2022/2098(DEC) | [ParlTrack]

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 ~~from~~to EUR 1~~49 to 17~~52.7 million (an increase of 18,85%) between 2020 and 2021, while members of staff increased from 380 to 423 (an increase of 11,3%) within the same period;

Amendment 10 #

Tomáš ZDECHOVSKÝ

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 #

Caterina CHINNICI

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 #

Jean-Paul GARRAUD

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 #

José GUSMÃO

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. ~~Regret~~Notes the fact that in 2021, the commitment appropriations and the payment appropriations ~~are low 83.48% and 77.01%~~levels were 97% and 91% respectively;

Amendment 18 #

José GUSMÃO

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 #

Jean-Paul GARRAUD

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 #

Caterina CHINNICI

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 #

Jadwiga WIŚNIEWSKA

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 #

José GUSMÃO

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. IsExpresses great concerned about the accusations of misconduct ~~that have been~~on staff-related irregularities caused by the Office’s senior management, brought to the attention tof OLAF and the EU institutions~~; requests that allegations of misconduct are thoroughly checked and investigated~~ through an anonymous complaint in September 2022; is deeply concerned about the seriousness of the aforementioned allegations that include claims of unlawful, opaque or partial recruitment and promotion of senior management members, allegations of harassment or mismanagement of funds relating to missions of Office staff; requests that allegations of misconduct are thoroughly checked and investigated; calls on the Office to ensure the full and sincere cooperation with OLAF throughout all stages of the investigation and to regularly report to the European Parliament about the progress of the state and outcome of the investigation;

source: 740.772

2023/02/21 CONT 18 amendments...

Amendment 1 #

Joachim KUHS, Jean-François JALKH, Matteo ADINOLFI

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

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 its own Legal Services Unit;

Amendment 12 #

Ramona STRUGARIU

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; 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 its own Legal Services Unit;

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 #

Joachim KUHS, Jean-François JALKH, Matteo ADINOLFI

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 ~~with regret~~ that the declaration of interests of the executive director ~~has not been~~is published on the Office’s website; notes that the CVs and declarations of interests of the members of the management board are published on the Office’s website; calls on the Office to publish the CVs and declarations of interests of all the senior management members on its website;

Amendment 15 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17

17. ~~Welcomes the progress made by the Agency towards~~Notes that the Agency did not finalise yet the updat~~ing~~e of its policy for the management and prevention of conflict of interests; notes that this policy will be based on three pillars: a decision of the management board that will apply to board members and members organisations of the Consultative Forum, a decision of the ED that will include guidance on post- employment activities and ethical guidance and will apply to staff, contracted experts and tenderers and beneficiaries of grant, and another decision of the ED that will integrate the Ombudsman’s European Code of Good Administrative Behaviour and public service principles; welcomes the Office’s commitment to also take into account the recommendations from the Court’s report on the ‘revolving door’ issue; calls on the Agency to keep the discharge authority informed on the adoption of those decisions; further notes that no cases of conflict of interests were reported, investigated or concluded in 2021;

Amendment 16 #

Ramona STRUGARIU

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22

22. Notes that, following receipt of a report of the European Anti-Fraud Office at the end of 2018, which was extensively covered in the discharge report for 2018, the Office initiated three disciplinary procedures in 2019~~, with two of them~~; notes that all three disciplinary procedures hav~~ing~~e been co~~ncluded and one still ongoing~~mpleted; calls on the Office to ~~inform~~provide the discharge authority ~~of the completion of the latter~~with further details about the outcomes to these procedures;

Amendment 17 #

Ryszard CZARNECKI, Ryszard Antoni LEGUTKO, Joachim Stanisław BRUDZIŃSKI, Elżbieta RAFALSKA

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 #

Claudiu MANDA

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. ~~Grants the Executive Director of the European Union Agency for Asylum discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Asylum Support Office for the financial year 2021 /~~ Postpones its decision on granting the Executive Director of the European Union Agency for Asylum discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Asylum Support Office for the financial year 2021;

Amendment 3 #

Proposal for a decision 1
Paragraph 1

Amendment 4 #

Joachim KUHS, Jean-François JALKH, Matteo ADINOLFI

Proposal for a decision 2
Paragraph 1

1. ~~Approves the closure of the accounts of the European Asylum Support Office for the financial year 2021 /~~ Postpones the closure of the accounts of the European Asylum Support Office for the financial year 2021;

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

9. Recalls with concern the Court’s 9. 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 appointments to one year; notes the Office’s reply with regard to the reasons why in 2021 the recruitment of managers was not prioritised, whereas such reasons include practical limitations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, new migration and asylum crises, two structural reorganisations of the Office, the need to ensure business continuity, with a focus on filling other non-managerial posts; highlights, however, that acting managers occupy two posts in the Office’s establishment plan, situation that could lead to inefficiency issues as well as to impaired leadership and strategic continuity; further notes the statement of the Office’s Executive Director (ED) during the hearing in the European Parliament on 30 November 2022, whereby at that date 7 managers, including 3 senior management members were still on ad interim positions, 2 of whom have been for more than 1 year in their function; takes note from the Office’s replies that two senior management positions were under recruitment by the end of 2022, while the third position was foreseen to be published in the following months; notes with great concern the anonymous reports from the Office’s staff members, that the number of ad interim senior management positions who have been in function for more than 1 year, is in fact higher than two, contradicting the statement made by the ED during the aforementioned hearing; urges the Office to provide clarity on this matter as it concerns the Office’s transparency and accountability, including to Parliament; reiterates its calls on the Office to launch and/or finalise without delay the recruitment procedures that are necessary in order to fill in all its managerial posts, in full compliance with the applicable legal requirements and to keep the discharge authority informed regarding the progress made in this matter;

Amendment 7 #

Ramona STRUGARIU

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 appointments to one year; notes the Office’s reply with regard to the reasons why in 2021 the recruitment of managers was not prioritised, whereas such reasons include practical limitations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, new migration and asylum crises, two structural reorganisations of the Office, the need to ensure business continuity, with a focus on filling other non-managerial posts; highlights, however, that acting managers occupy two posts in the Office’s establishment plan, situation that could lead to inefficiency issues as well as to impaired leadership and strategic continuity; further notes the statement of the Office’s Executive Director (ED) during the hearing in the European Parliament on 30 November 2022, whereby at that date 7 managers, including 3 senior management members were still on ad interim positions, 2 of whom have been for more than 1 year in their function; takes note from the Office’s replies that two senior management positions were under recruitment by the end of 2022, while the third position was foreseen to be published in the following months; notes that on January 18th 2023, the Executive Director decided not to renew the temporary management posts, which expired after one year and discontinued those that had been in place for longer than a year; reiterates its calls on the Office to launch and/or finalise without delay the recruitment procedures that are necessary in order to fill in all its managerial posts, in full compliance with the applicable legal requirements and to keep the discharge authority informed regarding the progress made in this matter;

Amendment 8 #

10. ~~Highlights with great concern that on 14 September 2022, the discharge authority~~Notes that on 14 September 2022, individual members of the committee on Budgetary Control received an anonymous ~~complaint~~email containing allegations on staff- related irregularities caused by the Office’s entire senior management team; is ~~deeply concerned about~~aware of the seriousness of the aforementioned allegations that include claims of unlawful, opaque or partial recruitment and promotion of senior management members, allegations of harassment or mismanagement of funds relating to missions of Office staff; notes that, as a result of those allegations, OLAF has launched an investigation~~; calls on the Office senior management and on all concerned staff to ensure full and sincere cooperation with OLAF throughout all stages of the investigation~~ on November 24.2022;notes that Ms. Gregori fully supported the initiation of the investigation and pledged to assist the authorities in all possible ways during the Budgetary Control Committee meeting held on November 30, 2022; calls on the Office to inform the discharge authority about the progress and stages of the investigation;

Amendment 9 #