19 Amendments of José Manuel FERNANDES related to 2014/2040(BUD)
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Recalls, once more, that the EU budget should in no way be perceived and evaluated simply as a financial item added as a burden to national budgets but, on the contrary, is to be understood as an opportunity to gear up those initiatives and investments that are of interest and of added value to the Union as a whole, most of them co-decided by Parliament and the Council and thus legitimised also at national level;
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Considers that the Council holds a strong political responsibility for the very tense situation in payments, due to its inabilityfailure to gather a qualified majority within its ranks to secure a level of payments allowing the Union to cover undisputed payment needs; stresses, however, that such level of payments is the direct outcome of a corresponding level of commitments, which the Council formally adopted with the necessary qualified majority in the context of annual budgetary procedures;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Emphasizes that besides implementing the political agreement reached in the negotiations of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2014-2020 as regardsNotes that the Draft Budget integrated the frontloading of appropriations for specified policy objectives, the Commission did not propose addwhich was part of the politioncal efforts to accommodate priorities outlinagreement reached byin the ParliamentMFF negotiations; decides thereforemoreover to reinforce financial resources for the Union political objectives and strategic priorities, in a number of areas in Headings 1a, 1b and 4 by exhausting margins in commitment appropriations;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Decides to concentrate its reinforcements on the programmes which are at the core of the Europe 2020 strategy aimed at fostering growth, competitiveness and employment, namely Horizon 2020, COSME, Erasmus +, the digital agenda, Progress, EURES, the Microfinance Facility and the social agenda; reinforces also programmes that are instrumental for the delivery of the EU external policy agenda, such as Neighbourhood policy and Humanitarian Aid; insists on the need to also increase the financing of important programmes and policies like FEAD, Europe for citizens and development;
Amendment 36 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
Amendment 41 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Highlights however, that even the full use of the 2015 payment ceiling is not sufficient to adequately address the Union’'s ongoing payment problems that have erupted since the 2010 Union budget; notes, particularly, the huge backlog in payments of the past years leading to the unprecedented level of 23.4 bn EUR at the end of 2013 for cohesion policy alone and fears that it may be of a similar magnitude at the end of 2014; stresses, therefore, that the recurrent problem of shortage of payments needs to be effectively addressed without further delay; hence, decides to go beyond the Commission's proposals in payments by 4bn EUR for a number of budget lines, including the main "2007-2013 completion lines" of the EU structural funds and research programmes, where the situation in payments is the mostvery critical;
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Calls accordingly on the Commission to stand ready to put forward relevant proposals for the mobilisation of the flexibility mechanisms included in the MFF Regulation; reiterates its intention not to accept any restricted interpretations of the provisions on flexibility and special instruments included in the new MFF Regulation and IIA, which were successfully negotiated by the European Parliament;
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Stresses that in order to ensure adequate resources for the Union wide investment plans (agreed by the June 2014 European Council following President- elect Juncker´s political guidelines9 ), continuation of the Youth Employment Initiative, notably the European Youth Guarantee as of budget 2016, and in order to address the persistent problem of payment appropriations, the post electoral review/revision of the MFF 2014-2020, as provided for in Article 2 of the MFF Regulation, should be launched as soon as possiblin due time by the new Commission, due to enter into office on 1st November 2014; __________________ 9 http://ec.europa.eu/about/juncker- commission/docs/pg_en.pdf
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Notes that Heading 1a bears the largest share of Council's cuts both in commitments (EUR -323,5 million as compared to the DB) and in payments (EUR -1 335 million), despite the fact that the European Council again in June 2014 set growth, competitiveness and the creation of jobs at the top of its political agenda; highlights that some of these cuts openly contradictare not in line with the agreement on the MFF 2014-2020, in so far as they heavily decrease Horizon 2020 (by EUR 190 million in commitments against the DB) that was significantly frontloaded by 200m EUR in 2014, as well as the ITER programme (EUR -11,2 million), which should instead be frontloaded in 2015 to compensate its backloading in 2014 as per the MFF agreement;
