Activities of Ramona STRUGARIU related to 2022/2098(DEC)
Reports (1)
REPORT on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Asylum Support Office (now the European Union Agency for Asylum) for the financial year 2021
Amendments (9)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the fact that the Court of Auditors ('the Court') has declared the transactions underlying the annual accounts of the European Asylum Support Office (the 'Office') for the financial year 2021 to be legal and regular in all material aspects; notes that, according to its statement of revenue and expenditure the Office's budget increased fromto EUR 149 to 1752.7 million (an increase of 18,85%) between 2020 and 2021, while members of staff increased from 380 to 423 (an increase of 11,3%) within the same period;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Notes however that a high number of management posts are vacant and that many had been occupied by interim staff for more than one year, which is the maximum period allowed by the Union's Staff Regulations; takes note that by November 2022, 3 senior management members were still on interim positions, while 2 had occupied their posts for more than legally permitted; notes from the Office's replies that two senior management positions were under recruitment by the end of 2022; calls on the Office to fully comply with Union Law provisions and refrain from prolonging ad-interim contracts for more than the maximum duration stipulated by the relevant legal provisions; recalls that one of the reasons underlying the dependency on interim staff was the delay of the adoption and entry into force of the Regulation establishing a European Union Agency for Asylum; notes with regret serious lack of foresight of the Commission when designing and allocating these posts to the Office;
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Recalls the important role that the Office fulfils in the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), assisting requesting Member States in improving the efficiency and quality of their asylum systems; notes with satisfaction that in 2021, new operational plans were signed by the Office with Latvia, Lithuania and Belgium;
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Recalls with concern the Court’s finding that in 2020, the Office had 16 vacant management posts, with 10 of those occupied on an acting basis for more than one year, thus being at odds with the Union’s Staff Regulations, which limit the duration of temporary management appointments to one year; notes the Office’s reply with regard to the reasons why in 2021 the recruitment of managers was not prioritised, whereas such reasons include practical limitations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, new migration and asylum crises, two structural reorganisations of the Office, the need to ensure business continuity, with a focus on filling other non-managerial posts; highlights, however, that acting managers occupy two posts in the Office’s establishment plan, situation that could lead to inefficiency issues as well as to impaired leadership and strategic continuity; further notes the statement of the Office’s Executive Director (ED) during the hearing in the European Parliament on 30 November 2022, whereby at that date 7 managers, including 3 senior management members were still on ad interim positions, 2 of whom have been for more than 1 year in their function; takes note from the Office’s replies that two senior management positions were under recruitment by the end of 2022, while the third position was foreseen to be published in the following months; notes that on January 18th 2023, the Executive Director decided not to renew the temporary management posts, which expired after one year and discontinued those that had been in place for longer than a year; reiterates its calls on the Office to launch and/or finalise without delay the recruitment procedures that are necessary in order to fill in all its managerial posts, in full compliance with the applicable legal requirements and to keep the discharge authority informed regarding the progress made in this matter;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. IsExpresses great concerned about the accusations of misconduct that have beenon staff-related irregularities caused by the Office’s senior management, brought to the attention tof OLAF and the EU institutions; requests that allegations of misconduct are thoroughly checked and investigated through an anonymous complaint in September 2022; is deeply concerned about the seriousness of the aforementioned allegations that include claims of unlawful, opaque or partial recruitment and promotion of senior management members, allegations of harassment or mismanagement of funds relating to missions of Office staff; requests that allegations of misconduct are thoroughly checked and investigated; calls on the Office to ensure the full and sincere cooperation with OLAF throughout all stages of the investigation and to regularly report to the European Parliament about the progress of the state and outcome of the investigation;
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Notes that the Office has put in place a policy on protecting the dignity of the person and preventing psychological and sexual harassment; welcomes the Office’s organisation of awareness raising campaigns on these issues and the nomination of confidential counsellors in 2021; notes that in 2021, the Office received four complaints on alleged psychological harassment, one of which was withdrawn; notes that the other three complaints were object of a preliminary assessment carried out with support from an external law firm, that led to the conclusion that no prima- facie evidence of harassment was found, thus no further measures were deemed necessary by the Office; calls on the Office to provide the discharge authority with the typology of cases and the criteria based on which it decides to ask for the support of an external law firm, given that the Office has its own Legal Services Unit;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Stresses the impact of the Russian war against Ukraine on the activities of EASO and the fact that EASO had to request additional human and financial resources to face the increased demand for assistance from Member States; commends in this regard the prompt actions taken by the Office to support Member States in the implementation of the Temporary Protection Directive, as well as the deployment of a number of staff in the Republic of Moldova, assisting voluntary transfers to Member States and providing useful relevant information to asylum seekers arriving from Ukraine; calls on the Commission to improve its reaction capacity to such situations and allocate in time the necessary resources to respond to such events;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Notes that, following receipt of a report of the European Anti-Fraud Office at the end of 2018, which was extensively covered in the discharge report for 2018, the Office initiated three disciplinary procedures in 2019, with two of them; notes that all three disciplinary procedures havinge been concluded and one still ongoingmpleted; calls on the Office to informprovide the discharge authority of the completion of the latterwith further details about the outcomes to these procedures;
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. RegretNotes the fact that in 2021, the commitment appropriations and the payment appropriations are low 83.48% and 77.01%levels were 97% and 91% respectively;