57 Amendments of Bogusław LIBERADZKI related to 2014/2075(DEC)
Amendment 2 #
Proposal for a decision 1
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Grants the Commission discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2013 / Postpones its decision on granting the Commission discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2013;
Amendment 5 #
Proposal for a decision 2
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Grants the Director of the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2013 / Postpones its decision on granting the Director of the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2013;
Amendment 8 #
Proposal for a decision 3
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Grants the Director of the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (formerly the Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation) discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2013 / Postpones its decision on granting the Director of the Executive Agency for Small and Medium- sized Enterprises (formerly the Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation) discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2013;
Amendment 11 #
Proposal for a decision 4
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Grants the Director of the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency (formerly the Executive Agency for Health and Consumers) discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2013 / Postpones its decision on granting the Director of the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency (formerly the Executive Agency for Health and Consumers) discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2013;
Amendment 14 #
Proposal for a decision 5
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Grants the Director of the European Research Council Executive Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2013 / Postpones its decision on granting the Director of the European Research Council Executive Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2013;
Amendment 17 #
Proposal for a decision 6
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Grants the Director of the Research Executive Agency discharge in relation to the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2013 / Postpones its decision on granting the Director of the Research Executive Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2013;
Amendment 20 #
Proposal for a decision 7
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Grants the Director of the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (formerly the Trans-European Transport Network Executive Agency) discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2013 / Postpones its decision on granting the Director of the Trans-European Transport Network Executive Agency (formerly the Trans- European Transport Network Executive Agency) discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2013;
Amendment 23 #
Proposal for a decision 8
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Approves the closure of the accounts of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2013 / Postpones the closure of the accounts of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2013;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Heading after recital E
Heading after recital E
Shared management: DeficiencieConcerns ion the Commission’s and Member States’ management
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Cannot politically ensure that the control procedures put in place in the Commission and the Member States give the necessary guarantees concerning the legality and regularity of all the underlying transactions in agriculture and rural development as demonstrated by the followingIs concerned by the number of reservations issued by the Director General of DG AGRI in its annual activity report of 31 March 2014:
Amendment 55 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Cannot politically ensure that the control procedures put in place in the Commission and the Member States give the necessary guarantees concerning the legality and regularity of all underlying transactions in regional policy as demonstrated by theIs concerned by the number of reservations issued by the Director General of DG REGIO in its annual activity report of 31 March 2014; 73 of 322. Takes note of the improvements of programmes that have been put under reservations as a consequence of partially reliable management and control system (in 2013 (33 of 322) as compared to 2012 (85 of 317 OPs in 2012); the interim payments made to those 2007- 2013 programmes under reservation equal EUR 6 035,5 million; the Commission estimated the amount at risk at EUR 440,2 million);
Amendment 57 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Acknowledges that while these reservations are an indication of deficiencies in the Member States' control systems, they are also an effective instrument used by the Commission to accelerate action by the Member States to remedy these deficiencies and thus protect the EU budget;
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Point out that the high number of reservations made in the 2013 AAR confirms the well-functioning of the control procedures put in place in the Commission and Member States;
Amendment 59 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 c (new)
Paragraph 2 c (new)
2c. Notes that the Court confirms in its 2013 Annual Report DG REGIO's estimate of the lower error rate (2,9%) based on figures provided by Member States and agrees with the reservations made by DG REGIO in the 2013 AAR;
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Cannot politically ensure that the control procedures put in place in the Commission and the Member States give the necessary guarantees concerning the legality and regularity of all the underlying transactions in employment and social affairs as demonstrated by theIs concerned by the number of reservations issued by the Director General of DG EMPL in its annual activity report onf 31 March 2014; i. Its annual activity report contains a reservation relating to payments made for the 2007-2013 programming period for an amount at risk of EUR 123,2 million in 2013; these reservations covered 36 of 118 the European Social Funds (ESF) Operational Programmes (compared to 27 out of 117 OPs in 2012):, taking into account the social and financial crisis of the 2007- 2013 period;
Amendment 67 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Deeply rRegrets that payments remain,the Court of Auditors still finds payments affected by errors for the twentieth year in a row, materially affected by error;
Amendment 69 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Recalls that the most likely error rate for payments in the 2012 financial year was estimated at 4,8 %, in the 2011 financial year 2011 at 3,9 %, in the 2010 financial year at 3,7 % and in the 2009 financial year at 3,3 %; notes that the Court of Auditors' annual reports therefore show a steady upward trend since 2009. Despite the fact that 2009 was a critical year of the financial crisis, and, taking into account the multiannual effect of the EU budget, welcomes the slight improvement from 2012 to 2013;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading after paragraph 9
Subheading after paragraph 9
Amendment 81 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Notes that the financial corrections reported aand recoveries implemented in 2013 dropped from EUR 3,74.4 billion in 2012 to EUR 2,53.3 billion in 2013 and recalls that the high financial correction in 2012 was mainly due to a single. This decrease is due to a case related to the implementation in 2012 of a financial correction of EUR 1,.8 billion correction in Spain rectifying structural funds expenditures duringncerning Cohesion programmes for the period 2000- 2006; in Spain.
