2020/2194(DEC) Discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Union agencies for the financial year 2019: performance, financial management and control
Lead committee dossier:
Progress: Awaiting committee decision
Lead committee dossier:
Subjects
Events
2021/03/01
EP - Amendments tabled in committee
Documents
2021/02/25
EP - Committee opinion
Documents
2021/02/25
EP - Committee opinion
Documents
2021/01/14
EP - Committee draft report
Documents
2020/10/01
EP - CHINNICI Caterina (S&D) appointed as rapporteur in LIBE
2020/09/30
EP - TOMC Romana (EPP) appointed as rapporteur in EMPL
2020/09/15
EP - Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
2020/09/08
EP - CZARNECKI Ryszard (ECR) appointed as rapporteur in CONT
2020/06/26
EC - Non-legislative basic document
Documents
2020/06/26
EC - Non-legislative basic document published
Documents
Documents
- Amendments tabled in committee: PE680.803
- Committee opinion: PE660.366
- Committee opinion: PE661.924
- Committee draft report: PE657.227
- Non-legislative basic document: COM(2020)0288
- Non-legislative basic document: EUR-Lex
- Non-legislative basic document published: COM(2020)0288
- Non-legislative basic document published: EUR-Lex
- Non-legislative basic document: COM(2020)0288 EUR-Lex
- Committee draft report: PE657.227
- Committee opinion: PE660.366
- Committee opinion: PE661.924
- Amendments tabled in committee: PE680.803
Amendments | Dossier |
54 |
2020/2194(DEC)
2021/01/19
LIBE
26 amendments...
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 1 1. Welcomes the fact that the Court of Auditors (the ʽCourtʼ) has declared that, overall, the audit of the annual accounts of the agencies for the year ended 31 December 2019 and the revenue and payments underlying them confirmed the positive results reported in previous years, and the fact that the Court has certified the legality and regularity of the annual accounts of all JHA agencies and the revenue underlying these accounts for the year which ended on 31 December 2019;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 3 3. Notes that the Court did not address ‘emphasis on the matter’ with regard to JHA agencies, with the exception of FRONTEX, for which the Court drew attention to the level of error related to equipment expenditure in the context of grant agreements with cooperating countries; notes the Court’s observation that the Agency has taken steps to improve ex-ante verifications, and has re- introduced ex-post verifications on reimbursements in 2019, in line with recommendations made in previous years; expresses its concern about the serious
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 3 3. Notes that the Court did not address ‘emphasis on the matter’ with regard to JHA agencies, with the exception of FRONTEX, for which the Court drew attention to the level of error related to equipment expenditure in the context of grant agreements with cooperating countries; expresses its concern about the serious and repeated allegations of FRONTEX's involvement in pushbacks and violations of fundamental rights and about the lack of adequate staff and resources for the Fundamental Rights officer (FRO) and the Fundamental Rights Monitors in order to comply with their duty to monitor the Agency’s compliance with fundamental rights;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 3 3. Notes that the Court did not address ‘emphasis on the matter’ with regard to JHA agencies, with the exception of FRONTEX, for which the Court drew attention to the level of error related to equipment expenditure in the context of grant agreements with cooperating
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 4. Notes that public procurement continues to be the main area prone to error in relation to all Union decentralised agencies; calls therefore on the affected JHA agencies, i.e. Europol, CEPOL to improve their public procurement procedures with a view to ensure full compliance with applicable rules and as a result, t
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 4.
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 4. Notes that public procurement continues to be the main area prone to error in relation to all Union decentralised agencies; calls therefore on the affected JHA agencies, i.e. Europol
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 a (new) 4 a. Stresses the importance to increase the digitalisation of the agencies in terms of internal operation and management but also in order to speed up the digitalisation of procedures; stresses the need for the agencies to continue to be proactive in this regard in order to avoid a digital gap between the agencies at all costs; draws attention, however, to the need to take all the necessary security measures to avoid any risk to the online security of the information processed.
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 a (new) 4 a. Takes note that the Court did not audit the 2019 accounts of the European Public Prosecutor's Office ('EPPO'), since the EU body was not yet financially autonomous; expects the Court to present an audit of the accounts of the EPPO for the accounting year 2020.
