Activities of Benedek JÁVOR related to 2017/2216(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Annual report 2016 on the protection of EU’s financial interests - Fight against fraud (debate)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the Annual Report 2016 on the protection of the EU’s financial interests – Fight against fraud PDF (498 KB) DOC (73 KB)
Amendments (25)
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas de jure the Member States and the Commission have shared responsibility for implementing approximately 74% of the Union’s budget for 2016 de facto however, Member States spending those resources and the Commission is responsible for having overview of those projects vis a vis providing a certain level of control; whereas Member States are primarily responsible for the collection of own resources, particularly in the form of VAT and customs duties;
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H a (new)
Recital H a (new)
Ha. whereas corruption affects all Member States, particularly in form of organised crime and burdens not only the EU economy, but undermines democracy and rule of law all across Europe; however the exact figures are unknown as Commission has decided not to publish data in the report on the EU's anti- corruption policy;
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H b (new)
Recital H b (new)
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I a (new)
Recital I a (new)
Ia. whereas until creation of European Public Prosecutor Office and reform of Eurojust, OLAF is the sole European body specialized in protection of the Union’s financial interest; emphasizes that in several Member States even after the setting up of EPPO it will remain the only body to protect the EU’s financial interest;
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Deplores the fact that not all Member States have adopted national anti- fraud strategies; calls on the Commission to actively get engaged to help Member States creating their national anti-fraud strategies particularly because they manage approximately 74% of the EU budget;
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls again on the Commission to establishNotes that the European Commission has put in place an uniform system for the collection of comparable data on irregularities and cases of fraud from the Member States in order to standardise the reporting process and ensure the qualthrough adoption in 2015 of four Delegated and four Implementing Regulations on the reporting of irregularities harmonizing the areas of shared management ( EU 2015/1970, 2015/1971,2015/1972, 2015/1973,2015/1974, 2015/1975, 2015/1976, 2015/1977) as well as introducing in 2016 a common module in the Irregularity Mand comparability of the data providedagement System for the transmission of irregularities;
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Welcomes the decision of 20 Member States to proceed with the establishment of a European Public Prosecutor’s Office through enhanced cooperation and looks forward to fruitful; recalls that cooperation between OLAF and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office has to be based on avoidance of duplications of efforts, efficient exchange of information and OLAF’s support in the EPPO’s activities; regrets however that not all EU Member States have been willing to participate in this initiative, and underlines the importance of maintaining equivalent fraud detection efficiency rates in all Member States;
Amendment 24 #
8. Welcomes the decision of 20 Member States to proceed with the establishment of a European Public Prosecutor’s Office through enhanced cooperation and looks forward to fruitful cooperation between OLAF and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office; regrets however that not all EU Member States have been willing to participate in this initiative, and underlines the importance of maintaining equivalent fraud detection efficiency rates in all Member States; calls on the Commission to incentivise the so far reluctant Member States to join to the EPPO;
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Welcomes the adoption of short- term measures to tackle losses on VAT mentioned in the Commission’s Action Plan entitled ‘Towards a single EU VAT area’ published on 7 April 2016; looks forward with emphasizes that the problems related to cross-border VAT fraud need strong, coordinaterest to the Commission’s proposals for a definitive VAT system as provided for in the action pland and speedy measures; urges the Commission speed up its procedures to present its proposals for a definitive VAT system as provided for in the action plan in order to avoid the loss of tax revenue in the EU and in the Member States;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Calls on the Commission to report annually the amount of EU own resources recovered following the recommendations made by OLAF and to communicate the amounts still to be recoveredDeplores the fact that the European Commission is not capable to calculate the total amount of recoveries arose from OLAF’s recommendations for recovery; urges the Commission to introduce a system allowing calculation of the total sums recovered and to publish the cooperation of recommendation and sums factually recovered in the OLAF’s annual reports;
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 4 a (new)
Subheading 4 a (new)
Public Procurement
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 a (new)
Paragraph 28 a (new)
28a. recalls, that public procurement was one of the major source of error in the last programming period, notes that the level of irregularities due to non- compliance with public procurement rules remains high; repeatedly calls on the Commission to develop a database on irregularities, capable of providing a basis for meaningful analysis in a comprehensive way of the frequency, seriousness and causes of public procurement errors; calls on the relevant authorities in Member States to develop and analyse their own databases on irregularities, including those arising in public procurement, and to cooperate with the Commission to provide such data in a form and at a time that facilitates the Commission’s work; calls on the Commission to monitor and evaluate the transposition of the 2014/24/EC and 2014/25/EC Directives on public procurement into national rules as soon as possible;
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 b (new)
Paragraph 28 b (new)