Amendment 86 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Notes that this decreasee resulting decrease by 34% of financial corrections implemented in 2013 (from EUR 3.7 billion to EUR 2.5 billion) was partially compensated by an increase of 27% of recoveries implemented: in 2013 (from EUR 0,.7 billion to EUR 0,.9 billion;).
Amendment 87 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11a. Acknowledges that due to the legal framework for protecting the Union financial interests, the complexity of the related procedures and the number of control layers involved in many areas, errors are only corrected several years after they have occurred.
Amendment 89 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Points out that the average amount of financial corrections and recoveries implemented for 2009-2013 was EUR 2,7 billion which represents 2,1% of the average amount of payments from the Union budget in that period and that according to the Commission, the abovementioned trend can be explained by the closure of the programming period 2000-200682 ; notes in particular that for cohesion policy, four-fifths of corrections made during the years 2007 to 2013 relate to operational programmes for earlier periods83 ; __________________ 82See Communication on the protection of the EU Budget to end 2013, COM (2014) 618 page 11. 83See Court of Auditors' Annual Report for 2013, point 1.14Member States have the right to substitute detected ineligible expenditure with legal and regular one in order to optimise the use of Cohesion spending, in full accordance to the legal framework and as an incentive for efficient controls at Member States level.
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
Amendment 95 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
Amendment 98 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Notes with concern that the abovementioned Commission communication of 29 September 2014 does not necessarily provide reliable information on withdrawals, recoveries and pending recoveries of structural funds made by the Member States since the Commission states that it had to adopt a prudent approach duethat the Commission has taken a prudent approach, due to certain weaknesses in the Member State figures, so as to ensure that the above amounts are not overstated85. Calls the Commission to take measures to improve the reliability of information reported by Member States on financial corrections, particularly regarding: - the performance of an annual risk assessment on data reported by Member States, - contacts with the certifying authorities to clarify the reported data when inconsistencies are found, - the performance of on-the-spot audits to cvertain weaknesses in the Member States figures, so as to ensure that the above amounts are not overstated85 ify the accounting system of the certifying authorities and the reliability of data reported on financial corrections based on the risk assessment results; coverage of such audits was increased in 2014 to obtain additional assurance; __________________ 85 See Commission communication COM(2014)0618, table 7.2.
Amendment 100 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Demands thatAsks the Commission and the Member States to put in place sound procedures to confirm the timing, the origin and the amount of corrective measures and to provide information reconciling as far as possible the year in which payment is made, the year in which the related error is detected and the year in which recoveries or financial corrections are disclosed in the notes to the accounts, taking into account the pluriannuality of the whole procedure;
Amendment 104 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Takes note that the Commission Directors-General made a total of 17 quantified reservations relating to the expenditure; points out that the lower number of quantified reservations in 2013 (21 in 2012) did not have the effect of reducing the scope of the amount at risk and that the maximum total amount at risk announced by the Commission in its synthesis report86 is below EUR 4 179 million which corresponds to 2,8% of all expenditure disbursed;. __________________ 86 Commission communication of 11.6.2014 entitled 'Synthesis of the Commission's management achievements in 2013' (COM (2014)0324), p. 14: maximum total amount at risk for the entire 2013 expenditure (EU and EDF budget).
