2019/2064(DEC) | [ParlTrack]

Draft opinion
Paragraph 1

1. Notes that ~~the Union is~~European Union Member States are confronted with an increasingly challenging international environment, which h~~as led to increasing demands on the Union to play a leading role on the international scene; highlights the~~ighlights the need for a coordinated response from Member States, rather than European External Action Service’s (EEAS) central role in conducting the Union’s foreign policy under the guidance of the High Representative / Vice-President of the Commission; notes that the EEAS’s enhanced role has not been underpinned by a corresponding staff increase; calls for sufficient human resources to be made available in order not to put at risk the Union’s effectiveness as a global actorised policy- making at a European Union level; calls for reduced resources to be made available for EEAS and greater autonomy for Member States to determine their own foreign policy;

Amendment 10 #

Sergey LAGODINSKY

Draft opinion
Paragraph 3

3. Notes the remaining gender and geographical imbalances within the EEAS staff, despite positive trends in recent years; reiterates the importance of ensuring a balanced distribution of staff in terms of gender and geographical origin within different categories and grades, particularly at middle and senior management levels; is appalled by the fact that in middle- management positions in the EEAS, men represent 75% and women 25%, while at the level of senior management, men account for 87%, while women account for 13% of the workforce; calls on the EEAS to update its Gender and Equal Opportunities Strategy in order to include concrete and binding goals regarding the presence of women in management positions; points also to the overrepresentation of Member States’ diplomats among Heads of Delegation; calls for further efforts to address these imbalances;

Amendment 11 #

Robert BIEDROŃ, Nikos ANDROULAKIS, Tanja FAJON, Attila ARA-KOVÁCS, Neena GILL, Demetris PAPADAKIS

3. Notes the remaining gender and geographical imbalances within the EEAS staff, despite positive trends in recent years; reiterates the importance of ensuring a balanced distribution of staff in terms of gender and geographical origin within different categories and grades, particularly at middle and senior management levels; highlights the fact that only the improvement of the geopolitical and gender balance in the EEAS can assure our European ownership of foreign action; points also to the overrepresentation of Member States’ diplomats among Heads of Delegation; calls for further efforts to address these imbalances;

Amendment 12 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 4

4. Welcomes the short-term secondment programme between the EEAS and the European Parliament; highlights its role in enhancing the mutual understanding of each institution’s structures and working methods and thereby improving the cooperation between the two institutions; encourages the EEAS to promote this programme more actively among its staff in order to boost the number of participants; recommends further to expand the Diplomatic Exchange and Secondment Programme between the EEAS and the Member States’ diplomatic services that is aimed at contributing to the evolution of a shared diplomatic culture.deleted

Amendment 13 #

Robert BIEDROŃ, Nikos ANDROULAKIS, Tanja FAJON, Attila ARA-KOVÁCS, Neena GILL, Demetris PAPADAKIS

Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)

4 a. Highlights the importance of the flagship project of the European External Action Service’s East StratCom Task Force - EU vs. Disinfo in the fight against disinformation, propaganda and foreign influence on our geopolitical scene.

Amendment 14 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)

4 a. Underlines the need for fighting propaganda and to expose disinformation; stresses the importance of the EEAS Strategic Communication Task Force and calls for providing it with the necessary financial and personnel resources;

Amendment 15 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)

4 b. Emphasises the growing importance of the EU-Arctic Policy and the need to strengthen the EU’s credibility among partners by ensuring the stability of the EU’s Arctic Ambassador post;

Amendment 2 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)

1 a. Notes that the EEAS carries a vital role to ensure the coherence of the EU’s foreign policy; also highlights the need to provide necessary resources for a successful implementation of an efficient EU Security and Defence Policy;

Amendment 3 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2

2. Calls on the EEAS to consider creating posts for local agent responsible for reporting on legislative work in countries of strategic interest (particularly accession countries and those of the Eastern Partnership) in order to increase the Union’s understanding of the neighbourhood and its approximation to the acquis;deleted

Amendment 4 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2

2. Calls on the EEAS to ~~consider~~ creat~~ing~~e posts for local agent responsible for reporting on legislative work in countries of strategic interest (particularly accession countries and those of the Eastern Partnership) in order to increase the Union’s understanding of the neighbourhood and its approximation to the acquis;

Amendment 5 #

Nikos ANDROULAKIS

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)

2 a. Notes that the procurement errors identified were related to the infringement of important public procurement rules, such as inappropriate tendering or assessment of bids affecting the outcome of the tender, substantial change of contract scope and artificial splitting of contracts, and to missing or incomplete procurement documents; calls on the EEAS to take immediate action in resolving these identified procurement errors.

