Activities of Nedzhmi ALI related to 2017/2179(DEC)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Union agencies for the financial year 2016: performance, financial management and control PDF (428 KB) DOC (75 KB)
Amendments (11)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 a (new)
Citation 7 a (new)
- having regard to the report of the European Court of Auditors on the rapid case review on the implementation of the 5% reduction of staff posts published on 21 December 2017,
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Emphasises that the agencies are highly visible in the Member States and have significant influence on policy and decision making and programme implementation in areas of vital importance to European citizens, such as health, safety, security, freedom and justice, research and industrial development, economic and monetary affairs, employment and social progress; reiterates the importance of the tasks performed by agencies and their direct impact on the daily lives of Union citizens; reiterates also the importance of the autonomy of the agencies, in particular of the regulatory agencies and those with the function of independent information collection; recalls that the main reasons for establishing agencies was for the purpose of making independent technical or scientific assessments, operating Union systems and facilitating the implementation of the Union Single Market;
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Notes that the agencies employ 10 364 (2015: 9 848) permanent, temporary, contract or seconded staff, representing an increase of 5,24 % compared with the previous year mainly due to the new tasks assigned; points out that the number of staff increased the most in agencies dealing with matters related to industry, research and energy (110), civil liberties, justice and home affairs (177) and economic and monetary affairs (85);
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Is of the opinion that the discharge procedure needs to be streamlined and accelerated towards n+1; calls therefore on the Agencies and the Court to follow the good example set by the private sector and proposes to set the deadline for the publication of the Agencies’ final accounts, annual activity reports and reports on budgetary and financial management on 31 March as well as advance the publication of the Court’s annual reports on Agencies for July 1st at the very latest, in order to simplify and speed up the process, thereby closing the discharge procedure within the year following the accounting year in question;
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Stresses, therefore, the need to establish clear definitions of acceptable carry-overs in order to streamline the Court’s reporting on this issue, as well as to enable the discharge authority to distinguish between the carry-overs indicating poor budgetary planning, and the carry-overs as a budgetary tool which support multiannual programmes as well as procurement planning; believes that Court’s suggestion to use differentiated carry overs would allow more transparency as regards what constitutes a justified carry-over;
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Observes that the audited budgetary implementation reports of certain agencies differ from the level of detail provided by most other agencies, which hampers readability and comparability, and which demonstrates the need for clear guidelines on the agencies’ budget reporting; acknowledges the efforts made in order to ensure consistency on the presentation and reporting of accounts; callsstresses the importance of more standardized and comparable reporting to simplify and rationalize the discharge procedure and to facilitate discharge authority’s work; calls furthermore on the Network and the individual agencies to continue working on streamlined indicators and report the measures taken to the discharge authority;
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)
Paragraph 18 a (new)
18a. Notes that some agencies continue to have dual headquarters and multiple operational centres and offices; considers that all dual and multiple seats which do not offer any operational added value should be done away with at the earliest opportunity; expects Commission’s evaluation in this regard, with focus on added value and costs incurred;
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Highlights the benefits of sharing services, which enable consistent application of administrative implementing rules and procedures that concern human resources and finance issues, as well as the potential efficiency and cost-effectiveness gains of sharing services between the agencies, in particular when considering the budget and staff reductions that the agencies are facing; notes that seeking synergies amongst agencies could alleviate administrative burden especially on smaller agencies;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Is particularly concerned that with the additional staff reduction, fulfilment of the agencies’ mandates and annual work programmes are proving increasingly difficult to deliver, particularly for the agencies classified by the Commission as “cruising speed agencies”; calls on the Commission and the budgetary authority to look into other options in order not to hinder the agencies’ ability to fulfil their mandate and recommends the budgetary authorities to authorise additional resources to agencies that are entrusted by the legislators to carry out new tasks; calls moreover on the Commission to recognise the savings the Network and the individual agencies achieved by using joint procurement procedures, by increasing efficiency and human resources management, as well as to allow, where needed, for the staff reduction targets to adapt accordingly;
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. Is concerned by a number of factors hindering the operational performance of justice and home affairs agencies, such as establishment plan cuts, limited human resources, difficulties in recruiting qualified people at given grades, a low correction coefficient in certain countries and the implementation of activities through a lengthy and administratively demanding grant process; acknowledges from the Network that the grading of staff at the entry-level grades do not allow recruitment of appropriate personnel and that the very low coefficient corrector for some countries results in the systematic use of higher grading in order to attract and retain suitable personnel; calls on the Commission to work on the revision of the formula used to calculate the correction coefficient in order to come to a more suitable solution for the agencies most affected by the low correction coefficient, to allow them to retain suitable personnel;
Amendment 47 #
37. Notes that, according to the Court’s summary, the external evaluations of the agencies are in general positive and agencies prepared action plans to follow up issues raised in the evaluation reports; notes that while most agencies’ founding regulations provide for an external evaluation to be carried out periodically (usually every four to six years), the founding regulations of fivesix decentralised agencies - BEREC Office, EASO, eu- LISA, ETF, ENISA and European Institute for Gender Equality - do not include such a provision and the founding regulation of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) requires an external evaluation only every ten years; is of the opinion that this issue should be addressed;