Progress: Procedure completed
Role | Committee | Rapporteur | Shadows |
---|---|---|---|
Lead | CONT | STRUGARIU Ramona ( Renew) | SARVAMAA Petri ( EPP), MANDA Claudiu ( S&D), EICKHOUT Bas ( Verts/ALE), KUHS Joachim ( ID), CZARNECKI Ryszard ( ECR), OMARJEE Younous ( GUE/NGL) |
Committee Opinion | LIBE | BRICMONT Saskia ( Verts/ALE) | José GUSMÃO ( GUE/NGL) |
Lead committee dossier:
Subjects
Events
The European Parliament decided to grant discharge to the Executive Director of the European Asylum Support Office in respect of the implementation of the Office's budget for the financial year 2021 and to approve the closure of the accounts for that year.
Noting that the Court of Auditors stated that it had obtained reasonable assurance that the Institute's annual accounts for the financial year 2021 were reliable and that the underlying transactions were legal and regular, Parliament adopted, by 492 votes to 111, with 22 abstentions, a resolution containing a series of recommendations which form an integral part of the discharge decision and which complement the general recommendations contained in the resolution on the performance, financial management and control of EU agencies.
Office’s financial statements
The final budget of the Office for the financial year 2021 was EUR 152 743 528, representing an increase of 8.5 % compared to 2020. whereas the budget of the Office derives mainly from the Union budget. The Office’s growing role was highlighted in the Commission’s new pact on migration and asylum, which was published in September 2020. The Office’s operational footprint has increased in past years.
Budgetary and financial management
Budget monitoring efforts during the financial year 2021 resulted in a budget implementation rate of 96.67 %, representing a slight increase of 1.53 % compared to 2020 (95.14 %). Payment appropriations execution rate was at 90.91 %, representing an increase of 10 % compared to 2020 (80.91 %). The measures put in place by the Office to resolve the long-standing late payments issue, with a high rate (96.5 %) of payments made on time in 2021.
The Court declared payments made by the Office in 2021 of a total amount of EUR 362 204 irregular because they were related to procurement errors in procedures carried out in 2016 and in 2020 for rented premises in Rome and Lesbos. The corrective actions taken by the Office, whereby moves to new premises in Lesbos and Rome are expected in the first or second quarter of 2023.
Other comments
Parliament also made a series of observations concerning performance, staff policy and public procurement.
In particular, it noted that:
- the Office implemented its 2021 annual work programme, with 78 % of its annual indicators and 85 % of its multi-annual indicators being achieved or exceeded, despite the continuous challenges due to the COVID-19 global pandemic;
- upscaled its technical and operational assistance to Member States and for its readiness to react swiftly to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the increased number of asylum seekers crossing the border from Belarus and the challenges stemming from the war in Ukraine;
- on 31 December 2021, the establishment plan was 86.61 % executed (92.35 % including 21 posts offered), with 317 temporary agents appointed out of 366 temporary agents authorised under the Union budget (compared to 366 authorised posts in 2020). The Office stressed the need for 68 additional posts, over a period of three years, in its establishment plan to meet the requirements of the new mandate. Allegations of staff-related irregularities caused by the Office’s entire senior management team was reported;
- the Office launched 83 procedures in 2021, compared to 65 in 2020, 42.17 % of which were negotiated procedures with one candidate and 31.33 % of which were open calls;
- the Office made efforts to increase its public visibility in 2021 through various communication campaigns, including a campaign regarding the fact that the Office has become the European Union Agency for Asylum and the Office’s new corporate identity.
