2014/2249(INI) | [ParlTrack]

Draft opinion
Recital A

A. whereas the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union has strengthened the democratic legitimacy of European policies and created new areas of responsibility for the European Union;

Amendment 10 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2

2. Stresses that the European Council is not empowered to exercise legislative functions, and that this prohibition is clearly expressed in Article 15(5) of the TEU; regrets that, when adopting the 2014-2020 MFF ~~was adopted~~, the European Council ~~intervened i~~took preliminary decisions touching upon the content of thsome programmes funded by the EU budget, ~~flying in the face of~~thereby undermining Parliament's legislative prerogatives;

Amendment 11 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 3

3. Regrets that the European budget is based principally on national contributions ~~and not~~rather than on genuine own resources as provided in European treaties since the Treaty of Rome; ~~calls on the Council to return to the letter and spirit of the Treati~~deplores that, in consequence, the debate on expenditure in the Council revolves around net- receipts rather than European added value; calls on the Council to return to the letter and spirit of the Treaties while taking into account the recommendations of the high-level group of own-resources;

Amendment 12 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 3

3. Regrets that the European budget is based principally on national contributions and not on genuine own resources as provided in European treaties since the Treaty of Rome; calls on the Council to return to the letter and spirit of the Treaties and to re-establish a system of genuine own resources which are clear, straightforward and fair so as to make the European budget more accessible and more efficient, while correspondingly lessening the burden on national budgets and abandoning the 'fair return' rationale that clashes with the need to act with common purpose and in concert as set out in the preambles to the treaties;

Amendment 13 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 3

Amendment 14 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 4

4. Condemns the accumulated delays in the settlement of commitments due to the insufficiency of payment appropriations from which the European budget suffers in contravention of Articles 310 and 323 of the TFEU, thus endangering the authority of the Union; regrets that the unsustainable situation is a symptom of mutual lack of understanding and repeats the need for a shared problem analysis;

Amendment 15 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 4

4. Condemns the accumulated delays in the settlement of commitments due to the insufficiency of payment appropriations from which the European budget suffers in contravention of Articles 310 and 323 of the TFEU, thus endangering the authority of the Union; believes that the post- electoral revision of the MFF 2014-2020, to be launched at the end of 2016 at the latest, offers a good opportunity to re-visit the issue and make the necessary adjustments to alleviate the problem;

Amendment 16 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)

4a. Notes that unforeseen payment needs, are more likely to arise since payment ceilings are held artificially narrow by the council; calls therefore on the council to accompany any of its decisions that have a budgetary impact with a detailed budgetary justification;

Amendment 17 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)

4b. Notes the current budget mechanism partly underlies the embedded conflict of interest between the two arms of the budget authority; Reiterates the MFF review/revision offers a chance to reinvigorate the discussion on the flaws in the EU budget mechanism; Notes that the working approach of the High Level Group on Own Resources can serve as a template to tackle other EU issues that know a lot of disparity in positions among their stakeholders, including the MFF revision;

Amendment 18 #

5. Stresses that the use of the European budget as a guarantee against borrowing on the market by some of these instruments, such as the facility providing financial assistance for balances of payments, the European Financial Stability Mechanism (EFSM) and foreign policy instruments such as the guarantee for the EIB’s external mandate, ~~and~~ macro-financial assistance, and the soon to be established European Fund for Structural Investments (EFSI) effectively place the Union in a state of indebtedness, which is in itself contrary to the principle of budgetary equilibrium enshrined in the Treaty;

Amendment 19 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 5

5. Stresses that the use of the European budget as a guarantee against borrowing on the market by some of these instruments, such as the facility providing financial assistance for balances of payments, the European Financial Stability Mechanism (EFSM) and foreign policy instruments such as the guarantee for the EIB’s external mandate, and macro-financial assistance, effectively place the Union in a state of indebtedness, which is in itself contrary to the principle of budgetary equilibrium enshrined in the Treaty; notes that, under the EFSM, any EU budget contribution is subject to no parliamentary oversight, and proposes that oversight be exercised jointly with the national parliaments;

Amendment 2 #

Draft opinion
Recital A

A. whereas the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union has strengthened European policies and ~~created new areas of responsibility for the European Union~~has put the European Parliament on equal footing with the council in the annual budget procedure;

Amendment 20 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)

