Activities of Bart STAES related to 2016/2151(DEC)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2015, Section III – Commission and executive agencies PDF (1 MB) DOC (203 KB)
Amendments (58)
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas Union spending, while limited to 1% of the EU GNI, is a significant instrument for achieving policy objectives and on overage represents 1.9% of Union Member states general government expenditure;
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes that the seven year duration of the current Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) is not synchronised with the five years mandates of the Parliament and the Commission; furthermore, points out that the 10 yearEU2020 strategic planning cycley is not aligned either with the seven year cycle for managing the EU budget; is of the opinion that this is one of the causes of a major deficiency of the Union political governance since the Parliament and the Commission are bound by previous agreements on political objectives and finances which may create the impression that the impact of the European elections are uselessis limited;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Is worried that in 2015 the share of the Climate-related spending of the EU budget was only 17.3% in 2015 and was only 17.6% in average for the period 2014-2016 according to the European Court of Auditors1a while the objective was to reach, at least, 20% over the financial period; stresses therefore that according to the ECA there is a serious risk that the 20% target will not be met without more effort to tackle climate change; _________________ 1a ECA special report 31/2016
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Amendment 49 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 c (new)
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5c. Welcomes the performance based budgeting approach launched by the European Commission; considers that the EU budget should be more efficient and more effective than ever due to the scare financial resources; regrets however that the European Commission focuses mainly on the outputs rather than on the outcomes;
Amendment 55 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Endorses all recommendations made by the Court of Auditors in its special report 31/2016 and especially that the European Commission should explore all potential opportunities, including the midterm MFF revision and the revision of some legal bases, to ensure a further real shift towards climate action; calls on the ECA to issue a follow-up report on the Climate-related spending of the EU budget by the end of 2018
Amendment 60 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7b. Calls on the Commission to take into account the Paris agreement and to increase immediately the Climate-related spending target in the EU budget from 20% to 30%;
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 c (new)
Paragraph 7 c (new)
7c. Calls on the Commission to draft the forthcoming EU budgets in order to make it more efficient and more effective and to better align them with the EU 2020 targets, EU's climate targets, and EU's international commitments;
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Regrets that the increasing use of such financial instruments, as also the financial instruments in shared management (the financial engineering instruments), poses higher risks for accountability and the coordination of Union policies and operations; points out the ECA special reports1a which stated that the Financial instruments do not work as expected and/or are oversized and/or are unsuccessful in attracting private capital; _________________ 1a ECA special report 05/2015 & 19/2016
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11a. Warns the European Commission that the Financial Instruments or any funding arrangement are not necessarily bound by the EU political objectives and targets and might finance projects which are not in line with the EU commitments;
Amendment 73 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Asks the European Court of Auditors to evaluate the contribution of the Financial Instruments and funding arrangements (as listed in para 13) to the EU 2020 strategy; calls on the Commission to take any relevant measures in order to ensure that the Financial Instruments and any funding arrangement are compatible with the EU strategy, targets and commitments the EU has taken;
Amendment 74 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Welcomes Commissioner Oettinger’s intention to bring the various shadow budgets, in the long run, back under the Union budget; Calls on the Commission to prepare a communication on this issue; is of the firm opinion that the forthcoming financial perspectives should be used in order to fix this problem, increase the democratic scrutiny over the shadow budgets and recreate the confidence in its institutions;
Amendment 98 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Deeply regrets that, as a consequence, there is a risk that delays in budget execution for the 2014-2020 programming period will be greater than those experienced for the 2007-2013; fears that the forthcoming MFF might start with an unprecedented high level of ''RAL'' which might endangered the management of the EU budget in the first years;
Amendment 103 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 a (new)
Paragraph 23 a (new)
23a. Stresses that the triggering of the Article 50 might create troubles in the way the EU budget is managed, especially concerning the payments; points out the need to cover this crucial element in any transitional or final agreement with any withdrawing Member State;
Amendment 123 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33
Paragraph 33
