2021/2122(DEC) 2020 discharge: European Asylum Support Office (EASO)
Next event: Indicative plenary sitting date 2022/05/02
Lead committee dossier:
Next event: Indicative plenary sitting date 2022/05/02
Progress: Awaiting committee decision
Role | Committee | Rapporteur | Shadows |
---|---|---|---|
Lead | CONT | ZDECHOVSKÝ Tomáš ( EPP) | CHINNICI Caterina ( S&D), STRUGARIU Ramona ( Renew), EICKHOUT Bas ( Verts/ALE), KUHS Joachim ( ID), CZARNECKI Ryszard ( ECR), OMARJEE Younous ( GUE/NGL) |
Committee Opinion | LIBE | STRUGARIU Ramona ( Renew) | Malin BJÖRK ( GUE/NGL), Caterina CHINNICI ( S&D), Tomáš ZDECHOVSKÝ ( PPE), Saskia BRICMONT ( Verts/ALE), Peter KOFOD ( ID), Joachim Stanisław BRUDZIŃSKI ( ECR) |
Lead committee dossier:
Subjects
Events
2022/05/02
Indicative plenary sitting date
2022/02/16
EP - Committee opinion
Documents
2022/01/14
EP - Committee draft report
Documents
2021/10/26
EP - STRUGARIU Ramona (Renew) appointed as rapporteur in LIBE
2021/09/14
EP - Committee referral announced in Parliament
2021/07/28
EP - ZDECHOVSKÝ Tomáš (EPP) appointed as rapporteur in CONT
2021/06/30
EC - Non-legislative basic document
Documents
2021/06/30
EC - Non-legislative basic document published
Documents
Documents
- Committee opinion: PE702.928
- Committee draft report: PE698.962
- Non-legislative basic document: EUR-Lex
- Non-legislative basic document: COM(2021)0381
- Non-legislative basic document published: EUR-Lex
- Non-legislative basic document published: COM(2021)0381
- Non-legislative basic document: EUR-Lex COM(2021)0381
- Committee draft report: PE698.962
- Committee opinion: PE702.928
Amendments | Dossier |
32 |
2021/2122(DEC)
2022/01/19
LIBE
32 amendments...
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 1 1. Welcomes the fact that the Court of Auditors ('the Court') has declared the transactions underlying the annual accounts of the European Asylum Support Office (the 'Office') for the financial year 2020 to be legal and regular in all material aspects and that its financial position at 31 December 2020 is fairly presented; notes that the Office's budget increased from 118 to EUR 149 million (an increase of 18,6%) between 2019 and 2020, while members of staff increased from 296 to 380 (an increase of 28,4%) within the same period;
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 b (new) 2 b. Welcomes that the number of pending observations from previous audit reports of the Court has been halved between 2019 and 2020; notes however that 8 out of 12 recommendations still had an ongoing status;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 c (new) 2 c. Welcomes the Office’s support to Member States to address the COVID-19 challenges, such as the impact of the pandemic on specific aspects of the asylum process and resettlement, with videoconference meetings of its thematic networks; welcomes the recommendations issued on remote solutions for registration and asylum interviews; notes with appreciation the Office’s pro-active roll- out plan for vaccinating asylum seekers and beneficiaries of international protection;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 3 3. Recalls that in carrying out its operations, the Office is relatively dependent on Member States’ cooperation, e.g. in terms of the number of national experts being made available as part of the Asylum Intervention Pool referred to in Article 15 of Regulation (EU) No 439/2010 establishing the Office; stresses that, according to the Court, due to the limited number of such national experts made available, the Office further relied on contracted temporary agency workers to perform operational support tasks on the ground; calls on Member States to comply with their obligations as regards national experts in order to avoid the need for the Office to rely on external contractors;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 3 3. Recalls that in carrying out its operations, the Office is
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 3 a (new) 3 a. Reminds that in 2018 the Office’s executive director ad interim proposed a Governance Action Plan reinforcing the Office’s governance structures, and rebuilding internal capacity; notes that since then, the Office has been putting continuous efforts into strengthening its governance and its internal control system; welcomes that, according to the Court, most of the actions set out in the plan have been completed;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 3 a (new) 3 a. Notes the pending casebefore the General Court as regards the procurement of hiring temporary workers in Malta; underlines that high levels of transparency should be observed in conducting all public procurement procedures within the Union agencies; calls on the Office to provide regular information to the discharge authority about the state and course of court proceedings in this case;
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 4. Recalls the important role that
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 4. Re
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 4.