Amendment 106 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading after paragraph 19
Subheading after paragraph 19
Amendment 108 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Is concerned by the fact that due to the unacceptable position of the Council during the negotiations and despite the high level of payments, the accounts show that outstanding financial commitments and other liabilities continued to grow in 2013: notes that at the year end, they stood at EUR 32288 billion and the figure is likely to rise in 2014; __________________ 88 Of the EUR 322 billion, EUR 222 billion represents outstanding budgetary commitments and EUR 99 billion relate to balance sheet liabilities not covered by outstanding commitments.
Amendment 112 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Points out that in times of economic crisis financial resources are scarce; notes, however, that for large parts of the budget, the maximum level of expenditure under the Multiannual Financial Framework headings is broken into yearly allocations per Member State; observes that the way funds are absorbed by Member States often becomes the main policy objective (‘use it or lose it’)90 ; calls therefore on the Commission and Member States to promote a shift from spending to performance culture focussing on the results achieved; __________________ 90 Ibid.
Amendment 113 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
Amendment 117 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. ObservNotes that, by the end of 2013, 941 financial engineering instruments (FEI) had been set up under 176 European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) and European Social Funds (ESF) Operational Programmes (OP) in 25 Member States; is particularly concerned that only 47% of the EUR 14,3 billion that had been paid EUR 6.7billion of OP contributions have been paid out to final recipients, which is a significant increase compared to EUR 4.7 billion which were paid out by the end of 2012. Observes that the average disbursement rate of 47% at the end of 2013 masks a certain variation between funds and Member States. Average disbursement covers all 900 funds: those established in 2008 as well those newly established in 2013 for which implementation was only starting. While some funds are underperforming there are others which have already achieved 100% absorption and are now re-investing revolving funds. Recalls that specific provisions have been introduced in the Common Provisions Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 to ensure that payments to the FEIs had actually been paid out to final beneficiarieestablished and supported by ESI funds in the period 2014-2020 are linked to the amounts of eligible expenditure of such instruments;
Amendment 126 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28
Paragraph 28
28. Recommends that considering the pressure on the budget for payments and the fact that Article 140(7) of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 (the Financial Regulation) requires that excessive balances should be avoided on financial instruments the Commission ensures that contributions from the Union budget to such instruments reflect real cash-flow need; Welcomes the safeguards in the legislative framework which ensure that: 1) ESIF contribution will reflect market needs thoroughly assessed in ex-ante assessment , and 2) ESIF contribution will be paid in phased instalments reflecting the progress in implementation on the ground, hence, the ESIF contribution to the FIs linked to the disbursement to final beneficiaries and excessive balances on the accounts avoided.
Amendment 135 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33
Paragraph 33
33. Takes note of the Commission communication of 28 October 2014 entitled 'On the adoption of the inter- institutional working group recommendations for the establishment and use of national declarations' (COM(2014)0688); regrets the lack of substantial progress to improve the financial management which could lead to a continuous loss of Union money due to wrong decisions at political and managerial level; calls for a sanction system if Member States transmit incorrect programme information and declarations;
Amendment 139 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34
Paragraph 34
34. Notes that the lack of reliability of the first level checks performed by the Member States in shared management undermines the credibility of the annual activity reports drafted by the Commission services and the Synthesis report adopted by the Commission as they are partially based on the results of the checks performed by the national authorities; rReiterates its previous demand that the Commission evaluate and, if needed, correct the Member States data in order to establish reliable and objective annual activity reports;
Amendment 143 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading after paragraph 35
Subheading after paragraph 35
Amendment 156 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 39
Paragraph 39
Amendment 190 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 55
Paragraph 55
55. Stresses that the reservations introduced by the Director-General of DG AGRI into its 2013 annual activity report confirm the alarming state of play in market measures as seven aid schemes in nine Member States are targeted, in particular the sectors of fruit and vegetables, the restructuring of vineyards, wine investment, export refunds for poultry and the school milk scheme;.
