Activities of Benedek JÁVOR related to 2016/2206(DEC)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Union agencies for the financial year 2015: performance, financial management and control PDF (519 KB) DOC (78 KB)
Amendments (11)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas in the context of the discharge procedure, Parliament stresses the special importance of further strengthening the democratic legitimacy of the institutions of the Union by improving transparency and accountability, implementing the concept of performance-based budgeting and good governance of human resources;
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Notes with satisfaction that some agencies already cooperate according to their thematic grouping, such as the justice and home affairs agencies4 and the European Supervisory Authorities5 ; encourages other agencies which have not already started, to cooperate further with other agencies within the same thematic grouping whenever possible, not only in establishing shared services and synergies, but in their common policy areas as well; encourages the Court to consider presenting landscape reviews of the agencies’ common policy areas; calls on Commission and the Council when deciding on the reallocation of the agencies based in the United Kingdom to also take in account the possibilities to better cooperate with other agencies in the same thematic grouping and introduce shared services; _________________ 4 European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), European Agency for the Operational Management of Large- Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (eu-LISA), European Asylum Support Office (EASO), European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), European Police College (CEPOL), European Police Office (Europol), European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), The European Union’s Judicial Cooperation Unit (Eurojust) 5 European Banking Authority (EBA), European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA)
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Notes with concern that Union regulatory agencies in charge of the risk assessment of regulated products, in particular EFSA, ECHA or EMA do not have the financial and legal resources to fulfil their mission properly: the Agencies can only afford very little or even no in- house research, pay the external experts they work with, and cannot publish in an easy and exhaustive way the scientific evidence they use because most of it is the property of regulated companies; takes also note of the fact that under the current regulatory framework industry as a whole faces much higher regulatory costs than the necessary because each applicant needs to provide a new, full dossier and numerous studies are repeated multiple times where once or twice would suffice; moreover, having regulated companies pay for the cost of their products' evaluation in an ad-hoc manner is unfair for SMEs, and this high entry cost to the market drives market concentration, harming innovation and consumers;
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 1 a (new)
Subheading 1 a (new)
Calls on the Commission in line with recent statements from Juncker and Andtriukaitis1a , therefore to reform, harmonise and simplify the Union's legal framework for the risk assessment of regulated products to ensure sufficient funding for the risk assessment while ensuring that the industry bears the costs in a manner that ensures independence from the risk-assessor, for instance by contribution linked to total sales of the products falling under the scope of the regulating agency, and that the research is commissioned by the agencies and performed by independent laboratories and all results of all scientific experiments performed are published in the peer- reviewed scientific literature, and the complete raw data made available on request to enable scientific scrutiny and constant progress; _________________ 1aAndriukaitis and Juncker's remarks in the College meeting on the need to reinforce the scientific base of decisions, p. 28 & 32 respectively available online here: http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/r ep/10061/2017/EN/PV-2017-2198-F1-EN- MAIN-PART-1.PDF
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 1 b (new)
Subheading 1 b (new)
Calls on the Commission to better coordinate between the expertise needs of Union regulatory agencies and Union's Research Policy;
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 a (new)
Paragraph 28 a (new)
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Notes from the Network that all agencies already adopted generic rules on whistleblowing as part of the ethics guidelines on whistleblowing and in accordance with the provisions of the staff regulations; notes with concern however, that only 65 % of the agencies adopted additional internal rules on whistleblowing; acknowledges from the Network that, in the cases where the relevant rules are not yet in place, the process is ongoing with pending adoption; notes that in several cases, the agencies are waiting for guidance or input from the Commission before they can finalise their rules; acknowledges moreover that the rules should be finalised and implemented in the first half of 2017; calls on the agencies to ensure that they not only formally oblige officials to report irregularities of all kinds but also to lay down adequate protection forwhich have still not adopted the internal whistleblowing rules to do so without delay and by doing so reinforce its internal whistleblowing policy in order to foster a culture of transparency and accountability in the workplace, regularly inform and train employees on their duties and rights, ensure protection of the whistleblower from reprisal, follow up the substance of whistle-blowers; call' alerts oin the agencies which have not sa timely manner keeping both the whistleblower and any potentiall adopted the internal whistleblowing rules to do so without delay, and equally cy involved person informed of the progress of the procedure, and put in place a channel for anonymous internal reporting; calls on the agencies to annually report back to the discharge authority on the number of whistleblower cases and their follow-up activities; calls on the agencies and equallsy on the Commission to provide the necessary guidance and approval where required;
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30
Paragraph 30
30. Notes that out of the 16 agencies which use expert groups, scientific panels and committees, 13 took into account into their staffing policies the concerns raised by the Ombudsman’s own-initiative inquiry OI/6/2014/NF concerning the composition of the Commission expert groups; encourages the remaining agencies to take the Ombudsman’s concerns into account as soon as possible; whereby all documents and research submitted to the Agency by external experts should be accessible under the conditions provided for by Regulation 1049/2001, with due regard being given to the public interest in the research received from external experts where this research is used for market approvals or for the drafting of legislation;
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31
Paragraph 31
31. Takes note that the CVs and declarations of interests of the management board members, management staff and in house experts were published by 84 % of the agencies, compared to 74 % in the previous year; notes moreover that 60 % of the agencies check the factual correctness of the given declarations of interests of experts, management board and staff at least once a year; encourages the agencies which have not yet introduced such policy to verify the declarations on regular basis, if their resources allow for it; calls on all the agencies to adopt strict guidelines for a coherent policy on the prevention and management of conflicts of interest for members of the management board and directors, experts in scientific committees, and members of boards of appeal and to adopt and implement a clear policy on conflicts of interest, in accordance with the Roadmap on the follow-up to the Common Approach on Union decentralized agencies; calls on the agencies which have not yet introduced such policy to do so immediately and by publishing these documents allow the public the necessary overview on its senior management;
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32 a (new)
Paragraph 32 a (new)
32a. Calls on the agencies to develop common guidelines for applying public access to documents, especially as regards intellectual property rights;
Amendment 36 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34
Paragraph 34
34. Reiterates its position from the 2013 and 2014 discharge procedures that, according to the agreement of the Parliament, the Council and the Commission in paragraph 54 of the Common Approach, all aspects of outsourced external audits “remain under the full responsibility of the Court, which manages all administrative and procurement procedures required”; reiterates moreover that the new audit approach involving private sector auditors has resulted in a significant increase of the administrative burden on the agencies, as well as that the time spent on procurement and administration of audit contracts created additional expenditure thus straining further the diminishing resources of the agencies; expresses its concern by the possible conflicts of interests in cases when such private auditors or their respective companies also take on audit or consultancies task with the private sector companies with clear business interests with the Union agencies; emphasises that it is imperative to resolve this issue within the context of the ongoing revision of the Financial Regulation and the subsequent revision of the Framework Financial Regulation; calls on all parties involved in these revisions to provide clarity on this issue as a matter of urgency so as to significantly reduce the excessive administrative burden and to return to the preferred approach of a public audit scheme;