Amendment 6 #

Robert BIEDROŃ, Nikos ANDROULAKIS, Tanja FAJON, Attila ARA-KOVÁCS, Neena GILL, Demetris PAPADAKIS

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)

2 a. Calls on the EEAS to implement gender budgeting in all public expenditure;

Amendment 7 #

Robert BIEDROŃ, Nikos ANDROULAKIS, Tanja FAJON, Attila ARA-KOVÁCS, Neena GILL, Demetris PAPADAKIS

Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)

2 b. Recalls that gender mainstreaming is the (re)organisation, improvement, development and evaluation of policy processes, so that a gender equality perspective is incorporated in all policies at all levels and at all stages, by the actors involved in policy-making;

Amendment 8 #

Nathalie LOISEAU, Christophe GRUDLER, Malik AZMANI

Draft opinion
Paragraph 3

3. Notes the remaining gender and geographical imbalances within the EEAS staff, despite positive trends in recent years; reiterates the importance of ensuring a balanced distribution of staff in terms of gender and geographical origin within different categories and grades, particularly at middle and senior management levels; points also to the overrepresentation of Member States’ diplomats among Heads of Delegation; calls for further efforts to address these imbalancesat diplomatic posts at all levels should be filled purely on the basis of qualification and ability, and any other criteria for selection and subsequent appointment leads to social engineering;

Amendment 9 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 3

source: 644.930

2020/02/03 CONT 47 amendments...

Amendment 1 #

Motion for a resolution
Recital A

A. whereas the effectiveness and efficiency of management systems and the use of resources in headquarters and Union delegations are key guiding principles for achieving the objectives of foreign policy, for responding to geopolitical challenges and for strengthening the role of the Union as a global actor;deleted

Amendment 10 #

Luke Ming FLANAGAN

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12

12. Notes with concern the irregularities on the building administration policy of the EEAS; ~~stresses the need for sufficient explanation of accusations of~~is concerned about the accusations regarding the EEAS being involved in corruptive cases related to its building administration policy when buying, renting or managing buildings; ~~calls on~~urges the EEAS to provide ~~eventually sufficient~~in-depth explanations on such tenders;

Amendment 11 #

Monika HOHLMEIER

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)

12a. Stresses that good cooperation between Parliament and the EEAS is essential to manage and review building files; strongly encourages the EEAS to submit building files for approval in due time to allow time for a thorough review and follow-up questions; reiterates that files submitted to the budgetary authority only very close to critical due dates create unnecessary time constraints and force approvals by the budgetary authority without the possibility to extend the review period;

Amendment 12 #

Cristian GHINEA, Ramona STRUGARIU, Gilles BOYER, Olivier CHASTEL, Martina DLABAJOVÁ

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13

13. Calls on the EEAS to commit for the next discharges to ~~send~~keep sending its Working Document on EEAS' Building Policy to the Budgetary Control Committee ~~more~~, including information explaining the context and coverage of the building costs; takes note of the exhaustive and detailed information about the EEAS' building policy provided through the written questionnaires;

Amendment 13 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)

15a. Notes that East Strat Com Task Force was granted EUR 1.1 million in 2018 for its work to address Russia’s disinformation. In 2019, the budget increases to EUR 3 million; calls for a substantial increase in the budget in order for the Union to successfully counter- attack Russia’s information war; calls for more information campaigns to better explain Union policies in the Eastern Partnership countries;

Amendment 14 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20

20. Takes note of a rate of anomalies detected in ex ante verifications of commitments and payments (respectively 209 errors out of 1041 and 258 of 1841); regrets the recurrent nature of the errors detected, i.e. mainly the unavailability of supporting documents when financial operations are presented to ex ante financial verification; invites the EEAS also to continue providing specific support for all value public procurement in delegations; welcomes the implementation of financial e-workflows at headquarters by the end of 2019 intended to contribute to a reduction of the level of errors in general terms;

Amendment 15 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24

24. Welcomes the EEAS efforts to foster the sense of accountability of newly appointed heads of delegation for the sound financial management of Union funds falling under their operational responsibilities alongside their political mandate; considers that this also concerns all the actors within foreign affairs such as EU special representatives, EU special envoys, heads of military operations and heads of civilian mis(Does not affect the English versions;.)

