Activities of Jean-Pierre AUDY related to 2008/2186(DEC)
Reports (1)
REPORT on the discharge for implementation of the European Union general budget for the financial year 2007 PDF (639 KB) DOC (424 KB)
Amendments (67)
Amendment 4 #
Paragraph 1
1. .........Grants the Commission discharge in respect of the implementation of the European Union general budget for the financial year 2008;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Regrets that, for the fourteenth year in succession, the DAS issued by the ECA in its annual report for 2007 includes an opinion on the legality and regularity of the transactions underlying the accounts in which the ECA takes the view that, in a large number of expenditure areas (agriculture - excluding the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) - and natural resources, cohesion, research, energy and transport, external aid, development and enlargement, education and citizenship), payments are still materially affected by errors, albeit to differing degrees;
Amendment 17 #
Paragraph 1
1. .........Approves the closure of the accounts of the European Union general budget for the financial year 2008;
Amendment 19 #
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Presents its observations forming an integral part of the Decisions on discharge in respect of the implementation of the European Union general budget for the financial year 2008, Section III – Commission and executive agencies;
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Welcomes the fact that, according to the ECA's report, administrative expenditure and, expenditure relating to economic and financial affairs and expenditure relating to the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF), are free from material error;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Considers it abnormal for the annual accounts to show net assets of - EUR 58.6 billion and wonders whether the amounts to be called from Member States should not be entered as liabilities, given that the estimated EUR 33.5 bn in employee benefitstaff pensions are clearly a commitment; regrets that the annexed notes on the other amounts to be called from Member States, totalling EUR 27.9 bn, are not very detailed; notes the explanations provided by the Commission's Accounting Officer to the effect that international accounting standards applicable to the public sector have been complied with; proposes that consideration should be given to establishing a Community pension fund in order to externalise these financial commitments vis-à-vis staff;
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8 a. Expresses concerns and doubts about the possibility of appointing "non category” senior officials, unless specifically mentioned in the staff establishment plans, in the last step of the AD16 grade under any circumstances, and asks the Commission to clarify the possibilities under the Staff Regulations in the light of this specific budgetary position;
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Deplores the fact, nonetheless, that in extremely important Community spending areas (agricultural spending that does not come under the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACSexcluding the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF), cohesion, research, energy and transport, external actions, education and culture), the ECA notes, once again, that complicated or unclear legal requirements, firstly, result in a large number of errors at final- beneficiary level and, secondly, result in only partially effective monitoring and control systems and that that complexity is instrumental in preventing the ECA from issuing a positive DAS (Chapter 1, DAS, paragraphs X and XI); calls therefore on the Commission to conduct an analysis to determine the extent of, and possible solutions to, the problems;
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Calls on the Commission to further step up its monitoring of controls delegated to Member States and to give them clear guidance on how to prevent, identify and correct errors, and insists that, where information from Member States on' control systems is still insufficient, it lay down clear deadlines and apply sanctions where those deadlines are not metremain ineffective, it do everything in its power to compel the Member States to meet their obligations and make the necessary improvements, in particular by imposing payment suspensions and financial corrections;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Considers it abnormal that the annual accounts should be presented with negative own capital of EUR 51 400 000 000 and wonders whether the amounts to be called on from the Member States should not be shown as assets, since this involves a certain commitment concerning pensions payable to staff and estimated at EUR 37 000 000 000; notes the explanations by the Commission’s accountant to the effect that the international accounting standards applicable to the public sector were duly applied; proposes that consideration be given to creating a Community pension fund to externalise financial commitments of this kind concerning staff;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Points also to the importance of the final decisions and corrective measures taken with the aim of removing Community funding from expenditure which has not been carried out in conformity with Community legislation, and restates its