2013/2256(DEC) | [ParlTrack]

Motion for a resolution
Recital B

B. whereas there has been a ~~tenfold~~substantial increase in the number of agencies over the last decade, ~~from three in 2000 to 31 in 2012,~~

Amendment 10 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9

9. Draws attention to vastly different roles, functions and resources of various agencies which are subject to the ~~uniform~~ procedure of the agencies’ discharge; observes that in certain cases, the demands of the core functions of the agencies do not easily or logically yield themselves to the traditional discharge procedure, while in other cases, ensuring uniform procedure has proven difficult due to very limited staffing and/or a tiny budget, and invites the Court of Auditors to take this into account in its future audit work;

Amendment 11 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a.(new)

9a. Recalls that agencies are independent and that the Commission can give agencies guidance through the development of guidelines; is of the opinion, however, that it is up to the agencies to decide on the follow-up; believes that the only institution that can politically discuss the agencies is Parliament; is of the opinion, therefore, that the reporting system to the discharge authority is of utmost importance and should be strengthened;

Amendment 12 #

Elena BĂSESCU

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)

9a. Believes that based on the model provided by the Anti-Corruption report, the Commission should consider the possibility of including the activity and performance of Union institutions and agencies in the next annual report on corruption.

Amendment 13 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10

10. Considers that as regards the agencies’ way of reporting to the discharge authority, their democratic accountability should be further streamlined, and believes that the relationship between Parliament and the agencies would benefit from a stronger and better structured system of reporting to Parliament; proposes the establishment of a working group on this matter to come forward with proposals for improving the reporting system, both on the agencies’ and Parliament’s side;

Amendment 14 #

Andrea ČEŠKOVÁ

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10

Amendment 15 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)

10a. Is of the opinion that the trend to focus reporting more on effectiveness and results achieved is a positive one; requests to strengthen the reporting system further in this respect to enhance the democratic accountability of the agencies;

Amendment 16 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 b (new)

10b. Requests that the agencies enhance their work and reporting on social accountability, which will lead to the increased visibility of the agencies’ activities for the general public;

Amendment 17 #

Ryszard CZARNECKI, Marta ANDREASEN, Philip BRADBOURN, Andrea ČEŠKOVÁ, Derk Jan EPPINK

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 – indent 5 a (new)

- weaknesses in verification of grant transactions;

Amendment 18 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 a (new)

21a. Urges the agencies to examine their internal administrative processes with a view to reducing administrative costs, which are generally too high across the agencies;

Amendment 19 #

Ryszard CZARNECKI, Marta ANDREASEN, Philip BRADBOURN, Andrea ČEŠKOVÁ, Derk Jan EPPINK

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23

23. Acknowledges that the results of a survey conducted by agencies about services shared between them show that they already cooperate and that awareness- raising could help develop those good practices further; welcomes the good example set by, for instance, the European Maritime Safety Agency (based in Lisbon) which shares its Internal Audit Capability with the European Fisheries Control Agency (based in Vigo), whereas European Railway Agency (based in Valenciennes) is preparing an agreement for sharing the services of the Accounting Officer with the European Securities and Markets Authority (based in Paris); proposes, furthermore, that some smaller agencies which may not be suitable for outright mergers be relocated in the same city – possibly even in the same building – so that they can benefit from common central resources and reduce overhead costs;

Amendment 2 #

Elena BĂSESCU

Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)

Ba. Whereas, as part of the Union administration, the agencies must live up to the highest standards, especially when it comes to transparency.

Amendment 20 #

Tamás DEUTSCH

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24

24. Recalls that the Commission’s proposal for a European agency for law enforcement and training proposing to merge the European Police College (CEPOL) with Europol would have allowed for administrative costs savings (in particular staff posts) which could have been redeployed; acknowledges that it was fully in line with the Common Approach which called for considering mergers of agencies to achieve synergies and efficiencies, and regrets that neither merger nor relocation of CEPOL to the Hague was supported by the Council;deleted

Amendment 21 #

Monika HOHLMEIER

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24

24. Recalls that the Commission’s proposal for a European agency for law enforcement and training proposing to merge the European Police College (CEPOL) with Europol would possibly have allowed for administrative costs savings (in particular staff posts) which could have been redeployed; acknowledges that ~~it was fully i~~possible savings did not outweigh the necessity of an lin~~e wit~~dependent Police College; recalls that although the Common Approach ~~which~~ calleds for considering mergers of agencies to achieve synergies and efficiencies, ~~and regrets that neither merger nor relocation of CEPOL to the Hague was supported by the Council;~~the independence and the functioning of the Agency must be ensured; takes note that neither merger nor relocation of CEPOL to the Hague was supported by Parliament and Council; (This modification reflects the plenary vote of 25 of February which clearly rejected a merger between the two agencies however acknowledges that, in general, synergies and cost savings can be achieved by pooling and sharing tasks between agencies or mergers of agencies.)