33. Stresses that even if the situation has improved on recent years the most likely error rate is still significantly above the materiality threshold of 2%; stresses that if the Commission, the authorities in the Member States or the independent auditors had made use of all information available to them, they could have prevented, or detected and corrected a significant proportion of the errors before the related payments were made; considers inadmissible that available information are not used to reduce the level of errors; firmly believes that the Member states have a crucial role in this regards; urges the Members states to use all available information to prevent, detect and correct any error and to act accordingly;
Amendment 124 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34
Paragraph 34
34. NoteRegrets that due to a change in the legal framework of the common agricultural policy in 2015, the Court no longer includes cross compliance in its transaction testing making the comparison with the previous financial year more difficult; in 2014, such errors contributed 0,6 percentage points to the overall estimated level of error for MFF heading 2 ‘Natural resources’ whilst their annual contribution to the overall estimated level of error was between 0,1 and 0,2 percentage points over the period 2011- 2014;
Amendment 132 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 42
Paragraph 42
42. Points in particular to the fact that for more than three quarters of 2015, expenditure Commission directorates general base their estimates of amount at risk on data provided by national authorities whilst it appears from the annual activity reports of the concerned Commission directorates general (DG AGRI and DG REGIO) that the reliability of Member States control reports remains a challenge, although the data reporting of Member States has improved; considers unacceptable that the Member states do not cooperate fairly with the European Commission regarding the control reports and their reliability;
Amendment 144 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 51 a (new)
Paragraph 51 a (new)
51a. Calls on the Member States to deliver reliable data to the European Commission especially concerning the control reports;
Amendment 151 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 13 a (new)
Subheading 13 a (new)
measures to be taken
Amendment 152 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 59 a (new)
Paragraph 59 a (new)
59a. Calls on the Commission to better evaluate in its next performance reports the outputs and the outcomes of each policies; calls on the Commission to clearly and synthetically show the contribution of the European policies to the EU objectives and to evaluate their respective contribution to the EU 2020 targets;
Amendment 156 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 70
Paragraph 70
70. Is concerned by the fact that the Commission does not always use key performance concepts (for example, “output”, “results”, ''outcomes'', and “impact”) consistently;
Amendment 161 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 14 a (new)
Subheading 14 a (new)
Measures to be taken
Amendment 162 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 71 a (new)
Paragraph 71 a (new)
71a. Calls on the Commission to present, in its future performance reports, the contribution of Horizon 2020 to Europe 2020 in a clear and exhaustive way;
Amendment 174 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 89 a (new)
Paragraph 89 a (new)
89a. Strongly condemns the fact that the Commission does not feel the need to further publish the EU Anti-corruption report; is of the opinion, that whatever the Commission's intentions on fighting corruption, this last minute cancellation sends out the wrong signal not only to the Member States but also to the citizens; reiterates its opinion that corruption is still a challenge for the EU and the Member States; and without effective anti-corruption measures it undermines the economic performance, the rule of law and the credibility of democratic institutions within the EU; Calls on the European Commission to finalise and publish the 2016 anti- corruption report, to act swiftly and robustly to eliminate corruption in the Member States and EU institutions, and to commission an independent assessment of the anti-corruption standards in the EU institutions themselves.
Amendment 175 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 89 b (new)
Paragraph 89 b (new)
89b. Strongly reiterates its call on the Commission to develop a system of strict indicators and easily applicable, uniform criteria, based on the requirements set out in the Stockholm Programme, to measure the level of corruption in the Member States and evaluate the Member States' anti-corruption policies; invites the Commission to develop a corruption index in order to categorise the Member States; is of the opinion that Corruption index could provide a sound basis on which the Commission could establish its country specific control mechanism when controlling the spending EU resources;
Amendment 184 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 92
Paragraph 92
92. RDeeply regrets that that the target to invest 3% of Member States’ gross domestic product (GDP) into research by 2020 will most likely not be met; considers therefore that the recurrent cuts in the EU budget concerning the research programs should be halted;
Amendment 195 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 107
Paragraph 107
107. Is concerned that FP7, according to the Commissioner, will not be fully executed and evaluated before 2020; this could cause delays in future follow-up programmes; urges the Commission to publish the evaluation report as soon as possible and at the latest before its presents the post Horizon 2020 research program;
Amendment 200 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 111
Paragraph 111
111. Also regretsIs deeply concerned about the fact that, according to the Court89 , Horizon 2020 is not sufficiently performance driven; _________________ 89 European Court of Auditors, Annual Report 2015, Section 3
