Activities of Monika VANA related to 2023/2129(DEC)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission and executive agencies
Amendments (22)
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas, gender equality and the elimination of inequalities are core values upon which the Union is founded, and the commitment to promote gender equality between men and womenand gender mainstreaming in all of its actions as enshrined in Article 8 TFEU;
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Stresses, in this regard, the inherent risks posed by these simultaneous activities for all bodies responsible for managing and controlling these funds and concurs with the Court of Auditors that an additional advisory support from the Commission to national authorities would be needed in this particular context;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1 b. Underlines that Cohesion policy played a frontline role to address the last health and war-related emergencies and was instrumental in dealing with the multi-faceted challenges thereto entailed; reminds, however, that the rationale of this policy is to ensure a long-term planning of measures that should strengthen economic, social, and territorial cohesion between European regions and that an appropriate budget line should be created in the next programming period to meet unforeseen events, also in order not to divert resources from the established objectives and identified territories;
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1 c. Takes note of the Commission’s statement1a which mentions that particular attention is being paid to the implementation of the Just Transition Fund (JTF) due to the timeframe to spend NextGenerationEU (NGEU) resources by the end of 2026, but underlines the quite insufficient progress in its implementation and absorption rate; _________________ 1a Commission replies to main ECA observations (Budgetary and financial management in 2022, p. 382)
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Reminds that, without prejudice to the need to support the authorities and beneficiaries to better comply with spending rules and minimise errors, the most pressing issues to be addressed in the area of cohesion policy are, on the one hand, the overly complex rules and procedures and the disproportionate administrative burden they entail and, on the other hand, the effective targeting of the funds; highlights that both the Commission and the Court of Auditors identified the following categories as the main sources of irregularities: ineligible expenditure, public procurement, audit trail and State aid.
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
A a. whereas the European Parliament has repeatedly asked the Commission to promote and implement the use of gender mainstreaming, gender budgeting and gender impact assessments in all Union policy areas;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Highlights the role of the EPPO in protecting the EU budget; reminds that, in her appearance before the Committee on Regional Development on 25 May 2023, the European Public Prosecutor noted that the management and control system for EU expenditure currently in place is not designed to detect fraud and that audits or administrative investigations rarely detect financial crime, which has often a cross- border dimension; stresses the need to provide the EPPO with the necessary means to carry out its duties; is of the opinion that a strengthened EPPO would make it possible for the legislator to further simplify the regulatory framework for cohesion;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Stresses that equal opportunities for men and women should be a givena gender equality perspective should be integrated and ensured into all policy areas; however evidence based data should be the basis, rather than wolf- crying calls claiming women are mo particularly in light of the multiple gendered impacted by war, Covid, climate change, or that the best solution for women is more abortions; therefore savings can be made in the budgetary process by reducings of various ongoing climate, energy and social crises with a focus on SRHR and the backlash against gender equality and women’s rights in the EU; reiterates therefore its call for the implementation of gender budgeting at all stages of these budgetary lineprocess;
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Reminds that according to the 21- 27 Common Provisions Regulation, member state authorities should report all cases of suspected or established fraud related to EU-funded projects that they identify, and that they should report these cases even if they detect them before declaring expenditure to the Commission;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3 b. Welcomes the Commission statement on the recently released ex ante module in Arachne, which allows Member States to use the tool preventively at project selection and award phase, in addition to ex post verifications to control implementation of projects; calls, however, on the Commission to advance the date for deployment of the single integrated IT tool for data mining and risk-scoring from 2028 to 2025, the first year when a significant amount of 2021- 2027 expenditure is expected to be declared;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Raises concerns about the demonisation of groups supporting pregnant women; notes that this is contrary to Article 2 TEU and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, where the right to life is enshrined; is further concerned by disrespect of Member State competencNotes with concern that special report 10/2021, published by the ECA confirmed that the Union’s budget cycle does not yet adequately take gender equality into account since key elements, such as gender analysis, gender-related objectives, in the area of health; therefore calls for a removal of funding for organisations which promote abortion; calls on the Commission to explore the core mission of those to whom EU funds are granted and to withhold funding from actors using EU funds for the purposes of terminating human rights, particularly women’s rights and gender equalitydicators and accountability through reporting, are largely missing; and that the Commission has not yet fully implemented its commitment to include gender mainstreaming in the Union budget;