Documents
- Results of vote in Parliament: Results of vote in Parliament
- Decision by Parliament: T9-0178/2023
- Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
- Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A9-0123/2023
- Committee report tabled for plenary: A9-0123/2023
- Committee opinion: PE739.756
- Amendments tabled in committee: PE742.570
- Supplementary non-legislative basic document: 06248/2023
- Committee draft report: PE737.487
- Court of Auditors: opinion, report: OJ C 412 27.10.2022, p. 0012
- Court of Auditors: opinion, report: N9-0002/2023
- Non-legislative basic document: COM(2022)0323
- Non-legislative basic document: EUR-Lex
- Non-legislative basic document published: COM(2022)0323
- Non-legislative basic document published: EUR-Lex
- Non-legislative basic document: COM(2022)0323 EUR-Lex
- Court of Auditors: opinion, report: OJ C 412 27.10.2022, p. 0012 N9-0002/2023
- Committee draft report: PE737.487
- Supplementary non-legislative basic document: 06248/2023
- Amendments tabled in committee: PE742.570
- Committee opinion: PE739.756
- Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A9-0123/2023
Votes
Décharge 2021: Bureau européen d’appui en matière d’asile - A9-0123/2023 - Ramona Strugariu - Proposition de résolution (ensemble du texte) #
Amendments | Dossier |
38 |
2022/2098(DEC)
2023/01/19
LIBE
20 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 2021 to be legal and regular in all material aspects; notes that, according to its statement of revenue and expenditure the Office's budget increased
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 5 5. Is concerned about the accusations of misconduct that have been brought to the attention to OLAF and the EU institutions; requests that allegations of misconduct are thoroughly checked and investigated; underlines that that two recommendations from the Internal Audit Service audit on HR management and ethics, rated ‘important’ and referring to the recruitment process and anti- harassment policy, were implemented after the release of the ‘whistleblower’ note; welcomes the IAS conclusion of 15 November that those recommendations had been adequately and effectively implemented;5a _________________ 5a EUAA - Factual clarification regarding the IAS work. Doriane Givord-Strassel, Director, Internal Audit Service Directorate A, European Commission, 22/11/2022
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 5 5. Is concerned about the accusations of misconduct that have been brought to the attention to OLAF and the EU institutions; is further concerned about the opening of an investigation by OLAF; requests that allegations of misconduct are thoroughly checked and investigated;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 5 a (new) 5a. Notes that staff of the European Asylum Support Office sent a complaint to OLAF and the Commission, calling for a probe into its head, whom they accuse of nepotism, misleading reports and mishandling harassment claims; points out that undue salaries have been paid out and that the European Asylum Support Office has hired people linked to corruption cases as well as relatives of some of the Agency’s directors, who got to skip the queue to land jobs;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 5 a (new) 5 a. Regrets that the Office has not updated its policy for the management and prevention of conflict of interest as was recommended by the Court in 2020;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 6 6. Stresses the impact of the Russian war against Ukraine on the activities of EASO and the fact that EASO had to request additional human and financial resources to face the increased demand for assistance from Member States; commends in this regard the prompt actions taken by the Office to support Member States in the implementation of the Temporary Protection Directive, as well as the deployment of a number of staff in the Republic of Moldova, assisting voluntary transfers to Member States and providing useful relevant information to asylum seekers arriving from Ukraine; calls on the Commission to improve its reaction capacity to such situations and allocate in time the necessary resources to respond to such events;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 6 6. Stresses the impact of the Russian war against Ukraine on the activities of EASO and the fact that EASO had to request additional human and financial resources to face the increased demand for assistance from Member States; underlines the fact that the lack of human resources in 2022 limited the ability to perform some of the tasks of the new mandate of the Office, and that the financial effects of the Russian war against Ukraine cannot be reliably estimated;
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 6 a (new) 6 a. Welcomes the new updated COI Research Guide on the situation of LGBTIQ persons published in November 2021, which may assist lawyers, legal aid providers and judges working in the asylum procedure;
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 7 7.