Amendment 194 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 57
Paragraph 57
Amendment 209 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading after paragraph 65
Subheading after paragraph 65
Procedures to ensure recovery of undue payments
Amendment 211 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 67
Paragraph 67
67. States that until the end of 2012 out of EUR 6.7 million of debts relating to these claim years EUR 2,3 million was borne by the Union under the 50/50 rule despite the delay observed by the Court of Auditors in the notification procedure and fears that the money would be definitely lost for the Union budget;
Amendment 212 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 68
Paragraph 68
68. Is also concerned by the findings of the Court as regards the fact that Italian authorities did not record whether debts were due to irregularities or administrative errors which could potentially lead to charging the Union budget;
Amendment 217 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 73
Paragraph 73
Amendment 228 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading after paragraph 82
Subheading after paragraph 82
Requests to the Commission, the Member States and the Court of Auditorcommendations concerning agriculture and rural development
Amendment 233 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 86
Paragraph 86
86. Asks to the Commission to draft proposals with a view to sanctioning false or incorrect reporting by paying agencies including the three following dimensions, namely inspection statistics, statements by the paying agencies, and the work carried out by the certification bodies; asks that the Commission be empowered to withdraw the accreditation of the paying agencies in cases of grave misrepresentations;
Amendment 236 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 91
Paragraph 91
Amendment 248 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 98 a (new)
Paragraph 98 a (new)
98a. Draws attention to the multiannuality of the cohesion policy management system and underlines that the final evaluation of irregularities related to the policy implementation will be possible only at the closure of the programming period;
Amendment 251 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 100
Paragraph 100
100. Emphasises that in 17 cases of quantifiable errors made by final beneficiaries, the national authorities had sufficient information to prevent, detect and correct the errors before declaring the expenditure to the Commission; notes that had all this information been used to correct errors, the most likely error estimated for this chapter would have been three percentage points lower;
Amendment 254 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading after paragraph 101
Subheading after paragraph 101
Amendment 256 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 102 a (new)
Paragraph 102 a (new)
102a. Observes that, following its analysis of the ACRs, DG Regional and Urban policy considers that it can confirm the audit opinions of the audit authorities for 304 programmes (94%). This includes 76 OPs with unqualified opinions and 110 with qualified opinions and 118 programmes (37%) for which the audit authority expressed an unqualified audit opinion but the Directorate-General expressed a qualified opinion with moderate impact, a category of audit opinion that is not available to audit authorities under the regulation. Notes that this category of audit opinion means that any improvements needed are of a minor importance and thus do not jeopardise the assurance;
Amendment 260 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 104
Paragraph 104
Amendment 324 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading after paragraph 133
Subheading after paragraph 133
Amendment 355 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 149
Paragraph 149
149. DeploRegrets the fact that for nine transactions relating to the national programme for pre-accession, the Commission at its own initiative and in violation of Article 88 of the Financial Regulation and 100 of its Rules of Application validated expenditure of EUR 150 million in the absence of supporting documentation which would have enabled it to confirm that the expenses had actually been incurred, that they were accurately reflected in the amounts accepted and that they were eligiblehas used an accounting procedure to provisionally clear amounts based on estimates, rather than on the basis of incurred, paid and accepted costs proven by supporting documents120 ;. __________________ 120 See Court of Auditors' Annual Report for 2013, point 7.16.
Amendment 358 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 150
Paragraph 150
150. DeplorUrges the fact that the Declaration of assurance of Directorate- General for Enlargement is irregular as it stated on 31 March 2014 that all procedures were in place to ensure the legality and regulCommission to put a system in place, and implement it without delay, to ensure that the clearityng of transactions even though, at that time, 20 % of all expenditure booked by that DG was based on estimatepre- financing is made on the basis of correctly incurred and reported costs;
Amendment 377 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading after paragraph 160
Subheading after paragraph 160
Amendment 378 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 161
Paragraph 161
161. Notes that in 2013 payments of bilateral assistance to Ukraine, funded from the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) budget, amounted to EUR 152,8 million; notes that 42,5% of these payments (EUR 64,9 million) are linked to contracts directly managed by the Union delegation to Ukraine; notes that the remaining 57,5% (EUR 87,9 million) were disbursed in the form of budget support;
Amendment 379 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 162
Paragraph 162
162. Emphasises that budget support payments are conditional on the achievement of jointly agreed results and benchmarks; notes that the beneficiary government commits to these results and benchmarks by signing a bilateral financing agreement and if results and benchmarks are not achieved, payments are not disbursed;