call for the precise budget heading and the year to which individual recoveries relate to be specified, in keeping with standard practice in the agriculture and natural resources sector;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Calls on the Commission to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of multiannual recovery systems, including at Member State level, and to consolidate data on recoveries and financial corrections, in particular in the areas covered by the Structural Funds, in order to provide reliable figures which can be compared between the various policy areas and fund management procedures; calls on the Commission to report to Parliament in the notes accompanying the annual accounts, so that an overview can be obtained;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Calls on the Court of Auditors to provide at the next discharge the statement of assurance as to the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions as required in Article 287(1), second subparagraph, of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, just as it does for the reliability of the accounts;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Welcomes the fact that annual summaries of audits are being made available as from 2008, and the evaluation and declarations presented in the 2007 annual activity reports of the Structural Funds directorates-general, but observes with concern that, owing to disparities in presentation, the ECA considers that those summaries do not yet constitute a reliable appraisal of the operation and effectiveness of the control systems; calls on the Commission, in that connection, to analyse the summaries received in 2009 with the aim of optimising their added value in terms of the assurance they provide regarding the operation of the internal control systems employed by the Member States;
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Calls on the Commission to put forward proposals for shortening the periods involved in the discharge process, so that the vote in plenary can be held in the year following the financial year under review;
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Regrets also the fact that, to date, it has not received detailed information from the Commission on an assessment and comparative analysis of the initial annual summaries presented, and considers it of utmost importance that the quality of those annual summaries be reported on in order to ensure that value is added to the process by, among other things, identifying common problems, possible solutions and best practices; welcomes the work done by the Commission with a view to increasing the degree of standardisation and consistency of the summaries;
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 38
Paragraph 38
38. Welcomes the Commission communication of 16 December 2008 on a common understanding of the concept of tolerable risk of error as a sound methodological basis for an economic analysis of tolerable level of risk, and expects the Commission to take this work further when preparing its prospective proposal on tolerable level of risk by budgetary area; recognises, in this context, the importance of that communication as an initial basis for discussion, from a strictly economic perspective, on 'tolerable level of risk' for two Union spending areas, i.e. the ERDFStructural Funds and the EAFRD; calls, however, for this dialogue between external auditor and auditee to continue to comply with international auditing standards requiring the external auditor to assess the risks on the basis of which he forms his judgment as to the choice of audit procedure;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 40
Paragraph 40
40. Has doubts as to the reliability of data onprovided by Member States and therefore calls for statistics, plus an in-depth analysis thereof, for the 2007-2013 period with regard both to areas addressed and areas not addressed by the communicationconcerning the Structural Funds and therefore calls on the Commission to compile fresh statistics, plus an in-depth analysis thereof, once the impact of the 2007-2013 rules becomes clear and to forward that analysis to Parliament and the Council before the end of 2011;
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 41 a (new)
Paragraph 41 a (new)
41a. Given the pressing need to continue to analyse the costs and benefits of control, calls on the Commission, with the technical support of the Court of Auditors, to carry out an in-depth analysis in the areas of research, external relations and administrative expenditure, and to submit a report on the findings before the end of 2010;
Amendment 49 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 42 a (new)
Paragraph 42 a (new)
42a. Takes the view that simplifying the criteria governing eligibility for Community intervention would serve to reduce the error rate; emphasises, however, that such a simplification requires the support of Parliament and the Council and concludes that the discussion of the 'tolerable risk of error' must take place before that simplification exercise, which must start without delay, has been completed;
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)
Paragraph 18 a (new)
18a. Proposes that the Commission split the hierarchical power between people with accounting responsibility and those responsible for transferring funds in application of the normal security rules for internal control in treasury management;
