22 Amendments of Fabio Massimo CASTALDO related to 2018/2166(DEC)
Amendment 5 #
Proposal for a decision 1
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Grants/pPostpones the Commission discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2017;
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Notes with satisfaction that for 2017, the Court has issued for a second consecutive year a qualified (rather than an adverse) opinion on the legality and regularity of the payments underlying the accounts, which according to the Court, indicates that a significant part of the 2017 expenditure audited by it was not materially affected by error and that the level of irregularities in EU spending has continued to decrease; regrets, however, that payments continue to be affected by errors, as the audit and supervision system is only partially effective;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Notes that the Court audited transactions worth a total of EUR 100,2 billion and that the area of ‘Natural resources’ makes up the largest share of the overall population (57 %), while in contrast to previous years, the weight of the area of ‘Economic, social and territorial cohesion’ is relatively small (around 8 %); regrets that the Court did not examine the level of error in Heading 3, ‘Security and Citizenship’ and Heading 4, ‘Global Europe’; considers that, even if the figures for these headings are minor, they are of particular political importance, and calls on the Court to provide data on the error rate for these headings;
Amendment 49 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Observes that the figures for the error rate calculated by the Commission and those calculated by the Court of Auditors are based on different principles; notes that the concept of residual error could create a bias in the data, as corrections for earlier periods are taken into account; calls on the Commission to present the data in a manner consistent with the methodology adopted by the Court and including the estimated corrections expected;
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13a. Regrets the discrepancies in the level of customs checks between the various Member States; highlights the importance of harmonising checks at all points of entry into the Customs Union and calls on the Member States to ensure coordinated, uniform and efficient implementation of the border system, discouraging divergent practices between Member States to reduce the number of existing loopholes in customs control systems; calls on the Commission, in this respect, to examine the various customs control practices in the EU and their impact on trade diversion, focusing in particular on EU customs practices at external borders, and to develop reference analyses and information on customs operations and the procedures used in the Member States;
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Points out that in 2017, 99,3 % of the amount available for commitments was implemented (EUR 158,7 billion), but that the executed payments were EUR 124,7 billion, considerably lower than budgeted, mainly due to Member States submitting fewer claims than anticipated for the multiannual programmes of the 2014-2020 European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF); regrets the low absorption rate, partly due to the late adoption of the previous MFF and the sectoral programmes , which could create future risks for the implementation of the budget with an accumulation of extraordinary payments at the end of the programming period;
Amendment 69 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15a. Calls on the Commission to present a thorough analysis of why some regions still exhibit low fund absorption rates and to assess specific ways of remedying the structural problems underlying those imbalances; calls on the Commission to increase on-the-spot technical assistance to improve absorption capacity in Member States experiencing difficulties in this regard;
Amendment 78 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 a (new)
Paragraph 17 a (new)
17a. Points out that the College of the Commissioners does not produce an annual statement on governance, a practice that is commonly adopted by Member States; calls for this practice to be made compulsory from the beginning of the next College of Commissioners’ term;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 b (new)
Paragraph 17 b (new)
17b. Regrets that expenditure has failed to comply with the parameter requiring 20% to be allocated to climate action; notes with concern that this objective will not be respected in the 2014-2020 programming period; calls for a strong commitment by the Commission to support environmental and climate action, especially in the agricultural sector;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28
Paragraph 28
28. Expresses concern that the Court identified and quantified 36 errors in its sample of 217 transactions for 2017, which audit authorities in Member States had not detected, and that the number and the impact of these errors indicate persisting weaknesses with the regularity of the expenditure declared by managing authorities; regrets that the errors found reflect persistent shortcomings in the regularity of the expenditure declared by the managing authorities and that the Court identified weaknesses in the sampling methodologies of the audit authorities;
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 a (new)
Paragraph 28 a (new)
