Activities of Mikuláš PEKSA related to 2023/2045(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the protection of the European Union’s financial interests – combating fraud – annual report 2022
Amendments (22)
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas the varying levels of digitalisation in the Member States needs to be addressed by the creation of more unified, interoperable and comparable administrative and reporting systems in the EU, which are functional and necessary for a solid comprehensive analysis and for the effective prevention of irregularities and countering of fraud and corruption; whereas Member States shall be encouraged to, in parallel, make use of EU-wide datamining tools such as Arachne or EDES;
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J
Recital J
J. whereas cooperation with international partners and global financial institutions is crucial to protect EU funds spent outside Europe and the revenue side of the EU budget;
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Shares the view of the Commission that fraud prevention and detection must rely on further digitalisation in order to increase the accessibility and use of data; points out that efficient anti-fraud governance and effective result-oriented processes and adequately equipped structures must be in place to ensure cooperation and coordination between all the components of the anti-fraud architecture and the relevant actors;
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Appreciates the improved overall coherence of the anti-fraud legislation across the EU, following the actions undertaken by Member States to transpose the EU rules into national systems correctly; observes that, in some respects, the situation is still sub- optimal, in particular as regards the detection and reporting of suspected fraud and irregularities and their follow-up, for which the differences between Member States are still very notable;
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Regrets the fact that in many Member States national authorities do not always follow up on the Commission’s and OLAF’s recommendations, report exhaustively or adopt acknowledged good practices in a timely manner; points out that in many Member States, the percentage of irregularities that are still classified as suspected fraud many years after they were initially reported is extremely high, even in relation to cases indicated as closed; believes that such situations might suggests a lack of adequate follow-up, insufficient or inadequately trained resources, communication gaps or inefficient reporting channels, weak cooperation and coordination, or even the unjustified postponement of reclassifying irregularities as fraudulent in order to adjust the statistical reporting;
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Notes that the number of cases of fraud and irregularities reported by the competent EU and national authorities – 12 455 in total – slightly increased in 2022 compared to 2021; observes that the affected financing related to these cases in 2022 decreased to EUR 1.77 billion (from EUR 3.24 in 2021); believes that these numbers are still extremely high and represent an important loss for the EU budget;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Believes that involvement of civil society and the private sector in the efforts to combat fraud wouldis crucial to enhance prevention and detection, and that this implies support to confidential channels and/or whistleblowers and investigative journalists, and that the latter can be effective insofar as easy access is given to information on projects, beneficiaries and payments;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Welcomes the joint communication from the Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of 3 May 2023 on the fight against corruption (JOIN(2023)0012), acknowledging the seriousness of corruption, as it undermines the efficiency of public spending, the effectiveness of the single market and the sustainability of economic growth; points out that the fight against corruption is one of the most important commitments of the Union, on a par with transparency and integrity; stresses that also phenomena of nepotism with regard to state-owned entities and procurement for EU funds poses great risk to sound management and EU’s financial interests;
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 59 a (new)
Paragraph 59 a (new)
59a. Is concerned about the reports that OLAF’s investigation into corruption and conflict of interest concerning Member of the European Parliament has been obstructed by lack of access to their offices and work devices; calls on the EP President to grant OLAF access to the premises and all necessary information required for the sake of investigations;
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Welcomes the fact that the Commission has included a specific section on anti-corruption in its annual report on the rule of law in order to provide an in- depth comparative analysis of the approaches, procedures and tools used by the Member States in their fight against corruption and to help to assess which areas are most at risk; asks the Commission to always include recommendations and follow-up observations for Member States to all sections of the rule of law report;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Believes that this could be an indicator of the positive impact and deterrent effect of the amendments to the financial rules, which have been made applicable to all national authorities handling EU funds, together with the fact that one third of the cases were detected through sources external to the management and control system, including whistleblowers and investigative journalists, which suggests an adequate basic level of transparency and accessibility and contributions from civil society;
