19 Amendments of Monika HOHLMEIER related to 2021/2025(INI)
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Highlights that the rule of law is an essential precondition for compliance with the principle of sound financial management, as enshrined in Article 317 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), and for the protection of the Union’s financial interests, which can only be ensured if public authorities act in accordance with the law, if cases of fraud, corruption, conflicts of interest or other breaches of the law are pursued effectively by investigative and prosecution services, if national courts are independent, and if the decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union are respected;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Underlines the importance of the protection of the financial interests of the Union and the respect for the rule of law; expresses its concern over the potentially growing risk of misusing the Union’s budget as means to deteriorate the rule of law by some Member States;
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Welcomes that all Member States are being scrutinised along the same indicators and in accordance with the same methodology; appreciates that the Commission includes observations and findings about all Member States; regrets, however, that the current presentation of the report neither differentiates between the severity of the identified rule of law issues nor whether these are of systemic nature or individual, disconnected breaches; is of the opinion that there is a serious difference between systemic and individual, disconnected breaches of the rule of law; emphasises that this equal presentation of breaches of different nature carries the risk of trivialising the most serious rule of law breaches; urges the Commission to differentiate its reporting by distinguishing between systemic and individual, disconnected breaches of rule of law; calls on the Commission to update its methodology accordingly and keep Parliament informed without undue delay;
Amendment 19 #
2b. Is of the opinion that the following Rule of Law Reports should build upon the findings of the first; calls on the Commission to follow-up on its previous observations and analyse any positive or negative developments while highlighting in particular any systemic or reoccurring patterns of rule of law breaches;
Amendment 21 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Asks the Commission to provide information in itsNotes that the first Rule of Law Report is mostly descriptive of the situation in the Member States; calls on the Commission to make the report more analytical in the future and also include specific assessments and recommendations to the Member States on how to improve or remedy the breaches; underlines that these recommendations should include deadlines for implementation, where appropriate, and asks the Commission to include a follow-up on the implementation of its recommendations in its future reports; asks the Commission to provide information in separate future reports about the way Member States respect the rule of law and effectively protect the Union’s financial interests, for both EU budget revenue and expenditure, and to highlight serious risks to the Union budget; insists that the reports should provide specific assessments and recommendations to the Member States;
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Notes that the Rule of Law Report serves as one of the most important, but not only, source for investigating potential cases of breaches of the rule of law;
Amendment 54 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 c (new)
Paragraph 7 c (new)
7c. Underlines that the annual Rule of Law report is an independent and separate tool from the Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2092 on the general regime of conditionality for the protection of the Union budget, which both serve different purposes: while the annual Rule of Law reporting has a preventive and informative character aimed at providing a broader overview of the situation and possible breaches regarding the rule of law in all Member States independent of any link to the budget of the Union, Regulation (EU, Euratom)2020/2092 is a conditionality mechanism aimed at sanctioning breaches or the risk of a breach with a sufficiently direct link to the budget or financial interests of the Union;
Amendment 55 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Emphasises the importance of keeping these two distinct legal tools clearly separated to avoid any kind of unlawful interference; acknowledges that the Commission can use the annual Rule of Law report as an important source of information when building cases for the application of Regulation(EU, Euratom) 2020/2092; is however, of the opinion that concrete information relevant specifically for the application of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2092 shall not merely be included as a chapter of the annual Rule of Law report, but shall be presented as a separate report under the auspices of the responsible Commissioner, as this report would include information drawn from a variety of different sources besides the annual Rule of Law report, including but not limited to reports by the ECA, OLAF and EPPO, audit reports by the Commission and national audit authorities, judgments by the CJEU and national Courts; analyses by the FRA, information from different systems such as EDES and ARACHNE; calls therefore on the Commission to provide a distinct report with information and analyses of actual and potential cases where breaches of the principles of rule of law in Member States could affect or seriously risk affecting the sound financial management of the Union budget in a sufficiently direct way; asks the Commission to discuss and agree with Parliament whether this report should be presented annually, or on a continuous semi-annual or quarterly basis;
Amendment 57 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Believes that the situation as regards the respect of the principles of the rule of law in some Member States demands urgent attention; urges the Commission to make full use of its power of investigation for each case of a potential breach of the principles of the rule of law by a Member State which could affect or seriously risk affecting the sound financial management of the Union budget in a sufficiently direct way;
Amendment 59 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7b. Emphasises the clear relationship between the respect for the rule of law and the efficient implementation of the Union budget in accordance with the principles of sound financial management as laid down in the Financial Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 of the European Parliament and of the Council;
