18 Amendments of Kristoffer STORM related to 2024/2030(DEC)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the constructive cooperation between the European Parliament and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), the European Environment Agency (EEA), the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) (the Agencies), illustrated, inter alia, by the annual exchanges of views that took place in 2023 in the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI); calls for the consolidation of overlapping functions among the Agencies to reduce redundancies, streamline operations, and ensure that resources are directed towards core functions that provide tangible value to EU citizens in the area of environmental, public health, and food safety objectives;
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Expresses its satisfaction that the European Court of Auditors (ECA) has declared the transactions of the Agencies underlying the annual accounts for the financial year 2023 to be legal and regular in all material respects, and that their financial position, at 31 December 2023, is fairly represented in all material respects; requires the Agencies to adopt zero-based budgeting practices, ensuring that every expense is justified from the ground up, and calls for a significant reduction in administrative costs to focus funding on essential activities such as environmental, public health, and food safety objectives;
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Welcomes the measures taken by the aAgencies in light of the European Parliament recommendations in its discharge for the financial year 2022; stresses the importance of increasing the Agencies’ efforts in terms of cooperation with other agencies and international organisations, digitalisation, and gender and geographical balance in senior management positions; proposes a comprehensive audit of the Agencies to identify and eliminate non-essential activities, ensuring that resources are concentrated on critical areas of public health, safety, and environmental protection; recommends that appointments to senior management positions in the Agencies be based on merit and expertise, ensuring optimal performance, while remaining unbiased with regard to gender;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Welcomes the fact that the Agencies took effective corrective actions following most of the 2022 observations from the ECA; takes note of 2023 observations for the Agencies, in particular observations related to ex-ante checks, and calls on them to ensure an effective follow- up.; demands that Agencies failing to implement corrective actions within stipulated timelines face reductions in their administrative budgets, with the aim of improving the efficiency of funding for essential activities such as environmental protection, public health, and food safety objectives in the long run;
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Acknowledges the key role of the ECDC in identifying and assessing current and emerging threats to human health from communicable diseases and related special health issues, in order to enhance the capacity of the Union and the Member States to protect human health through the prevention and control of communicable diseases in humans and related special health issue, emphasizing the need to prioritize cost-effective measures and avoid duplicating Member State efforts;
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Acknowledges that the ECHA is key’s crucial role in implementing a growing number of Union legislation that regulatcore Union legislation on chemicals and emphasizes cthemicals for the benefit of need to focus strictly on essential regulatory functions that directly protect public health and the environment, as well as forwhile also fostering innovation and competitiveness; recognises that the ECHA collects, evaluates and disseminates a vast amount of information on chemicals, helps companies comply with legislation and promotes the safe use of chemicals, and avoiding unnecessary expansion of its mandate;
Amendment 33 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Recalls the necessity of ensuring adequate staffing reflecting the needs of the European Green Deal and the Union Chemical Strategy for Sustainability, Circular Economy Action Plan and, in particular, the zero pollution target, and the associated increase in tasksimportance of prioritizing efficient resource allocation over increasing staffing levels and stresses the need to allocate staff primarily to scientific roles critical to achieving ENVI objectives, while avoiding unnecessary expansion of the Agency’s workforce;
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Cautions against overburdening the ECHA with additional regulatory tasks introduced by new directives and regulations, and emphasizes the importance of maintaining focus on its primary responsibilities under REACH and CLP;
Amendment 45 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Welcomes the ECHA Strategy Statement for 2024 - 2028 adopted in December 2023, which sets out the priorities for the ECHA in implementing its evolving mandate. and calls for its implementation to prioritize efficiency, financial sustainability, and a reduction in regulatory burdens on businesses and Member States, in order to improve effectiveness in delivering ENVI-related objectives;
Amendment 50 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Acknowledges the adaptability of the EEA, which, in addition to its planned publications for 2023, released additional works on topics ranging from extreme weather to human health, such as The importance on restoring nature in Europe, demonstrating its capacity to inform and fuel current policy debates arising from evolving circumstanStresses the need for the EEA to prioritize the production of essential reports directly tied to measurable policy outcomes; calls on the EEA to exercise caution in expanding its scope beyond planned publications, focusing instead on delivering core outputs efficiently without overextending its resources;
