46 Amendments of Petri SARVAMAA related to 2015/2154(DEC)
Amendment 1 #
Proposal for a decision 1
Citation 9 a (new)
Citation 9 a (new)
- having regard to the Communication from the Commission of 8 October 2015 to the European Parliament, the Council and the Court of Auditors on Protection of the EU budget to end 2014 (COM(2015) 503 final),
Amendment 78 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 45 a (new)
Paragraph 45 a (new)
45a. Endorses the reservations issued by the Director-General of DG REGIO in its annual activity report concerning the ERDF/Cohesion Fund management and control systems for the 2007-2013 programming period in 12 Member States (77 programmes) and ETC programmes; is of the opinion that those reservations demonstrate that the control procedures put in place in the Commission and the Member States cannot give the necessary guarantees concerning the legality and regularity of all the underlying transactions in the corresponding policy areas;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 45 b (new)
Paragraph 45 b (new)
45b. Endorses the reservations issued by the Director-General of DG AGRI in its annual activity report; ABB02 – Expenditure on Market Measures: EUR 77,7 million at risk; 4 aid schemes in 7 Member States (8 elements of reservation): Austria, France (for two aid measures), Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Romania and the United Kingdom; ABB03 – Direct payments: EUR 831,6 million at risk; 15 paying agencies, comprising 6 Member States: Spain (10 paying agencies), France, UK (RPA- England), Greece, Hungary and Portugal; ABB04 – Rural development expenditure: EUR 532,5 million at risk; 28 paying agencies, comprising 16 Member States: Bulgaria, Germany (3 paying agencies), Denmark, Spain (6 paying agencies), France (2 paying agencies), UK (2 paying agencies), Hungary, Greece, Italy (4 paying agencies), Lithuania, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Sweden; ABB05 – IPARD expenditure for Turkey: EUR 5,07 million at risk; is of the opinion that those reservations demonstrate that the control procedures put in place in the Commission and the Member States cannot give the necessary guarantees concerning the legality and regularity of all the underlying transactions in the corresponding policy areas;
Amendment 80 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 45 c (new)
Paragraph 45 c (new)
45c. Endorses the reservations issued by the Director-General of DG EMPL in its annual activity report; notes that its annual activity report contains a reservation relating to payments made for the 2007-2013 programming period for an amount at risk of EUR 169,4 million in 2014; Management and control systems for 36 specific ESF Operational Programmes in Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and the United Kingdom for the programming period 2007-2013; is of the opinion that those reservations demonstrate that the control procedures put in place in the Commission and the Member States cannot give the necessary guarantees concerning the legality and regularity of all the underlying transactions in the corresponding policy areas;
Amendment 81 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 45 d (new)
Paragraph 45 d (new)
45d. Requests the director general of DG DEVCO to provide a more risk differentiated assurance in his annual activity report and to subsequently direct more of their control resources towards areas covered by specific reservations;
Amendment 82 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 45 e (new)
Paragraph 45 e (new)
45e. Calls on the Council to adopt a more vigilant position on the discharge and welcomes the critical stance taken by Sweden and the United Kingdom asking the Commission and the Court to: - focus on areas and recipients with high risk of errors instead of adding more controls for all; - focus on ex-ante controls rather than ex- post controls; - urging Member States authorities to make better use of the available information to prevent, detect and correct errors before declaring expenditure to the Commission; - preserve the unanimously agreed payment ceilings, in particular by maintaining fiscal discipline in relation to commitments, effectively de-committing unused appropriations in order to make room for new priorities and programmes, increasing transparency by providing long-term forecasts, ensuring a balance between commitments and payments and reducing excessive cash balances in financial instruments, given that more than €14 bn in unutilised funds remains locked within such instruments, which could be used for more urgent needs and priorities.
