76 Amendments of Gilles BOYER related to 2020/2140(DEC)
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. the 2019 discharge procedure covers a year marked by political and institutional transition with elections to the European Parliament and a new legislature which commenced on 2 July 2019 and the appointment of a new Commission, which took office on 1 December 2019 and which set new political priorities, such as the European Green Deal and an increasing focus on digitalising the Union and the protection of its values and of the money of EU taxpayers;;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) did not require any adjustments to the figures reported in the 2019 Union annual accounts; however, in 2020 and in the years to come, the COVID-19 outbreak will have a significant global impact, as well as having important implications for the Union budget, and in this regard, we have to determine with a particular attention if Commission used with efficiency and transparency the Union budget, because as from 2020, the implementation of the Union’s immediate response initiatives will affect the recognition, measurement or reclassification of multiple assets and liabilities in the financial statements of the Union;
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Welcomes the new regulation on a general regime of conditionality for the protection of the Union budget establishing the rules necessary for the protection of the Union budget in the case of breaches of the principles of the rule of law in the Member States ; Recalls that this regulation designed to protect EU funds will have to be applied to all commitments and payments, while providing safeguards for final beneficiaries and recipients;
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5 b. Asks the commission to create an EU black list of companies and their beneficial owners or individuals who have been convicted in relation of fraud or corruption or other criminal activities related to use of Union funds possibly banning them from applying for Union funding for a period of five years, and to scrutinise carefully all their ongoing projects involving the payment of Union Funds
Amendment 55 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Calls for the budgets of OLAF and EPPO to be increased in order to be able to fulfil their mission
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Endorses the recommendations from the Court of Auditors (the “Court”) and encourages strongly the Commission and other relevant parties to implement them as soon as possible while emphasising some of the most important and urgent recommendations below;
Amendment 62 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Make the utilisation of Arachne as a pre-condition for Member States to use Union Funds;
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 – point b
Paragraph 8 – point b
b. that more than half (53,1 %) of the expenditure was materially affected by error, concerning mainly reimbursement- based expenditure, in which the level of error was as high as 4,9 % (compared to 4,5 % in 2018 and 3,7 % in 2017); notes that this increase is largely due to a rise in ‘Cohesion’ spending since expenditure under this field increased to EUR 66,9 billion in 2019;
Amendment 99 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Points out that, as in previous years, eligibility errors (namely ineligible costs in costs claims and ineligible projects, activities or beneficiaries) in reimbursement-based payments, where expenditure is often subject to complex rules, were again the main contributors to the 2019 estimated level of error for high- risk expenditure at 74% (compared to 68 % in 2018);
Amendment 130 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Points out that according to the Court, the overall absorption rate of ESIF (European Structural Investment Funds) was lower than in the corresponding year of the previous MFF, as by the end of 2019, out of the total ESIF allocations for the current MFF (EUR 465 billion), only 40 % had been paid out to Member States (compared with 46 % by the end of 2012); notes that only nine Member States had higher absorption rates under the current MFF than under the previous one, and that overall the speed of absorption in 2019 stayed almost exactly the same as in 2018; Isvery concerned by the weak level of absorption rates;
Amendment 133 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 a (new)
Paragraph 17 a (new)
17 a. Regrets that greater technical assistance is not being put in place to increase the absorption rate in many States and also make it possible to reduce the backlog of outstanding commitments (RAL)
Amendment 145 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Notes that the current agreement between the Commission, the EIB and the Court concerning audits of operations which are financed or backed by the Union budget expires in 2020; viewsStrongly calls to take this an opportunity to ensure that the Court is enabled to audit on an annual basis the regularity and also the performance of all the EIB activities, which do not fall under a specific Union mandate;
Amendment 149 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 a (new)
Paragraph 23 a (new)
23 a. supports the request made by the Court to audit the EIB’s non-Union budget related operations
Amendment 154 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26 – indent 1
Paragraph 26 – indent 1
- call on the EIB to enable each year the Court to audit the regularity as well as the performance aspects of its financing activity, which does not fall under a specific Union mandate;
Amendment 162 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28
Paragraph 28
28. Notunderlines that the Court finds that the Commission has satisfactory procedures for the production of its annual management and performance report and programmes' performance overview; agrees with the Court that the Commission should continue to report on programme performance after the end of an MFF period;
Amendment 165 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Encourages deeply the Commission to continue to improve the reliability of performance information as a vital tool for assessing the success of programmes; this should include the dissemination of lessons learnt from the Regulatory Scrutiny Board, especially those concerning design and methodology;
Amendment 169 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31
Paragraph 31
31. Calls on the Commission to include in its performance reports greater analysis of the efficiency and economy of programmes when information becomes available, more systematic analysis of the significant external factors affecting programme performance; clear assessments of all the performance indicators reported on as regards whether they are on track to meet their targets; clear and balanced assessments of performance, covering all programme objectives in appropriate detail; Urges the Commission to take these measures for the next discharge 2020 due to all programs adopted in the context of theCOVID-19 crisis; .
