2017/2148(DEC) | [ParlTrack]

Draft opinion
Paragraph 3

3. Commends the high budget implementation rate (100 %); notes, however, that the level of appropriations carried over to 2017 increased for Title III (43 %) compared to the previous year (31 %), mainly in relation to projects going beyond the end of the year; notes the Foundation’s reply distinguishing that these were planned carry-overs and in fact below the initial figure of EUR 3 million;

Amendment 12 #

Siôn SIMON, Jutta STEINRUCK, Sergio GUTIÉRREZ PRIETO, Georgi PIRINSKI, Claudiu Ciprian TĂNĂSESCU

Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)

4 a. Regrets that in relation to the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Union and the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the Union laid down in Council Regulation (EEC, Euratom, ECSC) No 259/681a as amended by Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 723/20041b introduced in 2005, underpayments and overpayments to staff remains an issue for the Foundation despite recommendations from the Court concerning similar issues in 2014 and 2015; notes the Foundation’s reply that a comprehensive internal audit of the payroll function took place earlier in 2017 and urges the Foundation to take the necessary steps to address the issue; _______________ 1a OJ L 56, 4.3.1968, p. 1. 1b OJ L 124, 27.4.2004, p. 1.

Amendment 13 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)

4 a. Welcomes the Foundation’s remedial actions undertaken in relation to salary corrections following Court’s reports ; notes that an audit of the salaries function was undertaken in Q2 2017 in order to provide additional assurance that the appropriate processes and controls are in place and operating well;

Amendment 14 #

Siôn SIMON, Jutta STEINRUCK, Sergio GUTIÉRREZ PRIETO, Georgi PIRINSKI, Claudiu Ciprian TĂNĂSESCU

Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)

4 b. Expresses concern about the negative budgetary impact of the increasing Irish country coefficient which risks to undermine more and more the financial capability of the Foundation to deliver on its mandate; expects action to be taken by the Institutions of the Union to offset the effect;

Amendment 15 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 5

5. Welcomes the good cooperation between the Foundation and other EU agencies, especially Cedefop, EU-OSHA, ETF, FRA and EIGE, during the planning and implementation of its work in order to ensure good coordination and synergies in its activities.; notes that this shows how important tri-partite institutions are because of their ability to conduct a complete overview of the economic and social reality;

Amendment 16 #

Siôn SIMON, Jutta STEINRUCK, Georgi PIRINSKI, Sergio GUTIÉRREZ PRIETO, Claudiu Ciprian TĂNĂSESCU

Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)

5 a. Notes how strongly the Foundation has contributed to combating poverty and fraudulent contracting of work in several actions across the Union;

Amendment 17 #

Claude ROLIN

Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)

5 a. Expresses concern about the negative budgetary impact of the increasing Irish country coefficient which increasingly risks undermining the financial capability of the Foundation to deliver on its mandate and expects action to be taken to resolve this issue;

Amendment 2 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2

2. Acknowledges the work of the Foundation during the four-year work programme 2013-2016 “From crisis to recovery: Better informed policies for a competitive and fair Europe”; welcomes the Foundations's high-quality analysis and policy input as regards living and working conditions, industrial relations and employment and labour market developments, in particular the Overview report of the sixth European Working Conditions Survey; considers it to be important to maintain strong cooperation between the Foundation and the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs in order to continue to engage in constructive and evidence-based discussions;

Amendment 3 #

Claude ROLIN

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2

2. Acknowledges the work of the Foundation during the four-year work programme 2013-2016 “From crisis to recovery: Better informed policies for a competitive and fair Europe”; welcomes the Foundations analysis and policy input as regards living and working conditions, industrial relations and employment and labour market developments, in particular the Overview report of the sixth European Working Conditions Survey; stresses the necessity to maintain strong cooperation between the Foundation and the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs in order to benefit from the Foundation’s expertise;

Amendment 4 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2

2. Acknowledges the work of the Foundation during the four-year work programme 2013-2016 “From crisis to recovery: Better informed policies for a competitive and fair Europe”; welcomes the Foundations analysis and policy input as regards living and working conditions, industrial relations and employment and labour market developments, in particular the Overview report of the sixth European Working Conditions Survey and notes its impressive programme delivery rate of 97 % which was well above the target for 2016 and a significant improvement on the two previous years;

Amendment 5 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2

2. Acknowledges the work of the Foundation during the four-year work programme 2013-2016 “From crisis to recovery: Better informed policies for a competitive and fair Europe”; welcomes the Foundations analysis and policy input as regards living and working conditions, industrial relations and employment and labour market developments, in particular the Overview report of the sixth European Working Conditions Survey and the New Forms of Employment report;

Amendment 6 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)

2 a. Welcomes the fact that Parliament, the Commission, and other stakeholders are the main users of knowhow provided by the Foundation, and that they are aware of its quality and interest;

Amendment 7 #

Claude ROLIN

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)

2 a. Welcomes the successful implementation of the Foundation’s four- year work programme with a high level of organisational effectiveness, as evidenced by an overall improvement of Foundation’s key performance indicators;

Amendment 8 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)

2 a. Notes the revision of the Foundation’s founding Regulation No 1365/75/EEC1a and welcomes the inclusion by Parliament and the Commission of an explicit reference to the use of external audit reports and evaluations; ______________ 1aRegulation (EEC) No 1365/75 of the Council of 26 May 1975 on the creation of a European Foundation for the improvement of living and working conditions (OJ L 139, 30.5.1975, p. 1–4)

Amendment 9 #

Benedek JÁVOR, Bart STAES

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)

2 b. Notes the Commission’s Internal Audit Service (IAS) 2016 audit report which highlighted the need to improve the Foundation´s management of projects, mainly in relation to governance arrangements, monitoring and reporting, and welcomes the Foundation’s willingness to implement the agreed action plan in cooperation with the IAS;

source: 613.589

2018/03/02 CONT 14 amendments...

