Activities of Bart STAES related to 2014/2075(DEC)
Shadow 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 (35)
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas the Commission is the ultimate responsible of the implementation of the Union budget while the Member States have to sincerely cooperate with the Commission to ensure that the appropriations are used in accordance with the principles of sound financial management; whereas Member states, especially under shared management of funds, have a special responsibility on implementing the Union budget;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas it is crucial that, under shared management of funds, the data communicated by the Member States are fair and accurate; whereas it is crucial that Member states understand their own responsibility on the management of the EU funds under shared management;
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Issues a reservation concerning the way Member States GNI contributions have been calculated due to the deficiencies81 as regards the Commission’s verification of data; __________________ 81 See Court of Auditors' Special Report No 11/2013, point 93 to 97. 81a ; Reminds that the Court concludes that the Commission's verification of GNI data was not sufficiently structured and focused. __________________ 81 See Court of Auditors' Special Report No 11/2013, point 93 to 97. 81aSee the Court of Auditors' special reports in the context of the 2013 Commission discharge PART I (2014/2140(DEC))
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Recalls that the most likely error rate for payments in the 2012 financial year was estimated at 4,8 %, in the 2011 financial year 2011 at 3,9 %, in the 2010 financial year at 3,7 %, in the 2009 financial year at 3,3 %, in the 2008 financial year at 5,2 % and in the 20097 financial year at 3,6,9 % making an average level around 4,6% over the period covered by the previous Multiannual Financial Framework 2007- 2013 %; notes that the Court of Auditors' annual reports therefore show a steady upwardabilization of the error rate in 2013 at the level of the average of the MFF 2007- 2013 which nevertheless state a steady upward and negative trend since 2009;
Amendment 71 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Points out that according to the Court of Auditors annual report for 2013 the shared management areas have an estimated error rate of 5.2 %; notes that in all other operational expenditure (which is mostly directly managed by the Commission) has an estimated error rate of 3.7 %; underlines that both error rates are above to the materiality threshold of 2%; stresses that the shared management areas have an error rate substantially higher than the one for all other operational expenditure;
Amendment 90 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12a. Reminds that the Commission and the Member States have the duty to take corrective measures to protect the EU budget in cases of ineffective control systems or irregular expenditures; points out that the Commission and the Member States use such corrective measures and notes that if such corrective measures had not been applied to the 2013 payments audited by the ECA, the overall estimated error rate would have been 6.3 %, rather than 4.7 %; stresses that the ECA found that a proportion of transactions affected by error, especially in the shared management areas, authorities had sufficient information available to have detected and corrected the errors; therefore demands that the Court of Auditors estimate, in its future annual reports, the level of error in case all corrective measures would have been taken;
Amendment 107 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Is concerned by the fact that despite the high level of payments, the accounts show that outstanding financial commitments (in Heading 1b, mainly regional policy, the level of outstanding commitments at the end of 2013 is estimated at EUR 23,4 billion after EUR 5 billion at the end of 2010, EUR 11 billion at the end of 2011 and EUR 16 billion at the end of 2012) and other liabilities continued to grow in 2013:; notes that at the year end, they stood at EUR 32288 billion and the figure is likely to rise in 2014; __________________ 88 Of the EUR 322 billion, EUR 222 billion represents outstanding budgetary commitments and EUR 99 billion relate to balance sheet liabilities not covered by outstanding commitments.
Amendment 110 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Points out that in times of economic crisis financial resources are scarce; notes, however, that for large parts of the budget, the maximum level of expenditure under the Multiannual Financial Framework headings is broken into yearly allocations per Member State; observes that the way funds are absorbed by Member States often becomes the main policy objective (‘use it or lose it’)90 ; calls therefore on the Commission and Member States to promote a shift from spending to performance culture focussing on the results achieved based on efficiency and effectiveness principles; __________________ 90 Ibid. Ibid.
Amendment 114 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Urges the Commission to once again prepare and publish a 'long-range cash flow forecast' projecting future payment requirements to ensure that necessary payments can be met from approved annual budgets; demands that the Commission present, if necessary, modifications to existing regulations in case the annual budgets cannot provide sufficient appropriations to match the necessary payments level.
