Activities of Lara WOLTERS related to 2019/2098(DEC)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Union agencies for the financial year 2018: performance, financial management and control
Amendments (16)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 10 a (new)
Citation 10 a (new)
- having regard to the Rapid case review "Reporting on sustainability: A stocktake of EU Institutions and Agencies' by the European Court of Auditors"
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Notes with satisfaction that, according to the annual report of the European Court of Auditors’ (the 'Court') on Union agencies for the financial year 2018 (the 'Court’s report'), the Court issued an unqualified audit opinion on the reliability of the accounts of all agencies; notes in addition that the Court issued an unqualified opinion on the legality and regularity of the revenue underlying the accounts for all agencies; observes that the Court issued an unqualified opinion on the legality and regularity of the payments underlying the accounts for all agencies, except for the European Asylum Support Office (EASO); points out with regret that for EASO’s payments for the financial years 2016 and 2017, the Court issued a qualified opinionnotes that for EASO the Court issued a basis for a qualified opinion, in relation to its findings reported for the financial years 2016 and 2017 on the legality and regularity of the payments, but that except for the effects of the financial years 2016 and 2017, the Court is of the opinion that the EASO payments underlying the annual accounts for the year ended 31 December 2018 are legal and regular in all material aspects;
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15 a. Underlines that the Authority, when carrying out its activities, needs to pay particular attention ensuring compatibility with Union law, respecting the principle of proportionality and complying with the fundamental principles of the internal market;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 b (new)
Paragraph 16 b (new)
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 c (new)
Paragraph 16 c (new)
16 c. Notes further that in 2018 within management boards an even gender balance existed for 3 agencies, good balance - for 6 agencies, but unbalanced representation existed for 21 agencies (in one of them only male representation); asks the member states and the relevant organisations which participate in management boards to consider ensuring a better gender balance when nominating their representatives to this bodies;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 d (new)
Paragraph 16 d (new)
16 d. Observes that only one agency ESMA has reported an even gender balance for both seniormanagement staff and the management board; welcomes this achievement and encourages the other agencies to follow this good example;
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16 a. Notes the information provided by the agencies concerning the gender balance among senior management and within Management Boards and the remarks of some agencies that they do not have senior management except the executive director; asks in this regard the agencies in future to present data for all categories of management staff;
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Notes from the Court’s report that, following its rapid case review in 2017 on how agencies implemented the commitment made to cut 5 % of staff in their establishment plans during 2014- 2018, it concluded that the 5 % reduction had been implemented, albeit with some delays; notes that some agencies have implemented a staff reduction of 10% and that several agencies report about insufficient staff to implement new tasks assigned, as well as about increased workload which creates a risk for the proper implementation of their objectives;
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)
Paragraph 18 a (new)
18 a. Notes with concern findings by the Court that in some agencies interim workers have poorer working conditions as workers employed directly by the agency; recalls that according to Directive 2008/104/EC and several national labour laws, interim workers should work under the same working conditions as workers employed directly by the user undertaking; calls on the agencies concerned to analyse the working conditions of its interim workers and ensure that they are in line with Union and national labour law
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 a (new)
Paragraph 22 a (new)
22 a. Notes with concern that not all agencies and bodies of the Union have published on their respective websites the declarations of interest for members of the management boards, executive leadership and seconded experts; regrets that some agencies still publish declarations of absence of conflict of interest; highlights that it is not up to the board members or executives to declare themselves out of conflict of interest; calls for a unified model of declarations of interest to be implemented by all agencies; stresses the importance of establishing an independent ethics body to assess conflict of interest and revolving doors situations throughout the institutions, agencies and other bodies of the Union; urges the Member States to ensure that all seconded experts publish their respective declarations of interest and CVs on the respective agency websites;
Amendment 59 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 a (new)
Paragraph 22 a (new)
22 a. Reiterates that an insufficiently detailed Conflict of Interests policy may result in a loss of credibility of an agency; upholds that for all starting point for these policies is the submission of regular and sufficiently detailed Declarations of Interests and stresses in this light that moving towards positive declarations of interests instead of declarations of absence of interests would allow for more comprehensive controls; stresses that on top of that Conflict of Interests should have a Conflict of Interests screening mechanism in place, proportionate to the size and function of that agency;
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 b (new)
Paragraph 22 b (new)
22 b. Notes that, in spite of whistle- blowing rules being in place in all agencies and other bodies of the Union, there are hardly any cases reported, raising concern of either staff not being aware of existing rules, or a lack of trust in the system; points out the necessity of an independent disclosure, advice and referral body, with sufficient budgetary resources, in order to support and ensure the proper implementation of whistle- blowing rules and procedures;
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 c (new)
Paragraph 22 c (new)
22 c. Considers regrettable that there are still no clear guidelines and a consolidated policy on the revolving doors issue; stresses the fact that this issue is of key importance, particularly in the case of those agencies working with the industries; calls on the Commission to provide stronger rules, better controls and clear guidelines on cooling-off periods for out-going staff and other revolving-doors related measures;
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 a (new)
Paragraph 23 a (new)
23 a. Underlines the importance of an open, efficient and independent European administration for all European agencies and the whole Union; recalls the problem of revolving door conflict of interest situations and stresses the need for a unified legal framework to address these issues;
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Welcomes the fact that most agencies, except the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union (CdT) and the European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (eu-LISA) have guidelines in place for granting public access to documents; however, notes that before the end of this year, CdT foresees to have guidelines in place and eu-LISA is going to develop internal rules on how to handle requests to access public documents and endeavours to adopt them in 2020;
Amendment 71 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 a (new)
Paragraph 27 a (new)
27 a. Welcomes the Court Rapid case review "Reporting on sustainability: A stocktake of EU Institutions and Agencies"; reiterates its findings that the information collected or published mainly relates to how the running of the organisation affects sustainability (such as their internal use of paper or water) rather than on how they have considered sustainability in their overall strategy and operations; stresses that such internal focused reporting does not capture the most material issues for an organisation; calls on all agencies to take stock of the adverse sustainability impacts produced by its operations, and to structurally include this in their sustainability reporting.