Activities of Bas EICKHOUT related to 2022/0212(BUD)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the draft general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2023-all sections
Amendments (12)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Stresses that the Union must be committed to obtaining a resilient, sustainable, socially fair recovery for all through the 2023 Union budget concluding the revised 2030 framework for Union climate, energy and environmental targets; calls on the Commission and Member States to ensure a smooth adoption and implementation of the files included in the ‘Fit for 55’ package to help ensure that the Union imeets its 2030 targets and that it achieves climate neutrality by 2050 at the latest, whilst recognising that current Union policies need substantial improvements to be consistent with a pathway compatible with limiting global warming to under 1.5°C;
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Welcomes the Commission REPowerEU Plan to accelerate the green transition and to increase the Union’s energy independence, in particular by ending fossil fuel imports from Russia as soon as possible; highlights that accelerating the implementation of the European Green Deal will reduce both the Union dependency from third countries; as well as allowing us to achieve our climate and energy targets; is highly concerned about the limited new funds for the Recovery and Resilience Facility REPowerEU chapter and opposes any funding that would lead to additional emissions; expresses therefore deep concern about the proposal to use the ETS Market Stability Reserve to finance part of these measures, thereby putting the financial and environmental integrity of ETS at risk, while underlining its commitment to not creating a funding gap and ensuring the integrity and ability of the ETS system to deliver on the 2030 climate target and looking at all the options available within the scope of the ETS regulation to deliver both on climate goals and Repower EU;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Reiterates its call for the phase-out of harmful subsidies and for coherence between all EU funds and programmes; insists that projects and programmes, which are inconsistent with the objective of limiting global warming to under 1.5oC or with the objective of halting and reversing biodiversity loss, should not be eligible for support under the EU budget in line with the do no significant harm; recalls that the 8th Environment Action Programme lays down the enabling condition of phasing out of environmentally harmful subsidies, including through setting a deadline for the phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies consistent with the ambition of limiting global warming to 1,5°C as well as a binding Union framework to monitor and report on Member States’ progress towards phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, based on an agreed methodology;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Reminds the importance of achievingExpects the climate and biodiversity mainstreaming targets to be achieved in the Union budget and the European Union Recovery Instrument expenditures;, in this regard insists on the need to track climate and biodiversity-related expenditure and welcomes the biodiversity tracking methodology upgraded by the Commission in viewline with the targets laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement; in this regard welcomes the efforts for a more transparent and comprehensive reporting, in particular the clarifications to Climate Mainstreaming in Working Document 1, the relevant chapter in the Statement of Estimates Commission Staff Working Document on Climate Mainstreaming Architecture and emphasises the need to carry out sufficient ex-post evaluations and to work ofn the Union budget 2023granularity of the date available; calls on the Commission to address the conclusions of the European Court of Auditors regarding overstated climate spending1 in particular as regards the mainstreaming targets in the CAP, and in this regard insists on the importance of CAP Strategic Plans; calls on Member States to ensure the integration of biodiversity in partnership agreements and operational programmes as well as in their CAP strategic plans; _________________ 1 Special report of the European Court of Auditors: Climate spending in the 2014- 2020 EU budget
Amendment 21 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3 b. Calls on the Commission to publish the amounts and shares of expenditures that will contribute to both biodiversity and climate targets per program when presenting annual budgets; welcomes the Commissions efforts for impact reporting and calls for this to be a regular part of the performance reporting framework as soon as possible;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. HStresses that the court of auditors found in its special report on sustainable finance that the do no significant harm principle is not applied to all EU expenditure and that several EU spending programmes permit the funding of environmentally harmful activities1a; highlights the need to ensure that the do- no-significant-harm principle is mainstreamed in all Union activities, including in the Recovery and Resilience Facility, through the budgetary implementation accords agreed ing tohe IIA and welcomes the Commission proposal for amending the Financial Regulation to include the do no significant harm principle in the regulation in line with the Union’s commitment to sustainable financing and the green transition; calls on the Commission to monitor the proper implementation of the do no significant harm principle and to take immediate corrective measures if and when needed; _________________ 1a https://www.eca.europa.eu/en/Pages/DocI tem.aspx?did=59378
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Reminds the importance of taking due account of the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic regarding public health and affordable and accessible care services; in this regard calls for increasing the level of support to the European Health Union in addition to the EU4Health Programme in the 2023 Union budget, particularly for enlarged mandates of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and establishment of the European Health Emergency Prevention and Response Authority (DG HERA); stresses that core funding for operations of EU agencies and bodies shall not depend on short-term financial programmes, such as the EU4Health, and shall not by default reduce financing of other activities in the area of health; notes with concern the significant decrease in EU4Health budget compared to the previous year and stresses the need to increase the amount to appropriately fund foreseen activities; calls for a specific action on mental health within the framework of the EU4Health Programme in order to tackle the mental health problems of the population and particularly those derived from the COVID-19 pandemic; stresses that sufficient resources should be allocated for increasing investments in research and development in the area of health;
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7 a. Notes with concern the lack of funding available to build a secure and interoperable digital health infrastructure in Member States, accompanied by the European Health Data Space (EHDS) proposal;
Amendment 45 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Recalls that in order to properly comply with their tasks the Union agencies under the remit of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (EEA2 , ECHA3 , EMA4 , ECDC5 and EFSA6 ) must be adequately funded and staffed; deplores the budgetary reduction for ECDC and EMA; notes that EEA's recently acquired new tasks have been covered with operational staff, but that the ratio of support staff has decreased significantly, requiring additional resources in order to ensure that the agency can fulfil its tasks, including in relation to the European Environment Information and Observation Network (EIONET); stresses that the deterioration of the staff levels of the agencies could jeopardise, among others, the achievement of the European Green Deal or the successful management of public health risks; _________________ 2 European Environment Agency. 3 European Chemicals Agency. 4 European Medicines Agency. 5 European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. 6 European Food Safety Authority.
Amendment 48 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8 a. Stresses the importance of transparency in funding of public authorities, including EU institutions, bodies and agencies; underlines that the EU bodies independence and integrity is crucial and therefore high degree of transparency needs to be ensured through all activities to avoid regulatory capture and ensure citizens' maintain their trust in EU decision-making;
Amendment 50 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Stresses the importance ofReaffirms its full commitment to a system of own resources capable to contribute to the Union’s goals on the climate, the environment and health.