Activities of Gilles PARGNEAUX related to 2016/2097(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the Annual Report 2015 on the protection of the EU’s financial interests – Fight against fraud PDF (594 KB) DOC (85 KB)
Amendments (13)
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. New paragraph 1 Stresses that 1 461 out of a total of 22 349 irregularities reported to the Commission in 2015 were fraudulent, involving an amount of around EUR 2.31 billion, of which about EUR 2.79 billion related to expenditure, representing 1.98% of total payments;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. New paragraph 2 Points out that not all irregularities are fraudulent and that a clear distinction must be drawn between errors and fraud;
Amendment 49 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Urges the Member States to recover the amounts of TOR due more quickly, especially those Member States which need to recover the largest amounts; urges Greece, Romania, Latvia, Malta and the Netherlands to improve their collection of TOR, as their rate of TOR due remains significantly above the EU average of 1.71 % and is 8.95 %, 5.07 %, 5.04 %, 3.84 % and 3.81 % respectivelyCalls on those Member States whose level of irregularities is well above the EU average to improve their contributions;
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Takes note of the 241 cases of reported smuggled cigarettes involving an estimated TOR loss of EUR 31 million; puts into question the vigilance of the customs services of those Members States (the Czech Republic, Malta, Cyprus, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden)certain Member States which have not reported any single case of cigarette smuggling in 2015;
Amendment 80 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Underlines the fact that the smuggling of heavily taxed goods causes significant losses of revenue to the budgets of the EU and the Member States, and that direct losses in customs revenue as a result of cigarette smuggling alone are estimated at more than EUR 10 billion a year;
Amendment 84 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Deplores that the amount of irregularities reported in the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and in the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) is growing annually for at least 5 consecutive years with the amount of reported cases growing up from 1,970 in 2011 to 4,612 cases in 2015 with the sums involved growing from EUR 119 million in 2012 to EUR 394 million in 2015 with the level or reported irregularities of the EAFRD coming close to 2 % of the entire fund; urges the Member States with the highest amount of irregularities reported – Romania, Italy, Spain, Poland, Hungary, Portugal and Lithuania – to do their utmost in order to regulate the situation;
Amendment 89 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 a (new)
Paragraph 19 a (new)
19a. Underlines that the simplification of administrative rules will decrease the number of non-fraudulent irregularities, help identify fraudulent cases, and make EU funds more accessible to the beneficiaries;
Amendment 99 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Notes with concern that, despite the numerous calls from Parliament for the establishment of uniform reporting principles in all Member States, the situation remains highly unsatisfactory and there are still significant differences in the number of fraudulent and non-fraudulent irregularities reported by each Member State; considers that this problem creates a distorted picture of the real situation regarding the level of infringements and the protection of the EU’s financial interests; reiterates its call to the Commission to make serious efforts to resolve the problem of differing approaches by Member States to detecting irregularities, and non-homogeneous interpretations when applying the EU legal framework;
Amendment 109 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Urges the Commission to maintain its strict policy on interruption and suspension of payments as a preventive measure against irregularities affecting the EU budget, in accordance with the relevant legal basis;
Amendment 111 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. Supports the Commission in its approach to recommend strengthening the work of the Member States, which continue to report a very low number of fraudulent irregularities, in relation to detecting and/or reporting fraud, in particular, those which have not reported any case over the last five years: Slovakia and Finland in the area of agriculture and Denmark and Luxembourg in the area of cohesion policy;
Amendment 117 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Welcomes the fact that the ex-ante and ex-post '‘Community Controls'’ are detecting more and more cases of irregularities, and considers, therefore, that these controls should be further strengthened; considers however, that prevention is easier than recovery of losses; urges therefore on Member States to better carry out the ex-ante controls with the assistance of the Commission and to use all the information available to prevent errors and irregular payments related to EU funds;
Amendment 174 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 39 a (new)
Paragraph 39 a (new)
39a. New paragraph 39: Notes OLAF’s role within different JCOs in preventing losses for the EU budget, and asks OLAF to include in its future annual reports more information and concrete figures concerning its contribution to protecting the revenue side of the EU budget;
Amendment 177 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 40
Paragraph 40
40. Reminds that in the light of the principle of mutual sincere cooperation between the institutions, of the principle of good administration and of the requirement of legal certainty, OLAF shouldand its Supervisory Committee shall organise itstheir collaboration with its Supervisory Committee in a jointly agreed frameworkon the basis of their working protocols, fully respecting the applicable legal provisions;