Activities of Morten MESSERSCHMIDT related to 2015/2156(DEC)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the 2014 discharge: EU general budget - European Council and Council
Amendments (7)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas the discharge procedure is part of the concept of representative democracy;
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
D a. whereas for twenty years the Court of Auditors of the European Union has been uncovering 'excessive levels of error regarding the legality and regularity of operations in most budget areas', leading it to give an adverse opinion, which is, for the financial high courts, the highest level of disapproval, affecting over 80% of EU expenditure;
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Recital D b (new)
Recital D b (new)
D b. whereas Special Report No 10/2015 of the Court of Auditors shows that the 'significant level of errors' uncovered that year concerned in particular 'the unjustified award of procurement contracts, work or supplementary services' and 'conflicts of interest', ineligible expenditure on research, innovation or improvements to the education system (unjustified staff, travel or equipment costs), unwarranted use of agriculture, fishing or environmental subsidies and of part of the aid to developing countries, making a total of over EUR 6 billion wasted;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 bis. Calls on the Council, the Commission and the Member States to consider a large-scale budgetary reform with the aim of: - reducing as far as possible the risk of fraud, waste and patronage in connection with EU money, - introducing a maximum ceiling for EU expenditure of 1% of GDP, - cancelling half of the structural funds currently at the Commission's discretion, - rejecting any kind of European tax and making provision for a simple national annual contribution determined as a percentage of GNI to be evaluated, debated and voted on exclusively by each national parliament, - affording national courts of auditors and parliaments the right to investigate and criticise the budget execution and European expenditure undertaken in their respective countries, and - reinforcing the assets and competences of the European Court of Auditors to enable it to combat the many irregularities and instances of fraud and waste uncovered;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Regrets about poor cooperation on scrutiny of the implementation of the budget between the Parliament and the Council last years and considers it as a negative sign sent to the citizens of the Union;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Calls to take into account Article 319(1) together with Article 317(2) TFEU, and Articles 55, 165, 166 of the Financial Regulation as a sufficient legal basis to exercise the Parliament’s implicit right to take a separate discharge decision to the Council in addition to its explicit right to grant a discharge to the Commission;
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls on the Council and Commission to enter into negotiations with Parliament with a view to ensuring that the latter can exercise its right of access to information concerning the implementation of the Council’s budget, believes that it entails an obligation by the Council to deliver the requested information, either directly or through the Commission;