Amendment 51 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Decides, therefore, as a general line to restore the level of the Draft Budget for 2015 for all cuts performed by the Council, both in commitments and in payments; furthermore increases a selected number of lines within the programmes which correspond to the Parliament's priorities under Heading 1a (Horizon 2020, COSME, Erasmus +, Digital agenda. Social agenda) by exhausting the margin (total increases above DB of some 200m EUR);
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32
Paragraph 32
32. Calls on the Commissiononsiders that the mobilisation of the Flexibility Instrument for Headind 1b, as proposed by the Commission, should be used to finance fully the second instalment of EUR 100 million for Cyprus fully by the mobilisation of; decides, also, to use the Flexibility instrument, hence ensuring the amount of EUR 20,2 million for other priorities, notably sting margin of EUR 20,2 million in order to reinforce the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) and PP/PAs;
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33
Paragraph 33
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34
Paragraph 34
34. Welcomes the increase proposed by the Commission in commitment appropriations for the new LIFE programme for the Environment and Climate Action and expects this programme to be fully in place in 2015, including a first set of financial instruments; deplores, however, that smaller programmes such as the LIFE programme as well as the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) bear the most significant cuts by the Council under this heading, both in commitments and payments, thereby affecting the achievement of their agreed objectives; also regrets inappropriatethe unjustified Council's cuts to the school fruit and school milk schemes; restores, therefore, the DB on all lines cut by the Council;
Amendment 73 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 39
Paragraph 39
39. Believes that the additional cuts proposed by the Council will jeopardise a proper implementation of programmes and actions in Heading 3; takes therefore the general approach to restore the DB on all lines under this heading; takes the decision, furthermore, to increase a selected number of lines above the DB mainly within the programmes Creative Europe, Europe for Citizens and, Multimedia Actions, as well as Common Asylum System (for a total of EUR 53,2 million in commitment appropriations above DB including agencies and pilot projects and preparatory actions);
Amendment 75 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 40 a (new)
Paragraph 40 a (new)
40 a. (new) Agrees that additional support is needed for European Citizens Initiatives; decides therefore to create a new line in heading 3 :"Implementation of European Citizens Initiatives and other instruments of participatory democracy" with 1 million in commitment appropriations;
Amendment 77 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 43
Paragraph 43
43. Recalls the international commitment made by the Union and its Member States to increase their official development assistance (ODA) spending to 0,7 % of GNI and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 and therefore calls for an increase in the appropriations for thematic areas covered by the Development Cooperation Instrument, in view of getting closer to the attainment of the Millennium DPost-2015 Global development Goalcommitments;
Amendment 78 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 46
Paragraph 46
46. Considers the Council's cuts to the priority lines of the Parliament unacceptable and proposes to restore the DB on the lines decreased by the Council and to even exceed the DB in commitment appropriations for some lines of strategic importance for the Union's external relations by a total of EUR 400,55 million (Humanitarian Aid, European Neighbourhood Instrument, Development Cooperation Instrument, Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, European Instrument for Human Rights and Democracy Instrument for Stability and PP/PAs); notes that these increases exhaust the Heading 4 margin, as well as an additional 66m EUR that results from decreased appropriations from lines moved to EEAS budget;
Amendment 80 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 46 a (new)
Paragraph 46 a (new)
46 a. (new). Deems it necessary to increase appropriations for the Turkish Cypriot line, in order to ensure the continuation of the EU financial support to the work of the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus and of the Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage;
Amendment 81 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 46 b (new)
Paragraph 46 b (new)
46 b. (new). Approves the transfer of the budget lines for the EUSRs to the EEAS budget in order to support their better integration into the EEAS, in accordance with the proposal made by the HRVP in the EEAS Review, Parliament's recommendations of 13 June 2013 and the Court of Auditors' special report n° 11/2014; expects that the transfer will be completed by 1 January 2016;