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 a (new) 4 a. Recalls that in 2020 about 13 600 applications for asylum were lodged by unaccompanied minors in the EU Member States; stresses the importance of providing a specific reception system for minors that protects their condition;
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 1 a (new) 1 a. Notes the low rate of payment appropriations (81%)and the high carry- overs of committed appropriations (EUR 8,4 million) and cancellation rate of 19%; calls on the Office to intensify its efforts regarding the respect of the implementation cycle and budget planning; understands at the same time that the legal uncertainty around the future mandate of the Office, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the implementation of the budget;
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 a (new) 4 a. Notes that a revised conflict of interest policy is in the final stage of inter- service consultation before its submission to the management board; calls on the Office to finalize this revised policy;
Amendment 21 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 b (new) 4 b. Notes with regret the Court’s observations that irregular payments in 2020 amounted to around EUR 1,1 million; highlights however that these payments and procurement payment are related to contracts signed in previous years and appreciates the efforts of the current management to terminate where possible or otherwise diminish the future financial impact of these past contracts;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 5 a (new) Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 5 a (new) 5 a. Urges the Office to comply with the Court's observations and take action in order to comply with the required legal obligations; notes that any further delay in this will cause even greater reputational damage;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 5 a (new) 5 a. Calls the Office to continue the Governance Action Plan launched in 2018, as while 51 actions had been completed, 10 actions are still pending, including filling up the vacant management posts;
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 5 b (new) 5 b. Underlines that by the end of November 2021, the Office still had three ongoing disciplinary procedures, following the report of the European Anti-Fraud Office (the 'OLAF') on the Office of 2018; appreciates the cooperation of the current management with the OLAF and its commitment to addressing the proposed recommendations;
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 5 b (new) 5 b. Notes that the European Anti- Fraud Office has initiated three disciplinary procedures in connection with the Office which are currently ongoing; calls on the Office to inform the discharge authority about the completion of these proceedings;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 5 c (new) 5 c. Notes with satisfaction the establishment in 2020 of the Office’s Legal Affairs and Data Protection Sector (the 'LDPS') within the executive office; highlights that the LDPS contributes to ensuring a sound legal environment for the functioning of the Office, handling litigation and pre-litigation procedures and representing the Office in court proceedings;
Amendment 28 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 5 c (new) 5 c. Notes that Court declared total amount of EUR 1 177 848 as irregular payments; notes that those payments were related to procurement errors in procedures connected to rented premises in Rome in 2016 and 2017 and procurement procedures for rented premises in Lesbos;
Amendment 29 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 5 d (new) Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 2. Welcomes the downward trend in the number of interim workers compared to the total number of staff; highlights that
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 5 d (new) 5 d. Welcomes the fact that the implementation of the internal control framework was further reinforced in 2020, by adding an ex-post controls’ function, thus addressing observations made in previous years by the discharge authority;
Amendment 31 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 5 e (new) 5 e. Highlights that in 2020 the Office continued to face difficulties in fulfilling certain tasks as a result of its outdated mandate, especially in terms of the legal framework and mechanisms for deployment of asylum support teams providing the support required by the Member States; welcomes the agreement reached by the co-legislators on adopting a new legal framework governing the activities of the Office and its transformation into a fully-fledged EU Agency for Asylum;
Amendment 32 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 5 e (new) 5 e. Welcomes the detailed report of the Office’s internal control system in the annual activity report which shows good insight into the state of internal control in the Office; encourage the Agency to continue with this practice in order to identify and implement improvements;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 2. Welcomes the downward trend in the number of interim workers compared to the total number of staff; highlights that one of the reasons underlying the dependency on interim staff was also the delay of the adoption and entry into force of the Regulation establishing a European Union Agency for Asylum (the ‘Regulation’); welcomes that an agreement has been reached in this regard and that the new legal framework will allow the new agency to employ remunerated experts; underlines that in order to decrease this dependency, the Office carried out an active dialogue with the Commission; regrets that only short term solutions could be identified and that the Office was allowed to employ 58 contractual agents in 2020 only for a period of one year, until the envisaged adoption of the Regulation; notes however, that due to the delay in the adoption of the Regulation, the Office found itself in a difficult situation, as the agreement did not allow it to extend these contracts until the entry into force of the new legal framework; notes with regret a serious lack of foresight on behalf of the Commission when designing and
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 2.
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 a (new) 2 a. Draws attention to that the Court found that the procurement procedures for the Office’s rented premises in Rome, carried out in 2016 and 2017, were irregular; reminds that under Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 (the 'Financial Regulation') the Office was required to carry out market prospects before renting premises and it did not do so, and as a result, all subsequent payments made in connection with this contract are irregular, and that in 2020 the associated payments amounted to EUR 266 523; further notes that in 2020 payments amounting to EUR 911 325 were made in connection with procurement procedures declared irregular by the Court in previous years (i.e. procurement for rented premises in Lesbos, for interim workers in Italy and for external experts) and that these payments are irregular according to the Court's findings;
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 a (new) 2 a. Notes that the Office has its headquarters in Malta and regional offices in Italy, Greece and Cyprus; expresses its concern over persistent procurement related shortcomings and irregularities; expresses its grave concern that in 2020 over EUR 1 million in payments relating to rented premises in Italy and Greece, as well as procurement of interim workers in Italy and payments for external experts, were found to be irregular;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 a (new) 2 a. Expresses its satisfaction that the Office has completed the one outstanding recommendation of the Court, namely establishing an effective policy for managing rented premises and related services;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 a (new) 2 a. Welcomes the fact that the Court's observation regarding the establishment of an effective policy for managing rented premises and related services has been acted upon and completed;
source: 704.533
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