Activities of Richard ASHWORTH related to 2015/2074(BUD)
Plenary speeches (2)
2016 Budget - Mandate for the trilogue (A8-0217/2015 - José Manuel Fernandes)
2016 Budget - Mandate for the trilogue (debate)
Amendments (9)
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. WBelcomes the fact thatieves the Commission Draft General Budget of the European Union for the financial year 2016 reinforces those priorities and pis a welcome step towards helping Member States tackle structural challenges, especially the loss of competitiveness; Proposes to step up EU support for investment, knowledge, jobs and growth-orientated programmes, and in particular for an emblematic mobility programme such as Erasmus+; iIs satisfied that, in addition to duly expected increases throughout Heading 3 (Security and Citizenship) and Heading 4 (Global Europe), the Commission is taking up the challenge of responding to new developments such as the crises in Ukraine, Syria and the Mediterranean by responding to the EU's and Member States' needs in the area of security and migration and by demonstrating strong political will in the field of external action;
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Believes that Draft General Budget 2016 is a first step towards achieving real focus, budget discipline and a concrete example of how the Commission is fulfilling its commitment to be 'big on big things and small on small things';
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3 b. Reminds the Commission of its Budget Review 2010 which identified 'EU added value' as one of its core principles; Insists that this principle must represent the cornerstone of all expenditures, which must also be guided by efficiency, effectiveness and value for money, while respecting the principle of subsidiarity as defined by Article 5 TEU and anchored in Protocol 1 on the role of national parliaments in the European Union;
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Reiterates its concerns about the funding of the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) as a key tool for the fight against youth unemployment in the Union, which is a top priority for all European decision-makers; notes that, owing to the frontloading of the YEI top-up allocation in 2014 and 2015, no new commitments are proposed in 2016; recalls that the MFF has provided for a global margin for commitments to be made available over and above the ceilings as of 2016 for policy objectives related to growth and employment, in particular youth employment; recalls that, consequently, the Regulation on the European Social Fund has provided that the resources for the YEI may be revised upwards for the years 2016 to 2020 in the framework of the budgetary procedure; calls, therstrongly believes, however, that in the interest of strong public and budget accountability, all concerns raised by the ECA in their special report No3/2015 must be taken into account before, for the Youth Employment Initiative to be continued by making use of any flexibility provision contained in the MFFurther appropriations are allocated to the Youth Employment Initiative ; stresses in this regard the importance of results based policy making;
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Recalls that payment shortages, largely due to insufficient payment ceilings and under-budgeting,a shortage of authorised payment appropriations and developments in the legislative framework applicable to 2007 - 2013 cohesion programmes which amplified the build-up of unpaid bills reacheding unprecedented and unacceptable heights in 2014 andwhich remain acute in 2015; fearnotes that this continues to penalise the beneficiaries and to jeopardise the proper implementation of the new 2014-2020 MFF programmes; while supporting active management of payments by the Commission, is concerned at the postponement of calls for proposals, at the reduction of pre-financing and at late paymentse existing constraints on payment appropriations have arisen despite several mitigating measures put in place by the Commission during 2014;
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Underlines that past under-budgeting of payin the past the continuous inflation of commitment appropriations has widened the gap between commitments and payments in several programmes under Heading 1a and 1b, thereby contributing to the sharp increase in the RALs as compared to the other headings; is concernednotes that the Commission has had tointroduced a number of mitigating measures including lowering the amount of pre-financing and, more worryingly,had to postpone new calls for proposals and delay the signing of contracts; notes for instance that under Horizon 2020 the Commission estimates that ‘in a normal implementation scenario without limits on payment appropriations, by the end of 2014, around 1 billion more would have been spent'; while welcoming the Commission's efforts to keep the payments situation under control, reiterates that it will under no circumstances tolerate a slowing down of the 2014-2020 programmes being seen as a way to deal with the payment shortagstrongly supports the Commission's efforts to keep the payments situation under control, and calls for the Commission to continue to prioritise programmes that contribute to real growth, competitiveness and job creation and to identify areas within the EU budget where savings and efficiencies can be made in order to reinforce these priorities;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Highlights the fact that 44% of the proposed 2016 payment appropriations cover outstanding payment claims for previous programming periods, leaving only EUR 26.8 billion in payments for the start-up of the new 2014-2020 cohesion programmes; considers the proposed payment appropriations, therefore, to be the bare minimum needed sufficient to help phase out the end - 2015 backlog, and meet new payment claims relating this subheadingo 2007-2013 cohesion programmes expected in 2016;
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. In addition to itsHighlights the Special Report from the ECA No 3/2015 and calls for a continuation of the Youth Employment Initiative, stresses that an acceleration of itsthe ECA recommendations to be fully implemented before further commitments are made with regard to the YEI; Stresses that efficient and effective implementation in the Member States has now become urgentis crucial; encourages the Member States and the Commission to take all necessary measures to put the national Youth Guarantee schemes into operation as a matter of priority; reiterates that the recently approved increase in the pre- financing rate to 30%, strongly supported by the EP, is dependent on the speedy submission of interim payment claims by the Member States within one year, which should materialise in 2016; insists that the increased YEI pre-financing should not negatively affect the implementation of other components of the European Social Fund (ESF) or result in requests for additional unexpected payment requests in future years;
Amendment 80 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 39
Paragraph 39
39. Underlines the crucial role decentralised agencies play in EU policy- making and is determined to evaluate the budgetary and staffing needs of all the agencies on a case-by-case basis, in order to ensure adequate appropriations and staff for all the agencies and particularly for those that have recently been assigned new tasks or face a higher workload for political-priority-setting or other reasons; is particularly determined to provide the agencies in the area of justice and home affairs with the necessary resources to tackle the current migratory challenges; highlights once more its opposition to the redeployment pool and expects to find a solution during the budgetary procedure to stop the additional staff cuts inbelieves that decentralised agencies cannot be exempt from sound budgetary management and in this context welcomes the Commissioners commitment to review the function and relevance of a number of decentralised agencies; reiterates, furthermore, its intention to use the Interinstitutional Working Group on decentralised agencies to find common ground between the institutions on the treatment of agencies in budgetary terms, also with a view to the conciliation on the 2016 budget;