Amendment 60 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7b. Calls on Parliament to establish a Working Group to closely scrutinise developments in relation to Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2092 consisting of Members from the responsible lead Committees;
Amendment 61 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 c (new)
Paragraph 7 c (new)
7c. Reminds that the revised OLAF Regulation strengthens the way OLAF can conduct its own investigations, notably by reinforcing rules on the anti- fraud coordination services in the Member States and on the cooperation between OLAF and national competent authorities before, during and after an investigation;
Amendment 62 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 d (new)
Paragraph 7 d (new)
7d. Calls for a systemic and structural mechanism for the Parliament to introduce its findings to the Commission concerning deficits and breaches as regards the rule of law in the Member States; suggests such a mechanism to be proposed to the Commission by the Parliament at the earliest convenience;
Amendment 67 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Welcomes that all Member States are being scrutinised along the same indicators and in accordance with the same methodology; appreciates that the Commission includes observations and findings about all Member States; regrets, however, that the current presentation of the report neither differentiates between the severity of the identified rule of law issues nor whether these are of systemic nature or individual, disconnected breaches; is of the opinion that there is a serious difference between systemic and individual, disconnected breaches of the rule of law; emphasises that this equal presentation of breaches of different nature carries the risk of trivialising the most serious rule of law breaches; urges the Commission to differentiate its reporting by distinguishing between systemic and individual, disconnected breaches of rule of law; calls on the Commission to update its methodology accordingly and keep Parliament informed without undue delay;
Amendment 85 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Notes that the first rule of law report is mostly descriptive of the situation in the Member States; calls on the Commission to make the report more analytical in the future and also include specific assessments and recommendations to the Member States on how to improve or remedy the breaches; underlines that these recommendations should include deadlines for implementation, where appropriate, and asks the Commission to include a follow-up on the implementation of its recommendations in its future reports;
Amendment 141 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Welcomes the dedication of a specific chapter to anti-corruption efforts in each country report; points out that while the existence of national anticorruption strategies can be considered progress, their effectiveness on the ground must also be assessed; notes that an assessment of the resilience of the anti-corruption framework to tackle corruption-related risks in the area of public procurement remains largely absent from the 2020 report; invites the Commission to place greater emphasis on the misuse of EU funds, particularly in view of the new conditionality mechanism;
Amendment 286 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. Calls for the Commission to use the findings of the annual report in its assessment that forms the basis of the mechanism to protect the budget against breaches of the principle of the rule of law; reiterates its call on the Commission to dedicate a specific section of the annual report to an analysis of cases where breaches of the principles ofunderlines that the annual rule of law report is an independent and separate tool from the Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2092 on the general regime of conditionality for the protection of the Union budget, which both serve different purposes: while the annual rule of law reporting has a preventive and informative character aimed at providing a broader overview of the situation and possible breaches regarding the rule of law in a particularll Member State could affect or seriously rs independent of any link to the budget of the Union, Regulation (EU, Euratom)2020/2092 is a conditionality mechaniskm affecting the sound financial management of the Union budget in a sufficiently direct wayimed at sanctioning breaches or the risk of a breach with a direct link to the budget or financial interests of the Union;
Amendment 288 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 a (new)
Paragraph 27 a (new)
27 a. Emphasises the importance of keeping these two distinct legal tools clearly separated to avoid any kind of unlawful interference; acknowledges that the Commission can use the annual rule of law report as an important source of information when building cases for the application of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2092; is however of the opinion that concrete information relevant specifically for the application of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2092 should not merely be included as a chapter of the annual rule of law report, but should be presented as a separate report under the auspices of DG BUDG, as this report would include information drawn from a variety of different sources besides the annual rule of law report, including but not limited to reports by the ECA, OLAF and EPPO, audit reports by the Commission and national audit authorities, judgments by the CJEU and national courts, analyses by the FRA and information from different systems such as EDES and ARACHNE; calls therefore on the Commission to provide a distinct report with information about breaches or potential breaches of the principles of rule of law by a Member State which could affect or seriously risk affecting the sound financial management of the Union budget in a sufficiently direct way; asks the Commission to align with Parliament whether this report should be presented annually, or on a continuous semi-annual or quarterly basis;
Amendment 296 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28
Paragraph 28
28. Calls on the Commission to assess in successive reports how the issues identified in the areas analysed in previous reports have evolved; calls on the Commission to follow-up on its previous observations and analyse any positive or negative developments while highlighting in particular any systemic or reoccurring patterns of rule of law breaches;