28a. Deplores the numerous error rates presented by the Commission, which make it difficult to evaluate data; notes that the residual error rate identified by the Court differs significantly from the residual error rate calculated by the Commission;
Amendment 99 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32 a (new)
Paragraph 32 a (new)
32a. Calls on the Commission to take into account, in the case of large-scale infrastructure projects, all relevant risks of environmental impact and to finance only those which have demonstrated real added value for the local population and from an environmental, social and economic point of view; stresses the importance of strictly monitoring possible risks of corruption and fraud in this context and the need to carry out careful and independent ex-ante and ex-post assessments with regard to the projects to be financed;
Amendment 111 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 39 a (new)
Paragraph 39 a (new)
39a. Calls on the Commission to arrange for a genuine simplification of the procedure, including in the documentation required in order to gain access to funding, without neglecting the principles of audit and monitoring; calls for special attention to be paid to administrative support for small-scale producers, for whom the funding is a vital prerequisite for their business survival;
Amendment 116 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 40 a (new)
Paragraph 40 a (new)
40a. Is concerned about the situation found in Slovakia, where DG AGRI’s audit has identified a number of deficiencies and an OLAF investigation is ongoing; believes that there is a risk of infiltration by organised crime and calls on the Commission to actively monitor the situation and take the necessary measures;
Amendment 126 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 44 a (new)
Paragraph 44 a (new)
44a. Deplores the Court’s failure to provide a specific error rate for this heading; calls on the Court to provide this figure in its forthcoming annual reports;
Amendment 128 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 47 a (new)
Paragraph 47 a (new)
47a. Is seriously concerned about the weaknesses in EASO’s management and audits; considers it unacceptable that the Commission did not monitor them effectively and did not intervene quickly to resolve the situation; calls on the Commission to constantly monitor the agencies operating under Heading 3;
Amendment 169 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 75
Paragraph 75
75. Is deeply concerned by the fact that, according to the Court, 64 % of the total value of EFSI contracts that the EIB Group had signed by the end of 2017 was concentrated in sixthe Member States: France, Italy, Spain, Germany, UK, Poland that have more structured national systems of promotional banks;
Amendment 172 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 75 a (new)
Paragraph 75 a (new)
75a. Regrets the fact that only 20% of EFSI financing has supported projects that contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, whereas the EIB’s standard portfolio has attained the 25% threshold; regrets that EFSI has financed projects which potentially include infrastructure installations with a serious environmental impact and dubious additionality, such as biorefineries, steelworks, regasification and gas storage facilities and motorways; calls on the Commission to propose sustainable finance or funding options and an environment conducive to investment reflecting the Union’s commitments and general goals, with a view to fostering innovation and economic, social and territorial cohesion within the Union, as well as to reinforcing the social dimension of investment by bridging the investment gap in the social sector and with regard to infrastructure safety;
Amendment 182 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 83 a (new)
Paragraph 83 a (new)
83a. Regrets that an investigation by EIC European Investigative Collaborations has raised doubts about the use of funds from the instrument which are said to have been used to purchase military equipment for border monitoring; calls on the Commission to thoroughly investigate the matter and to report to Parliament on the results;
Amendment 189 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 85 a (new)
Paragraph 85 a (new)
85a. Considers the procedure used to appoint the current Secretary-General, which undermines citizens’ trust in the European institutions, to be unacceptable; calls on the current Secretary-General to resign without delay and on the Commission to organise a new appointment procedure in accordance with the procedures laid down in the Regulation;
Amendment 228 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 115 a (new)
Paragraph 115 a (new)
115a. Considers that there is a lack of a clear and exhaustive evaluation of the performance of programmes which would make it possible to identify programmes that did not possess clear added value, in order to carry out a spending review; calls on the Commission to include a detailed assessment in the annual management and performance report indicating which programmes are suffering from inadequate implementation;
Amendment 269 #
131a. Expresses its concern about the conflict of interests in the use of agricultural funds in the Czech Republic, where the Prime Minister is the owner of Agrofert, which receives agricultural grants from the Union budget; notes with concern that Agrofert also owns a communication company; considers this conflict of interests to be unacceptable and calls on the Commission to conclude without delay the investigation of the case and to inform Parliament of the action taken;