15 Amendments of Alex AGIUS SALIBA related to 2019/2055(DEC)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Notes with concern that payment claims for a substantial value have been delayed and will be submitted in future years and that this has affected the use of pre-financing and outstanding commitments, and will affect payment appropriation needs at the start of the next MFF; acknowledges that the European Commission is taking measures to avoid undue pressure on the level of payment appropriations in the first years of the 2021-2027 MFF;
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Welcomes that in 2018, for the first time, audit authorities reported errors using a common methodology agreed between the Commission and the Member States and that ineligible expenditure and public procurement procedures have been detected as the most common types of irregularities; notes the fact that there has been a sustained improvement in the overall estimated level of error in expenditures made from the Union budget in the past few years (4.4 % in 2014; 3.8 % in 2015; 3.1 % in 2016; 2.4 % in 2017 and 2.6 % in 2018);
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Welcomes that the European Commission has implemented high proportion of the Court’s follow-up recommendations and supports the Court’s commitment, in line with its strategy for the period 2018-2020, to carry forward a follow-up on all performance audit recommendations it made to the Commission three years earlier;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Notes that the European Court of Auditors (ECA) found a significant increase in payment claims for the European Structural and Investment funds (ESI funds) which include the European Social Fund, by the Member States in 2018 mainly because of the relatively low level of ESI fund payment claims in the early years of the 2014-2020 programmes; notes at the same time, that for those funds absorption had continued to be slower than planned - a phenomenon that had contributed to increasing ESI funds outstanding commitments; calls on the Commission to analyse the reasons for the low absorption level and to simplify the new rules for the post-2020 period in order to avoid unnecessarily complex and/or burdensome rules that do not add value to the EU policies;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. NStresses the importance of the EU cohesion policy in supporting the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights and in assisting the Member States and regions to harness new and persistent challenges, such as globalisation, unemployment, industrial change, digitalisation and reskilling of people; notes with concern the increase of the estimated level of error in the policy area ‘Economic, social and territorial cohesion’' at 5.0 %, which is largely above the 2 % materiality threshold; stresses that the new control and assurance framework was designed to ensure that annual residual error rates are below 2 %; agrees with the Court's conclusions that further improvements are necessary, in particular in terms of the implementation of the framework by managing authorities, audit authorities and the Commission to reduce the high level of error;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. Notes that weaknesses persist with regard to the regularity of the expenditure declared by managing authorities and that, despite recent improvements, shortcomings, undetected or uncorrected errors remain; stresses in this regard that the audit authorities play a crucial role in the framework for assurance and control of cohesion spending and calls on them to address the reported weaknesses and to make better use of the Commission's assurance model in the future;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Stresses, this year again, the need to take effective measures to reduce those sources of error while achieving a high performance and urges the Commission to implement swiftly the ECA’s recommendations in this policy area and in particular invites the Commission to better implement appropriate control measures aimed to ensure that no programme can be closed with a material level or irregular expenditure and that regular checks are carried out at the level of financial intermediaries by an audit authority;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9 a. Reminds that the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) aim to encourage a high level of employment and the creation of more and better jobs, including through the YEI targeting regions with a high youth unemployment rate, and should, therefore, have the continued financial and political support of the EU, national and regional institutions in the delivery of their targets in the years to come;
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 b (new)
Paragraph 9 b (new)
9 b. Welcomes the European Commission's commitment to make YEI a permanent instrument to fight youth unemployment; reiterates that the financial management procedures, as well as the reporting requirements in the YEI should be improved and better directed towards young people who are furthest away from education, training, and employment;
Amendment 21 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Notes with concern that, due to limitations in its monitoring, FEAD’s contribution to reducing poverty has not been established, and deplores in particular that the Commission does not have data whichSupports the FEAD which aims to alleviate the worst forms of poverty in the EU such as food deprivation, homelessness, and child poverty; highlights that the results of the 2018 mid-term evaluation show that the Fund has a notable effect in nearly each Member State and that the supported food, material aid, and social inclusion measures make a difference to the most deprived, including those who may be otherwise left out by mainstream social assistance or who need immediate support; notes that the evaluation identified several weaknesses in the implementation of the Fund and that the Court of Auditors suggested to better target the Fund to the ones most in need and that the Commission has to improve the collected data to better demonstrates the relative importance of FEAD in overall support to deprived people in the Union;
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Notes with satisfaction that the estimated error level in the area of ‘Competitiveness for growth and jobs’ is 2.0 % - which represents a substantial decrease compared to 2017 (4.2 %) and 2016 (4.1 %) and notes that most of the errors were related to the research spending while errors on other spending are limited; acknowledges the Commission’s efforts to improve the level of error, which is lower than in the last two years and reiterates the importance of the spending programmes in the competitiveness’ chapter, which play an important role in fostering an inclusive society, stimulating growth and creating employment in the EU;
Amendment 31 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Notes that, according to the Commission, the EaSI mid-term evaluation showed that its objectives are still relevant and that the programme is effective in reaching the relevant stakeholders, generating good- quality outcomes and achieving its objectives in particular in light of the current challenging socio-economic context characterised by the aftermath of the financial and economic crisis; also notes that, even though the three axes (Progress, EURES and Microfinance and Social Entrepreneurship) seem to operate independently, some areas which could result in increased effectiveness (‘synergies’) have been identified;
Amendment 33 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15 a. Encourages the Commission to improve the implementation of the employment and social innovation programme, especially through enhanced flexibility and through targeting groups in need of specific support, through the simplification of procedures, improved internal consistence and linkages with other funds;
Amendment 37 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. NotWelcomes that the Commission completed in 2018 the first cross-cutting evaluation of the European Commission Agencies working in the employment and social affairs policy field (Eurofound, Cedefop, ETF and EU-OSHA) to complement the founding regulation revision of the three tripartite agencies; notes with satisfaction that the assessment confirms a very positive evaluation report on the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence and added value of the agencies, as well as the need to reinforce cooperation in order to exploit synergies;
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16 a. Welcomes the creation of the European Labour Authority (ELA) and highlights the need to ensure that sufficient financial resources are set aside for its establishment; insists that funding cannot be accomplished by redeploying allocations from the other employment and social affairs agencies and budgetary lines and should not result in a reduction of resources and capabilities for EURES; highlights therefore the need to maintain clear and separate budget lines for both ELA and EURES;