28 Amendments of Ingeborg GRÄSSLE related to 2015/2154(DEC)
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Underlines that in the past the discharge procedure primarily verified the legality and regularity of financial transactions; believes however that it is of equal importance to verify, in the context of the Commission initiative 'An EU Budget Focused on Results', that more emphasis should also be given in future, beyond the above verifications, to examining whether the results achieved by projects and programmes match the intended objectives;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Further underlines the Commission's obligation to ensure the correct application of Union law pursuant Article 17 (1) TEU and asks the Court of Auditors to prepare a special report on whether the Commission has made good use of its powers in supporting and controlling Member States when implementing Union law;
Amendment 99 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 61 a (new)
Paragraph 61 a (new)
61a. Calls urgently for clarification as to how much money was paid from European Funds to media undertakings in each Member State, and to which undertakings, whether to make these Funds better known or for other reasons;
Amendment 263 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 223
Paragraph 223
223. Regrets in consequence that the declaration of assurance given by the Director General of DG AGRI is not based on data but on hopeful opinion; Welcomes this intensive work by the Directorate-General to monitor and correct Member State authorities' data , as required by Article 66 of the Financial Regulation; points out that the weaknesses and corrections in the national systems thus revealed represent a substantial part of the data on which the declaration of assurance is based; calls on the Commission to further improve the data forming the basis for this declaration of assurance;
Amendment 267 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 228
Paragraph 228
228. Asks DG AGRI to adopt a new objectivereport on the trend in the distribution of agricultural income support in its management plan accompanied with KPI targeting a fairer distribution of CAP support and to report on this in its annual activitynual report and in particular to give details of the effects of the new forms of support, such as the redistributive payment, introduced by the 2013 CAP repfortm;
Amendment 278 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 235 – point a
Paragraph 235 – point a
(a) the Commission consider take into consideration the number of farmers as an element of key performance of DG AGRI with respect to "farmer income" and include a new objective of "a fairer distribution of CAP support" in its management plan, accompanied with a key performance indicator and reporting on this in its annual activity rereporting, in the annual activity report of DG AGRI, on the trend in the distribution of agricultural income support;
Amendment 293 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 246 a (new)
Paragraph 246 a (new)
246a. Expresses concern at the EU's management of external assistance in third countries; points out that every second euro is paid late (at the time of the last report, that affected 805 projects), every third euro failed to reach its intended target (affecting 610 projects) and that both of the failings apply to every fourth euro (affecting 500 projects); is concerned that with regard to budget support almost one fifth (18.5%) of the measures are late and fail to reach the objectives, and almost half of the EDF projects have the same implementation problems; is concerned that projects that are experiencing problems are visited less frequently than those without problems; asks the Commission to provide an up-to- date report on the state of these projects and calls on it to include Neighbourhood Policy aid programmes in this report;
Amendment 299 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 264 a (new)
Paragraph 264 a (new)
264a. Points out that 5 former officials were employed as Special Advisors in 2014 and received remuneration in one case for example for 43 weeks in two other cases for 30 weeks; asks the Commission to provide further information on why the original contracts were not prolonged instead of paying the above mentioned former officials on a daily basis or if - at the same time pensions paid - were taken into account and how;
Amendment 300 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 264 b (new)
Paragraph 264 b (new)
264b. Points out that through the increase in working hours from 37.5 to 40 hours a week under the revision of the Staff Regulations the equivalent of approximately 2900 posts is gained and that this virtually offsets the staff cuts of 5% over several years agreed in the reform of the Staff Regulations; calls on the Commission to present a transparent report with annual indications of the planned reduction in posts and to take account of the increase in working time in this;
Amendment 317 #
Motion for a resolution
New subheading after paragraph 272
New subheading after paragraph 272
Conflicts of interest in shared management and in third countries in connection with the management of EU funds
Amendment 318 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 272 a (new)
Paragraph 272 a (new)
272a. Points out that some Member States do not have laws on ministers that exclude the possibility of office-holders being sole or part-owners of businesses;
Amendment 319 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 272 b (new)
Paragraph 272 b (new)
272b. Sees a serious conflict of interest in the possibility that businesses owned by EU office-holders may apply for EU funds or may receive such funds as subcontractors, while the owners and office-holders themselves bear responsibility for both the proper use of funds and for controlling their use;
Amendment 320 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 272 c (new)
Paragraph 272 c (new)