Amendment 108 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 66 a (new)
Paragraph 66 a (new)
66a. Endorses the inclusion of Country- Specific Recommendations (CSRs) in partnership agreements;
Amendment 110 #
Motion for a resolution
New subheading after paragraph 66 and paragraph 66 a (new)
New subheading after paragraph 66 and paragraph 66 a (new)
66a. Financial corrections and recoveries Is concerned that for the financial corrections implemented in 2014 (as compared to Union payments received) some Member States laid three times above the average percentage of 2,3 % (Slovakia 8,7%, Czech Republic 8,1%, Greece 4,7%); Notes that for the 2007 - 2013 programming period, EUR 209 million of financial corrections under ESF has been confirmed and EUR 156 million implemented, out of which EUR 95 million were confirmed in 2014; remarks that Member States with the highest level of corrections are Spain (EUR 56 million), Romania (EUR 43 million); Poland (EUR 32 million) and France (EUR 20 million); States that the cumulative amounts corrected for cohesion policy in 2007 - 2013 represent 0,9% of the budget allocations; shares the Commission´s view that financial corrections for the 2007- 2013 period are expected to continue to increase in the coming years as its programmes start to close; Notes that for ERDF/CF programmes, the Commission has imposed around EUR 2 billion of financial corrections cumulatively since the beginning of the 2007-2013 programming period, which includes EUR 782 million of financial corrections applied by the Member States before or at the same time of declaring the expenditure to the Commission; observes with concern that the main Member States concerned are Czech Republic (EUR 719 million), Hungary (EUR 298 million), Greece (EUR 257 million), Spain (EUR 237 million), Slovakia (EUR 152 million), Romania (EUR 146 million) and Italy (EUR 105 million); Notes that for ESF, the Member States with the highest level of cumulative financial correction figures are Romania (EUR 355 million), Spain (EUR 213 million) and Poland (EUR 152 million);
Amendment 111 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 66 b (new)
Paragraph 66 b (new)
66b. Considers financial corrections and recoveries effective means to protect the Union´s budget; regrets however that due to the legal framework for protecting Union financial interests, the complexity of the related procedures and the number of control layers involved in many areas, errors can only be corrected several years after they have occurred;
Amendment 137 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 87
Paragraph 87
87. Points out in particular that by the end of 2014, payments to Member States for the multiannual ESIFs for 2007-2013 had reached EUR 309,5 billion; i.e. 77% of the EUR 403 billion for all the operational programmes, where five Member States, namely Czech Republic, Spain, Italy, Poland and Romania account for more than the half of the unused commitments of multiannual ESIFs;
Amendment 142 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 95
Paragraph 95
95. Points out that the VAT gap and the estimated losses on VAT collection amounted to EUR 168 billion in 2013; is concerned that the new system of accountability for VAT as an own resource could not totally achieve its goal of simplification and stresses the need to improve EUROFISC to facilitate the exchange of information and help combat irregularities and fraudsConsiders that VAT fraud, and in particular the so-called carousel or missing trader fraud, distorts competition and deprives national budgets from significant resources and is detrimental to the Union budget; points out that the VAT gap and the estimated losses on VAT collection amounted to EUR 168 billion in 2013; notes, that the current VAT system remains fragmented and creates significant administrative burdens, especially for SMEs and online companies; is concerned that the new system of accountability for VAT as an own resource could not totally achieve its goal of simplification and stresses the responsibility of Member States to address the weaknesses in EUROFISC and better coordinate their policies on reverse charges, to facilitate the exchange of information and help combat irregularities and frauds; asks the Commission to propose legislative amendments enabling effective cross-checks between customs and tax data and to focus its monitoring of Member States on improving the timeliness of their replies to information requests and the reliability of the VAT Information Exchange System;
Amendment 151 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 109
Paragraph 109
109. Is pleased that the Commission was able to meet most targets of the key performance indicators (KPI); doubts however, that the target of investing, by 2020, 3% of the Union GDP in research and development can be met; calls on all Member States to rise to the challenge; the situation seems to be particularly difficult for Croatia, Finland, Luxembourg Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden;
Amendment 155 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 117 a (new)
Paragraph 117 a (new)
117a. Reiterates its concern about the systematic delays in the ITER programme which questions its efficiency and effectiveness; is deeply worried by the over costs, which have impacted upon the cost-effectiveness of the programme and put other Union programmes in jeopardy, mainly in the research policy area; recalls with much regret the meeting organised in the Parliament on 11 November during which merely a future action plan was announced but not presented; is troubled by the Commission replies of 3 December 2015 pointing out that the ITER Council of November 2015decided that the "(...) assumptions underlying the proposed project's schedule cannot be considered to be fully realistic and that the associated IO costs appear excessive, in particular in relation to staffing requests. Further iterations are needed with the Domestic Agencies (in particular F4E) to ensure the reliability, stability and cost sustainability of the schedule proposal over the long term. (...) For this reason, the ITER Council decided at this last meeting to carry out a high level independent assessment on the result of the work presented by the ITER Organization, covering both technical and resource matters. This assessment should be available before the ITER Council of June 2016, (...)"; considers progress to be highly unsatisfactory;