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 a (new) 4 a. Reminds that the Union agencies are playing an increasingly important part in the Union, but their role in serving Union citizens effectively needs to be evaluated more carefully;
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 a (new) 4 a. Urges all JHA agencies to take measures to ensure full compliance with Union transparency rules as well as with fundamental rights and data protection standards;
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 1 a (new) 1 a. Expresses its overall satisfaction with the work of the eight decentralised agencies (CEPOL, EASO, EMCDDA, eu- LISA, Eurojust, Europol, FRA, Frontex) falling within its remit and of the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), which carry out operational, analytical or managerial tasks and thereby support the Union institutions as well as Member States in implementing policies in the area of Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) and the way their budgets are implemented; reiterates the need to ensure adequate financial support for JHA agencies to deliver the tasks assigned to them in full transparency and to fulfil their mandates in full compliance with fundamental rights;
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 a (new) 4 a. Underlines the importance to ensure an adequate gender balance in all agencies' governing bodies;
Amendment 21 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 b (new) 4 b. Welcomes the fact that the Court has declared that in most cases agencies have taken corrective actions to address previous years' audit observations and calls on the JHA agencies to continue their efforts to follow up on the Court's observations;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 b (new) 4 b. Calls on all JHA agencies to ensure a gender balanced distribution on all levels of staff and report to the discharge authority on implemented measures and progress; invites the Court to systematically inform about it in its future reports;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 b (new) 4 b. Calls on the agencies to continue to develop synergies, increase cooperation and exchange of good practices with other European agencies with a view to improving efficiency (human resources, building management, IT services and security).
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 c (new) 4 c. Calls on all JHA agencies to promote and ensure diversity in its recruitment policy; urges all JHA agencies to develop internal policies and practice to ensure inclusiveness and diversity, and prevent any type of discrimination; invites the Court to systematically inform about it in its future reports;
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 d (new) 4 d. Urges all JHA agencies to implement a clear anti-harassment policy to prevent and firmly condemn any such behaviour within the organisation;
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 e (new) 4 e. Calls on all JHA agencies to take into account sustainability in their overall business processes in order to improve the agencies’ environmental performance, and to report to the discharge authority on implemented measures and progress;
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 1 a (new) 1 a. Recalls the important role of JHA agencies in supporting and advising Member States in the fields of security, justice and fundamental rights; reiterates the need to ensure the provision of adequate financial support for JHA agencies in order to fulfil their mandates in a fully transparent manner and in full compliance with fundamental rights;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 2. Notes that the Court found that the payments underlying the accounts were legal and regular for all agencies except for EASO, for which a qualified opinion was issued due to irregularities in regard to public procurement procedures and related payments; is disappointed that the legality and regularity of payments only slowly improved in 2019; regrets that, once again, there were irregular payments, representing 14,6 % of the value of all payments made
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 2. Notes that the Court found that the payments underlying the accounts were legal and regular for all agencies except for EASO, for which a qualified opinion was issued due to irregularities in regard to public procurement procedures and related payments; is disappointed that the legality and regularity of payments only slowly improved in 2019; regrets that, once again, there were irregular payments, representing 14,6 % of the value of all payments made by EASO in 2019;
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 2. Notes that the Court found that the payments underlying the accounts were legal and regular for all agencies except for EASO, for which a qualified opinion was issued due to irregularities in regard to public procurement procedures and related payments;
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 2.
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 a (new) 2 a. Notes the inherent difficulty that the agencies face when required to submit their Single Programming Document while the relevant legal instruments are still under negotiation by the co- legislators, thereby leading to a situation where budget lines are made available before their corresponding legal instruments are adopted; calls on the Commission to improve its communication with the agencies to better streamline the expected timelines for the adoption of legislation and corresponding budget lines; notes the Court’s Recommendation that agencies should be allocated resources in a more flexible manner while stressing the importance of due reporting, transparency and auditing;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 b (new) 2 b. Welcomes the high level of cooperation in the area of migration that concerns the JHA agencies, particularly at the hotspots; notes with approval the regular meetings conducted amongst CEPOL, EASO, Frontex, EMCDDA, eu- LISA, Eurojust, Europol, FRA, DG HOME and DG JUST of the Commission in the framework of the JHA Agencies’ Network, also aided by the EU Policy Cycle/ EMPACT framework; highlights the Court’s observation that JHA Agencies, particularly Europol, Eurojust and Frontex, are fully integrated in the external dimension of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice and are amongst the internationally most active agencies;
source: 663.240
2021/01/21
EMPL
28 amendments...