Amendment 22 #

Tamás DEUTSCH

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25

25. Welcomes the Commission’s intention to merge agencies where appropriate and its willingness to continue its assessment of the possibilities to merge some of the existing agencies, as well as to obtain further synergies from the sharing of services between the agencies themselves and from within the Commission, and is looking forward to further proposals in that regard;deleted

Amendment 23 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25

25. Welcomes the Commission’s intention to merge agencies where appropriate and its willingness to continue its assessment of the possibilities to merge some of the existing agencies, as well as to obtain further synergies from the sharing of services between the agencies themselves and from within the Commission, and to carefully look into the matter of unnecessary spending due to distant and multiple sites of location and is looking forward to further proposals in that regard;

Amendment 24 #

Gerben-Jan GERBRANDY, Jan MULDER, Chris DAVIES

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28

28. Reiterates that the principle of annuality is one of the ~~three~~ basic accounting principles (unity~~, annuality and balance~~ and accuracy, annuality, balance, unit of account, universality, specification, sound financial management and transparency) indispensable to ensuring the efficient implementation of the Union budget; notes that decentralised agencies do not always fully comply with that principle;

Amendment 25 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33 a (new)

33a. Urges the Management Boards of those agencies that are fully or partially co-financed by fees to ensure that fee- setting is transparent and that the services by those agencies are carried out as efficiently as possible in order to offer the best possible fee-rate;

Amendment 26 #

Gerben-Jan GERBRANDY, Jan MULDER, Chris DAVIES

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 38 a (new)

38a. Points out that activity-based budgeting is still the fundamental principle when drafting the budget of the Union; is worried by the fact that the Court of Auditors, in its 2012 annual report, concludes that for many areas of the Union budget, the legislative framework is complex and that there is insufficient focus on performance; welcomes the steps taken by the agencies to focus more on performance reporting;

Amendment 27 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 38 a (new)

38a. Requests that the Court of Auditors provide an evaluation on the performance and the results of the agencies in time for the review in 2016 of the multiannual financial framework with the purpose to assess where agencies can cooperate better or even merge, and to assess whether some agencies could be dissolved or continue in another institutional setting which is more cost-efficient;

Amendment 28 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 39

39. Emphasises ~~the~~how importan~~ce of the agencies’ independence~~t it is that the agencies should be answerable politically to the Union authorities, save in cases where their mandate, and therefore their statutes, provide for full or partial independence vis-à-vis those authorities; recalls that the agencies should be able to ~~independently~~ execute their mandate in accordance with their purpose and regrets that currently this is not always the case; believes that the Commission’s Directorates General should be seen as partners of the agencies;

Amendment 29 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 42 a (new)

42a. Recalls that conflicts of interest are a cause of corruption, fraud, mismanagement of funds and human resources, favouritism and have a negative impact on the impartiality of the decisions and quality of work and undermines Union citizens’ trust in the Union institutions, including the agencies;

Amendment 3 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1

1. Recalls the importance of the tasks performed by agencies and their direct impact on the daily life of citizens; recalls that the main purpose of establishing decentralised agencies was ~~to be able to provide independent technical and scientific assessments~~, in particular, to have them perform technical, scientific or supervisory tasks in such a way as to help the EU institutions draw up and implement Union policies; points out that the role of the executive agencies is to help the Commission manage Union programmes on behalf of the Union itself;

Amendment 30 #

Karin KADENBACH

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 43 a (new)

43a. Welcomes the fact that many of the agencies have put considerable effort into providing information about their policies and practice on conflicts of interest and recognises that many good practices are now already in place, and in particular welcomes, as an example of good practice to be considered by other agencies, the ‘cooling off period’ of non-assignment for a year implemented by EASA, so that anyone new to the organisation is not allocated work on files they had directly worked on in the previous five years;

Amendment 31 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 46

46. Acknowledges that EFSA since 2011 has made efforts to strengthen its framework for avoiding potential conflicts of interest with the adoption of its revised policy on independence and scientific decision-making processes; notes with concern, however, that despite this revision, the procedure for assessing possible conflicts of interest at EFSA is burdensome and subject to criticism, therefore calls on EFSA to come up with a simplified procedure which would streamline the process, without, however, jeopardising the newly set standards for the detection and prevention of conflicts of interest;

Amendment 32 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 50

50. Acknowledges from the Commission that its overall legal framework on conflicts of interest is robust and in conformity with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development guidelines in that regard, and, according to the Commission, no major new legal instrument is necessary, and the Commission has never committed to putting forward legislative proposals and does not intend to do so at the moment;deleted

Amendment 33 #

Monica MACOVEI

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 54

54. Considers that following the publication of the Commission’s guidelines, the agencies need to redraft their policies for the prevention and management of conflicts of interest to bring them in line with the Commission’s guidelines and the Court of Auditor’s’ recommendations without hesitation~~, and calls on the agencies to report~~; acknowledges that most agencies planned to review their respective policy on the prevention and management of conflicts of interest based on those guidelines; calls on the agencies to report to the discharge authority on this matter as well as on the actions taken in the framework of the 2012 discharge follow-up before the end of 2014;