Amendment 194 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 39 a (new)
Paragraph 39 a (new)
39 a. Encourages the Commission and the ECA to accelerate the discharge process to N+1
Amendment 195 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 39 b (new)
Paragraph 39 b (new)
39 b. Calls on the Commission to continue promoting a better gender balance and gender budgeting approach in the allocated funds
Amendment 198 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 41 a (new)
Paragraph 41 a (new)
41 a. Welcomes that the Commission’s work on the next EU’s financial programming and budget initiated before and throughout 2019 led to the introduction of a legally binding timetable, of new EU-wide streams of revenue, or ‘own resources’ intended to repay common European borrowing; Recalls the predominance of the Gross National Incomes (GNI) contributions in the EU budget; Stresses that new own resources come at a reduction of the share of national GNI-based contributions in the financing of the Union’s annual budget and do not therefore contribute to an overall increase of the EU budget; Urges the Commission to propose a diversification of its revenue sources to ensure the EU becomes truly independent vis-a-vis Member States’ contributions while significantly increasing the budget for EU programmes.
Amendment 212 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 49
Paragraph 49
49. Points out that of eight long- outstanding VAT reservations set by the Commission and examined by the the Court, five of them were related to infringement procedures against Member States on the grounds of possible non- compliance with the VAT Directive;
Amendment 233 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 62 a (new)
Paragraph 62 a (new)
Amendment 236 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 65
Paragraph 65
65. UnderlineNotes with concerns that SMEs are more error-prone than other beneficiaries since more than half the quantifiable errors found (17 out of 28) involved funding for private beneficiaries, even though the transactions in question accounted for just 42 (32 %) of the 130 transactions in the sample (SMEs made up 12 % of the sample but accounted for 21 % of the quantifiable errors);
Amendment 247 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 68 – indent 1 a (new)
Paragraph 68 – indent 1 a (new)
- increase and develop information and training sessions for applicants with a focus on new applicants for whom training should be mandatory
Amendment 249 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 68 – indent 4
Paragraph 68 – indent 4
Amendment 260 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 72 – indent 7
Paragraph 72 – indent 7
- further simplify tools, administration and guidance for SMEs (in such a way that they impose a minimal burden on SMEs, and especially on start- ups without the resources and staff to deal with their complexity);
Amendment 268 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 81 – indent 2
Paragraph 81 – indent 2
- encourage deeply complementarity between Union financial instruments and Union budgetary guarantees (in the context of the new MFF programmes, the Commission should propose that the Union financial instruments are coherent and complementary in terms of the respective policy objectives to be achieved, so as to avoid competition between instruments);
Amendment 290 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 89
Paragraph 89
89. Is verhighly concerned about the weaknesses found in the work of several audit authorities covered by the Court’s sample, which currently limit the reliance that can be placed on that work (the recalculated rate was above the 2 % materiality threshold in nine out of 20 assurance packages for the 2014-2020 period, the Commission adjusted the residual error rates for eight assurance packages to a figure above 2 %);
Amendment 319 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 94 – indent 1
Paragraph 94 – indent 1
- clarify fastly eligibility conditions (including by defining what is meant by ‘physically completed’ and/or ‘fully implemented’ operations, in order to help Member States to verify that operations comply with Article 65(6) of the CPR and avoid the non-detection of ineligible operations);
Amendment 320 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 94 – indent 1 a (new)
Paragraph 94 – indent 1 a (new)
- Calls on the Commission to provide Parliament with an annual report setting out in detail the contribution of each budget item to the climate mainstreaming target and to biodiversity spending, in order to facilitate their monitoring;
