Activities of Edit HERCZOG related to 2011/2232(DEC)
Plenary speeches (1)
Discharge 2010: performance, financial management and control of EU agencies (A7-0103/2012 - Monica Luisa Macovei) (vote)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Union Agencies for the financial year 2010: performance, financial management and control of European Union Agencies PDF (259 KB) DOC (205 KB)
Amendments (70)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 9
Citation 9
– having regard to its resolution of 15 September 2011 on the EU’s efforts to combat corruption, its Written Declaration 2/2010 on the Union’s efforts in combating corruption6, and to the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee on Fighting corruption in the EU (COM(2011)0308);
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas there has been an unprecedented increase in the number of Agencies over the last decade, from 3 in 2000 to 24 in 2010,
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas the Union contributions to the decentralised Agencies for the financial year 2010 amounted to EUR 1 658 000 000689 947 000 in commitments of which EUR 51 667 000 had been assigned revenues,
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
Da. whereas the Agencies budgets are subject to the same adoption formula as the general budget of the Union, involving scrutiny from both the Council and Parliament,
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas still awaiting the Court of Auditors planned to analyse the Agencies’ performance and issue a’ Special Report by 2011 on cost benchmarking of the European Union Agencies, but regretfully failed to issue this report before the end of 2011it welcomes the fact that the Court of Auditors has provided the discharge authority, by letter of 15 February 2012, with a synthesis document of the above-mentioned special report,
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H
Recital H
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – introductory part
Paragraph 1 – introductory part
1. Calls on the Commission to provide annually the discharge authority with consolidated information on the total annual funding per Agency made from the general budget of the Unionas is the case for preparing the BUD; underlines that the document shall include the following information:
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. UrgesCalls on the Council and the Commission, in suchespecially in times of financial crisis, to stop the increases in the Agencies’ budgets, to even consider reducconsider together with Parliament any changes ing the Union contribution to their budgets, in particular to the Agencies which mainly perform research; also urges the Agencies to reduce their running costs and establish mechanisms to show the clear use and accountability of each EUR and to make substantial savings of Union fundsAgencies’ budgets on a case by case basis taking into account the context of the EU 2020 strategy;
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Notes that in 2010 several Agencies introduced amending budgets and proceeded to make carryovers and transfers; noticed that some of the Agencies explain the purpose of those actions, for instance CDT and ERA; urges allCalls on the Agencies to justify, systematically, amending budgets, transfers and carryovers in their report on the final annual accounts and annual report on Budgetary and Financial management;
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Notes once more a large volume of carryovers and cancellations of operational appropriations by several Agencies in the financial year 2010; regrets that the Court of Auditors failed to report the level of appropriations carried forward and/or cancelled by ECHA, EEA, EMSA and CEPOL in the Court of Auditors’ reports on annual accounts for the financial year 2010;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Calls on the Agencies to improve their management of commitments as well as their internal planning and general revenue forecasting in order to optimise their carry over and cancellation rates as well as their spending; reminds the Agencies that they need to refine their programming and monitoring system and initiate contracting earlier in the calendar year to reduce the need to carry over appropriations; calls in addition on the Commission to provide guidance in this respect; calls on the budgetary authority, in the future, to take greater care in deciding on increases in an Agency’s budget in the light of the time needed to carry out the new activities; welcomes CEDEFOP’s intention to further reduce its carryovers by monitoring through standardised templates of budget execution (commitments, payments) and procurement progress; considers this measure to be a practice to be followed by the other Agencies;
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
Amendment 36 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
Amendment 41 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Recalls that the budget of the Agencies must be balanced; underlines that some Agencies generate profitshigher revenue through their activities, which sometimes lead to a surplus; is of the opinionasks the Commission to ensure that, for the Agencies fully financed from the budget of the European Union, the surplus generated in year n should be clearly deducted from the Union subsidy for year n+1, provided this is not jeopardizing the goals set for the Agencies;
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. UrEncourages the Agencies to minimise the number of late payments by implementing corrective measures; is mainly concernedof the opinion that payment delays increase the risk of having to pay interest and charges for late payments for which no appropriations are foreseen in the budget;
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Calls also on the Agencies to accurately and completely report on exceptions in line with the Internal Control Standard N. 16;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Notes once more the weaknesses in procurement procedures; is concerned that calls on the Agencies to increase the efficiency of their internal control system is not sufficiently efficient to avoid or detect persistent errors undermithreatening the legality and regularity of the Agencies’ transactions;
