Activities of Bart STAES related to 2013/2196(DEC)
Plenary speeches (2)
2012 discharge: European Parliament (A7-0246/2014 - Cătălin Sorin Ivan) (vote)
2012 discharge: European Parliament (A7-0246/2014 - Cătălin Sorin Ivan) (vote)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2012, Section I – European Parliament PDF (327 KB) DOC (225 KB)
Amendments (20)
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Notes that authorised appropriations in Parliament's final budget for 2012 totalled EUR 1 717 868 121, representing a 1,9 % increase over the 2011 budget (EUR 1 685 829 393), and that, as in 2011, no amending budget was introduced; is of the opinion that Parliament showed its budgetary responsibility and self-restraint by staying under the 2,6 % inflation rate in 2012; expects that for the 2015 budget the same self-restraint will prevail by keeping the budget under the 20% of Chapter 5;
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Points out that in 2012, 99 % (93 % in 2011) of the final current appropriations were committed, with a cancellation rate of 1 % (6 % in 2011) and that, as in previous years, a high level of budget implementation was achieved, though this was positively influenced by an end of the year transfer of unspent funds at the request of the Joint Working Group of the Bureau and Committee on Budgets and a positive opinion by the Committee on Budgets;
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Notes that Parliament decided to conduct an end-of-year ‘mopping-up’ transfer from various budget lines amounting to EUR 45 000 000 in unspent funds intended for the second instalment of the acquisition of the Trebel building in Brussels (EUR 35 000 000) and the construction of the new KAD building in Luxembourg; understands that as a result of this, an estimated EUR 10,4 million in financing charges will be saved over the construction and loan amortisation periods; notes, nevertheless, that Parliament has repeatedly requested that in the interests of budgetary clarity, buildings expenditure be entered in the budget rather than being financed through a ‘mopping- up’ transfer as requested in several previous discharge resolutions;
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Points out the unacceptably high level of carry-overs into 2012 (EUR 244 600 38423 ) and calls for the improved planning of expenditure; __________________ 23 Automatic carry-overs: EUR 222 900 384, non-automatic carry-overs: EUR 21 700 000.
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Notes with satisfaction that the Court of Auditors’ audit of 15 recruitment procedures in Parliament in 2012 did not reveal errors or weaknesses; calls however on the Secretary-General to strictly apply the rules applicable to the nomination or promotion of staff in general, and in particular those in management positions;
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Recalls the Court of Auditors' finding that in file procedures for the recruitment of accredited parliamentary assistants(APAs), there were no documents on file proving that the ex ante checks of recruitment documents had been performed; welcomestakes note of the fact that the Court of Auditors considers that Parliament has fully implemented its recommendation to ensure that appropriate documentation is now established and the underlying documentation for those verifications is now being kept to justify the recruitment decisions of temporary and contract staff, calls on the Secretary-General to inform its Committee on Budgetary Control by September 2014 on the effectiveness of the measures taken including those based on the findings of the Internal Auditor, also in view of the recruitment of many new parliamentary assistants (APAs) after the elections;
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Notes that at the end of 2012, after successive follow-up audits, only 15 actions still remained incomplete out of the 452 internal control framework actions initially agreed; welcomestakes note of the conclusion of the Internal auditor that for two DGs (Finance and Infrastructure and Logistics), there was evidence of improvement in their public procurement processes;
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 39
Paragraph 39
39. Recalls that the Code of Conduct for Parliament's Members with respect to financial interests and conflicts of interest, adopted by the plenary on 1 December 2011, requires Members to make full disclosure of any remunerated activities outside Parliament, of the remuneration they receive and of any other function they perform which may give rise to conflicts of interest and that the code expressly prohibits Members from accepting any sum of money or other gift in exchange for influencing Parliament decisions; notes that it lays down clear rules on accepting gifts and on former Members engaging in lobbying; asks that the administration scrutinises at least 15 % of these declarations on a regular and annual basis;
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 47
Paragraph 47
47. Reaffirms, yet again, that this resolution remains principally focussed on the budget implementation and discharge for the financial year 2012 and that its main goal is to ensure that taxpayers' public money is used in the best possible way while highlighting where more efficient gains may be achievable; calls on Parliament's responsible bodies to continue improving, at all possible levels, efficiency in Parliament's daily work aiming always to deliver an enhanced service to the citizens of the Union, expects that the Secretary- General in his next annual report to the Committee on Budgetary Control will focus more on efficiency and effectiveness of expenditure;
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 48
Paragraph 48
48. Is of the opinion that during the 2009- 2014 legislative term, in a difficult economic and financial context, often random and temporary, although significant, savings were achieved; believes that Parliament’s administration should identify additional efficiency measures that carry systematic and definitive structural savings that, firstly reducing Parliament's budget and secondly allowing for the redeployment of resources to Parliament’'s new areas of intervention, notably to reinforce the scrutiny dimension over the Commission’s implementation of the Union’s policies;
Amendment 56 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 49
Paragraph 49
