20 Amendments of Bas EICKHOUT related to 2020/2194(DEC)
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the progress made by the agencies in their efforts to respond to the requests and recommendations expressed within the previous annual discharge procedure;
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. NoteRegrets that the level of detail provided in the budgetary implementation reports of a minority of agencies differs from that of the majority, which demonstrates the need for clearer and standardised guidelines on agencies’ budget reporting, including the need for agencies to explain significant deviations from the original budget and/or establishment plans; highlights the urgent need for all agencies to improve their planning capacities; deplores the reply of the Commission to the request to automatically provide the discharge authority with the official budget (in commitment appropriations and in payment appropriations) and staff figures (establishment plan figures with permanent staff, temporary agents, contract agents and seconded national experts as of 31 December of the year in question) in respect of the 32 decentralised agencies, as the mentioned guidelines (which in reality are templates that mostly provide guidance on form and not substance) are not sufficient to address the differences in calculations between the reports; reiterates its request to the Commission to provide the discharge authority with the official budget and staff figures for each agency and to provide consolidated figures for the decentralised agencies that are subject to the Parliament’s discharge procedure; calls on the Commission to adopt a centralised set of guidelines on reporting and KPIs- setting to ensure proper measurement of the agencies’ performance;
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Notes the Court’s finding in its report on the Ffuture of EU Union agencies that agencies measure performance through key performance indicators (KPIs) and that the Commission in 2015 issued guidelines for directors of agencies on KPIs; notes with regret that the indicators used in practice mainly relate to the implementation of an agency’s annual work programme, budget and its human resources management, and that they do not usually allow for the assessment of results or of the agency’s efficiency and effectiveness in discharging its mandate; calls onurges the agencies to work together to improveimprove joint cooperation and efforts in definition and the use of KPIs with the aim of ensuring a stronger focus on performance in the discharge procedure, in addition to compliance;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12 a. Expresses its concern that in the vast majority of agencies there is a lack of gender balance in the overall management staff; deplores that gender equality is completely absent in the 2021- 2027 Strategy for the European Union Agencies Network (the 'Network'); calls on the agencies and the Network to integrate gender equality in their strategies and to align the ambition of agencies with the aim of the Commission to reach gender balance of 50% at all levels of its management by the end of 2024;
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Notes with regret that some of the agencies are facing the challenge of insufficient staff, especially when new tasks are allocated without matching personnel for their implementation, and that the discharge authority is particularly concerned about the difficulties that some agencies experience in hiring qualified staff at specific grades, a fact which hinders the overall performance of the agencies and necessitates the employment of external actors; notes in this regard recommendations 1 and 2 of the Court in its report on the Future of EU Agencies (Special Report 22/20205 ) 1a)as regards the increased need for flexibility, and encourages the Network and the Commission to work together on the implementation of these recommendations; notes further in this regard that the Court’s Special Report on the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) (Special Report 23/2020 ) highlights the fact that the current selection process makes Union institutions look for r more flexible selection procedures to fulfil their immediate recruitment needs; further notemphasises the Union institutions’ need for more specialised personnel, which in the case of agencies is essential given their specific mandates; calls on the Commission, and in particular on EPSO, to better facilitate the agencies in this regard and to adapt its recruitment policies in a way that would attract best qualified and specialised staff; asks the Commission and EPSO to show a degree of flexibility in adapting the job offers to the particular conditions, to ensure efficient recruitment; highlights the importance of improving Union’s selection procedures and job attractiveness; stresses that understaffing of agencies poses serious risk of negative impact on the performance, as well as on staff’s wellbeing and turnover; _________________ 51a OJ C 358, 26.10.2020, p. 6
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Notes that the Court identified weaknesses in agencies’ recruitment procedures concerning the management of potential conflicts of interests (one agency), the application of the principle of equal treatment and/or transparency (three agencies), and keeping a proper audit trail of the procedure (one agency); deplores that there were cases (in at least three agencies) of panel members in significant conflict of interest with relation to the ongoing selection procedure; stresses that undeclared conflicts of interest can hinder selection procedures, causing substantial delays and loss of funds, as well as reputational damages to the agencies;
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16 a. Notes that the Ombudsman found two instances of maladministration in case 2168/2019/KR on the European Banking Authority’s decision to approve the request from its Executive Director to become CEO of a financial lobby group; welcomes the recommendations made by the Ombudsman in this case, notably to invoke the option of forbidding its senior staff from taking up certain positions after the end of their term-of-office where necessary, to set out criteria for when it will forbid such moves in the future and to put in place internal procedures to cut access to confidential information with immediate effect in case staff moves to another employment; calls on all agencies to implement these recommendations asa matter of priority;
Amendment 43 #
16 b. Stresses the importance of a staff well-being policy; stresses that agencies should provide for decent, high quality working conditions for all staff;
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 c (new)
Paragraph 16 c (new)
