Activities of Arndt KOHN related to 2017/2145(DEC)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2016, Section X – European External Action Service PDF (473 KB) DOC (68 KB)
Amendments (19)
Amendment 1 #
Proposal for a decision 1
Citation 8 a (new)
Citation 8 a (new)
– having regard to the Court of Auditors' special report No 07/2016 on 'The European External Action Service's management of its buildings around the world';
Amendment 4 #
Proposal for a decision 1
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Grants the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European External Action Service for the financial year 2016; / Postpones its decision on granting the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European External Action Service for the financial year 2016;
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Asks the EEAS to continue its efforts to actively support and monitor the implementation of procurement rules and procedures in the delegations in order to improve the overall compliance and effectiveness of their tendering procedures and contract management; encourages the EEAS to consider the possibility of introducing global or regional procurement procedures covering several EU delegations to replace individual low value contracts; asks the EEAS to evaluate to what extend such an arrangement could reduce weaknesses in procurement procedures and to inform the Committee of Budgetary Control about the result of this analysis;
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Notes thatWelcomes the follow-up to previous recommendations regarding the updating of staff members’ personal situation and related supporting documentation and the management of their family allowances haswhich have been implemented in most respects;
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Insists on the necessity of maintaining efforts to reduce the significantTakes note of a high rate of anomalies detected in ex-ante verifications of financial transactions while noting the nature of the errors and irregularities such as the unavailability of supporting documents or ineligibility of expenditures; welcomes the extensive internal reporting system of the EEAS which allows to anticipate potential errors and hence contributes to the low level of error rate found by the Court; encourages the EEAS to take measures to reduce this high rate of anomalies; stresses, however, that a reduction of anomalies detected in ex-ante verification should not be achieved to the detriment of maintaining a low error rate;
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Regrets the persistence of the same weaknesses throughout the years with regard to ‘business continuity’ and ‘document management’ internal control standards which carry with them the risk of hindering the availability and reliability of key management information being used for the monitoring and reporting of activities and projects by the delegations; recalls that full transparency of documentation could be useful not only to improve the quality of monitoring and control, but also as an efficient instrument to prevent fraud and corruption;
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Expresses its support for analysing and refining the cost-effectiveness of ex- post control by comparing the cost of ex- post control activities with the value of detected errors; regretnotes that the unit cost of detecting errors (cost per EUR) amounted to 23 cents in 2016; acknowledges that this unit cost is related to the low error rate and hence would be lower if the sum affected by error would be higher;
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Stresses the importance of having a transparent and effective overview of the EEAS budget; regrets that the fragmentation of its instruments makes it difficult to access the information; asks the Vice-President of the Commission and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to provide full access to the data related to the costs of her missions;
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Welcomes that the Vice-President of the Commission and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy has made public data related to the cost of her missions; welcomes the Commission Decision of 31 January 2018 on the Code of Conduct for the Members of the European Commission which includes an obligation to "publish an overview of mission expenses every two months covering all missions undertaken unless publication of this information would undermine the protection of the public interest as regards public security, defence and military matters, international relations or the financial, monetary or economic policy of the Union or a Member State"; asks this rule to be extended to the High Representative in her role as head of the EEAS;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Underlines that the execution of the EEAS administrative budget, particularly for the delegations, should improve its efficiency, since certain delegations were receiving separate contributions from the Commission from 33 different budget lines regarding the administrative costs of Commission staff in delegations; stresses the need forcalls on the Commission to work in cooperation with the Council and the European Parliament toward a budgetary simplification in order to provide a transparent overview to Union citizens of the costs;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Welcomes the priorities set by the High Representative and the EEAS in line with the EU Global Strategy to address global challenges, including the attention dedicated to migration issues, drugs and human trafficking, and the implementation of human rights diplomacy to better address emerging international challenges and political priorities with coordinated responses; highlights, moreover, the increasingly important role of the EEAS in international cooperation regarding peace, security and human development, as shown, among others, by its mediating and representational role in international organisations such as the UN, the negotiation and preservation of the nuclear deal with Iran, the mediating role in the Israel-Palestine conflict or the Brussels process for Syria;
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25
Paragraph 25