Amendment 203 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 113
Paragraph 113
113. Calls on the Member States to make an extra effort with the view to meeting the target of 3 % GDP being invested in research; this would boost excellence and innovation; calls on the Member states and the European Parliament to make an effort through the EU budget too;
Amendment 206 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 115
Paragraph 115
115. Calls onUrges the Commission to follow- up in particular the 16 cases of quantifiable errors, in which Commission, national authorities or independent auditors had sufficient information to prevent or detect and correct the errors before accepting the expenditure; and inform its competent committee in detail about the corrective measures taken before the end of October 2017;
Amendment 207 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 25 a (new)
Subheading 25 a (new)
Miscellaneous
Amendment 208 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 118 a (new)
Paragraph 118 a (new)
118a. Takes note of the exclusive attribution of operating grants under budget line 04 03 01 05 "Information and training measures for workers´ organisations" to only two specific trade union institutes, the European Trade Union Institute and the European Centre for Workers Questions; reminds the Commission that operating grants and framework partnerships shall be basically treated as grants and hence be subject to open tendering procedures and publication; expresses its general concern regarding the justification of such attribution practices on grounds of de facto monopolies or bodies´ technical competence, high degree of specialisation or administrative power (Article 190 1 c, f Rules of Application); brings into consideration that in particular lasting exclusive attributions of operating grants to bodies on these grounds may actually lead to such de facto monopolies, high competences, specialisations and powers, hence further justifying exclusive attributions of operating grants on the basis of Article 190 of the Rules of Application;
Amendment 209 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 118 b (new)
Paragraph 118 b (new)
118b. Reminds the Commission in that regard that exceptions to the rules of transparency and publication as established in articles 125ff of the Financial Regulation are to be interpreted and applied restrictively; Invites the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission to strive towards clearly defining both the time frame and the scope of application for exceptions to the principles of transparency and publication, with the clear aim to further restrict their use;
Amendment 210 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 25 b (new)
Subheading 25 b (new)
Measures to be taken
Amendment 211 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 118 c (new)
Paragraph 118 c (new)
118c. Requests the Commission to apply and interpret restrictively exceptions to the rules of transparency and publication as established in articles 125ff of the Financial Regulation; Requests the Commission to clearly define both the time frame and the scope of application for exceptions to the principles of transparency and publication, with the clear aim to further restrict their use;
Amendment 221 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 121
Paragraph 121
121. NoteHighlights, however, that very few programmes had a focus on results or measured impact; therefore little to nothing is known about the sustainability of the investments;
Amendment 224 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 122
Paragraph 122
122. Regrets that it is not informed about the measures, which the Commission asked Member States to undertake in the context of the European semester; calls on the Commission to inform the European Parliament about the measures taken by the Member states in the context of the European semester;
Amendment 228 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 125
Paragraph 125
125. Is concerned that Member States, in particular towards the end of a programming period, focussed on absorption funds available under national envelops rather than on achievement of policy objectives; calls on the European Commission to help the worst performing member states through technical assistance, especially at the end of the financial period;
Amendment 236 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 131
Paragraph 131
131. NotesIs worried about the fact that the Court quantified the estimated level of error at 5,2% (2014: 5,7%); is alarmed that the Court, as in previous years, had to conclude that “In 18 cases of quantifiable errors made by beneficiaries, national authorities had sufficient information to prevent or detect and correct the errors before declaring the expenditure to the Commission. I; urges the Member States to use all information to prevent, detect and correct the errors; urges the Commission to check whether the Member States use all information to prevent, detect or correct the errors; if all this information had been used, the estimated level of error for this chapter would have been 2,4 percentage points lower.”94 _________________ 94 European Court of Auditors, Annual Report concerning the financial year 2015, point 6.36
Amendment 265 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 156
Paragraph 156
156. Strongly regrets that for both areas, direct support and rural development, national authorities could have reduced the level of error to a level close to or below materiality98 as they either had sufficient information to detect the error or they made the error themselves; urges the Members states to use all available information to prevent, detect and correct any error and to act accordingly; _________________ 98 Avoiding these errors would have reduced our estimated level of error by 0.9 percentage points for “Market and direct support” and by 3.2 percentage points for “Rural development and other policies”.
