Activities of Cristian Dan PREDA related to 2018/2166(DEC)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2017, Section III - Commission and executive agencies
Amendments (8)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes that no estimate of the level of error rate for spending under Heading 4 has been calculated for 2017 by the European Court of Auditors (ECA); stresses that a representative sample size for the audit of ‘Global Europe’ is essential for a rigorous and independent evaluation of financial transactions and calls for swiftly addressing this issue in order to enable better oversight on the use of EU funds by the European Parliament;
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Welcomes the ECA’s assessment of performance aspects in addition to checking regularity of transactions in its 2017 report; fully supports all recommendations formulated by the ECA based on the 56 transactions sampled and urg; welcomes the Commission to's readiness to take on these recommendations and calls for their swiftly implement themation;
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Recalls the importance of the EU's Pre-accession assistance and its contribution to building the political infrastructure to meet and uphold the Copenhagen criteria; welcomes recent efforts to better focus EU support in this area; stresses that improving administrative capacity of beneficiaries of IPA funds should continue to be a priority and points out the need to develop measurable indicators in order to assess progress on this issue; believes, at the same time, that political will of accession countries to enhance administrative capacity is an indispensable element in this regard, as well as for ensuring better absorption of EU funding; underlines that better use of conditionality of EU funds is critical in order to bring about change in beneficiary countries;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2 b. Calls for sustained efforts in order to address the weaknesses identified by audit authorities in the indirect management in some beneficiary countries of the second Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA II); calls on DG NEAR to continue to closely assist national authorities concerned in overcoming the shortcomings and, more specifically, in improving the training and recruitment of their staff, as well as their audit methodology, supervision and planning;
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 c (new)
Paragraph 2 c (new)
2 c. Encourages a more rigorous approach regarding disbursements to beneficiary countries in the framework of budget support, based on a comprehensive analysis of whether or not the eligibility criteria, such as satisfactory improvements in public-sector financial management, are met;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Stresses the importance of continuing to improve the rationalisation and sound financial management, together with a better budgeting of the expenditure for individual EU election observation missions, notably regarding reoccurring service providers’ procurement costs for technical equipment and visibility material; calls upon the Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) to engage in a reflection to reform the current system; in line with the findings of ECA's Special report No 22/2017 — Election Observation Missions, points out the importance of gaining a central overview of the EU Election Observation Missions recommendations and of systematically assessing their implementation status; welcomes the Commission's readiness to set up a centralised depository for storing EU EOM recommendations and hopes the necessary resources will be swiftly mobilized;
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Welcomes ECA's Special report No 3/2017 ‘EU Assistance to Tunisia’ and its finding that EU assistance contributed significantly to the country’s democratic transition and economic stability; calls on the Commission to continue improving the focus of EU support in line with the recommendations contained therein;
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5 b. Takes note of the publication of ECA's Special report No 20 /2018 “The African Peace and Security Architecture: need to refocus EU support”; calls for swift action in order to address the shortcomings identified therein, including the need to refocus EU support away from supporting operational costs towards capacity-building measures, to make interventions consistently results-based, reduce delays in contracting and retroactive financing, improve monitoring and make coherent use of financing instruments;