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 1 1. Highlights the important role that Union agencies play in helping Union institutions to design and implement policies, especially by carrying out specific technical, scientific and managerial tasks;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 3 3. Welcomes and encourages the cooperation among the agencies within and beyond the framework of the EU Agencies Network (EUAN), which constitutes an important inter-agency cooperation platform to ensure efficient communication between the agencies and relevant stakeholders; appreciates and further encourages the close cooperation among the agencies under the remit of the EMPL Committee in order to improve synergies, ensure further complementarity and the sharing of resources;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 3 a (new) 3a. Notes that the agency’s publications are produced almost exclusively in English and deplores the fact that its work is not translated to make it accessible to the European public in their national languages; calls for its budget to be made contingent upon a language clause to foster greater transparency by ensuring its work may be understood in each person's language;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 3 a (new) 3a. Acknowledges that the four agencies have held specific meetings together to align their performance indicator methodologies as a follow-up to the Commission’s recommendation received in 2019 based on the 2017 four- agency evaluation (recommendation 5 of SWD(2019) 159);
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 3 a (new) 3a. Calls on the EUAN to develop a general policy to not replace permanent staff by more expensive external consultants;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 4. Recalls that the yearly exchange of views regarding the annual work programmes and the multiannual strategies of the agencies in the committees responsible is instrumental in ensuring that the programmes and strategies are aligned to the actual political priorities, e
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 4. Recalls that the yearly exchange of views regarding the annual work programmes and the multiannual strategies of the agencies in the committees responsible is instrumental in ensuring that the programmes and strategies are aligned to the actual political priorities, especially in the context of the implementation of the principles enshrined in the European Pillar of Social Rights; recalls that the agencies are the most qualified at assessing the use of resources and play a crucial role in supporting the right sustainable projects in line with the European Green Deal; calls on the Commission to ensure funding supporting the Union agencies in securing the social dialogue; notes that the Union agencies have a crucial role in securing social dialogue with the Union institutions;
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 a (new) 4a. Encourages the Union agencies to consider adopting a fundamental rights strategy, including a reference to fundamental rights in a code of conduct that could define the duties of their staff and training for staff; setting up mechanisms ensuring that any violation of fundamental rights be detected and reported, and that risks of such violations be swiftly brought to the attention of the main bodies of the agency concerned; establishing, whenever relevant, the position of a fundamental rights officer, reporting directly to the management board to ensure a certain degree of independence vis-á-vis other staff, in order to ensure that threats to fundamental rights are immediately addressed, and that a constant upgrading of the fundamental rights policy within the organisation takes place; developing a regular dialogue with civil society organisations and relevant international organisations on fundamental rights issues; making compliance with fundamental rights a central component of the terms of reference of the collaboration of the agency concerned with external actors, including in particular members of national administrations with whom they interact at operational level;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 5 5. Notes that, similarly to previous years, most of the observations the Court has made in its Annual report on EU agencies for the financial year 2019 concern shortcomings in public procurement procedures, mostly concerning sound financial management and regularity; encourages the Union agencies to further improve their public procurement procedures, ensuring full compliance with the applicable rules and best value for money procurements;
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 5 5. Notes that, similarly to previous years, most of the observations the Court has made in its Annual report on EU agencies for the financial year 2019 concern shortcomings in public procurement procedures;
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 1 1. Highlights the important role that Union agencies play in helping Union institutions to design and implement policies, especially by carrying out specific technical, scientific and managerial tasks; expresses its satisfaction with the high quality work performed by the agencies working in the area of employment, social affairs and inclusion (Cedefop, Eurofound, EU-OSHA, ETF and ELA);
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 5 5. Notes that, similarly to previous years, most of the observations the Court has made in its Annual report on EU agencies for the financial year 2019 concern shortcomings in public procurement procedures; encourages the Union agencies to further improve their public procurement procedures, ensuring full compliance with the applicable rules, the principles of transparency, proportionality, equal treatment and non- discrimination and best value for money procurements;