Amendment 57 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 46
Paragraph 46
46. Notes that, since the financial year 2007, it has been compulsory to publish the names of recipients of European funds; notes with regret that Parliament has no overview either of publication or of the details of recipients and their projects, whilst welcoming the introduction by the Commission of the 'financial transparency system' search engine, which gives an overview of the recipients of centrally managed Community grants, and of the specific external assistance search engine; calls on the Commission to assess the usefulness of the information published by the Member States in the light of the policy objectives set forth;
Amendment 60 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 48
Paragraph 48
48. Remarks, however, that the measures taken on grants have demonstrated their effectiveness in part only; asks that the Commission present to it by the end ofMay 2010 proposals for a revised and fully consolidated Financial Regulation with chapters specific to individual expenditure programmes which bring together all the requirements which a beneficiary of a programme must fulfil in one single comprehensive source and with further simplifications as regards the award and control of grants; calls, pursuant to Article 184 of the Financial Regulation, for the next three-yearly revision of the Financial Regulation to be carried out by means of the conciliation procedure;
Amendment 69 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 51
Paragraph 51
51. Notes with concern the ECA's conclusion that the transactions underlying this policy group, taken as a whole, are affected by a material level of error of legality and/or regularity (paragraphs 5.12 and 5.13 of the annual report for 2007), and also takes note of the problems found by the ECA at final-beneficiary level and of the fact that about 20% of payments audited at that level again turned out to be incorrect; however takes note of the decreasing frequency of errors and of the limited financial impact of these errors (0.83% of the expenditure concerned);
Amendment 72 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 54
Paragraph 54
54. Regards as unacceptableDeplores the existence of problems, detected once again by the ECA, in implementing the Integrated Administration and Control System in Greece and supports the Commission's intention, as stated to the parliamentary committee responsible, to apply current legislation on suspension of payments rigorously if the Greek Government does not remedy the existing problems within the stated time limits; calls for payments to be suspended if the Greek authorities are unable to prove that the problems have been resolved by the date on which this resolution is adopted;
Amendment 74 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 56
Paragraph 56
56. Deplores in particular the fact, as regards Single Payment Scheme management and control, that the ECA exposes inadequacies, in several 'old' Member States, affecting control systems in this area (in the Netherlands, Portugal, the United Kingdom, France and Spain; paragraph 5.26 of the annual report for 2007) and a number of systemic shortcomings with regard to area-aid eligibility checks in Greece, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands (see Annexes 5.1.1 and 5.1.2 to the annual report for 2007); notes the Commission’s replies, which challenge the Court of Auditors' depiction of the situation;
Amendment 75 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 58
Paragraph 58
58. Deplores the fact that the same weaknesseshortcomings inherent in the clearance system were again found by the ECA in 2007, such as the retroactive and multiannual nature of the conformity clearance and the fact that no valid link can be made between the amounts recovered and the real amount of irregular payments (paragraph 5.47 of the annual report for 2007);
Amendment 76 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 59
Paragraph 59
59. Considers that, after a number of years of the same serious criticisms of the same problem by the ECA, the Commission must propose measures to reform the system to make it entirely possible to establish clear and valid links between amounts recovered and the real amount of irregular payments, so and ensure, as far as possible, that the cost of financial corrections is bornemet by the final beneficiaries at fault and not by the taxpayer inand that flat-rate corrections are applied to those Member State concerneds which fail to meet their obligations;
Amendment 85 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 61
Paragraph 61
61. Notes that the Commission does not seriously dispute that rate of 11%;
Amendment 87 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 62
Paragraph 62
62. Wonders whetherNotes that the number of audits carried out by the ECA (180 interim reimburseseems low when set against the number of payments to final beneficiaries (for example, in the area of cohesion policy the ECA audited 180 interim payments, according to paragraph 6.21 of the annual report for 2007) is sufficient to estimate an error rate for hundreds of thousands of payments to final beneficiaries; , out of several hundred thousand payments to final beneficiaries), but notes that this audit methodology is consistent with international audit standards in the light of the opinion contained in the report on the International Peer Review of the ECA undertaken by a team of experienced financial and performance auditors from the supreme audit institutions of Austria, Canada, Norway and Portugal;
Amendment 92 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 64
Paragraph 64
64. Also reminds the Commission of the ECA's recommendation to make as much use of possible, without undermining the effectiveness of spending, of the scope for simplification provided for by the spending rules, and calls on it to launch a discussion exercise on new simplification measures that might be adopted, including computerisation of the system;
Amendment 101 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 68 a (new)
Paragraph 68 a (new)
68a. Calls on the Commission to continue to apply financial corrections in order to remove any irregular items of expenditure declared at an earlier stage and to employ rigorous closure procedures for the 2000- 2006 ERDF, Cohesion Fund and ESF programmes so that, when the accounts are closed, such items of expenditure have been largely eliminated; calls on the Commission, further, to continue to provide it with detailed information about the financial corrections applied and, once the closure procedure has started, to provide an estimate of the residual error rate in the programmes closed in this way;
Amendment 105 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 74
Paragraph 74
74. Calls upon the Commission to continue to fulfil the requirement ofexploit the repayment possibilities offered by the seventh Framework Programme rules for participation, inter alia a flat-rate payment procedure, and to inform the parliamentary committee responsible in the context of the mid-term review;
Amendment 111 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 79 a (new)
Paragraph 79 a (new)
79a. Notes that, in the new generation of programmes, the Directorate-General for Education and Culture has harmonised the action programmes and introduced the single internal audit approach; in that context, takes the view that the ex ante and ex post declarations made by the Member States constitute new factors in the supervision and internal control of systems;
Amendment 112 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 80
Paragraph 80
80. Regrets, however, the shortcomings found by the ECA in the ex ante declaration procedure and the finding that the procedure provides no more than limited assurance as to the quality of the management of the expenditure concerned (paragraph 9.16 of the annual report for 2007); notes, however, that the ex ante declaration is only one of the pieces of evidence which the ECA obtains in the course of its audit with a view to delivering its opinion;
Amendment 113 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 85
Paragraph 85
85. Remarks that external aid was virtualhardly unaffected by the most recent revision of the Financial Regulation, and calls for revision of Title IV, 'External action', of the Financial Regulation, so as to bring it more into line with the special conditions relating to contracts and grants in this area, and of the joint and decentralised management arrangements;
Amendment 114 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 86
Paragraph 86
86. Proposes the organisation of an interinstitutional conference involving all the actors concerned by the work of managing multidonor trust funds with a view to improving the procedures for drawing up contracts between the Commission and the various United Nations agencies; proposes, where appropriate, that the Commission ensure that it can manage the multidonor trust funds itself, where appropriate, when it is involved in such funds;
Amendment 117 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 93
Paragraph 93
93. Wonders about the role and growing number of NGOs in the administration of Community funds; calls on the Commission to review the operating grants for the NGOs' Brussels headquarters, and to allow those grants to expirpply strictly the principle of the degressivity of operating grants laid down in the Fin 2013ancial Regulation;
Amendment 118 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 93 a (new)
Paragraph 93 a (new)
93a. asks the Commission to compile, by the end of 2009, a comprehensive list of all NGOs who received EU funds;
Amendment 119 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 99
Paragraph 99
99. Considers that thought should be given to clarifying funding structures (European Development Fund (EDF), Commission, European Investment Bank, etc.) in the development and external actions fields, with a view to giving greater visibility to Community action and ensuring better auditing of the funds committed; calls for a study to be carried out into the incorporation of the EDF into the Community budget with a view to a political debate on this subject;
Amendment 120 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 102
Paragraph 102
102. Notes that between 2004 and 2007 EUR 650 000 000 in Phare funding, EUR 445226 000 000 in Sapard funding and EUR 440 500 000 in ISPA funding were made available to Bulgaria, while some EUR 1 346 500 000 in Phare funding, EUR 526 300 000 in Sapard funding and EUR 1 027 940 500 000 in ISPA funding were made available to Romania over the same period;
Amendment 122 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 104
Paragraph 104
