Activities of Dennis de JONG 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 (18)
Amendment 1 #
Proposal for a decision 1
Citation 7 a (new)
Citation 7 a (new)
- having regard to the various decisions and recommendations of the Ombudsman concerning the Commission, together with the institutions' implementation of her recommendations in the interests of citizens;
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas, especially in a situation of scarce resources, greater importance should be attached to the need to observe budgetary discipline and to use funds economicallythe Commission should lead by example by showing the European added value of its expenditure and by making sure that the funds for which it carries shared or full responsibility, are spent in accordance with the applicable financial rules and regulations;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. ConsiderRegrets furthermore that those measures have still a limited 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, thus undermining the preventive effect of financial corrections; __________________ 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 124 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27
Paragraph 27
27. Regrets furthermore that these instruments are complex and difficult to account for correctly, which also make public scrutiny more challenging; calls on the Commission for transparency and to regularly report on leverage, losses and risks like investment bubbles; urges the Commission to give a full overview of the number of projects financed under each of the financial engineering instruments and the results achieved, and to indicate clearly how much Union budget allocations were used to co-finance these FEI projects and to present a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of the instrument of FEIs compared with more direct forms of project funding;
Amendment 137 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 33 a (new)
Paragraph 33 a (new)
33a. Urges the Commission to submit a recommendation to the Council and the European Parliament to promote the use of national declarations in line with the recommendations contained in the inter- institutional working group for the establishment and use of national declarations;
Amendment 179 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 50
Paragraph 50
50. Stresses that the fact that less than 2 % of Union farmers receive 31% of the CAP direct payments; believes that this endangerpoints out that CAP should be targeting especially small farmers and believes that the current practice further undermines the political acceptance of CAP;
Amendment 225 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 79 a (new)
Paragraph 79 a (new)
79a. Notes that the Commission states in its reply to the Court of Auditors that for the 2014-2020 programming period, the legal framework has been simplified, and requests the Commission to report by the end of 2015 how these simplification measures worked out in practice, and which additional measures could be taken with regard to any remaining complex rules and eligibility conditions;
Amendment 230 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 85
Paragraph 85
85. Urges the Commission to demonstrate the Union added valueExpresses its serious doubts about the effectiveness of the agricultural market measures bearing in mind the risk of potential losses affecting the budget of the Union and asks the Commission to consider their suppression if this risk is too high; asks the Commission to report in the 2013 Commission discharge follow-up report on the actions taken by the European Anti- Fraud Office (OLAF) in light of the audit mission for poultry export refunds in France;
Amendment 242 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 97
Paragraph 97
97. Recognises that as the largest source of Union funds to regions, localities and enterprises, representing 29% of the total Union budget in 2013 - regional policy has aimed at assisteding Member States to conciliate their fiscal consolidation constraints with the support toengage in long-term investments strategies which are necessary to recover from the crisis and return to a job-creating growth (EU2020 objective 1); regrets, however, that for the measurement of the national budget deficit in the context of European economic governance, long-term investments have not been exempted, thus making it extremely difficult for Member States to engage in any such investments, despite the potential support through the ERDF and CF, taking into account that these funds require co-funding by Member States for their projects;
Amendment 271 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 112
Paragraph 112
112. Takes note that the Courts of Auditors methodology has to be consistent and applied to all management areas; understands that further alignment could lead to inconsistencies in the Court of Auditors' definitions of an illegal transaction in direct and shared management;
Amendment 290 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 118
Paragraph 118
118. Is worried about theNotes the delays in and lack of implementation of the priority projects in Greece under the Task Force management; notes that 48 priority projects have to be accelerated; notes that the main problems are, according to the Commission: (a) delays at maturation stage, (b) delays in licensing, (c) dissolution of contracts due to lack of liquidity of contractors and (d) lengthy court appeals during awarding procedures; calls therefore on the Commission to provide an updateconsiders that this may be explained, at least partly, because these projects were not demand driven or had unrealistic ambitions to begin with, and therefore calls upon the Commission to reconsider the working methods onf the priority projects for the 2013 follow-up reportTask Force and to recognise the need for broad public support for these projects;
