[ParlTrack]

Proposal for a decision on discharge
Paragraph 1

1. ~~Postpones its decision on g~~Grant~~ing~~s the Director of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions discharge in respect of the implementation of the Foundation's budget for the financial year 2006;

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Proposal for a decision on the closure of the accounts
Paragraph 2

2. ~~Postpon~~Approves the closure of the accounts of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions for the financial year 2006;

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1

1.Emphasises that it unreservedly endorses the principle of the limited conferral of powers, which, in the current documents providing the legal basis for the European Union, is enshrined, inter alia, in Article 5 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and which stipulates that the European Parliament, the Council, the Commission, the Court of Justice and the Court of Auditors exercise their powers under the conditions and for the purposes provided for, on the one hand, by the provisions of the Treaties establishing the European Communities and of the subsequent Treaties and Acts modifying and supplementing them and, on the other hand, by the other provisions of the TEU;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2

2. Emphasises that it unreservedly endorses the principle of subsidiarity, which, in the current documents providing the legal basis for the European Union, is enshrined, inter alia, in Article 5, second paragraph, of the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC) and which stipulates that in areas which do not fall within its exclusive competence the Community shall take action only if and in so far as the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore, by reason of the scale or effects of the proposed action, be better achieved by the Community;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3

3. Emphasises, in that connection, that pursuant to paragraph 4 of the Protocol on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality for any proposed Community legislation the reasons on which it is based must be stated with a view to justifying its compliance with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality and the reasons for concluding that a Community objective can be better achieved at Community level must be substantiated by qualitative or quantitative indicators;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4

4. Emphasises, in that connection, that pursuant to paragraph 3 of the Protocol on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality Community action within the limits of its powers can be either expanded or restricted or discontinued where it is no longer justified;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5

5. Emphasises, in that connection, that pursuant to paragraph 9 of the Protocol on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality due account must be taken of the need for any financial or administrative burden falling on the Community to be minimised and proportionate to the objective to be achieved;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6

6. Emphasises that it unreservedly endorses the principle of sound financial management, as laid down, inter alia, in Article 274 TEC, and, hence, the objective of achieving the best possible result with a given volume of appropriations or achieving a given result using the smallest possible volume of appropriations;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7

7. Emphasises, in that connection, that in its White Paper on the reform of the Commission the Commission laid down as guidelines for the formulation of an externalisation policy cost-effectiveness and the ability to exercise its powers to implement the budget, pursuant to Article 274 TEC;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8

8. Emphasises that pursuant to Article 253 TEC regulations, directives and decisions adopted jointly by the European Parliament and the Council and such acts adopted by the Council or the Commission must state the reasons on which they are based and refer to any proposals or opinions which were required to be obtained pursuant to the TEC;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13

13. Notes that decentralisation and devolution were key results of the process of reforming the Commission started in 1999, but that to date the Commission has submitted neither a study, nor an activity report nor an interim assessment of this form of administration; by the same token, the Commission has never given a convincing explanation of the added value provided by the agencies and of why their tasks could not equally well be performed within the Commission itself;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14

14. Emphasises, in that connection, that between the year 2000 (publication of the White Paper on the Reform of the Commission) and 2007 the staff complement of the Commission and agencies (excluding executive agencies) increased by a total of 85%;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15

15. Notes, in that connection, that in recent years the pace at which decentralised agencies are being set up has steadily increased, and that they are being established unsystematically and with no uniform framework: whereas in 1990 only three, in 1995 six, and in 2000 seven agencies existed, the 2008 budget lists no fewer than 25, seven of which have been added since 2005 alone;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16

16. Emphasises, in that connection, that the agencies to which it grants discharge make up only a part of the total and that the increase in permanent and temporary posts for all the decentralised agencies from 166 in the year 2000 to a total of 3151 in 2007 (+1800%) clearly illustrates the problems in this area;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17

~~17. Emphasises further, in that connection, that average staff costs increased by more than 40% between 2006 and 2008;~~deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18