16 c. Expresses concern that some agencies relied strongly and over extended periods of time on interim workers; deplores the fact that in some cases the interim workers were paid less than agency staff employed on the same position; notes with concern that there were compliance issues identified in procurement and signature of contracts and framework agreements with recruitment of interim workers; calls on the agencies to diligently comply with the rules of procedure; reiterates calls to improve planning measures and selection procedures across the agencies;
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 d (new)
Paragraph 16 d (new)
16 d. Recognises the steps towards establishing of the harassment-free environment taken by the agencies, such as the additional training for the staff and the management as well as the introduction of the confidential councillors; encourages the agencies which have not yet introduced such steps to do so and agencies which have received harassment related complains to treat these as a priority;
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Notes with concern that the Court made 82 observations addressing areas for improvement in 29 agencies; notes that most observations concern shortcomings in public procurement procedures and that this was also the case in 2018; notes that these shortcomings mostly concern sound financial management and regularity; urges the agencies to implement recommendations and eliminate shortcomings; reiterates calls on the Commission to improve its efforts to implement clear and unified budgetary measures and procedures in agencies to tackle the identified issues reoccurring in majority of the agencies;
Amendment 49 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Notes with concernDeplores that it remains the case that not all aAgencies have published on their websites the CVs and declarations of interest for members of the management boards, executive leadership and seconded experts; regrets the fact that some agencies still publish self-declarations of absence of conflicts of interests; highlightstresses that it is not up to the board members or executives to declare themselves to have an absence of conflicts of interests; reiterates its calls for a unified model of declarations of interest to be implemented by all agencies; urges all agencies to review and improve their transparency; stresses the importance of establishing an independent ethics body to assess conflict of interest and revolving door situations throughout the institutions, agencies and other bodies of the Union; urges the Member States to ensure that all seconded experts and senior management publish their respective declarations of interest and CVs on the respective agency websites;
Amendment 51 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)
Paragraph 18 a (new)
18 a. Calls to bring whistleblower protection policies of all Union agencies in line with Directive (EU) 2019/1937 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law;
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Notes that the study “Conflicts of Interests and EU Agencies”, which was published in January 2020, concluded that one should not strive for achieving a one- size-fits all conflicts of interests policy for all agencies, that conflicts of interests policies should remain flexible and agency-specific as regards the system for assessment oftransparency is the main principle that should underpin the agencies’ policies so as to enable effective public scrutiny; acknowledges the differences in risk factors, size and external pressure among agencies and the need to adapt conflicts of interests, the moda politcies tof the internal investigations and the protection for whistleblowers as well the need to create an internal advisory body; acknowledges the need for a tailored policy for each agency; notes however that this should not result in complacency; urges the agencies toose differences; notes the recommendations made in this study to improve conflict of interest rules and to achieve more coherence and consistency and urges the agencies to follow up on these recommendations and continually assess and improve their policies given the instances of assumed or perceived conflicts of interests which occurred in 2019;
Amendment 56 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
Amendment 57 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Notes that at the end of 2019, most agencies reported that they had implemented the revised internal control framework and have performed an annual assessment; reiterates its callurges for the adoption and implementation of the internal control framework by all agencies in order to align their internal control in the with international best practice, and to make sure that internal control effectively and efficiently supports the decision- making process; deplores the fact that in2019 in some agencies there was no audit procedures conducted by the IAS;
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Notes that in 2019, according to the Court’s report concerning follow-up of previous years’ observations, 98 observations were closed, 71 observations were still being implemented, and 16 observations were deemed to be not under the agencies’ (sole) control, meaning that major decisions concerning these 16 observations need to be taken by the Court of Justice of the European Union, the Commission or the Member States; calls on the Agencies to diligently implement the observations and further improve its internal control frameworks;
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 a (new)
Paragraph 24 a (new)
24 a. Highlights risks of external IT consultancy and outsourcing the management of budgetary or staffing- related exercises;
Amendment 62 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 b (new)
Paragraph 24 b (new)
24 b. Expresses its concern that most Agencies did not publish a sustainability report and did not report on the sustainability of the Agency in their Annual Report; calls on all agencies to ensure comprehensive strategies for sustainable development, to fully integrate sustainability in their reporting information and to ensure swift implementation of the European eco- management and audit scheme (EMAS) as recommended by the Court of Auditors; calls on all Agencies to strengthen their efforts in adopting digitalised operating solutions; calls on the Agencies to pay due attention to the energy mix of its sources of electricity and encourages the procurement of electricity generated by renewable energy;
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 c (new)
Paragraph 24 c (new)
24 c. Notes that most agencies have improved their outreach to the public and dissemination of information with efforts to promote their newsletters and publications;