Amendment 159 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 121 a (new)
Paragraph 121 a (new)
121a. Takes note that the director general of Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, as in previous years, has issued a horizontal reservation concerning the rate of the residual error within cost claims in the FP7, implemented directly by DG RTD, and in the payments to the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking, as the estimated residual risk is 3%; the estimated impact is EUR 111,39 million;
Amendment 160 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 121 b (new)
Paragraph 121 b (new)
121b. Acknowledges that certain parts of FP7 expenditure were not covered by a reserve where there was evidence that the risks (and so the residual error rates) are significantly lower than for all expenditure; within RTD this applies to expenditure given to Fusion for Energy Joint Undertaking, Clean Sky and Fusion Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking; outside DG RTD this also applies to expenditure by the Research Executive Agency under the Marie Curie programme, and all expenditure from the European Research Council Executive Agency;
Amendment 161 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 121 c (new)
Paragraph 121 c (new)
121c. Concludes that, whereas the horizontal reservation may be legally necessary, such a reservation sheds a negative light on the Commission's financial management, in particular as the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation can give full assurance of 97% of this expenditure;
Amendment 184 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 140
Paragraph 140
140. Notes that by the end of 2015, on average 89% of funds were used with some Member States(absorption rate) with Italy (79%), Romania (70%) and Croatia (59%) trailing behind;
Amendment 187 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 144
Paragraph 144
144. Shares the Commission's opinion that unemployment rates (especially long-term unemployment) and the percentage of young persons not in employment, education or training (NEETs), are indications of mismatch in the labour market. The five countries with the highest level of long-term unemployment (as share of active population) in the Union are Greece (19,5%), Spain (12,9%), Croatia (10,1%), Slovakia (9,3%) and Portugal (8,4%) against the Union average of 5,1%. The countries with the highest rate of NEETs are Cyprus (33,7%), Bulgaria (30,9%), Hungary (30,3%), Greece (30,0%) and Romania (26,9%) compared to an Union average of 16,37%;
Amendment 199 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 152
Paragraph 152
152. Welcomes the fact that the Commission has set up, in November 2014, a task force for better implementation for Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy (South), Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia in order to avoid de- commitment of funds;
Amendment 202 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 153
Paragraph 153
153. Recalls that the legal framework for ESIFs 2014-2020 has also introduced ex ante conditionalities for the effective and efficient use of Union funds, which cover inter alia Member States’ public procurement systems; and that in that context, actions plans have been adopted for 12 countries (Bulgaria, Czech republic, Greece, Hungary, Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, and Slovakia) and will be assessed by 2016; stresses that fulfilling the ex-ante conditionalities is a precondition for funding; remarks the fundamental role of the ex-ante assessments is to guarantee the better use of resources and asks for the necessary full transparency on the financing of infrastructural projects;
Amendment 209 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 161
Paragraph 161
161. Regrets that Member States have not yet fully embraced the simplified cost option (SCO) under the ESF; whereas the Commission expects the that under the programming period 2014-2020 on average 35% of cost will be claimed under the SCO, some Member States (Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden) will be significantly above, other Member States (Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia and Slovakia) will be significantly below;
Amendment 219 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 168 – point b
Paragraph 168 – point b
(b) in the employment and social affairs policy area (Employment): claiming ineligible cost, ineligible project or beneficiary, as well as cases of non- compliance with the rules on public procurement; the most common types of eligibility issues detected are the following: expenditure declared outside the eligibility period (CZ, DE), overcharged salaries (DE, FI, PL, PT), costs not related to the project (NL, PL, PT), non-compliance with national eligibility rules (PL) and revenue not deducted (AT); the most common examples of failures to comply with public procurement rules are the following: unjustified direct award (DE, IT), unjustified direct award of additional works/services, unlawful exclusion of bidders, conflict of interest and discriminatory selection criteria (FI);
Amendment 220 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 168 a (new)
Paragraph 168 a (new)