Amendment 129 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31
Paragraph 31
31. Emphasises that in accordance with Article 317 TFEU, the Commission is ultimately responsible for the implementation of the Union's budget; points out that where the Commission implements the budget under shared management, implementation tasks are delegated to Member States pursuant to Article 59 of the Financial Regulation thereby engaging their political and financial responsibility; underlines therefore that the Member states shall strictly act in accordance with the sound financial management and should not undermine their own responsibility in managing the EU funds;
Amendment 166 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 46 a (new)
Paragraph 46 a (new)
46a. Regrets that the Council, despite the fact that the Commission proposed a global reform of the own resources system which was welcomed by the European Parliament 1a aiming at making the system of own resources fairer, more understandable, more transparent, more efficient and aiming at reducing the national contributions, has not been able to make any progress so far on the reform of the own resources system on the basis of those legislative proposals. __________________ 1a Texts adopted, P7_TA(2013)0078
Amendment 181 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 50 a (new)
Paragraph 50 a (new)
50a. Reminds that in order to make the CAP fairer, the European Parliament and the Council 1a introduced a reduction of payments above EUR 150 000 and a possible capping of direct payments; demand therefore that the ECA audit the efficiency and effectiveness of this measure on its next annual reports. __________________ 1a REGULATION (EU) No 1307/2013 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 17 December 2013
Amendment 185 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 53
Paragraph 53
53. Stresses that in 33 out of 101 quantifiable errors identified by the Court of Auditors, national authorities had sufficient information to prevent, detect, and correct those errors at least partially and that if all this information had been used properly the most likely error for this area would have been 1,1 % lower and thus relatively close to the materiality threshold of 2%; Stresses that member states have an important responsibility on implementing correctly and lawfully the Union budget when they are responsible for the management of the EU funds;
Amendment 221 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 75
Paragraph 75
75. Concurs with the view expressed by the Court of Auditors that the most likely error rate would have been reduced to 2 % if the national authorities had used all the information available to them to prevent, detect and correct errors; Stresses that member states have an important responsibility on implementing correctly and lawfully the Union budget when they are responsible for the management of the EU funds;
Amendment 238 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 91 a (new)
Paragraph 91 a (new)
91a. Asks to the Commission to report in details to Parliament on the implementation of the capping in CAP direct payments member state per Member State;
Amendment 239 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 92
Paragraph 92
92. Asks the Court of Auditors to examine the rural development policy area in one separate chapter of its annual report or at least, to calculate separate error rates for the rural development policy area, the fisheries policy area and LIFE + programme;
Amendment 250 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 100
Paragraph 100
100. Emphasises that in 17 cases of quantifiable errors made by final beneficiaries, the national authorities had sufficient information to prevent, detect and correct the errors before declaring the expenditure to the Commission; notes that had all this information been used to correct errors, the most likely error estimated for this chapter would have been three percentage points lower; Stresses that member states have an important responsibility on implementing correctly and lawfully the Union budget when they are responsible for the management of the EU funds;
Amendment 297 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 120 a (new)
Paragraph 120 a (new)
120a. calls on the Court of Auditors to provide to Parliament a detailed report on the evolution of the error rate (year per year, sectorial policy per sectorial policy and member state per member state) during the whole period of the previous Multiannual Financial Framework (2007-2013);
Amendment 306 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 127
Paragraph 127
127. Calls on the Commission to inform Parliament about all cases in which projects with an Union share of at least 310 % were afterwards privatised during the last 5 years;
Amendment 320 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 132
Paragraph 132
132. Observes that, of the 182 transactions audited by the Court of Auditors 50 (27 %) were affected by error; notes that on the basis of the 30 errors which it has quantified, the Court estimates the most likely error rate to be 3,1 % (3,2% in 2012); notes that in 13 cases of quantifiable errors made by final beneficiaries, the national authorities had sufficient information to prevent, detect and correct the errors before declaring the expenditure to the Commission; considers that if all this information had been used to correct errors, the most likely error rate estimated for this chapter would have been 1,3 percentage points lower; Stresses that member states have an important responsibility on implementing correctly and lawfully the Union budget when they are responsible for the management of the EU funds;
Amendment 325 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 134
Paragraph 134
134. Regrets that faulty first-level-checks by national management and control systems remained a prime source of error; has therefore the impressionis deeply concerned by the fact that Member States seem to be less scrupulous when spending Union funds compared to the way they spend their national budget while they have an important responsibility on implementing correctly and lawfully the Union budget when they are responsible for the management of the EU funds; notes that the following programmes showed particular systemic weaknesses: Poland, Spain (Castilla y Leon), Romania, Portugal, Italy (Sicily), Germany (Bund), Germany (Thüringen), Czech Republic and Hungary; notes that in addition, thematic Commission audits revealed weaknesses in the management and control systems of the operational programmes for Ireland (Human Investment Capital), Slovakia (education) and Spain (Comunidad Valenciana);
Amendment 353 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 146 a (new)
Paragraph 146 a (new)
146a. Calls on the Commission to put pressure on the Member states and urge them to actively and concretely fight against unemployment, in particular youth unemployment;
Amendment 370 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 159 a (new)
Paragraph 159 a (new)
159a. Takes note that a leaked version of the final report of OLAF on IMG has been circulated; asks to the Commission and OLAF's supervisory committee to investigate why and how the OLAF report was leaked and by whom, while IMG is still not informed about the content of the report;