Amendment 303 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 126
Paragraph 126
126. Notes that the Union-financed the modernisation of a water distribution network in Skorkov (CZ) with EUR 1,1 million; is concerned about the fact that the communal authorities have let the exploitation of the water distribution system to a company which already manages the local sewerage system; notes that the latter was also co-financed with EUR 1,4 million from Union funds and that the price for the supply of drinking water increased by 45 %; notesconsiders that drinking water is a public good and that all citizens whose water quality is inferior must therefore continue to use local wells; calls on the Commission to ensure the success of the project; supports the establishment of an independent water authorityneed to have access to high quality drinking water at a reasonable price; calls on the Commission to ensure that Union-financed projects do not directly or indirectly limit access to high quality drinking water;
Amendment 351 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 145 a (new)
Paragraph 145 a (new)
145a. Urges the Commission to ensure that the Member State authorities in charge of managing structural funds address the issue of charging personnel costs at higher rates for EU projects compared to those financed by national funds, and to follow in this respect a zero tolerance approach instead of concentrating solely on those Member States in which the problems are of a systemic nature;
Amendment 360 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 151 a (new)
Paragraph 151 a (new)
151a. Asks the Commission to submit a special report on the added value of budget support and, in particular, on the way it has helped developing countries in realising the Millennium Development Goals; requests in this regard a survey of measures taken to avoid part of the funding to be wasted as a result of corruption and fraud and of the effectiveness of financial management systems in this regard;
Amendment 361 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 151 b (new)
Paragraph 151 b (new)
151b. Shares the criticisms of the Court of Auditors of the so-called 'notional approach' in the case of multi-donor projects and asks the Commission to examine the option of presenting, in its own accounts an analysis of these projects as a whole, instead of limiting itself to the consideration of whether the pooled amount includes sufficient eligible expenditure to cover the EU contribution;
Amendment 381 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 163
Paragraph 163
163. Appreciates that Ukraine finds itself currently in a particularly difficult situation (illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula by Russia and a separatist rebellion in Eastern Ukraine), but maintains that this may not be an excuse for not fulfilling the conditions under which budget support is given and, in particular, for not addressing the wide-spread corruption in the country;
Amendment 422 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 181
Paragraph 181
181. Notes the Commission replies on the progress made in implementing the Galileo project: four Galileo In-Orbit Validation (IOV) satellites were successfully launched in 2011 and 2012, the Galileo In-Orbit Validation phase was successfully concluded in 2014, the system design, the performance targets and the baseline for system operation were successfully confirmed, the ground infrastructure, with many groundIs concerned about the costs of the Galileo system which are estimated at €13 million will become yet higher because of the failure to correctly launch the latest two stations worldwide, has been completed for the initial operations, the Galileo Search-and- Rescue capability of the IOV-satellites was successfully demonstrated, the launch of two satellites (no. 5 and 6) on 22 August 2014 resulted in an injection of these satellites into incorrect orbit, and since December 2014 the satellites have been gradually moved to a more favourable orbit to allow their best possible use, and the testing of the satellites' navigation payload is on-going; expects to be informed about additional costs for these unforeseen measuresellites; considers that due to the ever-increasing costs of Galileo and taking into account that in 2007 the EU stepped into the project after a consortium of eight European companies withdrew their investment as they considered it not financially sound, there is every reason to re-examine the usefulness of this project;
Amendment 441 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 199 a (new)
Paragraph 199 a (new)
199a. Notes that the differences in pay levels for civil servants working for EU- institutions and for those working for national administrations, remain very high, leading, inter alia, to a lack of mobility between staff at European and at national levels; calls on the Commission to carry out an in-depth study on the reasons for these differences and to develop a long-term strategy to reduce these, whilst paying particular attention to the different allowances (family, expatriation, installation and resettlement allowances), annual leave, holidays, travel days, and compensation for over-time;