Activities of Ryszard CZARNECKI related to 2023/2045(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the protection of the European Union’s financial interests – combating fraud – annual report 2022
Amendments (19)
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas sound public spending and the protection of the EU’s financial interests should be keyare important elements of EU policy in order to increase citizens’ confidence by ensuring that taxpayers’ money is used properly and effectively;
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Regrets the fact that in manysome Member States national authorities do not always follow up on the Commission’s recommendations, report exhaustively or adopt acknowledged good practices in a timely manner; points out that in many Member States, the percentage of irregularities that are still classified as suspected fraud many years after they were initially reported is extremely high, even in relation to cases indicated as closed; believes that such situations might suggest a lack of adequate follow-up, insufficient or inadequately trained resources, communication gaps or inefficient reporting channels, weak cooperation and coordination, or even the unjustified postponement of reclassifying irregularities as fraudulent in order to adjust the statistical reporting;
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Welcomes the joint communication from the Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of 3 May 2023 on the fight against corruption (JOIN(2023)0012), acknowledging the seriousness of corruption, as it undermines the efficiency of public spending, the effectiveness of the single market and the sustainability of economic growth; points out that the fight against corruption is one of the commitments of the Union, on a par with transparency and integrity, which leads to transparency and integrity, is one of the commitments of the Union;
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Is concerned about the fact that it is difficult to estimate the extent to which organised crime is benefiting illegally from the EU’s finances with any great precision; maintains that a common approach to assess the impact of organised crime on EU funds and to evaluate the effectiveness of the measures taken to tackle the problem is needed across the Member States; calls on the Commission to swiftly launch all necessary actions to pursue this harmonisation;
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Welcomes the Commission’s second report, published on 16 September 2022, on the implementation of the PIF Directive (COM(2022)0466), but regret and notes the fact that the Commission refrained from intervening on the revision of the threshold of EUR 10 million, which has a major impact on the EPPO’s activities in VAT fraud cases; stresses that the recurrent and still pending questions on the different interpretations of the methods applied to calculate the threshold (whether the damage occurring in several Member States should be aggregated, whether the countries included in the calculation should be confined to those participating in the EPPO) make the situation unclear; strongly believes that the current threshold limits dissuasiveness, allows perpetrators to seek out the weakest jurisdiction to evade the EPPO and has a detrimental effect on investigations, as the national authorities often do not have a full picture of the magnitude of the criminal activities at the initial stage of the investigation; calls on the Commission to reconsider its position in the next PIF Directive transposition report and remove the threshold, or substantially lower it, while in the meantime providing adequate guidance on the calculation method;
Amendment 76 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 40
Paragraph 40
40. Reiterates that the effective prevention, detection and investigation of illegal activities threatening the implementation of the NGEU depend on the effective collection and sharing of data, including the rapid handling of access requests from investigative services within a Member State, as well as from other countries or at EU level, by OLAF and the EPPO to whom access is to be granted;
Amendment 80 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 41
Paragraph 41
41. Welcomes the joint analysis by Europol and OLAF assessing the risks of fraud and irregularities in relation to the NGEU; welcomes the recommendations made by Europol and OLAF and calls on the Commission, the specialised EU agencies and bodies, as well as Member States, to actively cooperate and interact to ensure the protection of the EU’s financial interests when implementing the NGEU;
Amendment 82 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 42
Paragraph 42
42. Welcomes the Ombudsman’s strategic initiative, launched in February 2022, conducted to examine the transparency of the national recovery and resilience plans, public information and communication strategies on the RRF, and on how the funds are supervised; welcomes Ombudsman’s efforts to improve transparency standards in terms of Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF);
Amendment 88 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 45
Paragraph 45
45. Maintains that digitalisation has boosted the prevention and detection of fraud, simplified administrative procedures and that it needs to be at the heart of every anti-fraud strategy, including the National Anti-Fraud Strategies (NAFS); calls on the Commission to reiterate and follow up on its recommendations to the Member States which have not yet adopted NAFS to do so, and to keep the NAFS updated, taking advantage of the opportunities offered by new technologies;
Amendment 105 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 54
Paragraph 54
54. Remarks that, in 2022, 22 Member States already participated in the EPPO, with the same five countries as in 2021 abstaining; insists that Member States which have not yet participated, must do so without delay;
Amendment 110 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 56
Paragraph 56
56. Calls on the Commission to engage in a constructive dialogue with the EPPO, with a view to strengthening the Office’s capacity to tackle the constantly increasing challenges in the anti-fraud landscape;
Amendment 113 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 64
Paragraph 64
Amendment 114 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 67
Paragraph 67
Amendment 119 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 69
Paragraph 69
69. Notes that, by the end of 2022, only three Member States (Finland, Ireland and Poland) indicated that they had not adopted any strategy for protecting the EU’s financial interests and five (Belgium, Spain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Romania) indicated that they were in the process of establishing one, while the other Member States have alternative strategies at national, regional or sectoral level or, in some cases, combine them;
Amendment 121 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 70
Paragraph 70
70. Believes that Member States would benefit from a periodicn evaluation of their anti- fraud frameworks, with EU guidance as appropriate, oriented towards establishing their effectiveness, identifying best practices and reviewing their anti- fraud strategies to address any emerging risks; calls on the Commission to encourage Member States to run independent or peer reviews of the anti- fraud frameworks to enhance consistency and high standards;
Amendment 122 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 71
Paragraph 71
Amendment 123 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 72
Paragraph 72
72. Takes note of the Council decision of 16 December 2022 to suspend the disbursement of EUR 6.3 billion of EU funds to Hungary; expects the Commission and the Council to lift the adopted measures only where evidence is collected that the remedial measures adopted by the Hungarian Government have proven effective in practice and, in particular, that no regression has been detected on already adopted measures; reiterates, however, its opinion that the 17 measures alone, as negotiated by the Commission and the Hungarian Government, are not sufficient to address the existing systemic risk to the EU’s financial interests and regrets that the Commission did not request sufficient substantial changes and safeguards to restore the independence of the judiciary and reduce the level of corruption;
Amendment 127 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 74
Paragraph 74