Activities of Benedek JÁVOR related to 2015/2128(INI)

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2

2. Stresses that 1 649 out of a total of 16 473 irregularities reported to the Commission in 2014 were fraudulent, which involv~~ing~~ed an amount of ~~around EUR 3.24 billion, of which about EUR 2.27 billion related to expenditure~~EUR 538.2 million; fraudulent irregularities related to expenditure involved EUR 362 million, representing ~~1.8~~ 0,26% of total payments and those related to revenue involved EUR 176.2 million, representing 0.80% of gross amount of TOR collected in 2014;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3

3. Underlines that the overall financial impact of non-fraudulent irregularities reported in 2014 is 36 47% greater than in 2013, while the number of such irregularities registered increased by ~~48%;~~ 5%; non-fraudulent irregularities related to expenditure affected 1,54% of total payments and those related to revenue affected 3.66% of gross amount of TOR collected in 2014;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5

5. Notes with concern that the amount of Traditional Own Resources (TOR) affected by fraud orwas 191% higher in 2014 than in 2013 and the amount affected by non- fraudulent irregularities was 12546% higher in 2014 than the previous year;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Julia PITERA, Benedek JÁVOR, Ingeborg GRÄSSLE

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6

6. Is concerned by the fact that the average TOR recovery rate per Member State for both fraudulent and non-fraudulent irregularities for 2014 is, at 24%, at its historic lowest point; urges ~~the United Kingdom and Bulgaria to improve their contributions, as their level of irregularities is three times the EU average~~Member States to recover faster the amounts due and especially urges those Member States which still need to recover biggest amounts to do so;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7

7. Is concerned about the VAT gap and the estimated losses on VAT collection, which amounted to EUR 168 billion in 2013; underlines the fact that in ~~many Member States VAT fraud and avoidance remains at a continuously high level~~13 out of 26 EU countries examined in 2014, the average estimated VAT loss exceeded 15,2%; reiterates that the Commission has the competence to control and supervise measures taken by the Member States1 ; calls on the Commission to make full use of its executive powers in order to both control and help the Member States in their fight against VAT fraud and tax avoidance; acknowledges the fact that since 2013 Commission has been using the Quick Reaction Mechanism in order to deal with massive and sudden VAT fraud; __________________ 1 Council Regulations (EU, Euratom) No 1553/89/EEC and (EU, Euratom) No 608/2014.

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Julia PITERA, Benedek JÁVOR

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)

7a. Notes an increasing number of coordination centres supported by Eurojust and Europol; welcomes the results of cross-border operations vertigo 2 and 3 and the efficient cooperation between law enforcement and judicial authorities from Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, the UK, Belgium, Spain, the Czech Republic and Switzerland, leading to the neutralization of criminal networks responsible for defrauding approximately EUR 320 million of tax revenues, including VAT;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9

9. Encourages the Commission to further enhance its supervisory role through audit, control and inspection activities, remedial action plans and early warning letters; calls on the Member States to intensify their efforts and to tap their potential to detect and correct errors prior to claiming reimbursement from the Commission; underlines, in this regard, the particular value of preventive actions in forestalling disbursements and thus eliminating the need for subsequent actions to recover misappropriated funds

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)

9a. Is concerned that in 2014 the rural development sector accounted for the largest number of reported fraudulent irregularities showing the biggest increase in comparison with 2013 and takes note that four Member States reported about 71% of the total fraudulent cases;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10

10. Acknowledges that Member States’ recovery for the EAGF is below the overall average, and fewer than half of the irregularities detected in 2009 had been recovered by the end of 2014; Expresses concern that 2014 was a third consecutive year with a noted growth of number of cases of fraudulent irregularities in the EAGF and a fourth consecutive year of growth of the amount of fraudulent cases reported in the rural development; points to significant differences between the abilities of Member States to recover sums for irregular payments detected under the CAP and urges Bulgaria, France, Greece and Slovakia to significantly improve their results;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Benedek JÁVOR, Ingeborg GRÄSSLE

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10

10. Acknowledges that Member States’ recovery for the EAGF is below the overall average, and fewer than half of the irregularities detected in 2009 had been recovered by the end of 2014; points to significant differences between the abilities of Member States to recover sums for irregular payments detected under the CAP and urges Bulgaria, France, Greece and Slovakia to significantly improve their results; points out that 71% of the total number of fraudulent irregularities notified for natural resources (agriculture, rural development and fisheries) come from Hungary, Poland, Romania and Italy;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12

12. Notes that in the area of cohesion policy the trend for the number of irregularities reported as fraudulent is stabilising, with 306 cases reported; is seriously concerned about the increase of over EUR 115 million, which is mainly due to a sharp increase (by 660 %) in reported fraudulent irregularities in the 2007-2013 cohesion fund programming period from EUR 21 million to EUR 161 million; takes note that out of 74 cases of established fraud in the cohesion policy between 2008 and 2014, 61 (82%) were reported by three Member States - Germany (42 cases), Poland (11 cases) and Slovenia (8 cases); expresses concern that 14 Member States have a 0% established fraud ratio for that period of time which may raise questions to the efficiency of their systems of control.