Amendment 34 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 54

54. Considers that following the publication of the Commission’s guidelines, the agencies may need to redraft their policies for the prevention and management of conflicts of interest to bring them in line with the Commission’s guidelines and the Court of Auditor’s’ recommendations without hesitation, and calls on the agencies to report on the actions taken in the framework of the 2012 discharge follow-up;

Amendment 35 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 54 a (new)

54a. Notes that seconded national experts, external and interim staff are not specifically mentioned in the guidelines; requests that the agencies take these groups of staff into account when evaluating and redrafting their conflicts of interest policies;

Amendment 36 #

Monica MACOVEI

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 56

56. Regrets that the declarations of interests and CVs of the majority of members of the agencies’ management boards, management staff and external and in-house experts are still not publicly available; reiterates its view that a high level of transparency is a key element to mitigate risks of conflicts of interest; calls, therefore, on the agencies that have not yet done so to make available on their websites their policy and/or arrangements on the prevention and management of conflict of interests and their implementing rules as well as the list of their management boards’ members, management staff and external and in-house experts, together with their respective declarations of interests and curriculum vitae;

Amendment 37 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 56

56. Reiterates its view that a high level of transparency is a key element to mitigate risks of conflicts of interest; calls, therefore, on the agencies that have not yet done so to make available on their websites, by the deadline of 1 December 2014, the list of their management boards’ members, management staff and external and in-house experts, together with their respective declarations of interests and curriculum vitae;

Amendment 38 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 59

59. Acknowledges from the Commission that in the framework of revision of the Staff Regulations, the Commission has proposed the revised wording of Article 110 of the Staff Regulations, which ~~ensures the~~aims for simplification and flexibility as regards the implementing rules adopted to give effect to the Staff Regulations and the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants;

Amendment 39 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 62

62. Acknowledges from the Commission that the mechanism of the balancing contribution principle foreseen in the new FFR respects the funding keys of agencies with mixed funding, and over the past its application has ensured fairness and equal treatment for all contributors to the ~~ESAs budget, and that a~~budget of the ESAs; questions the reasons why the specific Memorandum of Understanding between the ESAs and the Commission ~~has been established in order to ensur~~aimed at ensuring the efficient establishment, implementation and monitoring of the budget of the ESAs has not yet been established;

Amendment 4 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3

3. Recalls that in July 2012, Parliament, the Council and the Commission adopted a Common Approach on decentralised agencies (‘the Common Approach’), a political agreement concerning the future management and reform of the agencies; ~~welcom~~notes the conclusion of this agreement;

Amendment 40 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 65

65. Reiterates the importance of putting in place policies ensuring that women and men are properly represented on the agencies’ governing bodies; calls on the agencies’ executive directors, to ensure gender ~~par~~equality among agency staff as a whole and among people in positions of responsibility, also calls on the management boards of the agencies and on the Commission to uphold the principles of gender equality and to take account of the strategy launched by the Commission in 2010 to achieve a better gender balance in positions of responsibility;

Amendment 41 #

Martin EHRENHAUSER

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 69 a (new)

69a. Takes the view that publishing Union data makes innovations possible, brings considerable benefits to the economy as a whole and makes for more efficient administration; calls for the agencies’ data to be made permanently available in machine-readable form, free of charge, so that they are freely reusable;

Amendment 42 #

Martin EHRENHAUSER

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 69b (new)

69b. Takes the view that the availability of data must not be constrained by the use of platform- or system-specific architecture and that the data format must be based on widely used and freely accessible standards and be supported and maintained by organisations which are independent of manufacturers; stresses that full documentation relating to format and all extensions must be made freely available;

Amendment 43 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)

5a. Calls on the Court of Auditors to include in its next annual report a review of the follow-up by the agencies of Parliament’s recommendations in this resolution;

Amendment 5 #

Ryszard CZARNECKI, Marta ANDREASEN, Philip BRADBOURN, Andrea ČEŠKOVÁ, Derk Jan EPPINK

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5

5. Welcomes the Court of Auditors’ reports; acknowledges that its reports have become even more comprehensive in the course of latest discharge procedures; encourages the Court of Auditors to further develop performance audit elements, both in its annual audit reports as well as in the dedicated special reports of the Court of Auditors addressing the agencies; encourages the Court of Auditors to monitor and report on the follow-up from previous discharge reports.

Amendment 6 #

Karin KADENBACH

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)

5a. Regrets that Member States have failed to conclude headquarters agreements with ten agencies on their territory, including three in France, one each in Estonia, Ireland, Luxembourg, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom; expresses concern that this may have serious implications for the staff of the agencies and calls on the Member States concerned to complete the agreements before the start of the next budget discharge procedure;

Amendment 7 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7

7. Supports the Commission’s main objectives as set out in the Roadmap, ~~in particular,~~ achieving a more balanced governance, especially the objective of enhancing the agencies’ efficiency and accountability and introducing greater coherence in the way they function; welcomes the actions proposed thereon, in particular regarding the streamlining of management boards, efforts to seek synergies between agencies and the possibility of merging some of them;

Amendment 8 #