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 7 a (new) 7 a. Regrets that the Agency has not yet remedied the ECA's observations from its audit reports for the 2017 financial year, where the Court concluded that the procurement procedures for EASO’s rented premises in Lesbos were irregular, and as a result, all subsequent payments on these contracts are irregular; also, the procurement procedure used for the rented premises in Rome was irregular, as a result, all subsequent payments on these contracts are irregular; notes that the Office has failed to remedy this situation;
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 7 a (new) 7a. Recommends that the Committee on Budgetary Control postpone granting the discharge in respect of the implementation of the European Asylum Support Office’s budget for the financial year 2021 until the accusations against it have been resolved;
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 2. Welcomes the fact that several issues identified in previous years Court’s observations have been addressed; encourages the Office to fully address the ongoing observations;
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 7 a (new) 7 a. Stresses that financial regulation and high management standards has to be respected by all the EU’s institutions;
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 2 a (new) 2 a. Is concerned that the Court reported contracts affected by various sorts of public procurement shortcomings, including payments made in the 2021 financial year, stemming from irregular procurement procedures reported in previous years;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 3 3. Notes however that a high number of management posts are vacant and that many had been occupied by interim staff for more than one year, which is the maximum period allowed by the Union's Staff Regulations; takes note that by November 2022, 3 senior management members were still on interim positions, while 2 had occupied their posts for more than legally permitted; notes from the Office's replies that two senior management positions were under recruitment by the end of 2022; calls on the Office to fully comply with Union Law provisions and refrain from prolonging ad-interim contracts for more than the maximum duration stipulated by the relevant legal provisions; recalls that one of the reasons underlying the dependency on interim staff was the delay of the adoption and entry into force of the Regulation establishing a European Union Agency for Asylum; notes with regret serious lack of foresight of the Commission when designing and allocating these posts to the Office;
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 3 3. Notes however that a high number of management posts are vacant and that many had been occupied by interim staff; recalls that one of the reasons underlying the dependency on interim staff was the delay of the adoption and entry into force of the Regulation establishing a European Union Agency for Asylum , as the agreement did not allow it to extend these contracts until the entry into force of the new legal framework; notes with regret serious lack of foresight of the Commission when designing and allocating these posts to the Office; underlines that the situation created had a negative impact on the recruitment capabilities and the ability of the Office to adequately support Member States, ultimately to the detriment of asylum- seekers and refugees who faced prolonged procedures and inadequate reception conditions; highlights also that these posts had been occupied on an acting basis for more than one year, at odds with the Staff Regulations and also puts strategic continuity of the Office at risk;
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 4. Recalls the important role that the Office fulfils in the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), assisting requesting Member States in improving the efficiency and quality of their asylum systems; further recalls that in carrying out its operations, the Office is relatively dependent on Member States’ cooperation, 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 7 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 4. Recalls the important role that the Office fulfils in the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), assisting requesting Member States in improving the efficiency and quality of their asylum systems; notes with satisfaction that in 2021, new operational plans were signed by the Office with Latvia, Lithuania and Belgium;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 4 a (new) 4 a. Welcomes the signature of two operational support plans with Lithuania and Latvia in the third quarter of 2021, in response to the sharp increase of irregular migration flows from Belarus and the ensuing escalation in the number of asylum applications, bringing the total number of countries assisted by the Office to 8 in 2021 (Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and Spain);
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion Paragraph 5 5.
source: 740.772
2023/02/21
CONT
18 amendments...
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution Recital A A. whereas, according to its statement of revenue and expenditure1 , the final budget of the European Asylum Support Office (the ‘Office’) for the financial year 2021 was EUR 152 743 528, representing an increase of 8,5% compared to 2020; whereas the budget of the Office derives mainly from the Union budget; reminds that EASO’s growing role is highlighted in the European Commission’s new Pact on Migration and Asylum, which was published in September 2020; takes note that agency’s operational footprint has increased in past years. _________________ 1 OJ C 141, 29.3.2022, p. 172.
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 10 10. Highlights with great concern that on 14 September 2022, the discharge authority received an anonymous complaint containing allegations on staff- related irregularities caused by the Office’s entire senior management team; is deeply concerned about the seriousness of the aforementioned allegations that include claims of unlawful, opaque or partial recruitment and promotion of senior
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 11 11. Notes that the Office has put in place a policy on protecting the dignity of the person and preventing psychological and sexual harassment; welcomes the Office’s organisation of awareness raising campaigns on these issues and the nomination of confidential counsellors in 2021; notes that in 2021, the Office received four complaints on alleged psychological harassment, one of which was withdrawn; notes that the other three complaints were object of a preliminary assessment carried out with support from an external law firm, that led to the conclusion that no prima-facie evidence of harassment was found, thus no further measures were deemed necessary by the Office; notes with concern that the Office did not cross-check the validity of the harassment complaints, and that it remains unclear how priority was given to the perspective of the alleged victims; calls on the Office to provide the discharge authority with the typology of cases and the criteria based on which it decides to ask for the support of an external law firm, given that the Office has
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 11 11. Notes that the Office has put in place a policy on protecting the dignity of the person and preventing psychological and sexual harassment; welcomes the Office’s organisation of awareness raising campaigns on these issues and the nomination of confidential counsellors in 2021; notes that
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 12 a (new) 12 a. Notes with great concern the alleged inadequate recruitment of some external contractors that are mandated to deal with asylum applications, indicated by several external contractors that have testified, on anonymous basis, that they were not interviewed or asked to provide evidence of their qualifications before assuming their role; stresses that inadequate recruitment risks to compromise the quality of the asylum decision-making procedure; calls upon the Office to provide the discharge authority transparency on this matter, and address any outstanding inadequacies with priority;
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 16 16. Notes the Office’s reply to the discharge authority on declarations of interests, which stated that all staff sign a declaration of interests upon entry into service; notes
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 17 17.
