Activities of Jeroen LENAERS related to 2022/2081(DEC)
Reports (1)
REPORT on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2021, Section III – Commission and executive agencies
Amendments (6)
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Reiterates its deep concerns regarding the situation concerning the rule of law in a number of Member States, which is deeply worrying in its own right and leads to serious losses for the Union budget; underlines that Union funds must not be used for anti-democratic activities or for strengthening authoritarianism; reminds that the EU introduced a legal conditionality mechanism to withhold funding from Member States that subvert the rule of law and welcomes the first application of the conditionalityis mechanism in the case of Hungary, procedure launched in November 2021 and concluded in December 2022 with the freezing of 55% of three cohesion policy programmes (around EUR 6,35 billion); reiteratesnotes that Hungary's and Poland's Recovery Plans have been approved; emphasises that both plans contain several so-called rule of law supermilestones; demands the Commission to continuously monitor the situation and withhold funding as long as the rule of law violations threaten the sound financial management of the Union budget; reiterates in this context its strong conviction that Member States must respect democracy and the rule of law in order to receive Union funds and draws attention to the Commission that the rule of law situation has also been deteriorating in other Member States,; calls therefore on the Commission to trigger without delay the application of the conditionality mechanism whenever breaches of the principles of the rule of law are identified to be affecting or are in serious risk of affecting the sound financial management of the Union budget or the protection of the financial interests of the Union in a sufficiently direct way; moreover stresses that Parliament, Council and the Commission need to closely co-operate together as allies; underlines its strong and repeated requests to the Commission and executive agencies to ensure the protection of the Union budget by making global and systematic use of digital and automated systems for reporting, monitoring and audit;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Reminds that the Hungarian economic development has been largely linked to foreign capital investments; deplores therefore the anti-multinational rhetoric of the Hungarian government and that the institutionalisation of corruption and the opaque public procurement system, which should be actually addressed through the reforms requested in the context of the application of the conditionality mechanism, allowed the government to increase in the recent years its ownership in energy, banking , telecom and media spheres; deplores the selective and biased denial of permits and imposition of arbitrarily rigid conditions and restrictions with the goal to economically weaken and bleed out certain foreign companies until they are forced to accept a hostile takeover in full or in part by the Hungarian government or oligarchs close to the government at prices well below the real value of the company; criticises the Commission for not fulfilling its responsibility to defend the internal market and fair competition by not intervening in these broadly deployed breaches of rule of law and internal market rules;
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Appreciates the utility of the Kohesio website and the Open Data Platform put in place by the European Commission as transparency and accountability tools for cohesion policy/ shared management related investments for 2014 -2020 and 2021 – 2027 programming periods, bringing together the national lists of EU supported projects and offering a mapping of operations (Kohesio) and providing up to date data on adopted programmes, regular monitoring of finances and EU commitments and payments (Open Data Platform); notes the on-going adaptations performed to adequately cover the 2021- 2027 programming period, but stresses the imperative need of coordination and interoperability with the ARACHNE risk scoring tool; calls therefore on the Commission to ensure effective interoperability between the different tools;
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Underlines the increasing need to ensure the transparency of NGOs and of their funding, as they are important actors in the implementation of the Union budget, especially in the area of external action; demands the Commission to re-evaluate its identification of entities as NGOs and a clear definition, improving the reliability of information (making sure to have them registered as lobbyists, having clearly established whether they stand for the topics they claim they represent, and having insight into their financing); demands the disclosure of their financing be it private (e.g. NGOs financed by the industrial actors) or public; recalls that as regards public funding, the Union basic acts regulate how transparency and visibility in this regard need to be handled, therefore reminds the Commission about the responsibility it has to check the compliance with rules and procedures, especially rules and procedures on sub- granting to NGOs; moreover, demands that the Commission provides the discharge authority with clear information about the total amount of Union funds implemented by NGOs;
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 b (new)
Paragraph 12 b (new)
12b. The legislation should also oblige the Commission to fully disclose any financial, administrative or cooperation agreements between the Commission and NGOs, particularly funding agreements/contracts with NGOs in which the Commission outsources the implementation of policies or the drafting of legislation or impact assessments to NGOs;