49. Welcomes DG PRES reorganizsation that leads to the creation of a new DG EPRS (Parliamentary Research Services) and the internalisation of Parliament's security services leading to the creation of DG Security; is satisfied that the reorganisation was budget neutral and that the internalisation of the security is foreseen to produce savings of more than EUR 11 million over the period 2013- 2016; would like to be informed by the Secretary-General on an annual basis on the exact amount saved, which might be a good example leading to the internalisation of other services now provided by third parties;
Amendment 67 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 53 a (new)
Paragraph 53 a (new)
53a. Considers the large financial risk for Parliament's budget by guaranteeing the funds pension payments while investment decisions are taken by third parties; is therefore of the opinion that the fund should be fully controlled by Parliament's administration under strict guidelines from the Secretary-General;
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 64
Paragraph 64
64. Is deeply worried that personal and confidential individual mail-boxes of selected Members, parliamentary assistants and officials have been compromised after the Parliament has been subject to a man- in-the-middle attack where a hacker has captured the communication between private smartphones and the public Wi-Fi of the Parliament; insists that Parliament's IT an indefpence policy should be reinforced against any possible type of cyber-attacks; points out that user devices and access to Parliament’s systems from the internet have to be better protected in order to avoid similar situations in the futuredent third party ICT security audit carried out on all parliamentary ICT and telecommunications systems in accordance with the specifications laid down in Annex I with a view to completing a clear roadmap towards a more robust ICT security policy in 2015;
Amendment 92 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 65
Paragraph 65
65. Considers that guest users should have access to a Wi-Fi network that cannot grant access to the intranet or internal IT services of the Parliament such as the webmail, thus separating the functionalities of the private Wi-Fi network and the guest Wi-Fi network; is of the opinion that an independent security audit should be carried out on the whole of Parliament’s IT and telecommunication infrastructure that reassures that Parliament operates within the highest available security standards against hacking and telephone tapping activities;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 65 a (new)
Paragraph 65 a (new)
65a. Considers that the important advancements pointed out in paragraph 21 of this document must be supported by adequate investments in support and maintenance activities for these projects, as well as the appropriate cooperation with members and staff; points out in particular the successful launch of the AT4AM system; regrets the discontinuation of the European Parliament Linux distribution configuration, which was never marketed or targeted towards members and staff who would have had an interest in such a project; notes that the introduction of new working tools for Members and staff assumes that pilot-phase testing of such working tools is done only in cooperation with such members and staff that are willing to endure the additional work that pilot-phase testing entails;
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 65 b (new)
Paragraph 65 b (new)
65b. Is concerned with the findings of the DG ITEC ICT architecture report, which indicates that Parliament is currently using taxpayers' money to fund firewall vendors implicated in grave human rights violations in third countries by respected journalism freedom groups; remarks that open source solutions for firewalls are readily available and should be explored; insists that it is of utmost concern that Parliament and its administration are not seen to contribute to hardships and oppression through its ICT procurement;
Amendment 95 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 65 c (new)
Paragraph 65 c (new)
65c. Insists in the same spirit that Parliament cooperation collaborates further with DG DIGIT to identify not only new, disruptive ICT tools from non- incumbent vendors, but also suitable replacements for old ICT tools and infrastructures that go in the direction of open, interoperable and non-vendor dependent solutions with a view to social, ethical and economical responsibility;
Amendment 99 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 66 c (new)
Paragraph 66 c (new)
66c. Urges the Secretary-General to prioritise the employment of individuals which can work with effective conversion and development of open source, open standards based solutions, and the identification of appropriate social, ethical and secure software and hardware to replace old, vendor-dependent or suspicious ICT architectures;
Amendment 103 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 66 g (new)
Paragraph 66 g (new)
66g. Urges the Secretary-General to additionally secure that ICT support staff are available to members and staff at the work location, to enable both ICT support staff and parliamentary staff and members with the security and comfort of interacting face-to-face; reminds the Secretary-General that remote-access ICT support can be uncomfortable and less appropriate for the establishment of trust relationships between IT maintenance staff and those in need of IT maintenance; points also to the unsuitability of relying entirely on remote solutions until the above-mentioned security audit is adequately carried out;
Amendment 105 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 66 i (new)
Paragraph 66 i (new)
66i. The Secretary General shall ensure that by 1 December 2014, at least the following auditing actions will have been undertaken: 1. black box penetration testing 2. white box penetration testing 3. review of crypto protocols 4. review of applications 5. review of the Access Control Lists to the applications 6. review of the Access Control Lists to the physical infrastructures 7. review of compilation chain for applications. 8. review of source code for applications. The results of the audit shall be presented to the Committee on Budgetary Control and the Committee on Budgets together with an estimation of expenditures, staff resources and time necessary to remedy any security deficiencies found in the audit;