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 22 22. Notes that, following receipt of a report of the European Anti-Fraud Office
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 26 a (new) 26 a. Encourages the Agency to make use of the lessons learned regarding remote and hybrid working methods, in order to better recognize meetings and tasks that are more efficient to be held and performed remotely than in-person in the future; recalls that in fact-finding missions the focus shifted to other methods for collecting COI and maintaining contact with sources; notes that this was done through remote data collection and the use of open source intelligence tools and techniques
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 27 a (new) 27 a. Notes that the Agency has a strong cooperation at bilateral level with other JHA Agencies and that it has signed Working Arrangements with Frontex, FRA and eu-LISA, and Cooperation Plans with eu-LISA, which allow for the alignment of common projects and the sharing of information in a systematic way; encourages the Agency to further develop synergies and to reinforce its cooperation, its exchange of good practices and its discussions regarding areas of mutual interest with other Union agencies with a view to improving efficiency;
Amendment 2 #
Proposal for a decision 1 Paragraph 1 1.
Amendment 3 #
Proposal for a decision 1 Paragraph 1 1.
Amendment 4 #
Proposal for a decision 2 Paragraph 1 1.
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 4 a (new) 4 a. Deplores that the Office together with the EEAS did not arrange the reception of Afghan refugees in the neighboring countries of the region, such as Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan;
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 9 Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 9 9. Recalls with concern the Court’s finding that in 2020, the Office had 16 vacant management posts, with 10 of those occupied on an acting basis for more than one year, thus being at odds with the Union’s Staff Regulations, which limit the duration of temporary management
Amendment 8 #
10.
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution Paragraph 10 10. Highlights with great concern that on 14 September 2022, the discharge authority received an anonymous complaint containing allegations on staff- related irregularities caused by the Office’s entire senior management team; is deeply concerned about the seriousness of the aforementioned allegations that include
source: 742.570
|
History
(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)
events/7 |
|
procedure/final |
|
procedure/stage_reached |
Old
Procedure completed, awaiting publication in Official JournalNew
Procedure completed |
events/5 |
|
docs/7 |
|
events/5/summary |
|
docs/7 |
|
events/5 |
|
forecasts |
|
procedure/stage_reached |
Old
Awaiting Parliament's voteNew
Procedure completed, awaiting publication in Official Journal |
events/4/docs |
|
forecasts/0 |
|
forecasts/0 |
|
events/4 |
|
forecasts/0 |
|
docs/6/docs/0/url |
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/A-9-2023-0123_EN.html
|
events/3/docs/0/url |
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/A-9-2023-0123_EN.html
|
docs/6 |
|
events/3/docs |
|
forecasts/0 |
|
forecasts/0 |
|
forecasts/1 |
|
events/3 |
|
procedure/stage_reached |
Old
Awaiting committee decisionNew
Awaiting Parliament's vote |
events/2 |
|
forecasts/0 |
|
docs/3 |
|
docs/4 |
|
docs/3 |
|
forecasts/0/date |
Old
2023-03-23T00:00:00New
2023-03-22T00:00:00 |
docs/2/docs/0/url |
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/CONT-PR-737487_EN.html
|
docs/2 |
|
forecasts/1 |
|
docs/1 |
|
committees/1/rapporteur |
|
commission |
|
events/1 |
|
procedure/dossier_of_the_committee |
|
procedure/stage_reached |
Old
Preparatory phase in ParliamentNew
Awaiting committee decision |
committees/0/shadows/1 |
|
forecasts |
|
committees/0 |
|
committees/0 |
|