7 Amendments of Antonio DE BLASIO related to 2008/2186(DEC)
Amendment 148 #
Motion for a resolution - Conclusions concerning the special reports issues by the Court of Auditors
Heading before paragraph 136 a (new)
Heading before paragraph 136 a (new)
Part II a Special Report No 1/2008 concerning the procedures for the preliminary examination and evaluation of major investment projects for the 1994-1999 and 2000-2006 programming periods
Amendment 149 #
Motion for a resolution - Conclusions concerning the special reports issues by the Court of Auditors
Paragraph 136 a (new)
Paragraph 136 a (new)
136a. Calls on the Commission to review the strict approval procedure for major projects, but recommends that it rationalise decision-making by indicating real values, thereby avoiding treating the procedure as an excessively ‘administrative procedure’, reducing the length of the decision-making process to within reasonable limits, and establishing, as soon as possible, an independent unit for major projects with horizontal competence within DG REGIO; points out the importance of funding investment in software, as this will make the system more transparent and easier to control; at the same time, the Commission must not reduce the number of on-the-spot checks as a result of this investment;
Amendment 150 #
Motion for a resolution - Conclusions concerning the special reports issues by the Court of Auditors
Paragraph 136 b (new)
Paragraph 136 b (new)
136b. Calls on the Commission to report on the practical application of the n+2 and n+3 rules for major projects, since some Member States have tried to ‘circumvent’ the ERDF rules (more specifically, the n+2 rule) by merging a number of projects such that the total figure for these fell just short of the threshold values for major projects and then waiting for the Commission decision to suspend the n+2 rule;
Amendment 151 #
Motion for a resolution - Conclusions concerning the special reports issues by the Court of Auditors
Paragraph 136 c (new)
Paragraph 136 c (new)
136c. Points out – and seeks an answer to – the question of how the ‘risk-averse’ culture might have come about (with high-quality, innovative investments losing prominence), a practice which runs completely counter to the Community’s efforts as laid down in the Lisbon agenda; considers that the problem lies not with funding infrastructure investments but the fact that Member States have the opportunity to avoid innovative – ‘risky’ – investments;
Amendment 152 #
Motion for a resolution - Conclusions concerning the special reports issues by the Court of Auditors
Paragraph 136 d (new)
Paragraph 136 d (new)
136d. Considers it regrettable that the Commission (DG REGIO) is funding not education and training for its own staff but a separate group (JASPERS), which is located within the structure of the European Investment Bank and is therefore not accountable to the Commission for its work; points out to Member States that, if they fail to provide training and development for their pools of experts, they will be dependent on groups of foreign, external experts, resulting in considerable indirect expense to the country in question;
Amendment 153 #
Motion for a resolution - Conclusions concerning the special reports issues by the Court of Auditors
Paragraph 136 e (new)
Paragraph 136 e (new)
136e. Supports the initiative whereby the European Commission undertakes to draw up the ex-post evaluation of major projects and determines what information (uniform and comparable data) – to be gathered and forwarded by the Member States by the stipulated deadline – is needed; is of the opinion that monitoring needs to be focused in this way because there is currently no tangible evidence that major projects financed by Community funding are effective and that the Member States have used the funds received as effectively and productively as possible;
Amendment 154 #
136f. Points out that, at present, information on major projects is available in the Commission’s annual report on the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund only after it has been approved; calls, therefore, on the Commission to ensure that its homepage will enable citizens to monitor the status of any major project;