5a. Deplores the fact that even member states with high budgetary receipts do not necessarily prioritise the funds under heading 1a; regrets the ensuing vulnerable position of the funds under heading 1a during budget negotiations and intermediary mobilization proposals of the EU budget (i.e. EFSI); calls on the Commission to come up with a task force to map the EU added value of the different headings within the EU budget that publishes its results well before the review/revision of the EU multi-annual financial framework and by early 2016 the latest; Stresses in this light the need for a debate on how public investments, national and European, effectively contribute to EU 2020 goals;

Amendment 21 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)

5b. Calls for a better balance between compliance and performance in the expenditures within the framework of the EU budget; Memorizes the fact that article 30.3 of the financial regulations stipulates the obligation of specific, measurable achievable, relevant and timed objectives for all sectors of activity covered by the EU budget; underlines furthermore that TFEU 318 ask the Commission to draft an annual report on the evaluation of the finances of the Union based on the results achieved;

Amendment 22 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 6

6. Notes that, contrary to current practice, the Treaty provides for the possibility of adopting an MFF for a five-year period; calls for the a~~doption~~lignment of future MFFs ~~to be aligned with the next parliamentary term.~~with the next parliamentary term to enhance the democratic accountability and to disassociate the legislative process from the adoption of the multiannual programmes, thus facilitating the legislative coordination as well as effectively preventing the European Council from exercising legislative functions;

Amendment 23 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 6

6. Notes that, contrary to current practice, the Treaty provides for the possibility of adopting a MFF for a five-year period; calls for the adoption of future MFFs to be aligned with the next parliamentary term.; calls on the Council to act on that democratic imperative in connection with the post-electoral revision of the MFF in 2017;

Amendment 24 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)

6a. Calls on Council to deliberate in public when adopting its position on annual and amending budgets and to avoid an excessive use of the written procedure, which undermines the openness of decision-making as foreseen in Article 10(3) TEU and should be reserved for situations of genuine urgency;

Amendment 25 #

Alain LAMASSOURE

Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 (new)

7. Points out that, under Article 24 of the Council Regulation of 2 December 2013 laying down the multiannual financial framework for tbe years 2014-2020, all expenditure and revenue of the Union and Euratom must be included in the general budget of the Union in accordance with Article 7 of the Financial Regulation;

Amendment 26 #

Alain LAMASSOURE

Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 (new)

8. Calls on the Commission to prepare an annual report to accompany the general budget of the Union, bringing together available and non-confidential information relating to: - the assets and liabilities of the Union, including those arising from borrowing and lending operations carried out by the Union in accordance with its powers under the Treaties; - the revenue, expenditure, assets and liabilities of the European Development Fund (EDF), the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), and other possible future mechanisms, including trust funds; - the expenditure incurred by Member States in the framework of enhanced cooperation, to the extent that it is not included in the general budget of the Union.

Amendment 3 #

Draft opinion
Recital A

A. whereas the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union has strengthened European policies and created new areas of responsibility for the European Union; whereas the European Union currently does not have the means to fulfil the tasks assigned to it by the Member States signatory to the treaties;

Amendment 4 #

Draft opinion
Recital B

B. whereas the Treaty of Lisbon has been only partially implemented in the budgetary field, mainly owing to the absence of genuine own resources;

Amendment 5 #

Draft opinion
Recital C (new)

C. whereas the agreed level of commitments in relation to the level of payments has proven unsustainable over the past years, posing a serious risk of a constantly growing structural deficit of the EU budget which would be in breach of the Lisbon Treaty;

Amendment 6 #

Draft opinion
Recital D (new)

D. whereas the legislator was faced with great challenges in ensuring consistency in the parallel negotiations of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014- 2020 and the multiannual programmes;

Amendment 7 #

Draft opinion
Recital C (new)

C. Whereas under the Lisbon Treaty, the budget procedure has to be concluded under a very strict time table, with a yearly deadline for the submission of the draft budget by 1 September and a 21 day term to reach agreement with the council once the parliament has decided on the budget; whereas the conciliation processes of 2011, 2013 and 2015 have failed;

Amendment 8 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 1

1. Calls on the European Council to make use of Article 48(7) of the Treaty on European Union and Article 312(2) of the TFEU and to abandon the unanimity requirement in favour of a qualified majority when adopting the forthcoming MFF Regulation, thereby facilitating a balanced agreement;

Amendment 9 #