Activities of Isabel GARCÍA MUÑOZ related to 2021/2251(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (debate)
Opinions (1)
OPINION on the implementation report on the Recovery and Resilience Facility
Amendments (27)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Recital -A (new)
Recital -A (new)
-A. whereas the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020 changed the economic, social and budgetary outlook in the Union and in the world, calling for an urgent and coordinated response both at Union and national level in order to cope with the enormous economic and social consequences as well as asymmetrical effects for Member States;
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas the Recovery and Resilience Facility (‘the Facility’), as set up by Regulation 2021/241, is the cornerstone of the stimulus package NextGenerationEU (‘NGEU’) and aims to provide funding to Member States, through grants and loans, in order to finance reforms and investments, helping citizens and economies to cope with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and laying the foundations for sustainable recovery;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
A a. whereas the Facility is a performance-based instrument, which means that the payments are conditional upon the fulfilment of milestones and targets underpinning the reforms and investments in the respective national recovery and resilience plans;
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
A c. whereas the Commission has published its report on the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility on 1st March 2022 as required under Article 31 of the Regulation 2021/241;
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph -1 (new)
Paragraph -1 (new)
-1. Recalls that the specific objective of the Facility is to provide financial support with a view to achieving the milestones and targets of reforms and investments set out in recovery and resilience plans aiming to cope with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and laying the foundations for sustainable recovery;
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph -1 a (new)
Paragraph -1 a (new)
-1 a. Underlines that the Commission assess the Member States’ disbursement requests upon achievement of agreed milestones and targets while respecting the national ownership of the NRRPs and the choice of the Member States of the relevant types of financing and the methods of implementation; reiterates, besides, the Parliament’s role of supervision of the work of the Commission with regard to the Facility implementation in the frame of the 'recovery and resilience dialogue';
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes that by mid-February 2022, all Member States but one had submitted national recovery and resilience plans (NRRPs), requesting in total EUR 337.5 billion in grants and EUR 166 billion in loans; welcomes that the Commission has approved 22 NRRPs, followed by the adoption of the respective 22 Council Implementing Decisions, and has agreed the operational arrangements with 8 Member States, which set the framework for monitoring the plans’ implementation;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Notes that the Commission has received 5 payment requests so far and has made one payment in December 2021; notes that on 28 January 2022 the Commission had disbursed EUR 46,6 billion in grants (14 % of the EUR 338 bn available) and EUR 19.9 billion on loans (5 % of the EUR 385.8 bn available); welcomes that the calendar of payments is in line with the expected implementation phase of the Facility; encourages the Commission to continue to work closely with the Member States to maintain this positive development and to report any significant difficulty in its future implementation reports;
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. INotes that the Commission concluded in its assessments that all NRRPs comply with the 11 criteria provided for in the Regulation 2021/241 and thus, gave a rating of A to most NRRPs; is concerned, however, about the fact that all Member States have received a B-rating for the criteria evaluating whether the estimated total costs of the NRRPs are reasonable; asks the Commission to monitor this criterion in its future implementation reports indicating whether the implementation corroborates this assessment or the costs estimation carried out by the Member States was in fact reasonable;
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
Amendment 28 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Welcomes the large number of documents that are published on the Facility’s website, as well as the Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard that provides an visual and user-friendly overview of the progress made in the implementation of the NRRPs and thereby fosters the transparency, public scrutiny and accountability of the Facility; calls the Commission to maintain or further increase this level of transparency and data visualisation in the future;
Amendment 29 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Appreciates in particular the publication of the preliminary assessments of the satisfactory fulfilment of milestones and targets related to each Member State’s payment request for the instalments of grants under the Facility; notes the detailed analysis carried out by the Commission, which includes the evidence provided by the concerned Member State;
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Considers that the reliability of the performance data concerning the targets and milestones of the Facility is of the utmost importance; calls on the Commission to provide a statement of assurance on the performance data for the implementation of the Facility in its Annual Management and Performance Report (AMPR);
Amendment 33 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Recalls that irregularities may lead to the reduction of financial contributions or the recovery of funds by the Commissionan unsatisfactory implementation of NRRPs or serious irregularities may lead to suspension and the termination of financial support agreements as well as the reduction and recovery of financial contributions by the Commission; calls on the Commission to describe in its future implementation reports whether such a case has occurred, the causes, and the remedial actions taken by the Commission or the concerned Member State;
Amendment 39 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. Calls on the Commission to inform the budgetary authority about the use of FENIX, the IT system set up for Member States to report the relevant information on the implementation of the NRRPs, and particularly about the interoperability of this system with the ARACHNE data- mining tool;
Amendment 41 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Stresses that the Commission, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), the Court of Auditors and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) may exercise their rights laid down in Article 129(1) of the Financial Regulation with regard to the Facility; asks the Commission to provide information about the measures ensuring the early detection of the abuse of EU funds; and in particular, should be able to use the information and monitoring system made available by the Commission within their competences and rights; asks the Commission to alert about any specific obstacle that NRRPs may contain to the full exercise of those rights; asks the Commission to provide information about the measures ensuring the early detection of the abuse of EU funds, as well as to report of the result of any relevant investigation or prosecution concluded on the use of funds at national or EU level, including where applicable the actions to recover the affected funds;
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Notes with satisfaction from the Commission’s assessments of NRRPs that Member States’ plans adopted in 2021 have adequate control systems which ensures prevention of double funding, arrangements to correct serious irregularities and recovery of funds are in general quite well developed; notes that the Commission also identified some deficiencies in 16 NRRPs and welcomes that the Member States concerned agreed to take additional remedial measures before requesting the first regular payment; asks the Commission to clearly indicate in its future implementation reports whether the agreed remedial measures were effectively implemented and any eventual impact of the identified deficiencies on the implementation of the relevant NRRP;
Amendment 49 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8 a. Notes the guidance provided by the Commission to Member States to avoid double funding of the same costs by the Facility and other EU funds, as well as the support to identify suitable instruments at Union level to create synergies with the measures financed under the Facility;
Amendment 52 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. CReiterates that the use of a single data-mining and risk-scoring tool such as ARACHNE is essential to protect the EU budget by means of preventing conflict of interest, fraud, corruption and double funding; welcomes that several Member States aim to use ARACHNE in the implementation of the Facility; calls on the Commission to encourage all other Member States to use ARACHNE and, in the meantime, to make sure that the alternative measures to risk- score the entities and individuals involved in implementation of the Facility are equivalent to ARACHNE; calls on the Commission to make sure that, in addition to the information on the beneficiaries of the programme, data on beneficial owners is also collected by the Member States;
Amendment 56 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. RWelcomes that most Member States have followed the Commission’s recommendations of designing specific websites where Facility-related information is displayed, but regrets the fact that there are major differences in the level and breadth of the available information made public on the dedicated NRRP websitesm; asks the Commission to include recommendations in itsand best practices in communication and visibility of the NGEU funding allowing for the monitoring of the progress of their implementation, in its future implementation reports with a particular focus on the harmonisation of the information available to citizens in order to foster transparency, public scrutiny and accountability;
Amendment 58 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. CRecalls that based on Article 22 of the Regulation 2021/241, Member States are primarily responsible for ensuring the protection of the financial interests of the Union; calls on the Commission to report on its assessment of the capacity of national audit systems (particularly audit capacity, beneficiary data storage and audit plan) to prevent, detect and correct corruption, fraud and conflicts of interest, and to ensure compliance with national and Union rules; stresses that, in the event of inadequacies in the national audit systems, the milestones or targets suggested by the Commission to address these inadequacies must be appropriately explained in the annual report on the implementation of the Facility;
Amendment 66 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. CEmphasises that in case of a serious breach of the Rule of law, the Conditionality Mechanism can be triggered regarding the NGEU stimulus package, and thus the Facility; calls on the Commission to make approval of the NRRPs conditional on the observance of the rRule of law and the prevention and detection of, and the fight against, fraud, conflicts of interest and corruption; stresses that all measures set out in the NRRPs must comply with the Union’s values enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union;
Amendment 71 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Amendment 73 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15 a. Highlights that social partners, local, and regional authorities are key stakeholders to achieve the sustainable recovery from the pandemic and thus, they should be appropriately consulted and involved in the implementation of the reforms and investments within the Facility; asks the Commission to further develop its assessment of the consultation of the relevant stakeholders in its future implementation reports, with an identification of best practises that can be implemented for other Member States such as governance systems that involve central and regional governments competent for a given area;
Amendment 76 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Reaffirms Parliament’s role in scrutinising the implementation of the Facility, which lays the foundation of its democratic accountability, also through the annual discharge procedure.;