Activities of Konstantinos ARVANITIS related to 2023/2129(DEC)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2021, Section III – Commission
Amendments (6)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. NoteExpresses concerns that the Court of Auditors (the ‘Court’) audited on spending areas comprising various policies related to migration and border management (heading 4) and security and defence (heading 5) incidicated that these are a high-risk area, with a focus on expenditure on personel costs, equipment, procurement and the type of beneficiary;
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Expresses deep concerns that the European Ombudsman has found the Commission liable for maladministration following her inquiry into the time it takes for the Commission to handle access to documents in April 2022 following complaints on delays and a lack of communication with requesters; regrets that the inquiry revealed that “systematic and significant delays” occur when handling requests to review initial decisions refusing access, with over 81% of decisions being delayed in 2021; echoes the European Ombudsman’s call to conduct a fundamental rethink over how to tackle these delays and adhere to the timelines set out by the legislature; refuses to grant discharge until these recomendations are met;
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Notes that for the audited spending areas related to migration and border management, security and defence policies, the Court examined a sample of 23 transactions, under MFF headings 4 and 5; notes the Court’s explanation that the audit scope was not designed to be representative for these headings but nevertheless contributed to their statement of assurance; reiterates the call from the Parliament to carry out the audit in a way that would allow calculating the estimated level of error;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Notes that Member States stepped up implementation of their national programmes in 2022; is concerned that significant amounts remain undisbursed for bohighly alarmed by reports on how EU funding from the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) (26 %) and, the Internal Security Fund (ISF) (33 %), meanwhile acknowledges that funding for 2014-2020 has to be spent by June 2024; urges the Commission to step up its efforts towards assisting Member States in the effective implementation of their respective national programmesand the Border Management and VISA Instrument (BMVI) have been linked to the violation of fundamental rights of migrants in Hungary, Croatia and Bulgaria; notes that this includes funding to border guards and to construct policing infrastructure and equipment on the borders whereby pushbacks and illegal detentions of migrants have occurred; calls on the EU to immediately suspend financing through these funds and for an independent inquiry to take place; condemns also the denial of reception to asylum-seekers by many Member States while Member States have been underspending AMIF funding;
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Welcomes the prompt actions by DG HOME following the Russian aggression, especially the timely drafting of a decision on the activation of the Temporary Protection Directive for the first tihilst welcoming the activation of the Temporary Protection Directive and granting of funds to protect refugees fleeing from Ukraine, deplores that EU funding to response to the Russian- Ukraine war has exposed a widely discriminatory migration policy against asylum seekers from Middle Eastern and African countries; notes that in 2022, the amount of EU funds released in three years to help Member States receiving Syrian refugees (€5.7bn) was one third of what was mobilised in year to host Ukrainian refugees (€17.4bn); notes that a considerable part of EU budget funding to respond to the Syrian refugees was channelled into reinforcement of border security; reminds that this reveals a discriminatory double standard at the core of the EU’s migration policy whereby Ukrainians can enter unconditionally with protection under the Temporary Protection Directive (TPD), whilst refugees from Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, the setting up of a Solidarity Platform ‘Ukraine’; amongst many others are met with increased policing and deterrence at the borders; calls for the Commision to apply the activation of TPD in all similar cases and in line with the principle of non- discrimination;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Welcomes the actions by DG HOME to support Member States in improving the return process particularly by linking the EU visa policy to cooperation on readmission; welcomes the operational partnerships to fight migrant smuggling with Morocco, Niger, and the Western Balkans; is concerned of particularly low levels of returns of irregular migrants across the EU and associated security risks; calls on the Commission to continue working towards strategy for more effective returns and extend its opIs appalled by the Commissions inhumane migration policy based on deterrence, externalisation and militarization through its partnership deals with Morocco, Niger, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt; reiterates that this is a dangerous model of migration management which has resulted in the systematic “pullbacks” of refugees to brutal detention conditions and human rights violations at the hands of the EU- funded Libyan Coast Guard; highlights that the expansion of externalisation of EU’s migration policy to third countries with dubious records on human rights undermines the EU’s responsabilities under international refugee law and the Charter of Fundamental Rights; calls instead for a fair and equitable EU asylum policy, with broad safeguards to protect the right to international partnerships with third countriesrotection under humanitarian law and human rights of those arriving to the EU;