Activities of Paul van BUITENEN
Plenary speeches (10)
Investigations conducted by the European Anti Fraud Office (OLAF) (debate)
Opening of the sitting
2006 discharge (debate)
Situation in Palestine (debate)
Discharge for the financial year 2005 (debate)
Crisis of Equitable Life (debate)
Patentability of computer-implemented inventions
Lloyd’s Affair
Budgetary discharge
Question Time (Commission)
Written declarations (1)
Amendments (17)
Amendment 1 #
2008/2186(DEC)
Proposal for a decision
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. GrantsPostpones the granting of discharge to the Commission discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth European Development Funds for the financial year 2007;
Amendment 17 #
2008/2186(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 78 a (new)
Paragraph 78 a (new)
78a. Considers that, despite the assurances given by the Commission during the hearing before its responsible committee of 3 November 2008 regarding the Centre for the Development of Enterprise (CDE), which is funded by the EDF annually for an amount of EUR 18 million, the following points have not been resolved in a satisfactory way: (a) the CDE has been or is formally under investigation by OLAF for alleged irregularities; (b) the monies fraudulently obtained from both the CDE and the EIB have not been recovered; (c) the recommendations of the institutional audit undertaken on behalf of the Commission to institute strong internal controls, including the nomination of a Fraud Officer, have not been implemented by the CDE; (d) the Working Group set up to make recommendations for far-reaching reforms at the CDE has yet to fulfil its remit. However, proposals are being tabled by the current CDE management to the Commission for the utilisation of part of the Centre’s 2009 operational budget to fund its decentralisation exercise, as well as to fund severance pay-offs in the ensuing staff reductions; therefore, discharge in relation to the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth EDFs should be postponed until Parliament has received satisfactory answers regarding the above issues.
Amendment 1 #
2007/2038(DEC)
Proposal for a decision
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. GPostpones its decision on grantsing its President discharge for implementation of the European Parliament budget for the financial year 2006;
Amendment 3 #
Amendment 5 #
2007/2038(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph -1 (new)
Paragraph -1 (new)
-1. Urges its President to set up a working group which should immediately prepare, together with the competent Commission services, an assistants' statute to be proposed to the Council for adoption under the French presidency so that it can be applied as from the same day as the new Members' Statute;
Amendment 7 #
2007/2038(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph -1a (new)
Paragraph -1a (new)
-1a. Urges its President to use Parliament's leverage on the Council to have the assistants' statute adopted at the earliest possible moment;
Amendment 9 #
2007/2038(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Recalls that, in the same line of reasoning, Parliament stated in its resolution of 24 April 2007, as cited above, that the discharge exercise should also cover the decisions taken by the President, the Bureau and the Conference of Presidents, since political responsibility lies with the elected Members, not the officials; calls, therefore, on the President and the Vice-president responsible for the budget to participate in the future meetings of the Committee on Budgetary Control with a view to establishing a political dialogue;
Amendment 10 #
2007/2038(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Recalls, in this context, that the plenary gives discharge to Parliament, represented by its President, pursuant to Rule 71 of the Rules of Procedure;
Amendment 11 #
2007/2038(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Welcomes and accepts the offer, made by the Secretary General during the hearing of 21 January 2008, to have regular meetings, outside the normal annual discharge procedure, with the Committee on Budgetary Control on the implementation of Parliament's budget;
Amendment 15 #
2007/2038(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20 a (new)
Paragraph 20 a (new)
20a. Is of the opinion that Part 3 of the internal audit on the parliamentary assistance allowance (Key findings and detailed actions proposed) should be made available to Members and urges the Bureau to inform the Committee on Budgetary Control no later than the end of June 2008 of how these "actions proposed" will be implemented;
Amendment 16 #
2007/2038(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25 a (new)
Paragraph 25 a (new)
25a. Is of the opinion that all reports by the internal auditor should be made available to the Members of the Committee on Budgetary Control as soon as they are finalized;
Amendment 22 #
2007/2038(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 56
Paragraph 56
56. Notes the Court of Auditors' critical remarks concerning inadequacies in the regulatory framework laid down by the Bureau, and that the greater part of the sums paid to MEPs under the PAA heading have not been accompanied by satisfactory supporting documents in relation to the expenses incurred in the Member's name; is aware, at the same time, of the efforts made by the Bureau and the administration in 2007 to remedy the situation; welcomestakes note of the information from the administration that at the end of 2007 it had received over 99% of the supporting documents;
Amendment 26 #
2007/2038(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 61
Paragraph 61
61. Notes that the internal auditor's report proposes a two-stage evolution for Members' assistants' working conditions, i.e.: in the first stage, the contractual relation between the assistant(s) and the Member would be systematically based on a contract of employment, using an improved obligatory contract model: in the second stage, the aim would be to integrate the assistants into the staff category covered by the rules governing other servants of the Communities; is of the opinion that from June 2008 onwards new contracts with service providers should be limited to a maximum of 10% of the total yearly allowance for assistance per Member, and be paid out after the invoice and a copy of the work carried out have been sent to the administration;
Amendment 36 #
2007/2038(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 64
Paragraph 64
64. WelcomNotes the Bureau's approval, on 25 September 2006, of the Codex on parliamentary assistants and trainees at the EP, as well as the fact that all Members have received a copy of; calls on the responsible services to distribute this Codex once more, and asks the Bureau to take steps to ensure that Members comply with it;
Amendment 40 #
2007/2038(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 64 c (new)
Paragraph 64 c (new)
64c. Requests its Secretary General to inform the Committee on Budgetary Control by the end of September 2008 of the number of recovery orders issued and the total amount involved as follow-up to the internal auditor's report on the parliamentary assistance allowance;
Amendment 44 #
2007/2038(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 66
Paragraph 66
66. CallsRequests its Bureau, given that the fund is financed to the tune of two-thirds from the EU budget, forto make the list of its members to be made publicpublic without further delay, a demand supported by the European Ombudsman and the European Data Protection Officer; reminds the Bureau of paragraphs 11 to 15 of Parliament's resolution of 19February 2008 on transparency in financial matters1, whereby Parliament requested the publication of all end beneficiaries of European funding;
Amendment 47 #
2007/2038(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 68
Paragraph 68
68. Recalls the call made on its administration in paragraph 77 of its above-mentioned resolution of 24 April 2007 for the suspension of payments as of January 2008 to Members not having supplied proof of their personal contributions to the voluntary pension fund having been reimbursed from a private income source; therefore urges the Secretary General to instruct the administration to suspend payments to such Members;