Amendment 53 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Notes that the EEA is tasked with tracking progress towards the 8th Environment Action programme (‘8th EAP’), which builds on the European Green Deal and sets the framework for Union environmental policy until 2030, with a long-term priority objective for 2050 of living well within planetary boundaries; welcomes the release of its first annual monitoring report in December 2023, on the basis of a set of 28 headline indicators and corresponding targets such as climate change mitigation and adaptation, circular economy and biodiversityRaises concerns about the practicality, financial sustainability, and scientific reliability of tracking progress towards long-term objectives, such as the 2050 planetary boundaries goal, and stresses the importance of prioritizing achievable, cost-effective short- and medium-term targets that align with current technological capabilities and deliver measurable benefits to Member States and citizens;
Amendment 60 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Takes note with concern that despite the multi-year nature of the EEA’s tasks, an imbalance exists concerning the numbers of permanent versus contractual posts, as well as operational staff versus support staff, leading to a constant need for reskilling as well as an overload of administrative work for scientists; considers that taking into account the substantial increase of workload,opposes however substantial increases in staff numbers, calling instead for and in orderternal review of staff allocation and responsibilities to improperly perform the tasks on the Union’s goals for, inter alia, climate neutrality, circular economy and nature restoration, the EEA’s staff number should continue to substantially grow in the years to come.ve effectiveness in delivering ENVI-related objectives; recommends the adoption of automation and digital solutions to alleviate administrative burdens on scientific staff, enabling them to focus on core research activities without requiring substantial increases in staff numbers;
Amendment 63 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. Cautions against overburdening the EEA with additional tasks arising from new directives and regulations, emphasizing the need to focus on its primary responsibilities; stresses the importance of ensuring that resources are not diluted by attempting to address an overly broad range of objectives, which could compromise the quality and impact of its outputs;
Amendment 65 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. WelcomAcknowledges the EFSA's' contribution to essential role in ensuring the safety of the Union food and feed chain, and its considerable efforts in providing risk managers with comprehensive,providing independent and, up-to- date scientific advice on questions linked to the food chain, communicating clearly to the public on its outputs and the information on which they are based, and cooperating with interested parties and institutional partners to promote coherence and trust in the food safety system; stresses the need for the EFSA to focus on its core responsibilities, avoiding unnecessary expansion into non-essential initiatives that may dilute its effectiveness;
Amendment 68 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Cautions against overburdening the EFSA with additional tasks linked to broader initiatives such as the Farm to Fork and Union Chemical strategies, emphasizing that its primary focus should remain on food safety and core chemical risk assessments;
Amendment 83 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Welcomes the fact that the EFSA continued implementing its new organisational structure that was put in place in 2022 to reflect the Transparency Regulation; h, but emphasizes the importance of ensuring that it leads to measurable efficiency gains, avoids increased administrative complexity or costs, and enhances effectiveness in achieving ENVI-related objectives. Highlights the need to improve efficiency and transparency in the EFSA’s process architecture.;
Amendment 90 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Reiterates the key role of the EMA in protecting human and animal health by assessing and supervising medicines for human or veterinary use and protecting public health by raising awareness on key issues including antimicrobial resistance and prevention of communicable diseases through vaccination; emphasizes the importance of focusing resources on its core responsibilities and avoiding unnecessary expansion into broader public health awareness campaigns;
Amendment 93 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Notes the EMA decision to lift its COVID-19 business continuity measures, in alignment with the World Health Organisation declaration of the end of COVID-19 as a public health emergency of international concern; welcomes the fact that it enabled the EMA to shift its focus to address other challenges, including the finalisation of the EMA’s extended mandate obligations, of the medical devices and in vitro medical devices regulations (MDR/IVDR), and the first reflections on the EC proposal for the revision of the general Union pharmaceutical legislation for human medicines; cautions against overburdening the EMA with growing obligations and instead highlights the need to focus on existing tasks in order to directly enhance human and animal health outcomes;