272c. Calls on the Commission to incorporate a clause in all future EU laws on payments to the effect that businesses owned by office-holders in the EU Member States and in third countries may not apply for or receive any EU funding;
Amendment 327 #
Motion for a resolution
New subheading after paragraph 272
New subheading after paragraph 272
Immunity for EU staff in non-EU countries only
Amendment 328 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 272 a (new)
Paragraph 272 a (new)
272a. Considers the immunity of EU staff from criminal proceedings in Member States, which dates back 64 years, to be a privilege that has long been obsolete; calls for this privilege under the Protocol to the Treaty to be confined to EU staff in countries outside the EU;
Amendment 331 #
Motion for a resolution
New subheading after paragraph 275
New subheading after paragraph 275
International Management Group (IMG)
Amendment 332 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 275 a (new)
Paragraph 275 a (new)
275a. Refers to paragraph 234 and 235 of the 2013 discharge report (P8_TA(2015)0118)); asks for an update about the ongoing cooperation with the International Management Group (IMG) and the Commission in particular about ongoing and new contracts and payments;
Amendment 333 #
Motion for a resolution
New subheading after paragraph 275
New subheading after paragraph 275
Implementation problems in Greece
Amendment 334 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 275 a (new)
Paragraph 275 a (new)
275a. Calls for clarification as to which unfinished Greek EU projects can no longer be funded after 31 December 2015; calls for clarification as to what is to happen with each of these projects now;
Amendment 335 #
Motion for a resolution
New subheading after paragraph 275
New subheading after paragraph 275
Implementation problems in the Czech Republic
Amendment 336 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 275 a (new)
Paragraph 275 a (new)
275a. Notes with concern the problems with procurement for Structural Fund expenditure monitoring systems in 2007- 2013 and also in 2014-2020, and those involving the 'Stork's Nest Farm' project, and calls for clarification as to why these problems arise in every funding period, as well as on the current state of the fraud investigations and the recovery of irregularly obtained funds;
Amendment 337 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 275 b (new)
Paragraph 275 b (new)
275b. Demands proof that the former employee of the Czech Ministry of Regional Development who has moved to the office of the Commissioner for Regional Policy is not pursuing the regional policy interests of the Czech Republic there;
Amendment 338 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 276
Paragraph 276
276. Notes OLAF's effort to implement most of the recommendations of its supervisory committee101 (SC); wishes to be informed, however, on whether the fundamental differences on whether respective recommendations have been implemented or not; expects in the Future that OLAF clearly states, where and in how far it deviates from the original recommendations issued by the SC; notes that 2014 was the first year in which the SC has decided to follow-up on the recommendations previously issued; calls on OLAF and the SC to repeat this exercise on a yearly basis; __________________ 101 See Follow up to the European Parliament resolution on the OLAF Supervisory Committee's annual report 2014, adopted by the Commission on 23 September 2015.
Amendment 339 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 276 a (new)
Paragraph 276 a (new)
276a. Urges OLAF to implement the recommendations on the direct participation of the Director General in investigations as Article 7(1) and (2) of regulation No. 883/2013 clearly stipulate that investigations are to be conducted by staff appointed by the Director General and not by the Director General himself as this may create situation with conflicting objectives;
Amendment 340 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 276 b (new)
Paragraph 276 b (new)
276b. Expects OLAF to implement the recommendation of the Supervisory Committee to include the verification of any potential conflict of interest between the duties of a national expert and his participation in investigation activities in the respective case file;
Amendment 341 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 276 c (new)
Paragraph 276 c (new)
276c. Is strongly convinced that the Supervisor Committee should be informed of all dismissed cases in which information has been transmitted to national judicial authorities, in accordance with Article 17(5) of Regulation No 883/2013, in order to protect the procedural guarantees of the persons concerned with the allegations; demands from OLAF to implement the Supervisory Committee's recommendation as soon as possible;
Amendment 342 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 276 d (new)
Paragraph 276 d (new)
276d. Notes that OLAF closed in 2014 a total of 307 investigations and coordinate activities; in 147 of these investigations OLAF issued a recommendation which gives a follow-up rate of 47%; notes that in years prior to 2011 the rate was regularly above 50%; expects that OLAF undertakes measures to restore its effectiveness permanently by improving its selection procedure; is of the opinion that OLAF should reconsider recommendation No. 31 of the Supervisory Committee to increase its effectiveness;
Amendment 343 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 277 a (new)
Paragraph 277 a (new)
277a. Expects from the Commission to waive the immunity of the Director General and all other OLAF employees concerned in order to enable the Belgium judicial authorities to investigate the possibly unlawful recording of a telephone conversations (scripted by OLAF) between a witness (instigated by OLAF to make the call) and a person concerned on the premises OLAF and under the assistance of OLAF investigators; is of the opinion that the Commission would by not waiving the immunity set precedence for detaching OLAF from any judicial control and grant absolution to any investigative measure used by the Office;