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Urges, accordingly,Encourages the Agencies to strengthen their procurement procedures and, in particular, their procurement authorisation at the financing decision and work- programme level; notes, for example, that EMSA’s lack of underlying data to support the financing decision on planned operational procurement may put at risk the validity of the Agency’s decision;
Amendment 49 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Calls also on the Agencies to include in their Annual Work Programmes (AWP) clear information on the global budgetary envelope reserved for procurements and the indicative number and types of contracts envisaged; is concerned that often the Agencies’ AWP do not explicitly disclose all information referred to in the Financial Regulation and its implementing rules; notes that this weakness is mainly found in EMSA and ERA;
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
Amendment 51 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. UrEncourages the Agencies to draw up multiannual strategic programmes andor guidelines, tailored to the specificities of their activities; considers it important that such multiannual activity planning (objectives and means to reach them) is linked with multiannual resource planning (budget and staff in particular) and that it is clearly translated into the AWP; calls also on the Agencies to consult the Parliament in this respect;
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. Is concerned that the assignment of responsibility for the preparation and adoption of the AWP is not stated in the founding Decision of certain Agencies (e.g. in EUROJUST); considers that this may lead to confusion and lack of ownership for the preparation and adoption of the AWP; calls, therefore, on the Agencies concerned to rapidly address this deficiency and to inform the discharge authority on the actions takenEncourages the Agencies to provide the discharge authority with more information about the assignment of responsibility for the preparation and adoption of the AWP;
Amendment 55 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28
Paragraph 28
28. UrEncourages the Agencies to standardise the structure of their AARs in accordance with the format used by the Commission’s Directorates-General (DGs) and, accordingly, to provide information on: the implementation of their AWP, budget and staff policy plan, management and internal control systems, internal/external audit findings, the follow- up to the audit recommendations, the discharge recommendation, and the statement of assurance of the Executive Director; calls also on the Agencies to provide in their AAR information resulting from the Financial Statements and from the report on budgetary and financial management foreseen in the context of the discharge procedure, provided the time constraints of the preparation of the Union annual consolidated accounts are respected;
Amendment 57 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Requires that theCalls on the Commission to develop an indicative template in cooperation with the Agencies to provide for a structure of the AAR of each Agency which would includes a number of common elements based on best practice across the Agencies, with a view to easing comparison; in this respect, urges the Commission to develop an indicative template in cooperation with the Agencies;
Amendment 60 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 35
Paragraph 35
35. Recalls that in accordance to Article 96 paragraph 2 of the framework Financial Regulation, the Agencies are requested to providereport to the discharge authority a report on the measures taken based upon thein the light of observations and recommendations made by the discharge authority in its previous discharge reports;
Amendment 62 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 36
Paragraph 36
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 37
Paragraph 37
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 40
Paragraph 40
40. UrEncourages the Agencies to provide, via their websites, information necessary to ensure transparency, especially financial transparency; urges in particular the Agencies to make available on their website the list of all contracts awarded over the last three years and the list of the Members of their Management Boards with their Declaration of Interests; calls on the Commission to continue its efforts to make this information fully accessible and integrate it into its financial transparency system;
Amendment 67 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 42
Paragraph 42
Amendment 69 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 43
Paragraph 43
Amendment 72 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 43 a (new)
Paragraph 43 a (new)
43a. Welcomes the initiative of some Agencies, as for instance the Community Fisheries Control Agency whose Internal Audit Capability developed an internal training course and has provided the necessary training related to Ethics and Integrity at the Agency; it particularly welcomes that the training is obligatory to all staff to ensure awareness of ethical and organisational values, in particular ethical conduct, avoidance of conflicts of interest, fraud prevention and reporting of irregularities;
Amendment 73 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 44
Paragraph 44
44. Calls on the Agencies to carefully file and assess their control systems in order to prevent conflict of interests between their staff and experts working in their Agency; calls, in addition, on the Management Board of the Agencies to adopt and apply the strictest rules and verification mechanisms towards their Members to ensure their full independence from private interests; recalls once more that an Agency’s reputation will be damaged in cases where it is challenged on the ground of conflict of interests, with negative impact to the Union’s reputation;