18. Emphasises finally, in that connection, that the subsidies paid to the agencies from the Community budget have increased disproportionately in recent years, that the appropriations from the Community budget paid to agencies to which Parliament grants discharge, which were established between 1975 and 1997 and have thus gone well beyond the start- up and initial growth phases, increased by some 90% between 2000 and 2008, and that during that period the subsidies paid to some of these agencies increased by more than 210%;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19

~~19. Emphasises that only two agencies are not in any way dependent on EU subsidies, whilst most of them are funded exclusively from EU budget appropriations;~~deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20

20. Notes, in that connection, that a clear trend is emerging whereby the agencies revise their need for Community subsidies disproportionately upwards every six months, thus committing a steadily increasing proportion of the available appropriations, and that there are insufficient incentives to use financial resources sparingly;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21

21. Takes the view that direct and indirect payments and subsidies to the agencies from host countries (e.g. funding for building projects, office facilities, municipal taxes, etc.) have made it impossible to draw up a comprehensive breakdown of the cost of the agencies and that this practice disguises the true costs;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22

22. Takes the view that in most cases there has been no proper strategy underpinning the process of establishing agencies and that political considerations and factors, such as the attempt, with the help of the agencies, to influence the balance of power among the institutions, outweigh, and in some cases run entirely counter to, the original objectives, such as greater responsibility, transparency and efficiency in European administration;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23

23. Takes the view that the lack of a proper strategy on setting up agencies has generated unnecessary costs and that the true costs have been hidden from taxpayers, since, for example, missing infrastructure has not been taken into account and additional costs – for instance for the construction of new office and conference buildings, the setting-up of new schools, the development of transport infrastructure in response to an increase in missions between places of work scattered throughout Europe, as a result of serious recruitment problems, etc. – have arisen as a result;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24

24. Notes that the Commission's devolution policy has given rise to the duplication of work, above all in the area of administration, generating unnecessary additional costs and requiring the same know-how to be available several times over; notes, at the same time, that many agencies' administrative expenditure is far too high;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25

25. Takes the view that, with a few exceptions, no efforts have been made systematically to involve the agencies in the work of the Commission and that the agencies' spheres of responsibility frequently relate only to areas covered by 'open coordination' and bear no relation to the European Union's real needs and taxpayers' expectations;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26

26. Takes the view that the Commission no longer regards the decentralised agencies as a means of implementing its policies and has attempted to shed all responsibility for them, for example by stipulating that the Commission's Internal Auditor should no longer be responsible for auditing the decentralised agencies and should in future only confirm that their internal audit practices are consistent with international standards;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27

~~27. Notes that in the case of some agencies the number of members of the administrative board exceeds the total number of staff, ruling out efficient and cost-effective decision-making;~~deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28

28. Notes, on that basis, that the aim behind the practice of devolution - which is seen as one of the three main aspects of externalisation policy and was put forward as a reform strategy by the Commission in its White Paper - namely the more efficient, more rational and more effective provision of responsible administration, has not been achieved through the setting-up of decentralised agencies and that the Commission's reform efforts in this area have failed;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29

~~29. Calls on the Commission to comply strictly with the subsidiarity principle;~~deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30

~~30. Calls on the Commission to meet to the letter the requirements to justify compliance with the subsidiarity principle;~~deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31

~~31. Calls on the Commission to comply strictly with the principle of sound financial management;~~deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33

~~33. Calls for every decision on the final location of an agency to be taken when the regulation establishing that agency is adopted;~~deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34

34. Calls on the Commission to submit a proposal which provides for the number of full members of the administrative board of an agency to be reduced as quickly as possible to a figure equal to no more than 10% of the posts in that agency’s establishment plan and to no more than 20 in total;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 36

36. Requests that the performance of the agencies be regularly (and on an ad hoc basis) audited by the Court of Auditors or another independent auditor; considers that this should not be limited to traditional elements of financial management and the proper use of public money, but should also cover administrative efficiency and effectiveness and should include a rating of the financial management of each agency;

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 36 a (new)

36a. Takes the view that in the case of agencies which are continually overestimating their respective budget needs, technical abatement should be made on the basis of vacant posts; is of the opinion that this will lead in the long run to less assigned revenue for the agencies and therefore also to lower administrative costs;