Amendment 275 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 162
Paragraph 162
162. Notes that as in 2014, the Court examined performance related issues for selected rural development transactions and is concerned by the facts that there was insufficient evidence that costs were reasonable in 44 % of projects, and that there were deficiencies in targeting measures and selecting projects, including weak links to Europe 2020 objectives.; calls on the European Commission to take all possible measures to improve this worrying situation;
Amendment 284 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 168
Paragraph 168
168. Considers that direct payments may not fully play their role as a safety net mechanism for stabilising farm income, particularly for smaller farms, given that the current distribution of payments leads to 20% of all farms in the EU receiving 80% of all direct payments; is the opinion that larger farms do not necessarily need the same degree of support for stabilising farm incomes as smaller farms in times of income volatility crisis since they may benefit of potential economies of scale which are likely to make them more resilient; considers that capping the direct payments, as initially proposed by the European Commissions and endorsed by the European Parliament, could deliver sufficient financial resources to make the CAP fairer;
Amendment 296 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 174 – point l a (new)
Paragraph 174 – point l a (new)
(la) reconsider the introduction of a binding capping for the direct payments;
Amendment 297 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 177
Paragraph 177
177. Notes that if all the information detained by the Commission - and the auditors appointed by the Commission - had been used to correct errors the estimated error rate for the chapter Global Europe would have been 1,6% points lower; urges the Commission to use all available information to prevent, detect and correct any error and to act accordingly;
Amendment 312 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 199
Paragraph 199
199. Recalls that one important aspect of the Union external relations is that the fight against poverty, the sustainable development and the establishment of democratic structures should have as indirect impact to create the conditions of prevenlimiting the uncontrolled arrival of irregular migrants in Europelevel of migration;
Amendment 330 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 212 a (new)
Paragraph 212 a (new)
212a. Stresses that the absolutely majority of the staff of the European Commission is composed by women (55%); stresses therefore that less that 30% of the senior managers (Directors and Directors-General) and 33% of middle managers (Heads of Units) are women; urges the Commission to be active in order to have, at least, 40% of women at managerial positions by end of 2019;
Amendment 335 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 55 a (new)
Subheading 55 a (new)
Code of conduct
Amendment 337 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 214 a (new)
Paragraph 214 a (new)
214a. Is of the firm opinion that there is a growing need for strong ethics regulation in order to fulfil Articles 17 TEU and 245 TFEU; insists that well- functioning codes of conduct demand continuous attention; stresses that a code of conduct is only an effective preventative measure if properly applied and if compliance is systematically reviewed, not only in cases of incidents.
Amendment 338 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 214 b (new)
Paragraph 214 b (new)
214b. Notes the Commission proposal to revise the code of conducts for commissioners; regrets however that the revision is limited to the extension of the cooling off period to three years only for the former President of the European Commission; calls on the Commission to review the code of conduct for Commissioners by the end of 2017, including by implementing the European Parliament's recommendation that the ad hoc ethical committee be reformed to extend its powers and include independent experts, by defining what constitutes a "conflict of interest", as well as introducing criteria for assessing the compatibility of post-office employment and extending the cooling off period to three years for all Commissioners;
Amendment 339 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 214 c (new)
Paragraph 214 c (new)
214c. Points out that an important step with regard to conflicts of interest is to increase the transparency of the European Commission President, the ad hoc ethical committee of the Commission and of the Secretariat General, when reviewing situations of potential conflict; notes that only if the opinions of the ethical committee are published proactively can the public hold the Commission accountable;
Amendment 340 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 214 d (new)
Paragraph 214 d (new)
214d. Calls on the College of Commissioners to take a decision now that the recommendation of the ethical ad-hoc committee in the case of the former Commission President has been finalised so as to refer the case to the European Court of Justice for it to give an opinion on the matter.
Amendment 341 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 55 b (new)
Subheading 55 b (new)
Expert groups
Amendment 342 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 214 e (new)
Paragraph 214 e (new)
214e. Welcomes the Commission Decision of 30 May 2016 establishing horizontal rules on the creation and operation of Commission EGs, but regrets the fact that, despite many non- governmental organisations having expressed their interest, the Commission did not organise a full public consultation; reiterates the importance of reviving forms of involvement of representatives of civil society and the social partners in crucial areas such as the transparency and the functioning of the European institutions;
Amendment 343 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 214 f (new)
Paragraph 214 f (new)
214f. Recalls that a lack of transparency has a negative effect on the trust that EU citizens have in the EU institutions; believes that the effective reform of the Commission's EGs system, based on clear principles of transparency and balanced composition, will improve the availability and reliability of data, which will in turn help increase people's trust in the EU;
Amendment 344 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 214 g (new)
Paragraph 214 g (new)
214g. Takes the view that the Commission should make progress towards a more balanced composition of the EGs; deplores the fact, however, that as yet no express distinction is drawn between those representing economic and non-economic interests so as to guarantee a maximum of transparency and balance;
Amendment 345 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 214 h (new)
Paragraph 214 h (new)
214h. Recalls that both Parliament and the European Ombudsman have recommended to the Commission to make the agendas, background documents, minutes of meetings and deliberations of EGs public,
Amendment 346 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 55 c (new)
Subheading 55 c (new)
special advisors
Amendment 347 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 214 i (new)
Paragraph 214 i (new)
214i. Calls on the European Commission to publish the names, the function, the grade and the contract (working hours, length of the contract, place of work) of all special advisors; considers that there is a risk of conflict of interest with the special advisors; is therefore of the firm opinion that conflict of interest should be avoided as it would undermine the credibility of the institutions; calls on the Commission to publish the declarations of interest of the special advisors;