25. Reiterates its concern regarding the gender imbalances in EEAS staff at the higher levels of administration; takes note of the slight increase of women in managerial posts and emphasises that there is still room for improvement in order to raise the current rate (22,7% of which 14% in senior management, i.e. 6 posts out of a total of 44, and 25% in middle management, i.e. 53 posts out of 215); calls on the Member States to encourage more actively women candidates to apply for EEAS posts at the management level;
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Is awareWelcomes, in that context, of the creation of the task forces on ‘Career Development’ and ‘Gender and Equal Opportunities’ as important milestones for improving the functioning of the EEAS by defining a more attractive career path, streamlining recruitment and the adequacy of competences as well as gender and equal opportunities;
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. RegretNotes that the EEAS Mediation Service received 75 cases of conflict, harassment or poor work environment in 2016 and that 23 cases remained open at year end; calls onnotes that 26 out of 65 cases remained open at the end of 2015 and hence the relative number of open cases at the end of the year decreased in 2016; welcomes the alert system put in place by the EEAS which allows for a systematic follow-up of complaints and encourages the EEAS to continue improveing its policy in this regard in order to prevent any form of psychological and sexual harassment as well as cases of conflict;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28
Paragraph 28
28. ObservesWelcomes the fact that the EEAS has so far complied with the inter- institutional agreement to reduce staff by 5% over a period of five years with seventeen posts being removed in 2016, the applied reduction of posts so far being 68, 16 more posts having to be identified for 2017 to reach an overall contribution of 84 posts for the EEAS over the five years period ending in 2017; is concerned that, as a result, the remaining resources available in each service don’t allow for absorption of the additional workload of the EEAS, in particular in the EU delegations; calls on the budgetary authorities to be mindful of the long-term impact of staff cuts, in particular regarding the institution’s ability to improve gender and geographical imbalances as well as the need for building on capacity of experienced officials to take over management posts, when planning the future allocation of financial resources for personnel;
Amendment 36 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Recalls the Ombudsman’s recommendation concerning the EEAS’ practice of offering unpaidWelcomes the measures taken by the EEAS to restructure its traineeship programme, in reaction to the European Ombudsman’s recommendations, and that it will offer scholarships for traineeships in Union dEU Delegations and underlines the importance of an appropriate allowance to be paid to all EEAS’ trainees since the practice of offering unpaid traineeships may lead to a discriminatory situation, endorsing only those who can afford it; takes note of the new traineeships’ scheme of the EEAS and asks for a proper and prompt implementation of the new rules in this regard; highlights that the stipends will be funded by an additional €1,2 Million, which were granted in the 2018 budget thanks to the support of the European Parliament, and that the new traineeship scheme can be seen as the result of an exemplary cooperation between EEAS, Ombudsman and Parliament; is concerned, however, that the number of offered scholarships is significantly lower than the number of traineeships in EU delegations offered in 2016; calls on the EEAS to find other ways of offering paid traineeship with a view to ensuring equal opportunities, for instance, in cooperation with universities or other public institutions;
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31
Paragraph 31
31. Notes that the annual budget for the EEAS’ 185 office buildings and 144 official residences amounts to about EUR 160 million, representing 20% of the EEAS budget; acknowledges the efforts undertaken by the EEAS since the last discharge procedure to adapt and correct various components of its building policies; reaffirms, however, that the monitoring and recovery of full costs and the selection procedure have to be deepened; stresses the importance to find a balance between security issues, the environmental policy and access for disabled people and the necessity to provide more savings relating to the buildings; stresses the importance of negotiating contracts in order to offer savings and continuity in the building policy; suggests that the EEAS carries out a comprehensive analysis of all EU delegations to determine in which countries it would be more cost-effective for the delegations to buy office or residence buildings instead of renting them;
Amendment 41 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 a (new)
Paragraph 31 a (new)
31a. Welcomes the efforts to increase coordinated support to EU delegations regarding the building management provided by the Headquarters, including inter alia the launch of an updated version of the IT tool for Building Management (IMMOGEST)or the increase of specialised contractual staff in the Headquarters; calls on the EEAS to continue implementing the recommendations of the European Court of Auditors in its Special Report on the EEAS’ management of its buildings around the world; asks the EEAS to carry out a review of the new measures and to keep the Parliament informed about the results1a; _________________ 1aCourt of Auditors: Special report no 07/2016: The European External Action Service’s management of its buildings around the world
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33
Paragraph 33
33. Considers that a thorough verification of the rental conditions or purchase options of office buildings and residences have to be ensured in any new building files or transactions to be agreed at headquarters; calls on the EEAS to continue monitoring office space to achieve the benchmarks foreseen; welcomes that the average size of delegation buildings was slightly reduced in 2016 but regrets that exceeding the ceiling of 35 m² per person for office buildings resulted in additional costs of EUR 7,4 million; acknowledges that the delegations are constrained in their ability to decrease the size of buildings when, for instance, they are bound by existing lease contracts or because of a higher need for meeting rooms;