6 Amendments of Hilde VAUTMANS related to 2024/2029(DEC)
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Welcomes the increase in appropriations for the EPPO’s budget in 2023, amounting to EUR 64,6 million in total, which allowed for an 11 % increase in staff in that year; acknowledges that the acceleration of the disbursement of NextGenerationEU funding and the increase in the EPPO’s membership are projected to put further strain on the EPPO’s resources; underlines the importance of additional funding for the EPPO’s budget in order for it to have the necessary means to carry out its tasks; regrets that the Commission's proposal for EPPO's budget for 2025 was not sufficient to achieve this and that the Council was not ready to give the EPPO the budget that it requested in order to fulfill its mandate properly; expects the Commission to dedicate sufficient funding for EPPO within the proposal for the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2028-2034; stresses in this regard that in 2023, the EPPO requested more than €1.53 billion to be seized, and the seizure of €1.5 billion was granted, of which final confiscations of more than €60 million were ordered by courts in definitively resolved cases, which demonstrates that the EPPO actually generates more money than it costs and therefore should receive significantly more funding to allow for more confiscations from criminals;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Welcomes the increase in appropriations for the EPPO’s budget in 2023, amounting to EUR 64,6 million in total, which allowed for an 11 % increase in staff in that year; acknowledges that the acceleration of the disbursement of NextGenerationEU funding and the increase in the EPPO’s membership are projected to put further strain on the EPPO’s resources as the agency is understaffed; underlines the importance of additional funding for the EPPO’s budget in order for it to have the necessary means to carry out its tasks as the fight against organised crime, the protection of EU financial interests and the strenghtening of the rule of law are EU priorities;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Welcomes the increase in appropriations for the EPPO’s budget in 2023, amounting to EUR 64,6 million in total, which allowed for an 11 % increase in staff in that year; acknowledges that the acceleration of the disbursement of NextGenerationEU funding and the increase in the EPPO’s membership are projected to put further strain on the EPPO’s resources; underlines the importance of additional funding for the EPPO’s budget and of strengthening its human resources in order for it to have the necessary means to carry out its tasks;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Acknowledges the importance of taking a holistic approach to combating white-collar crime, such as fraud and corruption, and more conventional types of crime, such as drug trafficking and human trafficking, as they are often linked; recalls the fact that, in its upcoming evaluation report, the Commission should carefully analyse whether and to which categories of crimes the EPPO’s mandate needs to be extended in order for it to be best equipped to fulfil its role, and analyse how EPPO's operations and investigations can become more efficient and effective, and present a legislative proposal to accompany the evaluation; recalls in that regard the plans of Commissioner McGrath to accelerate the evaluation;
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Acknowledges the importance of taking a holistic approach to combating white-collar crime, such as fraud and corruption, and more conventional types of crime, such as drug trafficking and human trafficking, as they are often linked; recalls the fact that, in its upcoming evaluation report, the Commission should carefully analyse whether and to which categories of crimes the EPPO’s mandate needs to be revised or extended in order for it to be best equipped to fulfil its role as well as how to increase cooperation with Europol to properly address thoses objectives;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Emphasises the important role of the EPPO in the Union approach to combating corruption and the misuse of Union funds; expresses its satisfaction that 24 Member States participate in the EPPO and encourages the remaining Member States to do so as well, or be denied the possibility to manage EU funds indirectly; calls on the Commission to continue engaging in an active dialogue with non- participating Member States to effectively facilitate the EPPO in carrying out its tasks; emphasises the fact that such a dialogue could also be of value tomust be ongoing with the Member States that already participate in the EPPO as regards tackling difficulties in fighting rule of law violations and corruption and support them in the practical implementation of the recommendations in this regard in the annual rule of law reports;