16 Amendments of Maria HEUBUCH related to 2015/2110(INI)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph -1 (new)
Paragraph -1 (new)
-1. Recalls that corruption impacts negatively the achievement of SDGs both directly and indirectly; by increasing project costs for both the private and public sectors; damaging public institutions; reducing citizens' trust in their government and increasing social inequality;
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Stresses the need to address both the supply and demand sides of corruption; encourages developing countries to prioritise anti-corruption measures in their development agendas, i.e. through setting up independent and competent regulatory and law enforcement systems;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Calls on the EU to take a more active role in providing financial and technical assistance to developing countries to cope with emerging global standards for fighting tax evasion, including automatic exchange of information;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Calls on the EU to support the creation and strengthening of regional and specialised police and judicial networks in developing countries, and to share the best practices and know-how of Europol, Eurojust and the European Judicial Network; stresses the need to improve regulation and law enforcement and to promote whistleblower protection to hold offenders responsible for their crimes;
Amendment 21 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. CNotes with concern that the most relevant international conventions and initiatives aiming to fight corruption and illicit financial flows fail to deliver concrete results at their implementation stage; recalls that the development of a foreign policy anti-corruption strategy is essential to combat corruption and financial crime effectively; calls on the EU to promote as a priority in its external policies the correct transposition and implementation of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, and of all other relevant international instruments that aim to combat corruption and money laundering;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Notes with concern that the EU approach towards corruption in ACP countries provides little strategic guidance on strengthening country systems to prevent and control it;
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Calls on the EU to develop a strong holistic risk management system to prevent development aid from contributing to corruption in recipient countries; in particular, calls on the EU to address corruption directly through programming and country strategy papers and to link budget support to clear anti- corruption objectives; to this end, stresses the need to set up robust mechanisms to monitor its implementation;
Amendment 28 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 c (new)
Paragraph 3 c (new)
3c. Deems that companies should be required to have an anti-corruption management system in place, including adequate alert mechanisms throughout the supply chain, to be selected for projects which receive EU funds;
Amendment 29 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 d (new)
Paragraph 3 d (new)
3d. Deems that more coordination is needed between EEAS and DEVCO in their approach to effectively curbing corruption in developing countries; takes the view that aid assistance should be more aligned to the absorptive capacity of the host country and its general development needs to avoid massive waste and corruption of aid resources;
Amendment 37 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Recalls that corruption is closely related to activities such as money laundering, tax evasion, and illicit trade; in this light, stresses that transparency should be the cornerstone of all anti- corruption strategies and include: lifting excessive professional secrecy; automatic exchange of information on tax matters; public country-by-country reporting of multinationals and public registries of beneficial owners of companies;
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Urges the EU to show strong political will and determination against tax avoidance and evasion, in line with the principle of Policy Coherence for Development, as enshrined in article 208 of the Lisbon Treaty; recalls the EU's responsibility to combat tax rules that facilitate tax dodging by transnational corporations and individuals and to help third countries to repatriate illicit funds and prosecute perpetrators;
Amendment 39 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 c (new)
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5c. Stresses the need to undertake an analysis of the impact of the tax systems of EU Members States on developing countries to combat effectively illicit financial flows;
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 d (new)
Paragraph 5 d (new)
5d. Highlights that double taxation agreement (DTAs) can enable illicit financial flows (IFFs); urges the EU to ensure a fair distribution of taxing rights while negotiating tax and investment treaties with developing countries; to this end, calls on the EU to negotiate Tax Treaties with developing countries based on the model treaty of the United Nations Tax Committee, which gives stronger rights to taxation at source;
Amendment 41 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 e (new)
Paragraph 5 e (new)
5e. Notes that extractive industries, utilities and infrastructure, health and education are particularly vulnerable to corruption; recalls in particular that non- transparent government procurement and supply chains can provide opportunities for corruption-related IFFs; accordingly, deems that anti-corruption efforts should also aim at modernising procurement practices;
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 f (new)
Paragraph 5 f (new)
5f. Calls on developing countries to increase transparency and accountability in resource contracts, companies' financial reporting and auditing as well as revenue collection and allocation as part of their anti-corruption agenda;
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 g (new)
Paragraph 5 g (new)
5g. Calls on the EU to upgrade its support to help resource-rich countries to implement the EITI principles of greater transparency and accountability in the oil, gas and mining sectors; believes that the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) should be made mandatory and extended: they should not focus only on governments but also on producing firms and commodity trading companies;