Activities of Indrek TARAND related to 2017/2022(BUD)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on Parliament’s estimates of revenue and expenditure for the financial year 2018 PDF (1 MB) DOC (122 KB)
Amendments (19)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 5 a (new)
Citation 5 a (new)
- having regard to its resolution of 14 April 2016 on Parliament's estimates of revenue and expenditure for the financial year 20171a; ________________ 1a Texts adopted, P8_TA(2016)0132.
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9 a. Considers visitor groups to be one of the key instruments in increasing the awareness of citizens about Parliament's activities; welcomes the revised rules for visitors groups, and considers that the risk of misappropriation of funds has decreased due to the implementation of the new and stricter rules; in this light, invites the Bureau, together with its Working Group on Information and Communication, to revise the appropriations for Member's visitor groups, taking into account inflation rates in recent years which have consequently increased the cost of such visits; considers that, although those amounts are not meant to cover all the costs incurred by visitors groups, but rather to be considered as a subsidy, the fact that the proportion of costs covered will diminish if the allowance is not adjusted according to inflation, cannot be ignored; asks the Bureau to take into account that this discrepancy disproportionately affects visitor groups from less affluent socio- economic backgrounds who have very limited financial means of their own;
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12 a. Welcomes the efforts to further digitise and computerise procedures; in this regard, encourages the introduction of more possibilities for the use of secure digital signature in administrative procedures in order to reduce the use of paper and save time;
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Calls for more information on the project to renovate the Paul Henri Spaak (PHS) building, specifically any opinions from external contractors on the necessity to renovate the building, which his presented as hadving a short 25-year lifespan; notes the level of appropriations proposed by the Secretary- General in 2018 concerning studies, preparatory projects and works, and the provision of assistance to the project management team; expresses concern at the possible confusion regarding the amounts to be spent on studies and removals; urges the Bureau and Secretary- General to inform the Committee on Budgets on all subsequent steps and provide a clear breakdown of costs as soon as possible; recalls that, in any case, there is a need to implement state-of-the art energy efficient architecture;
Amendment 62 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 4 a (new)
Subheading 4 a (new)
EMAS
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)
Paragraph 18 a (new)
18 a. Recalls that Parliament committed to a 30 % reduction per FTE in its CO2 emissions by 2020 compared to 2006;
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 b (new)
Paragraph 18 b (new)
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 c (new)
Paragraph 18 c (new)
18 c. Welcomes the installation of the inter-institutional helpdesk on green public procurement, which now has to be fully implemented by setting clear targets in the field, as well as stepping up efforts in internal information, promotion and effective governance on green public procurement; underlines that sub- contracted service providers must also comply with those rules; in this regard, deplores the high use of plastic bottles, cups, containers and packaging in Parliament;
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 d (new)
Paragraph 18 d (new)
18 d. Recalls the Parliament commitment of Directive 2012/27/EU on energy efficiency which stipulates that it will, "without prejudice to applicable budgetary and procurement rules, undertake to apply the same requirements to the buildings they own and occupy as those applicable to the buildings of Member States' central government under Articles 5 and 6" of that Directive, due to the high visibility of the buildings and the leading role it should play with regard to buildings' energy performance; underlines the urgency of compliance with this declaration, not at least for its own credibility in the currently ongoing revisions of the energy performance of buildings and the energy efficiency directives;
Amendment 98 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Welcomes in particular the ever increasing quality of advice and research provided to Members and committees through the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) and the policy departments; approves of the four specific projects being developed over the medium- term in the European Parliament library, namely the digital library, improved resources for research, comparative law sources and open library; considers these projects as a means to improve support to both Members and staff, as well as facilitating access to the external research community and citizens;
Amendment 101 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Notes that the recently revised Rules of Procedure12 have limited Members to a maximum of three oral explanations of vote per part-session, but remains concerned about the additional costs required for interpretation as well as for the translation of the explanation transcripts that they generate; urges the Secretary-General to provide a detailed breakdown of the costs related to oral explanations of vote; indicates the availability of alternatives such as written explanations of vote as well as a wealth of public communications facilities within Parliament’'s premises for Members to explain their voting positions; calls, as an interim measure, for oral explanation of votes to be placed at the end of business each day on the plenary agenda; __________________ 12 Texts adopted, P8_TA(2016)0484 - Rule 183(1).