Amendment 21 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 5 5. Notes that, similarly to previous years, most of the observations the Court has made in its Annual report on EU agencies for the financial year 2019 concern shortcomings in public procurement procedures; considers that ensuring the proper conduct of public procurement procedures is vital to guaranteeing the transparent and efficient use of EU funds;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 5 5. Notes that, similarly to previous years, most of the observations the Court has made in its Annual report on EU agencies for the financial year 2019 concern shortcomings in public procurement procedures; encourages the Union agencies to ensure sustainable public procurement that does not support tax fraud and unfair competition;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 6 6. Expresses its concern over the very high level of carry-overs in some agencies, which could indicate various weaknesses, including weak budgetary planning, which is in contradiction to the budgetary principle of annuality;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 7 a (new) 7a. Notes with concern that in 2019 only 34%1a of members of the highest decision-making bodies of all Union agencies were women and asks in this regard that the Union agencies in the future present data on gender balance for all categories of management staff; encourages the Union agencies in this regard to address the work-life balance of their staff and gender balance in management; __________________ 1ahttps://eige.europa.eu/gender- statistics/dgs/browse/wmidm/wmidm_adm
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 7 a (new) 7a. Recalls that the European Labour Authority (ELA) was created in March 2018 and started its operation in October 2019; highlights the importance of making the ELA fully operational without undue delay in order to improve the application and enforcement of Union law relating to labour mobility and social security coordination so as to ensure fair mobility and the effective cross-border enforcement of workers’ rights; stresses the need of ensuring sufficient financial resources in this regard;
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 7 b (new) 7b. Highlights that transparency and citizens' awareness of the existence of the Union agencies are essential for their democratic accountability;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 7 b (new) 7b. Points out that ELA will help ensure that Union rules on labour mobility and social security coordination are enforced effectively and fairly, will assist national authorities in cooperating to enforce these rules, and make it easier for citizens and businesses to benefit from the internal market; is of the opinion that, although the four agencies (EUROFOUND, CEDEFOP, ETF and EU-OSHA) are predominantly research- centred, they could usefully support and contribute to the work of ELA;
Amendment 28 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 7 c (new) 7c. Recalls that gender balance must be ensured within the Union agencies in accordance with the basic regulations establishing them;
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 1 1. Highlights the important role that Union agencies play in helping Union institutions to design and implement policies, especially by carrying out specific technical, scientific and managerial tasks; expresses its satisfaction with the high quality work performed by the agencies working in the area of employment, social affairs and inclusion; underlines in this regard the need to equip the Union agencies at a level commensurate to the assigned tasks, with a sufficient number of in-house staff, employed in a stable manner and having sufficient material resources, ensuring their pre-eminence over private contractors; reiterates that the proper functioning of the executive agencies also requires a high-quality social dialogue, closely involving the local staff committees;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 1 a (new) 1a. Takes note of the observation made by the European Court of Auditors (‘the Court’) that the Commission not always considers the alternative options when setting up a new agency, including to carry out the tasks itself, to adjust the mission of an existing agency or intergovernmental cooperation; in this regard calls for the better evaluation of possible options and sufficient assessment over time once an agency is operational;
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 a (new) 2a. Notes that for the first time the Court has also issued an overall assessment of the conditions put in place by the Union to enable the agencies to deliver their policies for the public good and has found that there is a need for more networking and cooperation as well as more flexibility in the set-up, functioning and possible winding-up of agencies while acknowledging the diverse governance structures, mandates, tasks and challenges of the agencies; further notes the recommendations of the Court to the Commission and the agencies to ensure the relevance, coherence and flexibility of the set-up of agencies, allocate resources in a more flexible manner, improve governance, accountability and reporting on performance and strengthen the role of agencies as centres of expertise and networking;
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 a (new) Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 3 3. Welcomes and encourages
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 3 3. Welcomes and encourages the
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 3 3. Welcomes and encourages the cooperation among the agencies within and beyond the framework of the EU Agencies Network (EUAN), which constitutes an important inter-agency cooperation platform to ensure efficient communication between the agencies and relevant stakeholders, allowing to build synergies and to exchange ideas and best practices and aiming to achieve more balanced governance, and greater coherence between them; stresses the necessity of improving cooperation between the agencies and Union institutions, avoiding the externalisation of services that can be provided by them;
source: 663.084
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