Amendment 321 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 94 – indent 1 b (new)
Paragraph 94 – indent 1 b (new)
- Calls on the Commission urgently to start working on an effective methodology, where relevant, and in accordance with sectoral legislation, for monitoring climate spending and its performance in view of achieving an overall target of at least30 % of the total amount of the 2021-2027 Union budget and Next Generation EU(NGEU) expenditures supporting climate objectives;
Amendment 349 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 95 a (new)
Paragraph 95 a (new)
95 a. is concerned about the problems raised by the Court of Auditors concerning the lack of internal controls in the Member States or the unreliability of data
Amendment 350 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 95 b (new)
Paragraph 95 b (new)
95 b. Regrets that not all Member States are using the Arachne data mining system to improve fraud detection; Points out that concerning fraud, both the Commission and the Member States are responsible for addressing fraud in Cohesion spending. They need to step up their efforts to prevent and detect fraud, in cooperation with EPPO and the anti- fraud office (OLAF)
Amendment 367 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 102 a (new)
Paragraph 102 a (new)
102 a. Is deeply concerned that since 2019 a growing number of Managing Authorities of European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) in Poland have adopted resolutions declaring themselves free from so-called ‘LGBTI ideology’ or have adopted ‘Regional Charters of Family Rights’ discriminating in particular against single-parent and LGBTI families; Insists on the fact that, in line with Regulation No 1303/20131a, the use of EU funds must comply with the principle of non-discrimination; Highlights that the new Common Provisions Regulation (CPR) for shared management funds entered into force in 2021 further reinforces the need of compliance of EU funds with the anti- discrimination principle and the charter of fundamental rights; _________________ 1aRegulation laying down common provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and laying down general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and repealing Council Regulation
Amendment 368 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 102 b (new)
Paragraph 102 b (new)
102 b. Believes that there is a clear risk of breach of the anti-discrimination provisions regulating the use of EU funds in these municipalities and regions;
Amendment 369 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 102 c (new)
Paragraph 102 c (new)
102 c. Calls on the Commission to carry an in-depth audit of the use of ESIF in these regions since 2019 and its compliance with EU law, in particular with the anti-discrimination provisions; Calls of the Commission to make use of every tool at its disposal, including financial corrections and fines, in case it finds clear evidence of misuse of funds on those grounds; Asks the Commission to report to the discharge authority the findings of this investigation;
Amendment 372 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 106 a (new)
Paragraph 106 a (new)
106 a. Acknowledges that COVID-19 crisis has provided a new and unexpected challenge that the EU and its Member States need to respond determinedly and provide solutions at the EU and national level; welcomes the increasing financial flexibility in cohesion spending which enables Member States to use the funds to finance crisis-related projects; underlines the necessity of fostering the continuity and deeper cooperation of all stakeholders relevant to cohesion policy, mainly SMEs, municipalities and regions, which will struggle with unemployment and healthcare in the coming months
Amendment 373 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 106 b (new)
Paragraph 106 b (new)
106 b. welcomes the increasing financial flexibility in cohesion spending which enables Member States to use the funds to finance crisis-related projects; underlines the necessity of fostering the continuity and deeper cooperation of all stakeholders relevant to cohesion policy, mainly SMEs, municipalities and regions, which will struggle with unemployment and healthcare in the coming months
Amendment 374 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 106 c (new)
Paragraph 106 c (new)