Amendment 1 #

Bart STAES

Proposal for a decision 1
Paragraph 1

1. Grants the Director of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions discharge in respect of the implementation of the Foundation’s budget for the financial year 2016 / Postpones its decision on granting the Director of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions discharge in respect of the implementation of the Foundation’s budget for the financial year 2016;

Amendment 10 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)

15 a. Expresses the need to establish an independent disclosure, advice and referral body with sufficient budgetary resources, in order to help whistle-blowers use the right channels to disclose their information on possible irregularities affecting the financial interests of the Union, while protecting their confidentiality and offering needed support and advice;

Amendment 11 #

Barbara KAPPEL

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)

16 a. calls on the Foundation to adopt an ethics code and to inform the discharging authority about alleged and confirmed conflicts of interests, how it has dealt with them, and how it will prevent them in the future;

Amendment 12 #

Motion for a resolution
Subheading 7

~~Performance-Based Budgeting (PBB)~~Main achievements

Amendment 13 #

Luke Ming FLANAGAN

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21

21. Notes from the Court’s report that, in its audit report dated December 2016, the internal audit service (IAS) highlighted a need to improve the Foundation’s management of projects, mainly in relation to governance arrangements, monitoring and reporting; notes~~, moreo~~ with satisfaction, however, that the Foundation and the IAS agreed on a plan to take corrective action;

Amendment 14 #

Ryszard CZARNECKI, Notis MARIAS, Raffaele FITTO, Beata GOSIEWSKA, Richard SULÍK

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24

24. ~~Strongly r~~Regrets the fact that Regulation (EEC) No 1365/75 does not explicitly require external evaluations of the Foundation’s activities; notes, however, that the Commission’s proposal for a new founding Rregulation includes the obligation of performing an evaluation every five years; also welcomes the fact that at the moment each of the four- year work programmes is~~, however,~~ subject to an external evaluation;

Amendment 2 #

Proposal for a decision 1
Paragraph 1

Amendment 3 #

Bart STAES

Proposal for a decision 2
Paragraph 1

1. Approves the closure of the accounts of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions for the financial year ~~2016 / Postpones the closure of the accounts of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions for the financial year~~ 2016;

Amendment 4 #

Luke Ming FLANAGAN

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1

1. ~~Notes from the Court’s report~~Regrets that in the Court~~’s 2014 report, it~~ reported underpayments to staff for the period 2005 to 2014 in relation to the transition to the new Union Staff Regulations in 2005, particularly in light of the fact this is the 'European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions'; notes that, although the reasons for the underpayments (2014: non-respect of minimum guaranteed salaries; 2015: wrong multiplication factor on salaries) are different, the Court has again found underpayments (EUR 43 350) and some overpayments (EUR 168 930), affecting 30 active and previous staff members; notes that the Foundation corrected all underpayments, but will not recover the overpayments (in line with Article 85 of the current Staff Regulations); calls on the Foundation to analyse again any possible mistakes in relation to the transition to the 2005 Staff Regulations, carry out a full evaluation of its payroll function and report its findings to the discharge authority; acknowledges from the Foundation that a comprehensive internal audit of the payroll function took place in April 2017; notes that the Foundation is awaiting the final report and due regard will be given to any recommendations made; calls on the Foundation to report to the discharge authority on the corrective measures that will be taken;

Amendment 5 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3

3. Notes from the Court’s report that the level of committed appropriations carried forward to 2017 was high at EUR 2 800 000 (43 %) for Title III (operational expenditure), compared to EUR 2 100 000 (31 %) in 2015, mainly in relation to projects (studies and pilot schemes) going beyond the year end; takes note that the Foundation may consider introducing differentiated budget appropriations in order to better reflect the multiannual nature of operations and unavoidable delays between the signature of contracts, deliveries and payments;

Amendment 6 #

Barbara KAPPEL

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)

5 a. Asks the Foundation to keep the volume to be carried over to the next year as low as possible;

Amendment 7 #

Luke Ming FLANAGAN

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9

9. Stresses that work-life balance should be a part of the Foundation’s staff policy; stresses that the budget spent per staff on well-being activities amounts to EUR 80,21; observes that the average number of sick leave per staff is 6,5 days - lower than in many other EU Agencies but still worrying, and worthy of examination to see if workplace stress is a factor - and that no member of staff was on full- year sick leave;

Amendment 8 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9

9. Stresses that work-life balance should be part of the Foundation’s staff policy; ~~stress~~notes that the budget spent per staff on well-being activities amounts to EUR 80,21; observes that the average number of sick leave per staff is 6,5 days and that no member of staff was on full- year sick leave;

Amendment 9 #