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 36 b (new)

36b. Notes that it is a serious problem that a number of agencies is criticised for not following rules on public procurement, the Financial Regulation, the Staff Regulations etc.; considers that the principal reason for this is that most regulations and the Financial Regulation are designed for bigger institutions and that most of the small agencies do not have the critical mass to be able to cope with these regulatory requirements; therefore asks the Commission to look for a rapid solution in order to enhance the effectiveness by grouping the administrative functions of various agencies together, in order to achieve this critical mass (taking into consideration the necessary changes in the basic regulations governing the agencies and their budgetary independence), or urgently to draft specific rules for the agencies (in particular implementing rules for the agencies) which allow them to be in full compliance;

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 36 c (new)

36c. Insists that the Commission, when drafting the Preliminary Draft Budget, take into consideration the results of budget implementation by the individual agencies in former years, in particular in year n-1, and, revise the budget requested by the particular agency accordingly; invites its competent committee to respect this revision and, if not undertaken by the Commission, to revise itself the budget in question to a realistic level matching the absorption and implementation capacity of the agency in question;

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 36 d (new)

36d. Recalls its decision on discharge in respect of the financial year 2005, in which it invited the Commission to present every five years a study on the added value of every existing agency; invites all relevant institutions in the case of a negative evaluation of the added value of an agency to take the necessary steps by reformulating the mandate of that agency or by closing it; notes that there has not been one single evaluation undertaken by the Commission in 2007; insists that the Commission should present at least 5 such evaluations before the decision on discharge in respect of the financial year 2007, starting with the oldest agencies;

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 37

~~37. Calls on the Council to agree to a binding horizontal funding ceiling for the agencies;~~deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 38

38. Acknowledges that Parliament, as the body responsible for financial control of the agencies, creates unacceptable conflicts of interest through its practice of appointing members of the agencies’ administrative boards and management bodies, and calls, therefore, for Parliament to halt this practice;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

~~Privileges~~deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 39

~~39. Calls on the Commission to submit as quickly as possible a proposal to abolish or drastically cut back privileges, in particular under budget Items 1101, 1102, 1141, 1182 and 1183;~~deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 40

~~40. Refuses to accept that agency staff and members of their families should be able to undertake private travel paid for from the agency's budget;~~deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 41

41. Calls on the Commission to submit a proposal which seeks to amend the Staff Regulations of officials of the European Communities, so that private travel by staff and members of their families, as governed by Annex VII, Section 3 C, Article 8, can no longer be paid for from public funds, and to achieve drastic savings in the area of staff privileges; Specific pointsdeleted Or. en

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 61

61. Notes that the agency's administrative spending in 2006 accounted for too great a proportion of its overall expenditure, making the effective and efficient performance of its tasks almost impossible;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 62

~~62. Notes that no strict logic was applied to the choice of location for the agency and that as a result a substantial volume of unnecessary additional costs has arisen;~~deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 63

63. Notes the unacceptable and frequently criticised overlaps between this agency’s area of activity and that of other agencies; this generates yet more additional costs, particularly as a result of the duplication of work in the administrative sphere;deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 64

~~64. Notes that it is not clear how this activity can be carried out more efficiently and more effectively in a decentralised agency and in this location than in the Commission itself;~~deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 65

~~65. Notes that in the financial year 2006 the cost of privileges for agency staff made up almost 10% of the agency's final budget;~~deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 66

~~66. Notes that the cost of private travel for agency staff and members of their families is unacceptably high;~~deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 67

~~67. Notes that the agency's staff expenditure per post increased by 9.3% between the financial year 2006 and the 2008 preliminary draft budget;~~deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 68

~~68. Notes that the administrative board has an unacceptably high number of members, so that efficient decision- making is impossible;~~deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

Paulo CASACA, Edit HERCZOG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 69

~~69. Notes that although the agency was set up as long ago as 1975, the rate of increase in the subsidy from the Community budget over the period from 2000 to 2006 was 27.13%;~~deleted

2008/03/06
Committee: CONT

51 Amendments of Edit HERCZOG related to 2007/2047(DEC)

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