7 Amendments of Markus PIEPER related to 2022/2082(DEC)
Amendment 82 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 61
Paragraph 61
61. Stresses that transparency, accountability, and integrity are essential ethics principles within the Union institutions and particularly Parliament as house of the European democracy; recalls that unethical behaviours must be prevented, persecuted and condemned for significantly damage the credibility and legitimacy of the Union and constitute a serious threat to democracy and public trust; recalls the Court’s conclusions and recommendations in its special report 13/2019 on the ethnical frameworks of Union institutions, as well as Parliament’s resolution of 16 September 2021 on strengthening transparency and integrity in the Union institutions by setting up an independentUnion ethics body; ; supports the reinforcement of the existing high ethical standards for politicians and for the guidance on the implementation of ethical rules, while fully respecting the separation of powers between the institutions and the rule of law; underlines that creating additional bodies and structures within the EU institutional framework would only add an additional burden to the work of the EU as the anti- fraud players such as OLAF, EPPO, Europol and Eurojust are already tasked to monitor and protect the spending of the EU budget and prevent any possibilities for mismanagement of funds; notes the importance of strengthening the systems in place and to address any shortcomings; notes that the proper application of existing rules can bring significant improvements; highlights that a cooperation agreement between the EPPO and the EP with clear rules and procedures is necessary to further facilitate and maintain the protection EU’s financial interest; such agreement shall provide that the EP reports to the EPPO concerns regarding any criminal conduct in line with the EPPO regulation and the Financial Regulation; reminds that the Treaties of the European Union are the primary law and reside at the top of the hierarchy of norms; the Treaties establish the EU’s institutions and clearly define their competences and decision- making powers (Article 13 TEU); Parliament together with the Council are the co-legislators (Article 14(1) TEU); reminds that under the Treaties, the Court of Justice of the European Union is the supreme judicial body of the EU (Article 19 TEU); there can be no higher judicial decision-making authority above it; under no circumstances can secondary law contradict or amend primary law; reminds that, therefore, the establishment of an independent ethics body with the power to make binding decisions on the EU’s institutions and organs counter to the separation of powers laid down in the Treaties, would imperatively require a change of the Treaties; stresses that transparency cannot undermine integrity and data protection;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 62 a (new)
Paragraph 62 a (new)
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 62 b (new)
Paragraph 62 b (new)
62b. Notes that the current guidelines for the 2021 interinstitutional agreement to register NGOs and stakeholders are insufficient; stresses the need for a thorough pre-check within the registration in the transparency register to disclose all funding sources; notes that funding from EU funds must be traceable from the direct recipient to the final beneficiary when funds are passed on in a chain; calls to revise the guidelines for the registration in the transparency register to disclose all incoming and outgoing funds, including the transfer of funds from one NGO and stakeholder to another;
Amendment 95 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 62 a (new)
Paragraph 62 a (new)
62a. Reiterates that access of NGOs and stakeholders to the European institutions and their funding programmes must be verified in advance; calls for the creation of a public blacklist to ban NGOs from access to and collaboration to the EP that have engaged in actions such as hate speech, incitement to terrorism, religious fundamentalism/extremism, have been convicted of a crime, have been listed in EDES or have otherwise misused, embezzled or mismanaged EU funds;
Amendment 166 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 91
Paragraph 91
91. Takes note of the unanimous decision of the Bureau of 23 October 2019 to approve the creation of an IDEA Lab with the aim of testing new, innovative solutions in the context of offices and facility management; notes with concern that the decision of the Bureau was not based on any specific cost estimate and reminds the Bureau of the obligationwelcomes the announcement of the new Secretary- General that each proposal for a decision has towill again be accompanied by a financial statement of the estimated costs, and that expenditure should be accounted for transparently; welcomes the creation of a permanent laboratory for innovation together with the establishment of a separate budget line but considers that the costs need to remain reasonable and justifiable; notes that construction works needed to implement the innovative architectural concept, including the technical equipment and the installation costs, had an additional cost of 2 000 EUR/m2 to the “standard” renovation works; notes that to date the construc which will - however - benefit later renovations works needed to implement the architectural concept amount to EUR 663 265,55 while the IT equipment cost EUR 108 104 in case of a larger roll- out;
Amendment 167 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 92
Paragraph 92
92. Points out that the IDEA Lab is supposed to be at the disposal of Members but regreand requests that Members have never been informed in this regardwill be informed in this regard about innovations and tested solutions that will be rolled-out in the future and those that are not pursued any further and for what reasons; questions the rationale behind the selection of the providers and of some of the technical innovations to be tested and regrets that some of the innovations would be too expensive to scale despite their interest; is of the opinion that one of the priorities of the IDEA Lab should be an innovative architectural solution to make better use of the space occupied by the unused showers in the Members’ offices; calls on the Bureau working group on buildings and Parliament’s administration to ensure a greater transparency regarding the budget for the IDEA Lab and to regularly present to the Committee on Budgetary Control the list of innovative solutions, their cost and the feedback produced, as well as the potential saving if implemented;
Amendment 207 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 114
Paragraph 114
114. Recalls that in previous discharge resolutions Parliament requested a reform of the General Expenditure Allowance (GEA) to make the expenditure of this lump sum more transparent and accountable; noteswelcomes, that following the announcement atby the Bureau meeting of 7 MarchPresident on 4 April 2022 of, the setting up of a Bureau ad-hoc wWorking gGroup on the GEA, which is tasked with evaluating the opereneral Expenditure Allowance (GEA) was established and tasked with carrying out an evaluation of the Bureau decision of 2 July 2018; observes that the Bureau, at is meeting of 17 October 2022, adopted a set of amendments to the IMMS clarifying the rules applicable to the entitlement and use of the GEA and measures aimed at inn the GEA on the basis of the experience gained during the ninth parliamentary term; highlights, that he ad-hoc Working Group was asked to take duly into account aspects of transparency, accountability and sound financial management of funds made available to Members, bearing in mind the principle of freedom and independence of the parliamentary mandate and the objective to avoid creasting transparency but believes that this reform does not meet the demands expressed in Parliaunnecessary administrative burdens for Members, their offices and Parliament’s services; welcomes that on the basis of proposals submitted by the ad-hoc Working Group, the Bureau, at its meeting of 17 October 2022, adopted a set of amendment’s resolution of 26 March 2019 on the 2017 discharge and in subsequent resolutionsto the IMMS clarifying the rules applicable to the entitlement and use of the GEA and measures aimed at increasing transparency;