104. Voices concern, furthermore, at the fact that the Member of the Commission with responsibility for enlargement failed to provide the Committee on Budgetary Control with sufficiently detailed information about the scale of the shortcomings in good time, despite the efforts he has made to keep Parliament informed about the situation in these two Member States and his stated intention to keep Parliament’s committee responsible informed about developments in this matter;
Amendment 124 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 105
Paragraph 105
105. Voices serious concern at the fact that the Commission suspendedhalted payments totalling EUR 200 000 000 in agricultural funding for Romania and froze EUR 250 000 000 in Phare funding, EUR 105 000 000 in Sapard funding and EUR 14415 000 000 in ISPA funding in Bulgaria, resulting in a final loss of EUR 220 000 000 for Bulgaria;
Amendment 128 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 108
Paragraph 108
108. Notes that over the period 2007 to 2013, Bulgaria is to receive EUR 6 500 000853 000 in structural funding, and Romania EUR 20 319 200 000 000;; in addition to the information given in the annual activity report and in the reports on the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund, calls for quarterly reports on the administration of these funds until the situation has been clarified;
Amendment 130 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 110
Paragraph 110
110. Considers that the European institutions should apply the principle of zero tolerance in connection with cases of misuse of Community funds, fraud and corruption; calls on the Commission to ensure that unduly paid amounts are recovered and that, in future, only contracts with recipients not affected by irregularities will be eligible for the transfer of European fundsand grants funded from the Community budget may only be awarded to recipients not excluded within the meaning of and pursuant to Articles 93 to 96 of the Financial Regulation;
Amendment 142 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 121
Paragraph 121
121. Voices its disappointment at the incorrect informationmany forms of information obtained using differing approaches given by the Commission infor the years 2005 and 2006 in this area, which is extremely important from a budgetary point of view, a state of affairs which makes it impossible to gain an overall picture of the situation quickly; acknowledges the efforts made in the meantime as regards transparency on the Commission web site and the annual staff screening report;
Amendment 147 #
Motion for a resolution - Conclusions concerning the special reports issues by the Court of Auditors
Part I Paragraph 130
Part I Paragraph 130
130. notes the tardily-sent information on the amounts spent on TA recently provided by the Commission to the Court following publication of the Court's special report; is surprised that this information was not made available during the preparation of the special report; acknowledges that the OECD's definition of DAC is broad and in practice leads to differences in interpretation; expects that the strategy adopted by the Commission will also lead to a newmore operational definition of TA;
Amendment 155 #
Motion for a resolution - Conclusions concerning the special reports issued by the Court of Auditors
Part II
Part II
Paragraph 138
138. Notes the Commission's replies to the effect that in 2008 the Modernised Customs Code (MCC), adopted in 20081, will make BTI binding on the holder, the often lengthy dispute-resolution process will be shortened,work of updating the thesaurus will be updatedcontinue and the user interface will soon beis available in all EU official languages; _________ 1 Regulation (EC) No 450/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2008 laying down the Community Customs Code (Modernised Customs Code) (OJ L 145, 4.6.2008, p. 1).
Amendment 156 #
Motion for a resolution - Conclusions concerning the special reports issued by the Court of Auditors
Part II
Part II
Paragraph 139
139. Urges the Commission to resolve tariff-classification disputes by the deadlines laid down by Community law and, at the latest, within five months and, in view of the possible loss of own resources, to increase the EBTI-3 database staffing level from 1.5number of staff working on BTI and classification to 54 persons and to ensure that those persons also carry out more risk analyses and exercise more stringent scrutiny of Member State contributions to the system, possible abuses of the period-of- grace system and BTI 'shopping';
Amendment 157 #
Motion for a resolution - Conclusions concerning the special reports issued by the Court of Auditors
Part II
Part II
Paragraph 140
Amendment 158 #
Motion for a resolution - Conclusions concerning the special reports issued by the Court of Auditors
Part IV
Part IV
Paragraph 144
144. Regrets that national authorities are obliged to carry out a host of inspections, which are likely to be superficial, thus making it impossible to determine the credibility of direct-sales declarations; welcomes Commission Regulation (EC) No 228/20081 which reduces to 1% the inspection rate for producers whose production is less than 5000 kg; _______________ 1 Commission Regulation (EC) No 228/2008 of 13 March 2008 amending Regulation (EC) No 595/2004 with regard to intensity of controls on deliveries and direct sales of milk (OJ L 70, 14.3.2008, p. 7).