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Benedek JÁVOR, Ana GOMES, Dennis de JONG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)

14a. Calls on the Commission to harmonize the framework of reporting 'suspected fraud' and to establish rules on reporting all judicial action undertaken in the Member states related to potential fraudulent use of community resources, indicating the judicial actions based on OLAF judicial recommendations specifically in the reporting

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20 a (new)

20a. Welcomes the fact that the ex-ante and ex-post 'Community Controls' detect more and more cases of irregularities and therefore these controls should be further promoted;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24

24. RWelcomes the European Commission statement in its 2014 annual PIF report[1], which reminds that both the PIF directive and the European Public Prosecutor's Office regulation (EPPO regulation) ''would complement and strengthen the legal framework and would considerably reinforce the fight against fraud''; reiterates its strong views on the need to adopt the PIF Directive, with VAT included in its scope and with a clear definition of PIF offences, minimum and maximum applicable imprisonment penalties, and minimum rules on the statute of limitations as soon as possible; recalls the Taricco Case, in which the Court of Justice of the European Union draws attention to the fact that VAT is a TOR;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28

28. Emphasises that the failure to comply with public procurement rules was a significant source of error for the 2009- 2013 programming period amongst others the avoidance of public procurement by splitting contracts into smaller tenders to avoid exceeding thresholds and the use of inappropriate procedure; ; points out that the new public procurement directives have to be implemented by April 2016; emphasises that reducing the incidence of irregularities requires correct implementation of the directives by the Member States; calls on the Commission to closely monitor the implementation of these directives; is of the belief that ex ante conditionalities have the potential to improve public procurement;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Benedek JÁVOR, Ana GOMES, Dennis de JONG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28

28. Emphasises that the failure to comply with public procurement rules was a significant source of error for the 2009- 2013 programming period; points out that the new public procurement directives have to be implemented by April 2016; emphasises that reducing the incidence of irregularities requires correct implementation of the directives by the Member States; calls therefore on the Commission to work out guidelines for the proper implementation of the directives; calls on the Commission to closely monitor the implementation of these directives; is of the belief that ex ante conditionalities have the potential to improve public procurement;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28

28. Emphasises that the failure to comply with public procurement rules was a significant source of error for the 2009- 2013 programming period; points out that the new public procurement directives have to be implemented by April 2016; emphasises that reducing the incidence of irregularities requires correct implementation of the directives by the Member States; calls on the Commission to closely monitor the implementation of these directives; is of the belief that ex ante conditionalities have the potential to improve public procurement; calls on the Commission to develop a database on irregularities capable of providing a basis for meaningful analysis of public procurement errors;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Benedek JÁVOR, Ana GOMES, Dennis de JONG

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29

29. Stresses the importance of leading by example and warmly welcomes the inter- institutional approach to implement the Performance Based Budgeting; Calls on the Commission to adopt the planning, implementation and control phase of the MFF in accordance with the results-based budgeting principle;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30

30. Notes the importance of further and continuous measures to avoid fraudulent irregularities, but also pushes for more focus on ensuring the ‘Value for Money’ principle in public spending; calls on Commission to reinforce their activities in relation to applying efficiency and effectiveness indicators in all its programmes and not to concentrate only on the error rate; furthermore calls on the Commission not to work only on the 3 main categories – namely Economy, Efficiency and Effectiveness- but to start focusing also on the new triptych (Ecology, Equality and Ethics);

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Benedek JÁVOR, José BOVÉ, Bart STAES

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34

34. Welcomes the successful outcomes of numerous joint customs operations (JCOs) involving the cooperation of OLAF and Member States with various third-country services, which have resulted in the seizure of, inter alia, 1.2 million counterfeit goods, including perfumes, car spare parts, electronic devices and 130 million cigarettes; underlines the fact that the smuggling of heavily taxed goods causes significant losses of revenue to the budgets of the EU and the Member States, and that direct losses in customs revenue as a result of cigarette smuggling alone are estimated at more than EUR 10 billion a year;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT