38 Amendments of Bart STAES related to 2008/2186(DEC)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes with interestHas taken note with some concern of the findings of the European Court of Auditors (ECA) report and the recommendations aiming at the correct use of structural funds;
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Stresses that cohesion policy remains one of the main policies of the EU; underlines its important role in the EU's response to the financial crisis - when used correctly by the Member States - and its key place in the European Economic Recovery Plan; welcomes, therefore, the actions proposed by the Commission which are aimed at facilitating and accelerating the implementation of cohesion programmes;
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Stresses the importance of the Action Plan adopted by the Commission on 19 February 2008 on strengthening the supervision under shared management for structural actions, which is designed to reduce errors in payment claims from Member States which have been estimated at 11%; is confident that this new Action Plan can significantly improve the situation, not least by assisting Member States to develop their ability to ascertain the eligibility of project expenditure; notes that the initial results contained in the first progress report concerning the Action Plan show good progress;
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Asks the Commission to procure a breakdown per Member State of unduly paid reimbursements under the cohesion policies;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. ApprovesTakes note of the Commission's declared position on financial corrections namely that irregularities are more likely to be detected and corrected by the multi- annual corrective system; notes that the Commission continuously verifies the data provided by Member States as to its completeness and accuracy and that there has been real progress in providing reliable evidence for corrections by Member States;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Takes note of the level of error found by the ECA and remarks on the difference of interpretation by the ECA and the Commission as to the amount that should not have been reimbursed (especially the difference of interpretation concerning rules relating to the eligibility of expenditure); stresses the need for further clarification and requires the interpretation of the rules as to the application of financial corrections to be harmonised; also calls on the Member States who have not done so yet to provide as soon as possible annual national declarations on expenditure under shared management.
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Heading before paragraph -1 (new)
Heading before paragraph -1 (new)
Targets to be achieved
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph -1 (new)
Paragraph -1 (new)
-1. Notes that the error rate for 31 % of the budget is above 5 % (Chart 1.1, Annual Report 2008); invites the Commission to present – before the end of the 2008 discharge procedure – annual targets for reducing that part of the budget where the error rate is above 2 %; also invites the Commission to set a final deadline for eliminating the ‘yellow and red area’ of the implementation of the budget;
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes with satisfaction the Court’s positive opinion concerning the reliability of the final annual accounts and the Court’s statement that, except as mentioned in some observations, the accounts present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Communities and the results of their operations and cash flows as at 31 December 2008;
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Regrets that the Statement of Assurance (DAS) still remains qualifiednegative in extremely important Community spending areas of the budget for the 2008 financial year (Rural development, Structural measures, Research, energy and transport, External actions at the level of implementing organisations and Enlargement), where payments are still affected by large-scale material errors;
Amendment 37 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Deplores the Commission's failure to act on the call made in the resolution of 22 April 2008 on discharge for the financial year 20061 for a specific document to be drawn up, and forwarded to Parliament and the Council, which analyses, on the basis of the annual summaries received, the strengths and weaknesses of each Member State's national system for the administration and control of Community funds and the results of the audits conducted, and calls on the Commission to regularly present a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the annual summaries in the activity reports; expects to receive the first of these assessments by September 2009;
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Nevertheless, cConsiders also that having only one global and annual assessment does not reflect the complex structure of the European Communities´ finances, and further considers that to continue to have a negative annual assessment after 15 consecutive years may have negative repercussions amongst citizens who do not understand why the Court always gives a negative opinion;
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Considers that the annual summaries which Member States have to provide of available audits and declarations, pursuant to the IIA of 17 May 2006, ought to be a first step towards the introduction of national management declarations in all Member States, is of the opinion that the Commission should use its legislative initiative to propose a Council decision to make national declarations compulsory;
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Heading before paragraph 13
Heading before paragraph 13
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Notes that the Commission has persistently claimed that the ‘multiannual nature’ of the expenditure concerned means that most errors can be detected and corrected before the closure of the relevant programmes; further notes that the Court considers that there is, at present, insufficient information available to support this claim;
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Recalls its demand that the Commission produce an annual fund-by- fund grading per Member State, specifying the error rate established – both with and without the impact of corrective mechanisms – and that it forward this to Parliament in an active, transparent and easily accessible manner;
Amendment 56 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. Draws attention to the example of Greece, where significant financial corrections brought about by Commission decision appear to have resulted in better performance in some areas; invites the Commission to identify these areas and recalls that, as regards the IACS, no evidence has been provided that the action plan set up and implemented by the Greek authorities was effective (2008 Annual Report, point 2.5);
Amendment 59 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 46b (new)
Paragraph 46b (new)
46b. Reminds the Commission of the fact that a comprehensive easily accessible database containing information on all end beneficiaries of EU funding open to the wider public should be available before the next European elections;
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 36
Paragraph 36
