Activities of Georgi PIRINSKI related to 2015/2128(INI)

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3

3. Underlines that the overall financial impact of non-fraudulent irregularities reported in 2014 is 36 47% greater than in 2013, while the number of such irregularities registered increased by ~~48%;~~ 5%; non-fraudulent irregularities related to expenditure affected 1,54% of total payments and those related to revenue affected 3.66% of gross amount of TOR collected in 2014;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5

5. Notes with concern that the amount of Traditional Own Resources (TOR) affected by fraud orwas 191% higher in 2014 than in 2013 and the amount affected by non- fraudulent irregularities was 12546% higher in 2014 than the previous year;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6

6. Is concerned by the fact that the average TOR recovery rate per Member State for both fraudulent and non-fraudulent irregularities for 2014 is, at 24%, at its historic lowest point; urges ~~the United Kingdom and Bulgaria to improve their contributions, as their level of irregularities is three times the EU average~~Member States to recover faster the amounts due and especially urges those Member States which still need to recover biggest amounts to do so;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8

8. Notes ~~with concern~~ that the number of irregularities related to expenditure reported as fraudulent in 2014 dropped by only 4 % after a 76 % increase in 2013; urges the competent authorities to take all necessary measures to decrease the number of fraudulent irregularities, although not at the expense of control standards;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9

9. Encourages the Commission to further enhance its supervisory role through audit, control and inspection activities, remedial action plans and early warning letters; calls on the Member States to intensify their efforts and to tap their potential to detect and correct errors prior to claiming reimbursement from the Commission; underlines, in this regard, the particular value of preventive actions in forestalling disbursements and thus eliminating the need for subsequent actions to recover misappropriated funds

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)

9a. Is concerned that in 2014 the rural development sector accounted for the largest number of reported fraudulent irregularities showing the biggest increase in comparison with 2013 and takes note that four Member States reported about 71% of the total fraudulent cases;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10

10. Acknowledges that the clearance mechanism (50/50 rule) provides a strong incentive for Member States’ to recovery for the EAGF is below the overall average, and fewer than half of the irregularities detected in 2009 had been recovered by the end of 2014; points to significant differences between the abilities of undue payments under EAGF from the beneficiaries as quickly as possible and takes note that by the end of financial year 2014, 45% of the new EAGF debts from 2007 and thereafter had already been recovered; is concerned, however, that 10 Member States tohave recover ~~sums for irregular payments detected under the CAP and urges Bulgaria, France, Greece and Slovakia to significantly improve their results~~ed from final beneficiaries less than the EU average of 45%;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11

11. Notes that the irregularities linked to the Common Fisheries Policy in 2014 returned to a level comparable to 2012 after a one-year peak in 2013; ~~expresses concern regarding the high amount of fraudulent cases reported by Spain, Poland, the United Kingdom and Romania~~takes note about decrease in number of cases and amounts affected by fraud in 2014 as well as in amounts affected by non-fraudulent irregularities; expresses, however, concern regarding the increased number of reported non-fraudulent irregularities, and regarding high amount of payments affected by both kind of irregularities reported by 7 Member States;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12

12. Notes that in the area of cohesion policy the trend for the number of irregularities reported as fraudulent is ~~stabilising~~decreasing by 5% in 2014 compared to 2013, with 306 cases reported; is seriously concerned about the increase of ~~over EUR 115 million, which is mainly due to a sharp increase (by 660 %) in reported fraudulent irregularities in the 2007-2013 cohesion fund programming perio~~76% of the amounts affected by fraudulent irregularities in 2014 over 2013 which is mainly due to a sharp increase of amounts involved under the Cohesion fund from EUR 21 million to EUR 161 million;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)

13a. Takes note of the decrease in non- fraudulent irregularities regarding directly managed EU funds by the Commission, in terms both of the number of cases and the sums involved; is surprised that the number of fraudulent irregularities in 2014 quadrupled compared to the previous year and asks the Commission for detailed explanations and necessary action to counter this trend;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 b (new)