Amendment 371 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 159 b (new)
Paragraph 159 b (new)
159b. Reminds that upon an earlier request OLAF declared itself not competent to investigate on the legality of the status of an international organisation; Is therefore surprised about the conclusion of the leaked OLAF report, namely that there were no cases of fraud or corruption but that there are doubts about the international status of IMG and this 24 years after it establishment as an international organisation, points out that this finding is in complete contradiction to the opinions of the legal service of the Commission which considers the IMG as a legal international organisation; reminds that this position has been regularly confirmed by several Commissioners;
Amendment 372 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 159 c (new)
Paragraph 159 c (new)
159c. Stresses that OLAF has put undue pressure on Commission to discontinue its financial support to IMG for new contracts, pending the investigation while being well aware of the fact that this would lead to substantial difficulties for IMG , to maintain the high level of expertise required to carry out its tasks;
Amendment 373 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 159 d (new)
Paragraph 159 d (new)
159d. Is of the same opinion as last year discharge 100 f ; states as its position that IMG is an international organisation which falls completely under the definition laid down in Article 43 of the Implementing Rules of the Financial Regulation; stresses that the organisation has been existing since 1994; urges the Commission to restart authorizing the IMG to compete fairly on future calls for proposals and grants;
Amendment 375 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 160
Paragraph 160
160. Is deeply concerned by the fact that the Commission continues to treated International Management Group (IMG) as an international organisation while an OLAF investigation was open in 2011 in this regard and while Parliament has alerted the Commission about this issue; notes that this organisation received more than EUR 130 million from the Commission since its creation under joint management, direct or indirect management mode; asks the Director General of OLAF to inform Parliament about the follow-up given to the OLAF enquiry opened in 2011 as regards the status of international organisation of IMG; urges the Commission to provide Parliament with aUrges the Commission to provide Parliament with an exhaustive list enumerating all the organisations, companies, other bodies or persons having received contracts from the Commission without a call for proposals and detailing their legal status;
Amendment 391 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 166
Paragraph 166
166. Is surprised by the fact that OLAFTakes note that a leaked version of the final report of OLAF (OF 2003/0526) has not recommended that the Commission establish a recovery order on the basis of the financial damage caused to the Union budget with regard the humanitarian support granted to the refugee camp of Tindouf whilst it has estimated in its report (OF 2003/0526) that the number of refugees was considerably lower than indicated by the Sahrawi or Algerian authorities; calls for clarification by the Commission on the measures taken in response to the findings of this report;
Amendment 399 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 167
Paragraph 167
167. Urges the Commission to adapt Union aid to the actual needs of the population concerned in order to put an end to all kinds of trafficking and to the embezzlement of humanitarian assistance;
Amendment 404 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 169
Paragraph 169
169. Congratulates the Commission on the implementation the Seventh Framework Programme (7FP)Stresses that the Seventh Framework Programme (7FP) was the main programme financed by the Commission: notes that 809 grant agreements, involving 10 345 participants for a total of EUR 3 439 million in Union contributions were signed; notes that the 7FP contributes to the Union's efforts to invest in a sustainable competitiveness but points that the EU as a whole is still far from its objective of having at least 3% of GDP spent on R&D; notes that some progress was made in meeting key performance indicators (gross expenditure on Research and Development (R&D), share of public expenditure on R&D, progress in the implementation of the Innovation Union, share of Union financial contributions to small and medium-sized enterprises, reduction of Time-to-Grant);
Amendment 408 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 170
Paragraph 170
Amendment 411 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 171 a (new)
Paragraph 171 a (new)
171a. Observes that the spending in this policy group covered a wide range of policy objectives, such as research and innovation, education, security, migration and measures to combat the effects of the financial crisis; notes that the Commission spent more than 50 % (EUR 5 771 million) of the available amount on research; notes that 45 % of the Commission's research budget was implemented by bodies (i.e. agencies, joint undertakings) outside the Directorate General; notes that almost 90 % of the spending took the form of grants to beneficiaries participating in projects and that in 2013 the Commission concluded 809 grant agreements;
Amendment 421 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 180
Paragraph 180
180. Notes that project stakeholders (ITER organisation and the domestic agencies – including Fusion for Europe) have recognised that the current schedule and budget is not realistic, as confirmed by several independent assessments in the last two years (2013-2014); wishes to receive a copy of the revised schedule and budget which will be submitted to the ITER Council in June 2015; is concerned by the regular delays in ITER programme which questions its efficiency and effectiveness; is deeply concerned by the overcosts which increased the cost-effectiveness of the programme and put into danger other European programmes, mainly in the research policy area; believes that the ITER should be stopped in order to avoid further delays and overcosts; stresses that the funds could be redeployed for other programmes, in the research policy sector for instance, or returned to European taxpayers;
Amendment 451 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 202
Paragraph 202
202. Demands that the Commission includes in the next evaluation reports provided for in Article 318 TFEU an analysis of the efficiency, the effectiveness and the results achieved in terms of growth and jobs by the investment plan of EUR 315 billion announced by the President of the Commission Jean-Claude Juncker on 26 November 2014 in the plenary session of Parliament;
Amendment 452 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 203
Paragraph 203
203. Demands that in the next evaluation report provided for in Article 318 TFEU the Commission includes an analysis made in cooperation with the European Investment Bank of the efficiency, the effectiveness and the results achieved by the Growth and Jobs plan of EUR 120 billion adopted by the European Council in its meeting of 28 and 29 June 2012;