36. Welcomes the initiative taken by certain Member States (Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom) to approve the adoption of a national declaration on the management of EU funding, butdraw up national management declarations; notes, however, the big differences between the four national initiatives; warmly welcomes the letter from the now former Minister of Finance of the Netherlands, Mr Wouter Bos, and the Swedish Minister of Finance, Mr Anders Borg, to Commissioner Kallas inviting the Commission to issue guidance on the definition of key aspects of national declarations, which could also serve as a valuable source of information for other Member States; regrets the fact that, despite those initiatives, most other Member States have yet to introduce them;
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 37
Paragraph 37
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 38
Paragraph 38
38. Draws attention to the first paragraph of Article 317 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which clearly provides that Member States are to cooperate with the Commission to ensure that the appropriations are used in accordance with the principles of sound financial management (ex Article 274 of the EC Treaty), which now provides that the Commission ‘shall implement the budget in cooperation with the Member States’, and remains convinced that progress will be made by obtaining national management declarations covering all EU funds coming under shared management, as requested by Parliament in its last five annual discharge resolutions;
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 39
Paragraph 39
39. Points to the second paragraph of Article 317 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which imposes certain as yet undefined control and audit obligations of the Member States and resulting responsibilities; in that regardvites the Commission to use the new wording of Article 317 to introduce mandatory national management declarations as soon as possible; also refers to Article 291 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which provides the Commission with new tools to achieve an even and uniform implementation of legally binding Union acts;
Amendment 72 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 42
Paragraph 42
Amendment 85 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 50
Paragraph 50
50. Welcomes the above-mentioned 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 acceptable levels of risk; invites the Commission to address all weaknesses and shortcomings identified by the Court of Auditors, and underlines the following: – the definition of a possible tolerable risk of error is only one of several elements to be explored with a view to improving financial management in the European Union; other elements are (1) better use of existing control systems, (2) an increase in what are generally very low control costs, (3) simplification and (4) concentration; – the quality of the information available from the Member States is currently not sufficient as a basis for the establishment and approval of a tolerable risk of error; – the Council’s position on the question is not known;
Amendment 88 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 62
Paragraph 62
62. Wonders whetherIs of the opinion that the number of audits carried out by the ECA (180 interim reimbursements according to paragraph 6.21 of the annual report for 2007) is probably sufficient to estimate an error rate for hundreds of thousands of payments to final beneficiaries, but requests the ECA to carry out an extended audit on a sample of another 250 interim reimbursements;
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 56
Paragraph 56
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 56 a (new)
Paragraph 56 a (new)
56a. Stresses that it will not be possible to continue the definition of any kind of ‘tolerable risk of error’ until national management declarations have been made mandatory; regrets that the Commission puts more effort into convincing Parliament about the need to introduce a ‘tolerable risk of error’ than into persuading Member States of the need for mandatory national management declarations;
Amendment 99 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 58
Paragraph 58
58. Calls on the Commission to organise an interinstitutional discussion involving, at the highest level, representatives of the Council, of the Commission, of the Court and of Parliament, with a view to embarking on a comprehensive debate on the current discharge procedure system, on which the DAS has been negative for 15 years, and to give thought to the main reforms needed in order to obtain a positive DAS as soon as possible;
Amendment 100 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 59
Paragraph 59
Amendment 103 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 61
Paragraph 61
61. Regrets that, in the 2008 Annual Report, the Court once again stresses that some of the annual activity reports still do not include sufficient evidence for its DAS; invites the Court of Auditors to include in the different chapters of the Annual Report a detailed analysis of the corresponding Annual Activity Reports;
Amendment 116 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 93
Paragraph 93
93. Wonders aboutTakes note of the role and growing number of NGOs in the administration of Community funds; calls on the Commission to review thealuate the effectiveness of operating grants for the NGOs' Brussels headquarters, and to allow those grants to expire in 2013;
Amendment 130 #
Motion for a resolution
Heading after paragraph 95
Heading after paragraph 95
Common agricultural policy 2014-2020
Amendment 131 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 95 a (new)
Paragraph 95 a (new)
95a. Believes, on the basis of past experience, that a reform of the common agricultural policy (CAP) for 2014-2020 should be envisaged in accordance with the following general principles: (1) reducing the overall expenditure on the CAP and increasing investment in green and forward-looking technology, (2) shifting from direct subsidies to rewards to farmers for work done for the public good, such as maintaining the rural landscape and improving environmental standards and animal welfare, (3) encouraging local, smaller-scale and more sustainable methods of farming, (4) measures to avoid the current situation in which big landowners with good farming land get most money, (5) measures in support of ‘transition initiatives as well as other initiatives towards a low-emission world;
Amendment 139 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 115
Paragraph 115
115. Deplores the cases of fraud and mismanagement of European funds identified in connection with EU funding of reconstruction work in Kosovo but would like to express also its gratitude to the European Agency for Reconstruction and its "European"- and local staff for the work done for the people of Kosovo in sometimes difficult circumstances;
Amendment 200 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas the implementation of major EU policies is characterised by the ‘shared management’ of the Community budget by the Commission and the Member States, under which 80 % of Community expenditure is administered by the Member States,
Amendment 202 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas improvement of the financial management in the Union must be supported by a close monitoring of progress in the Commission and in the Member States, and whereas Member States should assume responsibility in the management of EU funds, ensuring the completion of an effective EU integrated internal control framework with the aim of obtaining a positive Statement of Assurance (DAS)improving management of the EU budget; whereas it should be made clear once and for all that ‘a positive Statement of Assurance’ is not an objective in itself and that the Statement of Assurance is an expression of the quality of the management of the funds,