Amendment 76 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 45
Paragraph 45
45. Recalls that the European Ombudsman criticised EFSA for the way it assesses potential conflicts of interest and ‘revolving door’ cases; is concerned that other Agencies experience similar situations, and failed to stop and prevent the conflict of interest situations;
Amendment 80 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 46
Paragraph 46
46. Urges the Agencies, therefore, to provide the responsible committees in Parliament with a detailed overview of the criteria and verification mechanisms applied to avoid ‘revolving door’ cases and to stop the existing conflicts of interest; where this role is ensured together with the national counterparts, urges the Agencies to clarify this sharing role to avoid responsibility- related loopholes in cases of conflicts of interest;
Amendment 83 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 48
Paragraph 48
Amendment 88 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 49
Paragraph 49
49. Recalls that in its abovementioned resolution of 15 September 2011 on the EU’s efforts to combat corruption, the Parliament called, inter alia, upon the Commission and the Union’s Agencies to ensure more transparency by drawing up codes of conduct or improving those existing codes, with as a minimum clear rules on conflicts of interest;
Amendment 89 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 50
Paragraph 50
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 53
Paragraph 53
53. Calls on the Agencies to be more active in the area of fraud detection and prevention, and properly and regularly to communicate on these activities; stresses that the role of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) vis-à- vis Agencies should be formalised, enhanced and made more visible;
Amendment 92 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 55 – subparagraph 1
Paragraph 55 – subparagraph 1
Considers that these deficiencies reduce the ability of the Agencies to: respond to possible allegations of arbitrary decisions on staff recruitment;, and urges the Agencies to take the appropriate redressing decisions, and; increase the trust of the Union citizens in the Agencies’ recruitment procedure;
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 57
Paragraph 57
Amendment 95 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 58
Paragraph 58
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 59
Paragraph 59
59. Calls once more on the Agencies to ensure that sensitive tasks are not assigned to interim staff knowing that interim staff are recruited subject to the establishment plan; deplores the fact that in some cases Agencies hired these staff to perform sensitive tasks or have access to sensitive information; stresses the risks of potential security breaches linked to interim staff’s access to sensitive information, and unawareness by them of the procedure to follow or indeed conflicts of interest;
Amendment 100 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 61
Paragraph 61
Amendment 102 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 63
Paragraph 63
63. Calls, accordingly, on the Agencies’ Management Boards to duly take into account the recommendations made by the IAS, with a view to rapidly remedying the identified failings and to justify to the discharge authority rejections and delays in the implementation of the IAS recommendations;
Amendment 103 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 64
Paragraph 64
64. Notes that in reality both the IAS and to a large extent the Court of Auditors act as advisors to the Agencies and provide them with non-public recommendations to address their shortcomings; is seriously concerned that none of the audit institutions performs a control of the Agencies to be reflected in a public document; wonderWelcomes that the Court of Auditors has issued 32 public documents on EU Agencies in 2010 that were all published in the Official Journal of the European Union and are available on the websites iof both the IAS and the Court of Auditors internally support the Agencies to address their wrong, who is controlling them through public analyses and reports; calls therefore for a clear separation of tasks between the IAS and the Court of Auditorsand the Committee on Budgetary Control ;
Amendment 106 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 65
Paragraph 65
Amendment 111 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 66
Paragraph 66
66. UrgesNotes that the Court of Auditors, in addition, during its audit covers procedures of the Agencies, to make sure that the Agencies’ calls for preparation, publication, evaluation and contract management phases respect in full the principle of maximum and open competition and the principle of value- for-money; urges, in addition, the Court of Auditors to verify the real turnover of the companies contracted by each Agency in order to ensure that the turnover is not related to changes occurring in the contractors’ official namment procedures as part of its annual audits of agencies, and reports the results; welcomes that the Court of Auditors’ audit programmes take account of the risk that contractors may provide incorrect information in the procurement procedure;
Amendment 116 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 67 – introductory part
Paragraph 67 – introductory part
67. RecallWelcomes that in the previous discharges on the Agencies, the discharge authority called on the Court of Auditors to provide further information onCourt of Auditors publishes clear opinions on the reliability and the legality and regularity of Agencies’ accounts, as mandated by the Treaties:
Amendment 117 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 67 a (new)
Paragraph 67 a (new)
67a. Notes the Court of Auditors’ aim to issue a special report on the management of conflict of interest situations in selected Agencies;
Amendment 118 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 67 b (new)
Paragraph 67 b (new)
