Activities of Julia PITERA related to 2015/2128(INI)

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2

2. Stresses that 1 649 out of a total of 16 473 irregularities reported to the Commission in 2014 were fraudulent,; notes that all reported irregularities involv~~ing~~e an amount of around EUR 3.24 billion, of which about EUR 2.27 billion related to expenditure, representing 1.8% of total payments;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Julia PITERA, Petri SARVAMAA

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3

3. Underlines that the overall financial impact of fraudulent and non-fraudulent irregularities reported in 2014 is 36% greater than in 2013, while the number of such irregularities registered increased by 48%;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 – point 1 (new)

(1) Underlines that the simplification of administrative rules will decrease the number of non-fraudulent irregularities, help identify fraudulent cases, and make EU funds more accessible to the beneficiaries;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Petri SARVAMAA, Julia PITERA

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)

4a. Calls for the Commission and the European Court of Auditors to facilitate openness of the audit data by releasing more detailed information as regards the best- and worst-performing Member- states per policy area and sector, so as to allow actors to identify the areas where help is most needed and design actions accordingly;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Julia PITERA, Benedek JÁVOR, Ingeborg GRÄSSLE

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7

7. Is concerned about the VAT gap and the estimated losses on VAT collection, which amounted to EUR 168 billion in 2013; underlines the fact that in ~~many Member States VAT fraud and avoidance remains at a continuously high level~~13 out of 26 EU countries examined in 2014, the average estimated VAT loss exceeded 15,2%; reiterates that the Commission has the competence to control and supervise measures taken by the Member States1 ; calls on the Commission to make full use of its executive powers in order to both control and help the Member States in their fight against VAT fraud and tax avoidance; acknowledges the fact that since 2013 Commission has been using the Quick Reaction Mechanism in order to deal with massive and sudden VAT fraud; __________________ 1 Council Regulations (EU, Euratom) No 1553/89/EEC and (EU, Euratom) No 608/2014.

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Julia PITERA, Benedek JÁVOR

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)

7a. Notes an increasing number of coordination centres supported by Eurojust and Europol; welcomes the results of cross-border operations vertigo 2 and 3 and the efficient cooperation between law enforcement and judicial authorities from Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, the UK, Belgium, Spain, the Czech Republic and Switzerland, leading to the neutralization of criminal networks responsible for defrauding approximately EUR 320 million of tax revenues, including VAT;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Petri SARVAMAA, Julia PITERA

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 10

10. ~~Acknowledge~~Regrets that Member States’ 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 Member States to recover sums for irregular payments detected under the CAP and urges Bulgaria, France, Greece and Slovakia to significantly improve their results;

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~~notes that the most detected category of irregularity during the period 2010-2014 was "Non- eligibility for aid of the action/project" followed by "Infringements of public procurement rules";

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Petri SARVAMAA, Julia PITERA

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)

12a. Is furthermore worried that the overall time gap between the occurrence of an irregularity, its detection and finally its reporting to the Commission is increasing in the cohesion area up to 3 years and 4 months; recalls that after the detection of the irregularity further procedures kick in (recovery orders, OLAF investigations etc.); urges the Commission to work together with Member States to improve the detection and reporting efficiency;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15

15. Invites the Commission to develop a system of strict indicators and easily applicable criteria based on the requirements set out in the Stockholm Programme to measure the level of corruption in the Member States; is concerned about the reliability and quality of data coming from the Member States; calls on the Commission, therefore, to work closely with Member States to guarantee comprehensive, exact and reliable data keeping in mind the goal of full implementation of the Single Audit Scheme; invites the Commission to work out a corruption index to categorise Member States;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Julia PITERA, Petri SARVAMAA

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18

18. Underlines the importance of access to information and the transparency of lobbying, and of using EU funding to support the work of independent organisations in this area~~, inter alia to establish financial support for cross- border investigative journalism~~;

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; calls on Commission, moreover, to keep the Member States and local authorities better informed about the implementation of its policy, 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; and calls on the Commission to better inform the Member States and local authorities about the implementation of its policy, bearing in mind that this process should not be undermined by political considerations;

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 24

24. Reiterates its ~~strong views on the~~views that there is an urgent need to adopt the PIF Directive, with VAT included in its scope and with a clear definition of PIF offences, minimum ~~and~~rules for maximum applicable imprisonment penalties, and minimum rules on the statute of limitations as soon as possible; recalls the Taricco Case, in which the Court of Justice of the European Union draws attention to the fact that VAT ~~is a TOR~~fraud is indeed included in the 1995 PIF Convention's definition of PIF fraud;

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
Subheading 9

~~Results~~Performance-based budgeting and the ‘Value for Money’ approach

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 in accordance with the ~~results~~performance-based budgeting principle;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30

30. Notes the importance of further and continuous measures to avoid fraudulent irregularities, but also ~~pushes for more~~reiterates its call for the adoption of a new methodology focused on ~~ensuring the ‘Value for Money’ principle in public spending~~performance rather than on formalistic evaluation of the programmes, in line with the principle of an EU budget focused on results;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 37

37. Is of the opinion that the Supervisory Committee should, as a matter of consistency with its mandate, have autonomous staff who are detached from the OLAF administration and financial autonomy; calls on OLAF to grant the SC access to the documents necessary to fulfil its task; urges the Commission to put forward a proposal to change the OLAF regulation in this sense;

2015/12/07
Committee: CONT