Activities of Ingeborg GRÄSSLE related to 2014/2075(DEC)
Reports (1)
REPORT on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2013, Section III – Commission and executive agencies PDF (483 KB) DOC (523 KB)
Amendments (19)
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Considers furthermore that those measures have still a limited financial impact on the Union budget since more than 40% of the financial corrections implemented in 2013 are not considered as assigned revenue84 but may be used by the same Member States having caused these corrections in cohesion policy; __________________ 84 See Commission communication COM(2014)0618, table 5.2: withdrawals in cohesion (EUR 775 million), rural development recoveries (EUR 129 million) and financial corrections implemented by de commitment /deduction at closure be it in cohesion policy (EUR 494 million of euro) or in the other policy areas than agriculture and cohesion policies (EUR 1 million).
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Notes that approximately 128 % of the financial corrections implemented in 2013 involved a net reduction of Union funding to the programme and the Member State concerned in cohesion policy;
Amendment 120 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Observes that 14 FEIs have been set up in the Members States under the rural development fund; observes that EUR 443,77 million have been paid out to banks in Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy and Lithuania from the Union budget until the end of 2013; expresses concern that of this amount, not a single euro reached the final beneficiaries; observes that for six financial FEIs set up under the European Fisheries Fund EUR 72,37 million were paid out to banks in Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia and the Netherlands; notes that only in Greece and the NetherlandsLatvia the available amounts were fully disbursed to the final beneficiaries while in Romania only 728% of the funds were disbursed to the final beneficiary, 2377% in Bulgaria , 91% in Estonia and none in Latviathe Netherlands and Greece91 ; __________________ 91 Information provided by Commission Vice-President Kristalina Georgieva during the discharge procedure.
Amendment 176 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 48
Paragraph 48
48. Points out that demographic changes affect the common agricultural policy (CAP) more than any other Union policy since nearly one third of the 12 million Union farmers sharing more than 45 % of the Union budget are over the age of 65 years and only 6% are younger than 35 years old96; therefore welcomes the young- farmer assistance programmes launched as part of the CAP reform; __________________ 96 See Court of Auditors landscape review 'Making the best use of EU money: a landscape review of the risks to the financial management of the EU Budget', 2014, p. 67.
Amendment 204 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 64
Paragraph 64
64. Deplores that persistent weaknesses in excluding ineligible land from the Landfill Parcel Identification System (LPIS) and in the administrative treatment claims from farmers contribute significantly to the material level of error remaining in EAGF payments;
Amendment 207 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 65
Paragraph 65
65. Stresses once again the horizontal dimension of the deficiencies detected in the LPIS; notes that since 2007 the Court of Auditors examined IACS in 38 paying agencies in all 28 Member States and deeply regrets that only seven of the control systems were assessed as effective, 22 were found to partially effective and nine control systems were considered as ineffective; invites the Commission to endure the financial risk to the budget to be covered by net financial corrections;
Amendment 292 #
Motion for a resolution
New subheading after paragraph 118
New subheading after paragraph 118
Lago Trasimeno
Amendment 293 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 118 a (new)
Paragraph 118 a (new)
118a. Notes that an OLAF fact-finding mission was conducted in December 2014 in order to discuss potential irregularities in connection with EU assistance for the cycle path around Lago Trasimeno in Italy; calls on the Commission to inform Parliament about further developments in the follow-up report on discharge for 2013;
Amendment 357 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 150
Paragraph 150
150. Deplores the fact that the Declaration of assurance of Directorate-General for Enlargement is ierregularoneous as it stated on 31 March 2014 that all procedures were in place to ensure the legality and regularity of transactions even though, at that time, 20 % of all expenditure booked by that DG was based on estimates; underlines that this proceeding is a violation of the Financial Regulation which has taken place a lot of years; Welcomes that in 2014 the Commission put a system in place, and implemented it without delay, to ensure that the clearing of pre- financing is made from now on the basis of correctly incurred and reported costs;
Amendment 364 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 153
Paragraph 153
153. Asks the Commission to modclarify the standing instructions given by the Secretariat General of the Commission so as to make it possible when the financial impact exceeds the materiality threshold for the whole budget under a DG's responsibility, that an adverse opinion be given;
Amendment 365 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 154 a (new)
Paragraph 154 a (new)
154a. Asks to ensure sufficient controls on the various activities supporting the internationalisation of the Union's small and medium-sized enterprises as well as their access to third markets; reminds of the urgent need for an independent and external evaluation, in particular, of the effectiveness of the EU business centres in Asia which shall be delivered to the European Parliament in due time.