28b. recalls on the Commission and the Member States to comply with the provisions setting out the ex-ante conditionalities in cohesion policy, in particular in the field of public procurement; calls on the Member States to step up their efforts in the areas highlighted by the Commission’s annual report, in particular as regards public procurement, financial crime, conflict of interest, corruption, whistle-blowing and the definition of fraud;
Amendment 61 #
36. Reiterates its opinion that corruption is an enormous challenge for the EU and the Member States, and that, without effective measures against it, corruption undermines economic performance, the rule of law and the credibility of democratic institutions and the trust in those institutions within the Union;
Amendment 62 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 36 a (new)
Paragraph 36 a (new)
36a. is alarmed by the results of research which show that the risk of fraud and corruption is higher when Member States spending European resources, particularly when the share of European funding is significantly over 50% of the total costs, therefore is of the opinion that Member States do not comply completely with Article 325 (2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which requires Member States to take the same measures to counter fraud affecting the financial interests of the Union as they take to counter fraud affecting their own financial interests; therefore calls on the Member States to fully apply the principle of Article325 (2) and the Commission to make sure that Member indeed do so;
Amendment 63 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 36 a (new)
Paragraph 36 a (new)
36a. Is concerned by some Member States which have been blocking reforms, or even hampering existing anti- corruption legislation; is on an opinion that those countries should be subject supplementary and rigorous controls on expenditure of EU funds
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 36 b (new)
Paragraph 36 b (new)
36b. recalls on the Member States to ratify fully the EU Directive on money- laundering, with the introduction of a public register of beneficial ownership of companies and also trusts;
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 36 c (new)
Paragraph 36 c (new)
36c. Reiterates its call on the Commission to develop a system of strict indicators and easily applicable, uniform criteria based on the requirements set out in the Stockholm Programme, to measure the level of corruption in the Member States and to evaluate their anti- corruption policies; invites the Commission to develop a corruption index in order to rank the Member States; is of the opinion that a corruption index could provide a sound basis on which the Commission could establish its country- specific control mechanism when controlling the spending of EU resources;
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 36 d (new)
Paragraph 36 d (new)
36d. Reiterates that prevention should involve constant training and support for the staff responsible for the management and control of funds within the competent authorities, as well as exchanges of information and best practices between Member States; points to the decisive role of local and regional authorities and stakeholders in combating fraud;
Amendment 67 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 36 e (new)
Paragraph 36 e (new)
36e. recalls that the Commission does not have access to the information exchanged between Member States with a view to preventing and combating Missing Trader Intra-Community (MTIC) fraud, commonly called carousel fraud; is of the opinion that the Commission should have access to Eurofisc, in order to better control, assess and improve the exchange of data among Member States; calls on all Member States to participate in all of Eurofisc’s fields of activity so as to facilitate and accelerate information exchange with judicial and law enforcement authorities such as Europol and OLAF, as recommended by the Court of Auditors; calls on the Member States and the Council to grant the Commission access to these data in order to foster cooperation, strengthen data reliability and fight cross-border crime;
Amendment 69 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 37
Paragraph 37
37. Is of the opinion that investigative journalism plays a key role in fostering the necessary level of transparency in the EU and the Member States, and that it must be encouraged and supported by legal and financial (through an intermediary organization) means both in the Member States and within the EU;
Amendment 71 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 38
Paragraph 38
38. Recalls the Commission’s decision not to renew the PMI agreement, which expired on 9 July 2016; recalls that it asked the Commission on 9 March 2016 not to renew, extend or renegotiate the PMI agreement beyond its expiry date; believes that the three other agreements (BAT, JTI, ITL) should not be renewedbe terminated with the effect of 20 May 2019; calls on the Commission to present a report by the end of 2018 presenting the feasibility of stopping the 3 remaining agreements;
Amendment 72 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 45
Paragraph 45
45. Deplores the fact that despite numerous OLAF recommendations and investigations the prosecution rate is only 30% in the Member States and the judicial authorities of some Member States do not regard OLAF’s recommendations on the misspending of EU money as a priority and even OLAF does not follow up its recommendations properly; calls on the Commission to establish rules on the follow up of OLAF recommendations;
Amendment 76 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 45 a (new)
Paragraph 45 a (new)
45a. Deplores the fact that secrecy of OLAF judicial recommendations often impedes to hold accountable Member States authorities and EU institutions;
Amendment 77 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 45 b (new)
Paragraph 45 b (new)
45b. Calls on the Commission that at the revision of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No. 883/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council to create a proper balance of competences between EPPO and OLAF; to strengthen the procedural guarantees, to clarify and strengthen investigative powers of OLAF and establish a certain level of transparency of OLAF recommendations and reports and to clarify the rules on cooperation and access to data between OLAF and its Supervisory Committee;