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Observes that, in 2022, the overall number of fraudulent and not fraudulent irregularities related to Traditional Own Resources (TOR) (4 661) was 7.6 % higher compared to the five-year average (2018- 2022); notes with concern that the overall amounts affected by such irregularities, as estimated and established by Member States, also noticeably increased (by 47 %, reaching EUR 783 million); highlights, on the same issue, that the overall recovery rate in 2022 for both fraudulent and non- fraudulent cases was only 48 % (compared with 54 % in 2021) and that the figure for fraudulent cases was only 25 %, which was distributed across Member States very heterogeneously; asks the Commission to put more efforts into a speedy recovery of abused funds;
Amendment 62 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29
Paragraph 29
29. Regrets that during the period 2018-2022, in both rural development and direct payments, the contributions to the detection of fraudulent cases provided by risk analysis, whistleblowers, informants and investigative journalists has been very limited; is also concerned about the length of the administrative procedures opened to deal with the fraudulent cases reported, which, on average and during 2014-2022, required nearly four years from the start of the irregularity to arrive at a suspicion of fraudulent activity, and nearly three more years to close the case after reporting it to the Commission; points out that, for cohesion, it took about a year and a half to arrive at a suspicion that a fraudulent irregularity had been committed and more than two years to close the fraudulent case after reporting it to the Commission; asks the Commission to provide recommendations and follow-up more often with the Member States authorities to reduce the length of administrative procedures;
Amendment 64 #
36. NotesIs concerned that, between 2018 and 2022, average recovery remains at positive levelslevels were still low, with an average recovery rate of 56 % (resulting from 34 % for ‘irregularities reported as fraudulent’ and 59 % for ‘irregularities not reported as fraudulent’); asks the Commission to put more efforts into a speedy recovery of abused funds;
Amendment 71 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 39
Paragraph 39
39. Remarks that the Commission’s audit work has confirmed variations in the internal control systems across the implementing and coordinating bodies, identifying good practices in some of the procedures in place to verify and prevent fraud, corruption, conflicts of interest and double funding; invites the Member States to share the best procedures in order to facilitate more coordinated and fraud- proof processing of the funds;
Amendment 89 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 46
Paragraph 46
46. Notes that among the available options, Arachne was by far the most widely-used IT system (by 21 Member States), in support of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) and the RRF; observes with concern that many Member States used their own dedicated anti-fraud IT tools, often in conjunction with EU tools, although those tools were rarely interoperable and therefore hamper the detection and reporting of fraud to the Commission;
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 63 a (new)
Paragraph 63 a (new)
63a. Reiterates its call to the Commission to propose an extension of the EDES to all funds, including those under shared management;
Amendment 106 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 54
Paragraph 54
54. Remarks that, in 2022, only 22 Member States already participated in the EPPO, with the same five countries as in 2021 abstaining, namely Hungary, Poland, Ireland, Denmark and Sweden refusing to take part; insists that Member States which have not yet participated, must do so without delay;
Amendment 111 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 56 a (new)
Paragraph 56 a (new)
56a. Calls on the Commission to ensure that the efficiency and efficacy of OLAF’s work in corruption and fraud detection is maintained, thus the reduction of OLAF’s annual budget foreseen for full time employees shall be considered in line with the true business needs of OLAF, as reflected in their annual report;
Amendment 118 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 69
Paragraph 69
69. Notes with concern that, by the end of 2022, onlystill three Member States (Finland, Ireland and Poland) indicated that they had not adopted any strategy for protecting the EU’s financial interests and five (Belgium, Spain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Romania) indicated that they were only in the process of establishing one, while the other Member States have alternative strategies at national, regional or sectoral level or, in some cases, combine them; urges Member States to adopt a NAFS to show that they take the protection of EU funds seriously;
Amendment 124 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 72
Paragraph 72
72. Takes note of the Council decision of 16 December 2022 to suspend the disbursement of EUR 6.3 billion of EU funds to Hungary; expects the Commission and the Council to lift the adopted measures only where evidence is collected that the remedial measures adopted by the Hungarian Government have proven effective in practice and, in particular, that no regression has been detected on already adopted measures; reiterates, however, its opinion that the 17 measures alone, as negotiated by the Commission and the Hungarian Government, are not sufficient to address the existing systemic risk to the EU’s financial interests and regrets that the Commission did not request sufficient substantial changes and safeguards to restore the independence of the judiciary and reduce the level of corruption; is very concerned about the media reports affirming that the Commission is planning to lift the suspension measures in Hungary against the Government’s endorsement of aid for Ukraine; believes that the Commission should never give into blackmail, especially when it endangers the protection of the EU’s financial interests;
Amendment 130 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 77
Paragraph 77
77. Believes that funds under the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe (NDICI-Global Europe) for assistance in non-EU countries and the resources allocated for Europe’s response to the war in Ukraine are not adequately monitored and controlled; calls on the Commission to put appropriate measures in place to ensure that EU funds sent to neighbouring countries ends up benefiting those that are most in need;