Activities of Benedek JÁVOR related to 2018/2152(INI)

Motion for a resolution
Citation 12 a (new)

- having regard to the judgement of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Case C-42/171a, criminal proceedings against M.A.S. and M.B., _________________ 1a Judgement of the Court of Justice (Grand Chamber) of 5 December 2017, Criminal proceedings against M.A.S. and M.B., 42/17, ECLI:EU:C:2017:936

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Citation 16 a (new)

- having regard to the opinion No 8/2018 of the Court of Auditors on the Commission's proposal of 23May 2018 on amending OLAF Regulation 883/2013 as regards cooperation with the European Public Prosecutor's Office and the effectiveness of OLAF investigations,

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Citation 16 b (new)

- having regard to the opinion No 9/2018 of the Court ofAuditors concerning the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the EU Anti-Fraud Programme,

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Recital A

A. whereas de jure the Member States and the Commission have shared responsibility for implementing 74 % of the Union’s budget for 2017, de facto however, Member States spending those resources and the Commission is responsible for having an overview of those projects vis a vis providing control mechanisms;

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)

B a. whereas Article 310(6) of the TFEU states that ‘The Union and the Member States, in accordance with Article 325, shall counter fraud and any other illegal activities affecting the financial interests of the Union’;

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)

C a. whereas the EU has a general right to act in the field of anti-corruption policies within the limits established by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU): Article 67 of the TFEU stipulates the Union's obligation to ensure a high level of security, including through prevention and combating of crime and approximation of criminal laws; Article 83 of the TFEU lists corruption as one of the particularly serious crimes with a cross-border dimension;

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Recital C b (new)

C b. whereas Council Resolution 6902/05 on a comprehensive EU policy against corruption, adopted on 14 April 2005, called on the Commission to consider all viable options, such as participation in GRECO or a mechanism to evaluate and monitor EU instruments in relation to the development of a mutual evaluation andmonitoring mechanism;

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Recital C b (new)

C b. whereas the systematic and institutionalised cases of corruption in certain Member States seriously harms the EU’s financial interests while also representing threat to democracy, rule of law and fundamental rights;

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Recital C c (new)

C c. whereas figures indicate that the cost of corruption amounts to between EUR 120 billion and EUR 900 billion annually;

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)

4 a. Welcomes the M.A.S. judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union which requires Member States to ensure that effective and deterrent criminal penalties are adopted in cases of serious fraud affecting the EU’s financial interests in relation to VAT in accordance with their obligations under Article 325 (1) and (2) TFEU;

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13

13. Welcomes the fact that the EU draft budget for 2019 includes, for the first time, appropriations for the EPPO (EUR 4.9 million)9 and insists on the importance of having appropriate staffing and budget for the EPPO; therefore, calls on the Commission to provide EPPO with further new posts, in order to help EPPO to be fully operational by end of 2020 as foreseen by the regulation, _________________ 9 2019 Budgetary Procedure, draft budget estimates adopted by the Commission on 23 May 2018.

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)

13 a. Welcomes the targeted proposal of the Commission for a revision of Regulation No 833/2013 primarily driven by the establishment of the EPPO; stresses that the future cooperation between OLAF and the EPPO should be based on close cooperation, efficient exchange of information and complementarity while avoiding duplications or conflicted competencies;

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Subheading 4 a (new)

Anti-corruption

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)

13 a. Welcomes the Commission’s proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of the Union's budget in case of generalised deficiencies as regards the rule of law in the Member States; stresses that in order to provide an objective and systematic assessment, the Commission shall regularly publish an assessment of threats to the rule of law, including risks of systemic corruption, in each Member State based on a set of indicators and independent reports;

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 b (new)

13 b. Underlines the importance to ensure that OLAF remains a strong and fully-functioning partner to the EPPO, especially since OLAF will be the only body protecting the EU’s financial interests in Member States not willing to join the EPPO;

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 b (new)

13 b. Regrets that the Commission stopped publishing its anti-corruption report that was due to be published every two years, but have been published only in 2014; is of the opinion that having anti- corruption factsheets as part of the European Semester, instead, is diffuse and does notgenerate a sufficiently strong political agenda, nor transversal action or evaluation; urges therefore the Commission to continue publishing its anti-corruption reports;

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 c (new)

13 c. Reiterates that the ‘revolving door’ effect can be detrimental to relations between the institutions and interest representatives; calls for the EU institutions to develop a systematic and proportional approach to this challenge;

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 d (new)

13 d. Deplores the fact that the Commission did not foster the EU’s participation in the Council of Europe Group of States against Corruption (GRECO); Calls on the Commission to restart negotiations with GRECO as soon as possible;

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 e (new)

13 e. Calls on the Commission to develop a more comprehensive and coherent EU anti-corruption policy, in close cooperation with GRECO and set up an internal evaluation mechanism for the EU institutions;

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 f (new)

13 f. 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;

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 g (new)

13 g. 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;

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16

16. Regrets the fact that only few Member States are using new technologies for all the major steps of the procurement process (e-notification, e-access to tender documents, e-submission, e-evaluation, e- award, e-ordering, e-invoicing, e- payment); calls on the Member States to make all the forms of the public procurement process, as well as publicly accessible contract registers, available online in a machine readable format by July 2019;

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31

31. Welcomes the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of persons reporting on breaches of Union law (COM(2018)0218); hopes that it will significantly improve the safety of whistleblowers in the Union, leading to major improvement of the EU’s financial protection and the rule of law; hopes that it will enter into force in the very near future; calls on all EU institutions to implement the standards set in the directive in their own internal policies as soon as possible to ensure the highest level of protection of the financial interests of the Union; encourages the Member States to implement it into their national legal system with the widest scope possible beyond the the limitations of European legislation;

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Subheading 12 a (new)

Investigative journalism

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 a (new)

31 a. 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;

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32 a (new)

32 a. Welcomes the fact that the protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products entered into force on 25th of September 2018 after the signature of the 40th party; welcomes the fact that the first Meeting of the Parties of the Protocol took place from the 8th to the 10th of October 2018; however, urges the EU Members States which have not ratified the protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Product yet to do so as soon as possible;

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32 b (new)

32 b. Reminds the decision of the European Commission not to renew the PMI agreement which expired on July 9th 2016; reminds that on March 9th 2016the EP asked the Commission not to renew, extend or renegotiate it beyond its date of expiry; believes that the 3 other agreements (BAT, JTI, ITL) should not be renewed, extended or renegotiated;

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32 c (new)

32 c. Furthermore, reiterates its call to the Commission to publish a report concerning the possibility to end the 3 other agreements before their respective expiration date; calls on the Commission to present the report before the European Parliament before the next European Parliament elections;

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33 a (new)

33 a. Welcomes the Commission's proposal to empower OLAF to investigate Value Added Tax matters; calls on the Commission that to establish a certain level of transparency of OLAF reports and recommendations after all the closure of European and national procedures; is of the opinion that after the adoption of the necessary changes of the OLAF regulation related to the establishment of EPPO the Commission should prepare a more thorough and comprehensive modernisation of the OLAF framework;

2018/11/29
Committee: CONT