168a. Deplores that, for years, errors of the same kind continue to be identified often in the same Member States; acknowledges that suspension and interruptions of payments by the Commission ensures that corrective actions are carried out in cases where deficiencies were identified; calls on the Commission to step up monitoring of national and regional management and control systems in the light of this finding, and to ease monitoring in countries where management and control systems have proved reliable;
Amendment 226 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 176 a (new)
Paragraph 176 a (new)
176a. Recalls that the implementation of 51 priority projects in Greece needed to be accelerated; furthermore, 14 projects - concerning, among other issues, the cadastre and the national registry - have been identified as "bottleneck" projects and run the risk of de-commitment; expects the Commission to update Parliament on the situation in the 2014 Commission discharge follow-up report;
Amendment 227 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 176 b (new)
Paragraph 176 b (new)
176b. Recalls that the Czech Audit Office report OPTP/2014/SM/01 on the procurement procedure for the monitoring system for 2014-2020, which was filed with the Commission in April 2015, refers to unwarranted expenditure of over EUR 9 million; welcomes that the Commission has issued a letter of warning of possible interruption of payments and called on the Czech authorities to apply the adequate financial corrections; wishes to know how the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) assessed the situation;
Amendment 228 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 176 c (new)
Paragraph 176 c (new)
176c. Is concerned by infringements of public procurement rules during the tendering procedure for IT monitoring systems during the financing periods 2007-2013 and 2014-2020 which also gave rise to suspicion of fraud; notes that these errors were discovered by the Czech audit authorities; fully supports the Commission's position that no payments should be made until the respective corrective measures were taken and the police investigation was completed;
Amendment 229 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 176 d (new)
Paragraph 176 d (new)
176d. Considers that a former employee of the Czech Ministry of Regional Development and current staff member of Commissioner Crețu's private office should not follow Czech regional policy affairs, as such an assignment constitutes a potential conflict of interest;
Amendment 231 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 178
Paragraph 178
178. Notes that the aIs concerned by the Court's opinion - referring to the situation by end of September 2014 - that the overagell disbursement rate to final recipients of FEI was 47%as reported by the Commission is still too low to expect that all funds available will be used at least once; particular problems were noted for financial instruments in five Member States (Bulgaria, Greece, Spain, Romania, and Slovakia);
Amendment 246 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 204 a (new)
Paragraph 204 a (new)
204a. Notes with satisfaction that the weaknesses in the LPIS had been addressed in all the Member States audited but deplores that some important weaknesses still persist in Greece, Spain and Italy; asks the Commission to use the reinforced instruments it has under the new CAP legislation where there are significant and persistent deficiencies in national systems;
Amendment 248 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 205 a (new)
Paragraph 205 a (new)
205a. Deeply regrets that the Greek certifying body significantly underestimated the level of error reported for financial year 2014 in the framework of the "reinforcement of assurance procedure" and stresses that overall for the 6 Member States which had opted for the voluntary application of this procedure(Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, Luxemburg, United Kingdom), the Court found that with the exception of Luxembourg the weaknesses in its implementation render the reported levels of error unreliable;
Amendment 249 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 206
Paragraph 206
206. Regrets that the Court detected weaknesses in the control systems related to transactions in rural development of the five paying agencies it visited in 2014: Ireland, Italy (Campania) Portugal, Romania and Sweden and, in particular, in the checks related to eligibility conditions for environmental conditions, to the maximum size of companies and to public procurement procedure;
Amendment 252 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 210 a (new)
Paragraph 210 a (new)
210a. Deplores the Courts´ findings that EU support for rural infrastructure has achieved only limited value for money; regrets that the need for Union rural development funding was not always clearly justified and coordination with other funds weak and that the selection procedure did not systematically direct funding towards the most cost-effective projects; asks the Commission and the Member States to collect relevant and reliable data on the effectiveness and efficiency of the measures funded, in order to manage the spending by results;
Amendment 257 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 217
Paragraph 217
217. Stresses that while in 2014 the certification bodies gave a positive assessment on all EAGF-IACS statistics, the Commission has to correct upwards the error rates communicated by 17 out of 69 paying agencies with a residual error rate above 2%, of which five were above 5%92 - Spain (Andalucía, Cantabria, Extremadura and La Rioja) as well as Hungary -; points out that overall, the reported error rate for CAP direct payments increased from 0,55% to 2,54% as a result of adjustments made by DG AGRI; __________________ 92 See Table: Annex 10- 3.2.8 on the DG AGRI annual activity report 2014.