67b. Welcomes that the Court of Auditors provided in its evaluation of Agencies’ Annual activity reports a specific annexed table containing a comparison of 2009 versus 2010 operations thus providing information to the public in relation to these activities;
Amendment 119 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 68
Paragraph 68
Amendment 123 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 69
Paragraph 69
Amendment 128 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 70
Paragraph 70
70. Is seriously concerned that, despiteWelcomes the Court of Auditors’ inefformationts to provided in its Annual Work Programme and the persistent requests from Parliament, which is, after all, one of the European stakeholders, the two Special Reports related to Agencies dealing with: a) the discharge authority with an information on Agencies cost- benchmarking of Union Agencies and b)a conflicts of interest with thes management at the Agencies, are still not ready or made available; notes that the Special Report on cost benchmarking of the Agencies was initially planned by the Court of Auditors for October 2011 but has still not been issued, and that the Court of Auditors’ representative stated orally in Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control that it is still working on the 17th draft, but failed so far to send the final report or a draft to Parliament despite repeated requests; is concerned that in these circumstances the ‘conflict of interest management’ report will not be issued on time by the Court of Auditors and/or it will not reflect the real situationreport; awaits both reports to be delivered to Parliament in accordance with the Court of Auditors’ procedures and timetables and in line with professional standards on auditing;
Amendment 133 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 71
Paragraph 71
Amendment 136 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 72
Paragraph 72
72. Considers that, if private sector auditors have to be involved in the external audit of Agencies’ accounts, the selection and appointment of the private auditors should be done in conformity with the applicable rules, including those on transparent public procurement, and appropriate control mechanisms should be put in place, in order to ensure that work on the legality and regularity of revenue and expenditure and the reliability of Agencies’ accounts is carried out in accordance with the required standards; considers also that aspects of such outsourced external audits, including the reported audit findings, have to remain the full responsibility of the Court of Auditors, which will have to manage all administrative and procurement procedures required and finance these from its own budget without asking for a supplementary budget, as this task is under the Court of Auditors competence; moreover, the current crisis does not allow for additional budgets to perform tasks which are under one Union institution, in this case the Court of Auditors;
Amendment 137 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 73
Paragraph 73
Amendment 138 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 74
Paragraph 74
Amendment 139 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 75
Paragraph 75
75. Notes that the large size and cost of certain Agencies’ Governing Boards and the high turnover of their members can lead to anmay lead to a certain level of ineffective decision-making body; calls, accordingly, on the Interinstitutional Working Group on Agencies to address this issue; suggests in addition that consideration be given to the possibility of merging governing boards for Agencies working in related fields to reduce meeting costs;
Amendment 144 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 76 – introductory part
Paragraph 76 – introductory part
76. Calls, in addition, on the Agencies to consider the following options when considering the possibility of administrative support to operate in the most efficient mannero share services between Agencies, either by proximity of locations or by policy area; praises in this respect the EMSA-CFCA initiative of sharing the Internal Audit function:
Amendment 146 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 77
Paragraph 77
77. Calls on the Commission to immediately carry out an evaluation of all the Agencies in order to detect occurrences of unnecessary oranalyse the potential synergies and overlapping of activities and to analyse the merger of some of the Agencies, and to inform Parliament about this issue by the 15 July 2012 at the latof Agencies and to prepare, until March 2013, a comprehensive costs and benefits and impact assessment analysis regarding a potential merger of the Agenciest;
Amendment 149 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 78
Paragraph 78
Amendment 150 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 79
Paragraph 79
79. Recalls once more that the Parliament, since its 2006 discharge resolution, called on the Agencies to consider setting up an inter- Agency disciplinary board to apply, in an impartial manner, disciplinary sanctions up to exclusion; notes, however, that this project remains difficult to take forward; calls on the Agency responsible for coordinating the network of Agencies to establish a network of staff at the grade required to be impartial members of the disciplinary board;
Amendment 151 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 80
Paragraph 80
80. Welcomes the on-going work of the Interinstitutional Working Group on Agencies which has the objective of reviewing the role and position of decentralised Agencies in the Union’s institutional landscape, as well as the creation, structure and operation of those Agencies, together with funding, budgetary, supervision and management issues; requests the Working Group to rapidly come up with a satisfactorydraft proposal on Common Understanding between Parliament, Council and Commission on Agencies;
Amendment 155 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 81
Paragraph 81
Amendment 159 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 82
Paragraph 82