; notes the challenges to the payment implementation of Creative Europe in 2022, with some EUR 50 million having been deferred to 2023 as a result of operational issues and delays in the granting processes; recognises DG Education, Youth, Sport and Culture’s (DG EAC) and the EACEA’s efforts to limit the impact of these delays and return to a normalised pace in 2023;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2 b. Notes that DG EAC’s and the EACEA’s overall risk at payment continued to be relatively low and their overall error rate remained below the 2 % materiality threshold in 2022;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Reiterates its concern about the strongly backloaded budget profile of Erasmus+; welcomes the extra EUR 35 million awarded to Erasmus+ in 2022 due to the Parliament’s insistence, which is helping to reinforce support to pupils, students, teachers and qualified staff fleeing from Ukraine;
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Acknowledges the effects that some novelties, notably the extension of the accreditation scheme to the Erasmus+ programme’s main sectors, have had in terms of simplifying the application process and easing the accessibility of funding for mobility activities;
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3 b. Highlights that the Erasmus+ programme framework of inclusion measures adopted in 2021 seems to bear fruit, with 23% more projects having gender equality as their main or an important and deliberate objective in 2022 than in 2021;
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Requests the European Court of Auditors to carry out an audit on the possible misuse of EU funds through Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps by networks of associations that present false projects, with the aim of verifying recent reports on this matter by some national agencies and measuring the scale and importance of such cases of fraud, and their treatment by competent authorities in the Member States;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Welcomes the fact that, thanks to a EUR 3 million reinforcement of the 2022 European Year of Youth at the Parliament’s insistence, a number of actions under the Year could be strengthened, such as solidarity projects, volunteering and networking activities; underlines that the successful results of the Year should now be sustainably implemented to ensure its lasting legacy;
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Notes the continued frontloading of the Creative Europe budget in 2022 for mitigating the persisting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the cultural and creative sectors; notes that, thanks to this frontloading, a higher number of European cultural cooperation projects could be selected in 2022 than ever before;
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Welcomes the fact that almost all proposals submitted in the Media Strand are requested to provide a strategy to improve the industry’s greening measures, with projects in some actions having to initiate the process of obtaining a sustainability certification; urges the Commission, building on these promising results and the recommendations of a 2022 study on greening Creative Europe, to push ahead more strongly, including through more funding for training on greening and sustainability in the audiovisual sector;
Amendment 28 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5 b. Reiterates its call to urgently address the outstanding issues related to personal data protection for beneficiaries of and participants in Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps, in particular as regards third country personal data transfers; urges DG EAC to roll out the new ‘transfer tool’ immediately following authorisation from the European Data Protection Supervisor to ensure appropriate safeguards for such transfers in the future;
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. Welcomes DG EAC’s roll-out of a new project management tool for National Agencies, which includes a new risk and potential exclusions feature; encourages DG EAC and DG CNECT to implement their Anti-Fraud Strategies fully, including by offering mandatory fraud awareness raising and data protection training for staff, in particular newcomers, and entrusted bodies and organising a fraud awareness survey;
Amendment 34 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8 a. Encourages the EACEA to swiftly implement the recommendations of its internal audit service to improve the quality of transactions, such as the use of checklists, the modification of financial circuits and the harmonisation of processes;
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 b (new)
Paragraph 8 b (new)
8 b. Notes the positive development in the EACEA’s staffing situation, with a significant increase of staff by the end of 2022;