15 Amendments of Tomáš ZDECHOVSKÝ related to 2020/2142(DEC)
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Regrets that the Council continues to be silent in relation to the remarks made by Parliament in its discharge resolution of 28 April 20211 in relcontinuation tof the trend from previous years; _________________ 1 Texts adopted, P9_TA(2021)/0166.
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Observes that the Council’s budget is mostly administrative with a large amount being used for expenditure concerning persons, buildings, furniture, equipment and miscellaneous running costs; calls onregrets that the request to separate the budget of the European Council and the Council into one budget for each institution that has been made by Parliament in previous discharge resolutions has not been considered and urges the Council, as it has done in previous discharge resolutions, to separate the budget of the European Council and the Council into one budget for each institution for reasons of transparency and to improve accountability and expenditure efficiency for both institutions;
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Regrets that, in spite of its initial commitment, the Council doehas not, so far, systematically carryied out any adequate impact assessment of its substantial amendments to the Commission’s proposals; reiterates that such assessment is one of the key factors to improve the quality of Union legislation set out in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making2 ; _________________ 2 OJ L 123, 12.5.2016, p. 1.
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Recognises a slight reduction in the carry-over rate, amounting to 9,8 %, from 2019 to 2020 (as compared to a carry-over of 10,7 % from 2018 to 2019 and 11,5 % from 2017 to 2018); reminds the Council of the need, however, that carry-overs are exceptions to the principle of annuality and calls on the Council to strengthen its efforts to avoid budget over-estimates;
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Regrets the lack of information from the Council on effective actions taken to tackle gender and geographical imbalances, including at management level, and in this regard recalls Parliament's resolution of 17 December 2020 on the need for a dedicated Council configuration on gender equality3 , requesting ministers and secretaries of state in charge of gender equality to have a dedicated institutional forum to ensure stronger integration of gender equality in Union strategies and policy processes, the coordination of all related policies, as well as the harmonisation of the protection of women’s rights and gender equality in the Union via an intersectional approach; underlines that this specific configuration would represent a key element in unblocking the negotiations on the main files related to gender equality; _________________ 3 Text adopted, P9_TA(2020)0379.;
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Regrets the lack of attention paid to the need for an ethical framework, transparency and the prevention, identification and avoidance of conflicts of interest; reiterates its deep concern over the conflicts of interests of a number of Member State representatives involved in policy and budget decision-making processes; highlights in this regard the conclusions of the Commission audit on Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and Agrofert which confirm the existence of conflict of interest; repeats Parliament’s strong call on the Council to ensure that Member State representatives who benefit directly from Union subsidies through the businesses they own (directly or indirectly) do not participate in related policy or budgetary discussions and votes; requests the Council to provide Parliament with information on the necessary measures put in place to avoid any conflict of interests; deplores that the Council categorically rejects Parliaments' proposals to increase digitalisation in the area of audit and control and refuses to cooperate on increasing the interoperability of existing Union and national databases and reporting and monitoring systems; is very concerned about the official and unofficial European Council conclusions that, despite existing conflicts of interest, interfere with the common agricultural policy and with the cohesion negotiations on a capping of funding per natural and legal person;
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Notes, in the context of modernisation, the creation of a flatter management structure, by removing layers of hierarchy, with the aim of improving communication, making decision-making easier and empowering staff by allowing greater ownership of files; notes the introduction of a well-tested HR IT tool (SYSPER) and other IT tools used for managing the mission lifecycle; appreciates these steps and invites the Council to continue such efforts;
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Regrets the resort to corporate sponsorship to cover some of the expenses incurred by Member States tocalls that the financial resources from national budgets vary significantly among Member States, meaning that the costs of a Council presidency likely result in a higher per capita financial burden for tax payers in smaller Member States; is of the opinion that each Member State, independent of its size and budgetary means, should have equal opportunities to organise a successful Council presidency without imposing a higher tax burden on its citizens; notes that corporate sponsorship allows Member States to reduce the tax burden on citizens when financeing their Council presidencies; is highly concerned byy; underlines theat possible reputational damage that this practice might cause too the Council due to conflicts of interests arising from corporate sponsorship of a Council presidency must not occur; emphasises therefore, that Member States should only seek corporate sponsorship of their Council and the Unionpresidencies when the absence of conflicts of interests is fully ensured in a transparent manner; urges the adoption of clear guidelines aimed at preventing situations of conflict of interest and the definition of transparent and binding rules on sponsorship;
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Regrets that reporting by the Council on measures taken to improve legislative transparency remains less than completely satisfactory and reiterates its call on the Council to step up its transparency efforts by, inter alia, publishing Council working documents in a machine-readable format, by recording and publishing Member States’ positions and making available more trilogue documents;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Calls on the Council to report on its gender action plan, the related procedures put in place and the actions taken to achieve a balance between women and men on all hierarchical levels; calls further on the Council to be provided with information on the geographical balance among its staff and the measures taken in order to ensure such balance;
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Is concerned not to find any chapter on an ethical framework on the official website of the Council consisting of rules to prevent, identify and avoid potential conflict of interests; calls on the Council to align with other Union institutions in this respect such as with the European Court of Justice’s website which has a dedicated section on transparency; calls on the Council to present a plan to introduce such measures with clearly set deadlines;
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Reiterates the need to improve cooperation between the institutions in the framework of the discharge procedure through a Memorandum of Understanding between Parliament, the Council and the Commission in relation to the cooperation between Parliament and the Council during the annual discharge procedure; reminds that Parliament has informed Council of the composition of its negotiation team more than a year ago and that it stands ready to resume dialogue any time, only awaiting Council’s response;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28
Paragraph 28
28. Recalls that Parliament in its resolution of 17 January 2019 on the Ombudsman’s strategic inquiry OI/2/2017 on the transparency of legislative discussions in the preparatory bodies of the Council of the EU overwhelmingly supported the Ombudsman’s proposals on legislative transparency and encourages the Council to continue its efforts to improve legislative transparency, particularly by recording and publishing member state positions and making available more trilogue documents; invites the Council to report on other measures taken in order to improve legislative transparency;
Amendment 37 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Draws attention to a complaint- based inquiry in which the Ombudsman asked the General Secretariat of the Council to keep a full record of any meetings held between lobbyists and the President of the European Council or members of his cabinet; echoes the Ombudsman’s statement that members of the President’s cabinet should only meet with, or attend events organised by, interest representatives that are registered in the transparency register; is concerned that this statement goes unnoticed and calls for a reply to the Ombudsman;
Amendment 55 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 42
Paragraph 42
42. Advises that the positive trend of this process has been interrupted by the COVID-19-epidemic; recallsnotes with concern, however, that in autumn 2020 all attempts from Parliament’s side to meet for a first preliminary exchange with the Council failed;