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Is concerned that the prioritisation of the RRF in the Member States is causing delays in the implementation of funds under the CPR 2021-2027.; draws attention to the cases of weak design that the ECA has found in relation to the measures and underlying milestones or targets in the Recovery plans; highlights that these latter should clearly define all milestones and targets and stresses that all the problems regarding the reliability of information that member states included in their management declarations should be properly addressed;
Amendment 29 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. Highlights the findings of the Court’s special report 09/2022 on climate- spending information for 2014-2020, which state that the Commission had overestimated such spending by at least €72 billion, mostly due to overestimation of the contribution of agricultural funding, but also of infrastructure and cohesion funding; welcomes the fact that the Commission accepted1b the three recommendations of the Court's special report on: the climate relevance of agricultural funding; the need for enhancing climate reporting; the link of the EU budget to climate and energy objectives. _________________ 1b Commission replies to main ECA observations (Results of the ECA performance audits, p.388)
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6 b. Stresses the importance of cohesion policy in promoting gender equality, as highlighted by the European Parliament's own-initiative report on the gender dimension in cohesion policy and by the “European Court of Auditors’ Special Report 10/2021: Gender mainstreaming in the EU budget: time to turn words into action”; points out the Court’s assessment that the EU’s budget cycle did not take gender equality adequately into account and the Commission had not yet lived up to its commitment to gender mainstreaming in the EU budget; welcomes, on the other hand, that, in line with these recommendations, in the "2023 report on gender equality in the EU"1c, the European Commission confirmed the establishment of a methodology to track all EU spending programmes’ contributions to gender equality under the 2021-2027 multiannual framework and that this methodology was piloted in the 2023 draft budget and found that 11 spending programmes contribute to gender equality and 29 programmes have the potential to do so if adequately gender mainstreamed (for a total of 99% of budgetary spending). _________________ 1c "European Commission's 2023 report on gender equality in the EU", p.53
Amendment 34 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Calls on the Commission to fully implement the European Court of Auditor’s recommendations, including in the mid-term review of the current multiannual financial framework and the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility;
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
Amendment 43 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Welcomes the Commission's work on a new classification to measure the gender impact of Union spending; calls on the Commission to ensure that this classification focuses on an accurate and comprehensive representation of the impact of all existing programmes and funds; reiterates in this context that a comprehensive gender tracking methodology needs to include reporting on negative impacts on gender equality, as well as the importance of setting concrete expenditure targets;
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4 b. Points out that the key learning of the application of the pilot methodology was the limited possibility of assigning concrete scores due to a lack of required data; stresses therefore the importance of data collection requirements to enable a systematic and comprehensive collection of gender-disaggregated data in the context of all relevant EU policies; urges the Commission to treat this as a priority and make use of the opportunities to improve data collection requirements and indicators in new legislation and reviews, such as the recast of the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union;
Amendment 51 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
Amendment 54 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Regrets the lack of specific budget lines for measures dedicated to gender equality, especially within the Daphne programme, leading to a lack of transparency and accountabilit; stresses the importance of strengthening the specifically dedicated Daphne initiative by increasing its resources, in particular measures that aim to combat all levels and all forms of GBV against women and girls and domestic violence;
Amendment 57 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5 b. Notes that a study requested by FEMM committee1a shows that men are often favoured over women and marginalized groups when it comes to the design of subsidies and support under the Fit for 55 package, as well as in other policies, programmes and funding for the green transition; _________________ 1a https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/ etudes/STUD/2022/736899/IPOL_STU(20 22)736899_EN.pdf