Amendment 16 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26

26. Notes that only two delegations provided motivated reservations, i.e. Delegation to Syria, as in 2017, and the Delegation to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg for non- compliance of implemented contracts with procurement rules; encourages the EEAS to continue the ongoing full review of all contracts to ensure compliance with the financial rules;

Amendment 17 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28

28. Remains concerned at continuing imbalances in the staffing profile of the EEAS as regards nationality; notes that at the end of 2017 Member States’ diplomats represented 32,83 % of the overall administrator staff of the EEAS (i.e. 307 persons), at the end of 2016, 31,7 % of the staff of the EEAS came from the Member States compared to 32,9 % in 2015 in comparison to 33,8 % in 2014;deleted

Amendment 18 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29

29. SRemains concerned at imbalances in the staffing profile of the EEAS as regards nationality; stresses that the EEAS, despite repeated calls, still does not meet the requirements for geographical balance and is significantly disproportionate while having heads of delegation from Belgium (9), Germany (15), France (16), Italy (21), Poland (5), Czech Republic (2); ~~notes, in particular, the increased number of Italian heads of delegation over the last two years;~~

Amendment 19 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30

30. Urges to enhance the geographical balance within the EEAS; reiterates the importance of appropriate and meaningful presence of nationals from all the Member States; stresses that the EEAS must ensure that all Member States are adequately represented bywhile respecting the competences and merits of the candidates; therefore encourages the EEAS to carry on interacting with Member States to promote its posts among the national diplomat networks;

Amendment 2 #

Motion for a resolution
Recital B

B. whereas it is essential to promote a common management culture within the European External Action Service (EEAS) by reinforcing the European character and ‘esprit de corps’ of diplomatic staff;deleted

Amendment 20 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31

31. Notes with satisfaction that the overall numerical gender balance almost reached parity in the overall number of posts occupied with 47,4 % being women; invites however the EEAS to continue to further reduce existing qualitative imbalances at all levels, functions and in different categories, especially for administrator positions with currently 34,92 % being occupied by women; encourages the EEAS to keep working on the array of measures taken to support gender balance and increase diversity, such as the network for women in pre- management posts and the dedicated trainings for women in management and those aspiring to management;

Amendment 21 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32

32. Observes that gender and geographic balance should also be respected with regard to the EU special representatives, two out of eight EU special representatives being women; considers also that ethical standards have to be taken into account to avoid potential conflicts of interests; supports the EEAS’ preparation of a decision on ethics, taking the specificities of work in delegation into account;

Amendment 22 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33

33. Highlights the same situation in the staff overall distribution by gender in management posts, while noting an slight improvement in 2018 with 27,1 % compared to 24,5 % in 2017, representing 71 women, i.e. 60 out of 211 positions at middle management positions (or 28,4 % compared to 26 % in 2017) and 11 out of 51 senior management posts (or 21,57 % compared to 18 % in 2017);

Amendment 23 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 35

35. Observes that the number of seconded national experts (SNE) from Member States has been stabilised to 449 with the same number as 2017 and following a regular increase since 2011; notes that 87,31 % of seconded national experts are posted at EEAS headquarters with the rationale that they reply to very specialised needs within the EEAS structure; recalls that SNE should not exceed a certain proportion of the overall staff of the EEAS in order to preserve a strong and sustainable team spirit and asks the EEAS again to set such a threshold; calls on also the EEAS to pay particular attention to the potential issue of conflict of interest in its recruitment policy for seconded national experts; is of the opinion that additional budget is necessary to replace SNEs with staff in order to ensure a high-level of independence;

Amendment 24 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 35 a (new)

35a. Recalls the importance of cooling- off periods for officials formerly employed by the Union institutions or agencies as unaddressed conflict-of-interest situations may compromise the enforcement of high ethical standards throughout the European administration; underlines that Article 16 enables Union institutions and agencies, including the EEAS, to turn down a former official’s request to take a specific job if restrictions are not sufficient to protect the legitimate interests of the institutions; fears that it is often not possible to enforce conditions imposed upon post-public employment activities; encourages the EEAS, all other agencies and Union institutions, therefore, to consider the full range of tools made available under Article 16 of the Staff Regulations, in particular when they are notified of a transfer to an organisation or company which has registered in the transparency register in order to exclude any risk of former officials lobbying the Union institutions within two years after their termination of office; stresses that, for example, in the case of former EEAS official Mr Gerhard Sabathil leaving directly to the lobby firm EUTOP, prohibition of a direct move to EUTOP might have been considered under Article 21(3)(b) of Commission Decision C(2018)4048, in that EUTOP can be seen as an ‘opposing party’ or representing opposing party’s interests; further calls on all institutions and agencies, including the EEAS, to strictly publish their assessment of each case as required under Article 16 of the Staff Regulations;

Amendment 25 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 35 b (new)

35b. Considers the further pooling of experience in enforcement and supervision of Article 16 of the Staff Regulations and related ethics rules across all Union institutions necessary; welcomes the commitment of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for a Union ethics body common to the Union institutions;

Amendment 26 #

Monika HOHLMEIER

38a. Requests that the EEAS ensures that co-location in their premises is open to all interested EU institutions and bodies such as Parliament and the European Investment Bank with the same conditions as the EEAS; highlights the economic benefits of co-location by reducing the costs for maintenance and operating costs as well as security; further reiterates that the EEAS shall ensure that the costs for leasing or buying property for its delegations is respecting the price range the representations of Member States have to follow; underlines that the EEAS shall incorporate appropriate security cost estimations in its calculations to avoid request for additional funding at later stages;

Amendment 27 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 38 b (new)

38b. Welcomes the progress made on reducing the number of delegations exceeding the maximum space of 35 m2 per person, following the Court's recommendation in order to make the best use of EEAS premises and avoid unnecessary spending;

Amendment 28 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 40

40. Reiterates that the Union took a step towards fair remuneration for all within its institutions; stresses that the EEAS should ensure its trainees in headquarters and in delegations to receive a decent remuneration infor all types of internships (Blue Book, Bruges and Other); welcomes the implementation of paid traineeships in delegations and the termination of offering unpaid traineeships on the Ombudsman’s recommendations; notes that the number of trainees in delegations have more than quadrupled, from 26 in 2017 to 109 in 2018; however, regrets that out of the total 404 traineeships offered by the EEAS in 2018, 126 were not remunerated, as they were part of a compulsory training for students; calls on the EEAS to guarantee an appropriate allowance to all EEAS trainees in order to avoid the reinforcement of discrimination on economic grounds;

Amendment 29 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 41

41. Considers useful to improve the management tools of workload alongside an action plan to attract and retain people taking into account various professional needs, experience and nationalities; welcomes the human resources report and invites the EEAS to clearly state its institutional needs (or new required expertise) and identify its workforce risks at corporate level that could hinder the EEAS achievement of policies objectives; supports the EEAS's measures undertaken to address the increasing workload because of the staff cuts;

Amendment 3 #

Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)

Ba. whereas in the context of the discharge procedure, the discharge authority wishes to stress the particular importance of further strengthening the democratic legitimacy of the Union institutions by improving transparency and accountability, and implementing the concept of performance-based budgeting and good governance of human resources;

Amendment 30 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 42

42. Notes with concern the 135 mediation cases treated in 2018 concerning delegations and headquarters; calls on the EEAS, in particular the mediation service now reporting directly to the secretariat general, to continue giving the highest priority to this issue in the resource management; reiterates the importance of developing a culture of zero tolerance towards harassment with a strict following up on reported cases; welcomes the anti- harassment awareness raising initiative launched in 2018 by the EEAS Secretary General with the aim of providing more information on the EEAS anti- harassment policy;

Amendment 31 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 42

42. Notes the 135 mediation cases treated in ~~2018 concerning~~ delegations and headquarters in 2018 concerning either unsolved disagreements around rights and obligations or different kinds of conflict at work including alleged psychological and sexual harassment; calls on the EEAS, in particular the mediation service now reporting directly to the secretariat general, to continue giving the highest priority to this issue in the resource management; reiterates the importance of developing a culture of zero tolerance towards harassment with a strict following up on reported cases and thus, notes with satisfaction the anti-harassment awareness raising initiative launched in 2018 by the EEAS Secretary General;

Amendment 32 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 43

43. Invites also, in this context, the EEAS to extend the network of confidential counsellors, currently representing 6 people, especially in the network of delegations by possibly increasing the number of trained volunteer counsellors in delegations; encourages the EEAS to foster the social dialogue regardless the origin of the staff and the different status of the staff;

Amendment 33 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 44

44. Observes that the EEAS, after having updated its administrative arrangement with the European Anti-Fraud Office and reinforced its cooperation on fraud related issues with directorates- general acting in external affairs, such as Directorate-General for Foreign Policy Instruments (DG FPI), Directorate-General for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) and Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO) in 2017, has continued its efforts to refine its anti-fraud strategy; stresses that further cooperation with the European Anti-Fraud Office and Commission (the directorates-general acting in external affairs, such as DG FPI, DG NEAR and DG DEVCO) should be implemented; notes with appreciation the awareness raising of the heads of delegation in agreement with DG DEVCO an DG NEAR on fraud prevention and reporting via its internal control principle ‘Prevention of fraud’; welcomes the fact that the EEAS is a member of the Fraud and Detection Network chaired by OLAF;

Amendment 34 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 45 a (new)

45a. Notes that in 2018 there was one reported case of alleged whistleblowing by an external person against a staff member of the Commission in an EU delegation; asks the EEAS to provide the Parliament with information concerning the policy and procedures it has in place, especially in delegations, when facing a case of whistleblowing;

Amendment 35 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 45 b (new)

45b. Supports the EEAS efforts to improve transparency by promoting and improving the e-EEAS Register, through which citizens can request access to documents; notes with satisfaction that citizens used the e-EEAS Register on a higher frequency compared to 2017;asks the EEAS to ensure a quick response to citizens 'requests;

Amendment 36 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 46

~~46. S~~Welcomes the entry into force in 2020 of the three Joint Decisions on Conditions of Employment, LA-Medical and LA-Provident Fund, which introduce a new framework of rules for local agents in delegations in order to modernise and improve social security schemes; welcomes the first joint EEAS- Commission staff survey in delegations in 2018; supports the launching of an ~~46.~~ internal audit on the recruitment and management of local agents to remedy certain weaknesses found by the Court in the recruitment procedures of local agents in delegations (i.e. a lack of transparency as regards certain steps of the procedure);

Amendment 37 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 46

46. ~~Supports the launching of an internal audit~~Takes note of the important changes on the recruitment and management of local agents to remedy certain weaknesses found by the Court in the ~~recruitment procedures of local agents in delegations (i.e. a lack of transparency as regards certain steps of the procedure)~~past and requested by the Parliament through the discharge process; welcomes the dissemination of a detailed administrative guidance and best practices on how to conduct recruitment procedures to ensure openness, fairness and transparency; welcomes also the measures regarding the access to complementary EU social security cover, to improved employment benefits for local agents and the greater flexibility for the EU as employer to keep up with employment market norms;

Amendment 38 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 48

48. Draws attention to the findings and recommendations of the Special Report 15/2018 ‘Strengthening the capacity of the internal security forces in Niger and Mali: only limited and slow progress’; calls on the EEAS (i) to take measures to improve the operational efficiency of the missions by providing adequate practical guidance and enough support, (ii) to improve the occupancy rate of staff posts in the missions, (iii) to set mandates and budgets to match operations and devise a common, comprehensive exit strategy clearly defining roles and responsibilities in the winding-up of the common security and defence policy missions, (iv) to increase the focus on sustainability aspects and (v) to improve performance indicators and the EEAS impact assessments to adequately monitor and evaluate the achievement of tasks;(Does not affect the English version.)

Amendment 39 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 49

49. Supports the reinforcement of the linkage between policy making, public diplomacy and strategic communication; notes, in that context, that EUR 3 million were allocated to the EEAS in 2018 (compared to EUR 1,1 million in 2017) for consolidating its Strategic Communication Plus action in order to counter disinformation and hybrid threats, to develop resilience to foreign interference while also noting the development of business intelligence services; stresses, however, that this Strategic Communication action must not entail a restriction of freedom of expression or constitute a form of political propaganda;

Amendment 4 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1

1. Regrets, as an overall remark, that chapter 10 ‘Administration’ of the Annual Report of the Court of Auditors (the ‘Court’) has a rather limited scope and conclusions, even if Heading 5 “Administration” of the Multiannual Financial Framework is considered low risk;deleted