13b. Notes with concern that despite of the numerous calls from the Parliament for the establishment of uniform reporting principles in all Member States the situation remains highly unsatisfactory and there are still significant differences in the number of fraudulent and non- fraudulent irregularities reported by each Member State; Considers that this problem creates a distorted picture of the real situation of the level of infringements and protection of the EU financial interests; Urges the Commission to make serious efforts to resolve the problem of existing different approaches in Member States to detect irregularities and non- homogeneous interpretations when applying the EU legal framework; (This amendment should come immediately below the subtitle "Better reporting")

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19

19. Urges the Commission to maintain its strict policy on interruptions and suspension of payments as a preventive measure against irregularities affecting the EU budget according to the relevant legal basis; calls on Commission, moreover, to keep the Member States and local authorities better informed about the implementation of its policy as well as to assist them to overcome the difficulties they meet to comply with EU requirements, bearing in mind that this process should not be undermined by political considerations; welcomes the fact that the Commission adopted a new decision on the Early Warning Mechanism (EWS) and looks forward to the creation of a comprehensive system of early detection and exclusion to be proposed by the Commission;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20

20. Is concerned by the steady increase in non-fraudulent irregularities regarding directly managed EU funds, in terms both of the number of cases and the sums involved; is surprised that the number of fraudulent irregularities in 2014 quadrupled compared to the previous year and asks the Commission for detailed explanations and necessary action to counter this trend; eEmphasises the complex nature of irregularities; takes the view that the Commission and the Member States take firm action against fraudulent irregularities; believes that non-fraudulent irregularities should be tackled with administrative measures, and in particular with more transparent and simpler requirements, more technical assistance by the Commission to the Member States and enhanced exchange of good practices and lessons learned among them;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20 a (new)

20a. Welcomes the fact that the ex-ante and ex-post 'Community Controls' detect more and more cases of irregularities and therefore these controls should be further promoted;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20 a (new)

20a. Calls on the relevant authorities in Member States to perform better control and to use all available information to avoid errors and irregular payments involving EU funds;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21

21. Welcomes the fact that all of the Commission’'s services developed and implemented their anti-fraud strategies in 2014; invites the EU agencies, executive agencies and joint undertakings to do the same; emphasises the role of the Anti- Fraud Coordination Services (AFCOS) in fighting fraud; welcomes the adoption of national anti-fraud strategies by Bulgaria, Greece, Croatia, Malta and Slovakia and calls on the Member States concerned to submit their national anti- fraud strategies (NAFS) as soon as possible; calls on the Commission to monitor closely the implementation of the NAFSs;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23

23. Reiterates that, according to Article 325(2) TFEU, Member States ‘'shall 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’'; is of the opinion that this provision is not met in ~~the EU~~a satisfactory level by all Member States; is of the opinion that the Commission should ~~develop a horizontal policy on the fight~~strengthen its internal policy against fraud and corruption; emphasises that the Commission is also responsible for the effective spending of funds, and calls therefore on the Commission to put in place internal performance requirements;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28

28. Emphasises that the failure to comply with public procurement rules was a significant source of error for the 2009- 2013 programming period amongst others the avoidance of public procurement by splitting contracts into smaller tenders to avoid exceeding thresholds and the use of inappropriate procedure; ; points out that the new public procurement directives have to be implemented by April 2016; emphasises that reducing the incidence of irregularities requires correct implementation of the directives by the Member States; calls on the Commission to closely monitor the implementation of these directives; is of the belief that ex ante conditionalities have the potential to improve public procurement;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28

28. Emphasises that the failure to comply with public procurement rules was a significant source of error for the 2009- 2013 programming period; points out that the new public procurement directives have to be implemented by April 2016; emphasises that reducing the incidence of irregularities requires correct implementation of the directives by the Member States; calls therefore on the Commission to work out guidelines for the proper implementation of the directives; calls on the Commission to closely monitor the implementation of these directives; is of the belief that ex ante conditionalities have the potential to improve public procurement;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29

29. Calls on the Commission to ~~adopt the planning, implementation and control phase of the MFF~~conduct the MFF mid-term review in accordance with the results-based budgeting principle;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34 a (new)

34a. Takes note of the role of OLAF within different JCOs in preventing losses for the EU budget and asks OLAF to include in its future annual reports more information and concrete figures about its contribution to the protection of the revenue side of the EU budget; (This amendment should come immediately below the subtitle "Investigations and the role of OLAF")

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT