Activities of Ivailo KALFIN related to 2011/2033(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on budgetary management of European Union pre-accession funds in the areas of judicial systems and the fight against corruption in the candidate and potential candidate countries PDF (263 KB) DOC (166 KB)
Amendments (15)
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas the "New Approach" sets a new negotiation methodology for enlargement countries starting accession negotiations, including clear priorities and conditionalities in all areas of chapter 23 and 24 thus allowing a better prioritisation of financial assistance under IPA II.
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Ab. whereas the new pre-accession instrument IPA II is supposed to be more strategic, efficient and better targeted than its predecessors, aiming to achieve sustainable results in improving the readiness of these countries for membership, and where possible favouring the sector approach in order to support comprehensive reform strategies of the beneficiary countries.
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
Ac. whereas the EU support for rule of law related reforms in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo is not limited to IPA assistance. I.e. in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a Police Mission was conducted between 2003 and 2012. Support to Kosovo is also provided in the form of the EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX), which was deployed in 2008. With a total of over 2000 staff on 1 July 2013 (of which more than 730 seconded by EU Member States), and with an annual budget of just over 100 million EUR (period June 2012-June 2013), EULEX has a substantial role in supporting Kosovo institutions in the field of rule of law, including on judicial reform and the fight against corruption.
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
Amendment 20 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Notes that on average 4.28 % of the total EU pre-accession assistance envelope for the period 2007-2013 is devoted to justice and 1.12 % to the fight against corruption while the total amount allocated on all policy areas covered by chapters 23 and 24 (Judiciary and Fundamental rights and Justice, Freedom and Security) is approximately 7.41.% of the total pre-accession assistance. Since the Institution Building component is entirely aiming at strengthening the rule of law, one should count approximately 16.29% of funds allocated to Component I;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Considers that the level of pre- accession assistance invested in judiciary reform and the fight against corruption does not fully reflect the priority set by the Commission in this respect;
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7b. Notes that alongside support for legislative reforms, infrastructure rehabilitation, construction, expansion and upgrading and procurement of equipment and supplies, training is a core component of EU pre-accession assistance and that approximately 30% of TAIEX events cover these areas; Recalling the importance of judiciary and corruption-related issues, the severity of the problems faced in the field, as well as the positive spillovers and synergies that other sectors would benefit from if judiciary and anti-corruptions reforms were duly completed and implemented, urges the Commission and the beneficiary countries to allocate a more substantial and adequate level of funding to these two sectors; Recognizes however that the share of overall financing is not the only criteria for the efficiency of the EU efforts to strengthen the rule of law and anti- corruption practices.
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Recallings that the rule of law is the cornerstone of democratic governance, and a pre-condition for a functioning market economy and stresses the need to see judicial reforms in a wider context; stresses that the justice system needs to be more efficient, fair and predictable in order to ensure that the people and the business community trust the judiciary; stresses in this context the need to establish random distribution of cases across all courts, to ensure timely justice and ongoing training of judges, prosecutors and clerks, and to ensure the unification of jurisprudence and the publication of all judicial decisions immediately after adoption, as well as e- justice; notes that these activities are not cost-intensive; welcomes that the "New Approach" will focus on these issues in the context of the accession negotiations;
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Notes that genuine implementation and concrete results, in particular in the cases of high- level political corruption and corruption in the judiciary, are still a big challenge and that a convincing track record of cases of prosecution and conviction should be built up in order to measure progress; welcomes that the "New Approach" will focus on these issues in the context of the accession negotiations; stresses the need for better planning and funding of anti- corruption work, based on a broad range of stakeholders; calls on the Commission to develop a longer-term and broad-based strategic perspective of EU funding for civil society organisations which are working in the areas of transparency and anti-corruption;
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Notes that a more comprehensive sectoral approach in the areas of judiciary reform and the fight against corruption would entail positive changes, such as better focus of the national reform efforts, enhancinged donor coordination and ensuring better interaction between individual projects; calls, nevertheless, on the Commission to reassess its sectoral approach, given that in most candidate and potential candidate countries neither institutional set-up nor budgeting processes are at a level that will allow this approach to work and that a clear overall strategy and guidance at EU level are still lacking; on the Commission to ensure that sectoral approaches are introduced in accordance with the Guidelines on Sector- Approach in Pre-Accession assistance and that the capacities of the beneficiary countries to draw up and implement meaningful sector strategies are enhanced ; calls on the Commission to continue to provide guidance on the implementation of the sector-approach during the planning and programming stages of IPA II, considers, that in most candidate and potential candidate countries neither institutional set-up nor budgeting processes are at a level suitable for sector budget support and calls on the Commission to promote the necessary institutional and procedural improvements in the beneficiary countries.
Amendment 55 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Observes that project fiches have improved over time with the inclusion of more and better-designed SMART objectives, as well as specific indicators for the different components of a project; is, however, concerned that external evaluation has reported that some projects lacked focus because of inappropriate indicators, with SMART indicators not always suited to the justice sector; insists on the need for designing qualitative indicators capable of measuring the long- term impact of the projects; the European Commission should continue elaborating on guidance on the utilisation of performance indicators to be used for programming, monitoring and evaluation purposes for the 2014-20 financial framework in relation to IPA II. Specific indicators in the sector of Justice, Liberty and Security should be developed in this framework. They shall be used in line with the more strategic approach under IPA II.
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Notes that alongside support for legislative reforms, infrastructure rehabilitation, construction, expansion and upgrading and procurement of equipment and supplies, training is a core component of EU pre-accession assistance; is of the opinion that high- quality training is a vital aspect for the sustainability of projectsIs of the opinion that high quality training is a vital aspect of judicial reforms and welcomes the fact that over 30% of TAIEX activities are devoted to Justice, Freedom and Security, but questions the relevance of the objective indicators defined in the project fiches, which are used to measure the added value of training activities; points out that indicators such as ‘'quality and quantity of training activities carried out by trainers’8' or ‘'trained judicial advisors satisfied with the training’9' mainly focus on output and overlook outcomes; points out, for instance, that the fact that participants state in a questionnaire that training will influence their work is not in itself an impact indicator; calls, therefore, on the Commission to further fine-tune its training-related indicators and to organise a thorough impact assessment of the training activities implemented in the candidate and potential candidate countries;
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Is of the opinion that a database listing all of the projects funded under pre- accession assistance programmes should be established and made publicly available; calls on the Commission, therefore, to develop measures to increase the transparency of legal arrangements and to design a system whereby all beneficiaries of EU funding are published on the same website, independently of the administrator of the funds, and on the basis of standard categories of information to be provided by all Member States in at least one working language of the EU; welcomes the Commission's commitment to address these issues by implementing an internationally agreed common standard for electronic publication of timely, comprehensive and forward-looking information on resources provided through development co-operation by 2015.
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 1
Citation 1
– having regard to the European Commission's communications on enlargement strategy and main challenges for the periods 2007-2008, 2009-20108-2009, 2009-2010, 2010-2011, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013,