Amendment 104 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25 a (new)
Paragraph 25 a (new)
25 a. Recalls the obligation on Members to inform the administration immediately of any change in their declarations of interests; regrets that the CVs and declarations of interests of Members are uploaded to Parliament's website very late; believes that Members' declarations of interest should be published in a machine-readable format; is of the opinion that the ethical ad hoc advisory committee should be composed of independent experts and should conduct its work more transparently;
Amendment 110 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. In preparation for the ninth legislature, calls on the Secretary-General to submit to the Bureau a more precise list of expenses defrayable under the General Expenditure Allowance (GEA), as well as suggesting measures to improve the accountability of this expenditure, using with the aim of making spending records public, using building on best practice cases from national delegations in the Parliament and Member States; believes that Members should also be able to provide links on the Parliament website to places where they currently publish their spending records; reiterates that the improved transparency of the GEA should not require additional staff in Parliament's administration;
Amendment 120 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 a (new)
Paragraph 27 a (new)
27 a. Recalls the request, adopted by the plenary in its abovementioned resolution of 14 April 2016 on Parliament’s estimates for 2017, that the rules governing the reimbursement of mission expenses related to travels between the Parliament's three working places and incurred by accredited parliamentary assistants (APAs) be revised in order to align them with the rules applicable to the rest of the staff, and regrets that, to date, no action has been taken in this regard; calls on the Bureau to address that issue without any further delay; meanwhile underlines that the current mission reimbursements ceilings for APAs (EUR 120/140/160) have not been adjusted since 2011 and that the discrepancy between APAs and other staff has further increased up to at least 40 % following the introduction of new ceilings approved by the Council on 9 September 2016 and so far only applied to staff officials as from 10 September 2016; calls therefore on the Bureau to take the necessary measures to remedy this inequality;
Amendment 124 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 b (new)
Paragraph 27 b (new)
27 b. Points out that in cases of harassment or whistle-blowing, APAs are in a particularly vulnerable position, as their contracts are based on mutual trust between the Member and the assistant and that, if this trust is lacking, that in itself is reason for terminating the contract and that, furthermore, if a Member has to resign because of reputational damage as a consequence of harassment or other irregularities, this normally means that the contracts of all his or her assistants will also be terminated; calls therefore for the immediate strengthening of the representation of APAs in the advisory committee on harassment;
Amendment 126 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 c (new)
Paragraph 27 c (new)
27 c. Calls on the Conference of Presidents and the Bureau to reconsider the possibility for APAs, subject to certain conditions, to accompany Members on official Parliament Delegations and Missions, as already requested by several Members; is of the view that Members should decide whether their assistants should accompany them on official delegations, using their parliamentary assistance allowance envelope;
Amendment 138 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30
Paragraph 30
30. Considers that the loss of 136 posts from the Parliament’'s Secretariat in 2016, due to the annual staff reduction and increase ofthe transfer of posts to political group staff posts, may create difficultichallenges for the provision of services by the Parliament’'s administration; calls on the Secretary- General to provide more information regarding staff reduction measures last year, and to evaluate the consequences of budgetary decisions on the functioning of the institution more generally; calls on the Secretary-General to proceed with great care when taking decisions implementing the losses of the posts, avoiding cuts where the core business of Parliament, such as legislative or budgetary work could be affected;
Amendment 146 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 a (new)
Paragraph 31 a (new)
31 a. Calls on the Bureau to ensure that APA's social and pension rights are respected and that financial means are made available, in particular concerning those APAs that have been employed by MEPs without interruption for the last two legislative parliamentary terms; in this regard, invites the administration to put forward a proposal that takes into account the decision to have early election in 2014, as well as the time spent in the recruitment procedure when calculating the 10 years of service period set out in the Staff Regulations;
Amendment 182 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 39 a (new)
Paragraph 39 a (new)
39 a. Urges the Secretary-General to build on the existing cooperation agreements between the Parliament, the Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee, with a view to identifying other areas in which back office functions could be partially or fully shared; calls in addition, for the Secretary-General to undertake a study on possible synergies in back office functions and services that can also be made between the Parliament, the Commission and the Council;