Amendment 366 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 154 b (new)
Paragraph 154 b (new)
154b. Asks the Commission to redistribute personal resources from other directorates-general (DG) to the DG for Trade to ensure that the DG Trade is able to satisfy the justified demand of the European citizens and the European Parliament for an increased transparency and access to information in the context of ongoing trade negotiations of the EU and the upcoming ratification process, in particular with regard to TTIP, CETA and TISA, in an effective, efficient and timely manner without being forced to neglect other important assigned tasks.
Amendment 425 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 185
Paragraph 185
185. Calls on the Commission to transmit the auNotes that in December 2013 Turkish medita report on theed alleged misuse of EU funds with regard to operational costs for two programmes (Lifelong learning EUR 6,9 million, Youth in action EUR 1,65 million) in 2012 and 2013 in Turkey before the end of April 2015; criticises the Commission for not granting the discharge authority access to the audit findings, as the latter requested on numerous occasions in 2014; expects to receive the audit report by mid-April 2015, i.e. in time for the vote on the 2013 Commission discharge;
Amendment 430 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 193
Paragraph 193
193. Recalls that OLAF opened 423 investigationcases on 31 January 2012; is concerned about the legality of such a procedure; calls on the OLAF-SC to assess the legality of the 423 investigations opened over night and the outcome of thowelcomes that the OLAF-SC analysed the procedure chosen by the director general of OLAF in its report 3/2014; is deeply worried by the conclusion saying "the OLAF Director-General opened all the cases inv questigations; also asks the OLAF- SC to assess the statistics on the duration of investigations, to analyse the functioning of the case management system and to report back to Parliamenton without establishing beforehand the existence of a sufficiently serious suspicion that there had been fraud, corruption or any other illegal activity affecting the financial interests of the Union – which is in contradiction with the legal requirement for opening an OLAF investigation, in force at that time."; takes note that OLAF disagrees with this finding;
Amendment 432 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 193 a (new)
Paragraph 193 a (new)
193a. Calls on the OLAF-SC to assess also the statistics on the duration of investigations, to analyse the functioning of the case management system and to report back to Parliament's competent committee;
Amendment 435 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 194 a (new)
Paragraph 194 a (new)
194a. asks the Commission to provide Parliament with the highest pension paid in 2013 for Commission officials;
Amendment 442 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 199 a (new)
Paragraph 199 a (new)
199a. Points to the notice issued by the Commission Secretariat-General on limiting answers to parliamentary questions, which lays down a 20-line limit; calls on the Commissioners to shoulder their political responsibility and stop allowing themselves to be limited in their answers by the Secretariat-General;
Amendment 444 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 199 a (new)
Paragraph 199 a (new)
199a. Points out that non-governmental organisations received in 2013 almost 9 mio. EUR from DG Environment, almost 4 mio. EUR from DG Health and Consumers and 5,7 mio EUR from DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion; takes note of a permanent externalisation of Commission tasks; asks the Commission to present to the Parliament the European added value of the money channelled via these NGOs;
Amendment 446 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 199 b (new)
Paragraph 199 b (new)
199b. Calls on the Commission to provide Commissioners who have been in office for less than two years with a transitional allowance for a period which does not exceed their term of office as a Commissioner;