Amendment 159 #
Motion for a resolution - Conclusions concerning the special reports issued by the Court of Auditors
Part IV
Part IV
Paragraph 148
148. Calls on the Commission to ask the new Member States to improve their database record-keeping, as requested by the ECA in its report, and to optimise cross-avoid unnecessary checks;
Amendment 160 #
Motion for a resolution - Conclusions concerning the special reports issued by the Court of Auditors
Part IV
Part IV
Paragraph 149
149. Calls on the Commission to move forward with the common agricultural policy 'health check', which should enablcontinue to assess developments in the dairy sector, in particular those linked to its market, to the sit to be determined whether milk quota levels should be adjusted or whether technical improvements need to be made beforeuation of producers, and to the implications for regional development, in particular in the assessment reports to be submitted before 31 December 20150 and the scheme's discontinuation, with the aim being to ensure transition before 2015 within a framework that it as transparent and simple as possiblebefore 31 December 2012 under the terms of the political agreement on the common agricultural policy ‘health check’ concluded in November 2008;
Amendment 161 #
Motion for a resolution - Conclusions concerning the special reports issued by the Court of Auditors
Part IV
Part IV
Paragraph 150 a (new)
150a. Calls on the Commission to check whether the quota level should be adjusted or whether technical improvements are needed before the scheme expires in 2015, the aim being to prepare, prior to 2015, a transition which is as transparent and straightforward as possible;
Amendment 162 #
Motion for a resolution - Conclusions concerning the special reports issues by the Court of Auditors
Part VIII
Part VIII
Paragraph 171
171. considers that the cross-compliance framework should be further simplified by limiting it to the principal elements of farming activities where improvements are sought and by specifying the expected results, requirements and standards;
Amendment 163 #
Motion for a resolution - Conclusions concerning the special reports issues by the Court of Auditors
Part VIII
Part VIII
Paragraph 172
172. Invites the Commission to draw a clear distinction between cross-compliance and agri-environment; elements of rural development policy such as the approval of standards by the Commission and the obligation to lay down verifiable standards should also apply to cross- compliance;
Amendment 164 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas Article 184 of the Financial Regulation provides for a revision of the Financial Regulation whenever it proves necessary, and at least every three years, and whereas the current three-year period will end in May 2010; whereas the same article stipulates that Parliament must request the conciliation procedure if it wishes it to be used,
Amendment 165 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B b (new)
Recital B b (new)
Bb. whereas the political power of the European Communities over the non- executive agencies seems to be widening from year to year, and whereas their place in the political organigramme of Community operational bodies is gradually being obscured,
Amendment 166 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital M a (new)
Recital M a (new)
Ma. whereas, in the new generation of programmes, the Directorate-General for Education and Culture (DG EAC) has harmonised the action programmes, in particular by introducing the single audit approach; whereas, in that context, the ex ante and ex post declarations made by the Member States constitute new, additional factors in the supervision and control of systems,
Amendment 167 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N a (new)
Recital N a (new)
Na. whereas Article 83 of the Staff Regulations of officials of the European Communities stipulates that pensions are charged to the budget and that the Member States must jointly guarantee payment of such benefits in accordance with the scale laid down for financing such expenditure; whereas staff pay back to the general budget 10.25% of their salaries as their contribution to the funding of the pension scheme,
Amendment 168 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N b (new)
Recital N b (new)
Nb. whereas Article 83 of the Staff Regulations lays down that the Member States must jointly guarantee the pension fund, which signifies that this guarantee may take effect should one or more Member States default, but does not imply that the Communities do not have a claim against the Member States which entered into that commitment,
Amendment 169 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 23 a (new) (to be inserted into all the decisions if adopted)
Citation 23 a (new) (to be inserted into all the decisions if adopted)
– having regard to the International Peer Review of the European Court of Auditors,
Amendment 170 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital 26 a (new) (to be inserted into all the decisions if adopted)
Recital 26 a (new) (to be inserted into all the decisions if adopted)
– having regard to Council Regulation (EEC, Euratom, ECSC) No 259/68 of 29 February 1968 laying down the Staff Regulations of Officials and the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Communities1, in particular Title V, Chapter 3, dealing with old-age and invalidity pensions, and Annex XII, which lays down the implementing provisions for Article 83a of the Staff Regulations, _______________ 1 OJ L 56, 4.3.1968, p. 1.
Amendment 199 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas Article 287(1), second subparagraph, of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU requires the Court of Auditors to provide Parliament and the Council with a statement of assurance as to the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions, adding that the statement may be supplemented by specific assessments for each major area of Union activity;
Amendment 205 #
Recital I a (new)
Ia. whereas the current discharge schedule is much too long in view of the need to introduce as quickly as possible the corrective measures and reforms called for by Parliament in its control capacity; whereas the annual accounts must be drawn up before the end of the first quarter of the year following the financial year under review, so that the Court of Auditors can deliver its report before the end of the second quarter of the year following the year under review;
Amendment 206 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I b (new)
Recital I b (new)
Ib. whereas Article 83 of Regulation (EEC, Euratom, ECSC) No 259/68 laying down the Staff Regulations of Officials and the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Communities1 stipulates that pensions are charged to the budget and that the Member States jointly guarantee payment of such benefits in accordance with the scale laid down for financing such expenditure; whereas staff pay back to the general budget a share of their salaries to contribute to the funding of the pension scheme,
Amendment 207 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I c(new)
Recital I c(new)