106 c. Highlights the challenges that patients in the Union face in benefiting from the Directive on cross-border healthcare, as identified in the Court's Special Report 7/2019,particularly with regard to potential patients' awareness of their rights,problems and delays in exchanging patient health data electronically between Member States and access to healthcare for patients with rare diseases;
Amendment 381 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 109 a (new)
Paragraph 109 a (new)
109 a. Reiterates the Parliament’s request for the creation of a new budgetary line for Tourism, to support this sector severely hit by the Covid-19 crisis; welcomes that the Court has launched an audit to assess tourism projects co-funded with EUR 6.4 billion in2007-2013 and EUR 4 billion so far in 2014-2020 ERDF and Cohesion Fund money, which will help improving EU Tourism policies
Amendment 382 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 109 b (new)
Paragraph 109 b (new)
109 b. Notes that by the sixth year of the current programming period 2014-2020 only around 31% of the funds initially awarded had resulted in payments by January 2020, putting into question the full implementation of CEF; calls on Member States to significantly speed up investments and on the Commission to step up its monitoring in view of the urgent need for infrastructure investment for the speedy recovery from theCovid-19 related economic downturn;
Amendment 418 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 120
Paragraph 120
120. Regretnotes that 70 % of errors were made up by ‘Ineligible beneficiary/activity/project/expenditure’;
Amendment 428 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 126
Paragraph 126
126. Is concerned by the limitations in the reliability of the results of the certification bodies’ work, due to weaknesses the Court identified in some certification bodies’ checks and sampling methodologies; In view of the CAP new delivery model, in which certification bodies will play a more prominent role, calls on Commission to focus more on the reliability of the results they furnish
Amendment 475 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 128 – indent 3 – point a
Paragraph 128 – indent 3 – point a
a. all three indicators linked to the general objective of viable food production (increasing agricultural factor income, increasing agricultural productivity, and limiting price variability) reflect macroeconomic developments. While these indicators show a positive trend, the CAP has little or no demonstrable impact on them;
Amendment 500 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 128 – indent 4 – point f a (new)
Paragraph 128 – indent 4 – point f a (new)
f a. underlines that agriculture can also remove the emissions from atmosphere naturally, through for example soil carbon sequestration.
Amendment 507 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 128 – indent 5 – point d
Paragraph 128 – indent 5 – point d
d. young farmers can receive additional direct payments under the EAGF and one-off support from the EAFRD for setting up their first agricultural holding. The Court’s findings coincide with those of evaluation support studies16 : EAGF support for young farmers has little to no impact, while EAFRD support is more effective, mainly because it is better targeted. CAP generational renewal measures have been found to be effective in ‘cases where complementary national, regional and local governance institutions and fiscal policies also support and enhance’ those measures; New measures should be initiated to help young farmers especially in the frame of land acquisition. _________________ 16Evaluation of the impact of the CAP on generational renewal, local development and jobs in rural areas, 2019; ECA special report No 10/2017: EU support to young farmers should be better targeted to foster effective generational renewal; SURE- Farm: Impact of the Young Farmers payment on structural change, 2020.
Amendment 509 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 128 – indent 5 – point e a (new)
Paragraph 128 – indent 5 – point e a (new)
e a. Deeply regrets that 40%of rural households still do not have high-speed internet access. Digitisation is not being speeded up in rural areas in order to develop employment there and also to support farms on a day-to-day basis.
Amendment 511 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 128 – indent 5 – point e c (new)
Paragraph 128 – indent 5 – point e c (new)
e c. Deeply regrets that the Arachne system is not used by all states and hopes that initiatives will be taken in this direction. Stresses the EC to use Arachne as a common data base and to promote strongly its use by all the Member states.