Amendment 40 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 49 a (new)

49a. Welcomes the creation of the Rapid Alert System, set up among the EU institutions and Member States to facilitate the sharing of best practises related to disinformation campaigns and coordinate responses based on open- source information provided by academia, fact-checkers, online platforms and international partners; encourages the EEAS to develop a long-term vision for the Rapid Alert System and foster coordination with Members States and other key partners; further, encourages the EEAS to promote the EU vs Disinfo.eu website, which contains over5,000 disinformation cases but generated only 1.2 million page views in 2018;

Amendment 41 #

Cristian GHINEA, Ramona STRUGARIU, Gilles BOYER, Olivier CHASTEL, Martina DLABAJOVÁ

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 50

50. Supports the EEAS’s efforts in order to reinforce the all range of physical and IT security issues from the staff and buildings security with the purchasing of new security equipment, to the training of regional security officers to preserve the EEAS’s security interests and provide further security know-how by implementing a formal security risk management ~~policy as well as the cybersecurity challenge~~and cybersecurity policy; particularly welcomes the launch of the Security Awareness Programme to reduce risks in the headquarters, based on2018 staff survey, and the Security Risk Management system in the delegations to standardise the reporting of local security threats, including risks regarding health and safety;

Amendment 42 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 50

Amendment 43 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 50 a (new)

50a. Recognises the added value that Free and Open Source Software can bring to the EEAS; underlines in particular their role in increasing transparency and avoiding vendor lock-in effects; recognises also their potential for security improvements as they permit to identify and fix the weaknesses; strongly recommends any software developed for the institution to be made publicly available under free and open-source software licence;

Amendment 44 #

Luke Ming FLANAGAN

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 51 a (new)

51a. Asks the EEAS to provide for a follow-up report for the financial year 2018 in compliance with Article 266 of the Financial Regulation;

Amendment 45 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 52

52. Welcomes new initiatives to improve the communication in relation with Union citizens concerning the importance of public diplomacy and strategic communications as an integral aspect of the Union's external relations; commends that the EEAS started engaging multipliers to running Europe- wide public campaigns.deleted

Amendment 46 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 52

52. Welcomes new initiatives to improve the communication in relation with Union citizens concerning the importance of public diplomacy and strategic communications as an integral aspect of the Union's external relations; encourages the EEAS to invest in digital communications, through social media and its websites; commends that the EEAS starteds engaging multipliers to run~~ning~~ Europe- wide public ~~campaigns.~~-awareness campaigns; further encourages the use of free open-source self-hosted social network platforms having special regards to users data protection;

Amendment 47 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 52 a (new)

52a. Regrets that the EEAS does not yet have an Environmental Management System; notes that efforts were made to promote the use of video conference; however asks the EEAS to put in place a concrete action plan in order to lower its environmental footprint its headquarter and delegations;

Amendment 5 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2

~~2. Considers that the audit work under chapter 10 of the Court’s Annual Report should be better balanced among the Union institutions as well as going beyond compliance requirements;~~deleted

Amendment 6 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4

4. Notes ~~also~~with satisfaction that the Court did not report any specific issues for the EEAS for the second consecutive year;

Amendment 7 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9

9. Notes with appreciation the simplification of budget management with the entire financing of the common overhead costs relating to all delegations’ offices in 2018, (rent, security, cleaning and other overheads), including European Development Fund delegations, from the budget lines of the EEAS for the third consecutive year; supports the EEAS efforts to modernise and simplify its administration through the “Innovative 2019” project, which includes 20 proposals under examination; asks the EEAS to report back to the Budgetary Control Committee on the proposals under examination;

Amendment 8 #

Tomáš ZDECHOVSKÝ

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12

12. ~~Notes with concern the irregularities~~Calls the EEAS to exercise constant vigilance on ~~the~~its building administration policy ~~of the EEAS; stresses the need for sufficient explanation of accusations of EEAS being involved in corruptive cases related to its building administration policy~~and in particular to ensure any suspected cases of fraud or corruption that may be detected when buying, renting or managing buildings are immediately addressed; calls on the EEAS to provide ~~eventually~~ sufficient explanation on ~~such tenders~~its tender procedures and the cost of the buildings in the remit of the discharge exercise;

Amendment 9 #