Amendment 259 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 218
Paragraph 218
218. Stresses that while in 2014 the certification bodies gave a positive assessment on 88% of the EAFRD statistics, the Commission has to correct upwards the error rates communicated by out 43 out of 72 paying agencies with an adjusted error rate above 2% (of which 14 were above 5%): - Bulgaria, Denmark, Spain (Andalucía and Valencia), France (ODARC and ASP), UK (England), Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, Latvia, Netherlands, Portugal and Romania -; points out that overall, the reported error rate for rural development payments increased from 1,52% to 5,09% as a result of adjustments made by DG AGRI;
Amendment 273 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 232 a (new)
Paragraph 232 a (new)
232a. Notes that the Commission has launched a conformity clearance procedure to get detailed and precise information on the risk of a conflict of interest concerning the State Agricultural Intervention Fund in the Czech Republic and stressed that failure to take the necessary measures to prevent a conflict of interest could ultimately require the Czech competent authority to withdraw the accreditation of the paying agency and/or could lead to the application of financial correction by the Commission; asks the Commission to proceed rapidly and to report to the Parliament on this issue by June 2016; asks Olaf to report without delay to the Parliament on its decision to open or not a case;
Amendment 280 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 241
Paragraph 241
Amendment 281 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 241 a (new)
Paragraph 241 a (new)
241a. Notes with concern that the overall performance of the EU delegation as measured by the key performance indicators utilised in the EAMR of 2014 has worsened compared to 2013;
Amendment 282 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 241 b (new)
Paragraph 241 b (new)
241b. Notes with surprise that the delegations with the highest amount at risk as measured by key performance indicator 5: "timely implementation" and 6: "objective reached" differ from those listed as the worst performers and considers that it raises questions on the quality and seriousness of reporting of some delegations;
Amendment 283 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 241 c (new)
Paragraph 241 c (new)
241c. Notes with deep concern that according to the EAMR on 2598 projects led by the EU delegations; – 805 projects worth EUR 13,7 Billion (45,53% of the total amount) are delayed, – 610 projects worth EUR 9,9 Billion (32,96%) will not reach the initially set objectives, – 500 projects worth EUR 8,6 Billion (29%) are both delayed and will not reach their initially set objectives, – 915 projects worth EUR 15 billion (50%) are either delayed or will not reach the initially set objectives, – budget support actions account for almost one fifth of the projects with the worst problems;
Amendment 284 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 241 d (new)
Paragraph 241 d (new)
241d. Regrets that project with implementation problems are less often visited by delegation staff than projects without problem;
Amendment 285 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 241 e (new)
Paragraph 241 e (new)
241e. Recalls that its requested the Commission to present the measures taken in order to improve the performance of Union delegations as regards financial planning and resource allocations, financial administration and auditing and to provide the conclusions it has drawn from the EAMR with the EAMRs to Parliament;
Amendment 286 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 241 f (new)
Paragraph 241 f (new)
241f. Insists that the Commission should in no way utilise the adversarial procedure as foreseen by article 163 of the financial regulation applicable to the general budget of the Union in order to delay or to block the adoption of a special report of the Court of auditors;
Amendment 287 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 243
Paragraph 243
243. Considers the EAMR issued by the heads of Union delegations to be a useful internal management instrument to enable the Commission to identify early problems with projects and to address them even during the implementation; regrets that these reports are not annexed to the annual activity reports of DG DEVCO and NEAR as is foreseen by Article 67.3 of the Financial Regulation; regrets that they are systematically considered as confidential whilst in accordance with Article 67 paragraph3 of the Financial Regulation , "they shall be made available to the Parliament and the Council having due regard, where appropriate to their confidentiality";
Amendment 288 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 244
Paragraph 244
244. NoteRegrets that the overall performance of Union delegations in implementation of external assistance programs as measured by the KPI utilised in the EAMR of 2014 has worsened compared to 2013; notes however that these reports present an assessment of ongoing projects and that the performance is influenced by factors outside the control of the Union delegations, including quality of governance in beneficiary countries, security situation, political crises, commitment of implementing partners, etc.;
Amendment 344 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 278
Paragraph 278
278. Is of the opinionEmphasises that the SC should, as a matter of consistency with its mandate, have autonomous staff who are detached from the OLAF administration and enjoy financial autonomy; calls on OLAF to grant the SC access to documents that the SC deems necessary to fulfil its task in accordance with its remit within the legislative mandatewelcomes the Commission's ongoing efforts towards this end;
Amendment 345 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 278 a (new)
Paragraph 278 a (new)
278a. Urges OLAF to grant the SC access to documents that the SC deems necessary to fulfil its task in accordance with its remit within the legislative mandate;