Amendment 513 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 128 – indent 5 – point e e (new)
Paragraph 128 – indent 5 – point e e (new)
e e. emphasises that better insight is needed into sectors such as agriculture and forestry; calls on the Commission to take account of suggested further improvements in reporting how EU and national mitigation policies contribute to meeting emission reduction targets
Amendment 514 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 128 – indent 5 – point e f (new)
Paragraph 128 – indent 5 – point e f (new)
e f. Insists that the Commission propose to introduce a specific mechanism of complaint into the CAP rules to support the farmers confronted with land-grabbing malpractices, criminal structures or organised crime or persons being subject to forced or slave labour.
Amendment 515 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 128 – indent 5 – point e g (new)
Paragraph 128 – indent 5 – point e g (new)
e g. Propose that the Area Monitoring System (AMS) should be compulsory in the frame of the IACS (Integrated Administration and Control System) in the members states.
Amendment 600 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 146
Paragraph 146
146. Is deeply concerned that the return rate for individuals who no longer have the right to stay on Union territory is structurally unsatisfactory (31,5 %);
Amendment 642 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 156 a (new)
Paragraph 156 a (new)
156 a. Notes that the Court found that EU aid helped to restore and maintain access to safe and good-quality education during humanitarian crises. Welcomes the relevance of projects regarding the problems identified. Notes that projects were able to achieve most of their objectives. Support the Court’s recommendation and calls the Commission to finetune its support for education in emergencies in order to reach a good level of efficiency and relevance
Amendment 661 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 163 – indent 1
Paragraph 163 – indent 1
- strengthen the focus of Union budget support in Morocco, namely apply a more transparent and better documented method to allocate amounts to sectoral budget support programmes and continue to monitor the performance;
Amendment 664 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 163 – indent 6
Paragraph 163 – indent 6
- finally fastly conclude the readmission agreement for which the Council granted the Commission a negotiating mandate in 2000, especially as Morocco is one of the biggest beneficiaries of Union development support25 ; _________________ 25Question for written answer E- 000331/2020, Subject: EU-Morocco readmission agreement
Amendment 690 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 169 a (new)
Paragraph 169 a (new)
169 a. welcomes the Court’s finding about a generally positive trend in terms of poverty reduction, gender equality in education,number of agreements with neighbouring countries, expresses however concern about the worsening trend in terms of consolidation of democracy, rule of law and political stability
Amendment 691 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 170 – indent 1 a (new)
Paragraph 170 – indent 1 a (new)
- Requests the Commission to develop quickly guidance and strong criteria to identify NGOs in its accounting system and to verify the self-declared data submitted by the applicants;
Amendment 692 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 170 – indent 1 b (new)
Paragraph 170 – indent 1 b (new)
- Calls on the Commission to propose a harmonized definition of NGOs and a specific control on the funds. Calls on the Commission to receive each year the list of the 50 largest beneficiaries;
Amendment 702 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 170 a (new)
Paragraph 170 a (new)
Amendment 706 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 171 – indent 2
Paragraph 171 – indent 2
Amendment 707 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 171 – indent 3
Paragraph 171 – indent 3
Amendment 708 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 171 – indent 4
Paragraph 171 – indent 4
Amendment 709 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 171 – indent 5
Paragraph 171 – indent 5
Amendment 710 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 171 – indent 6
Paragraph 171 – indent 6
Amendment 712 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 171 – indent 8
Paragraph 171 – indent 8
Amendment 725 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 174
Paragraph 174
Amendment 729 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 175
Paragraph 175
Amendment 747 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 37
Subheading 37
Amendment 754 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 177
Paragraph 177
Amendment 756 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 178
Paragraph 178
Amendment 795 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 187
Paragraph 187
Amendment 802 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 188
Paragraph 188
Amendment 811 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 41 a (new)
Subheading 41 a (new)
Underlines the important effect of turnover within the staff of the agencies of the European Union, calls Commission to help them for the implementation of human and social policies to remedy it
Amendment 827 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 192
Paragraph 192
Amendment 832 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 192 – indent 1
Paragraph 192 – indent 1