BETA

Activities of Dennis de JONG related to 2017/2137(DEC)

Shadow reports (1)

2016/11/22
Committee: CONT
Dossiers: 2017/2137(DEC)
Documents: PDF(724 KB) DOC(110 KB)

Amendments (54)

Motion for a resolution
Subheading 1 a (new)

Oversight over Parliament’s budgetary and financial management

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph –1 (new)

-1 Notes that the formal oversight system of Parliament’s budgetary and financial management consists of four main components: (a) the certification of the final accounts by Parliament’s accounting officer; (b) the annual reports of the internal auditor and his opinion on the internal control system; (c) the assessment of administrative and other expenditure for all the Union institutions, including Parliament, by its external auditor, the Court of Auditors (the “Court”);and (d) the discharge procedure prepared by CONT resulting in a decision of Parliament on granting the President of Parliament discharge.

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph –1 a (new)

-1a Notes that the annual report of the internal auditor contains findings based on specific audit work; aims to improve budgetary and financial management but not to provide a comprehensive picture of Parliament’s budgetary and financial management; notes, similarly, that the Court’s report represents the results of a small sample (41 transactions) in respect of Parliament’s transactions;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph –1 b (new)

-1b Welcomes the fact that the Court has increased the sample relating to the number of Parliament´s transactions, and encourages the Court to continue on this path, as the reputational risk is relatively high, given that financial and budgetary errors might impact negatively on the standing of the institution;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph –1 c (new)

-1c Encourages the Court to consider issuing more special reports on specific areas of Parliament’s operations, such as its communication policies and its management of the grants for European political parties and foundations with a special focus on performance based budgeting;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph –1 d (new)

-1d Welcomes the follow-up that is given by the administration to strengthen the in-house expertise on accounts and auditing by setting up an additional service for Members involved in the discharge procedures relating to Union institutions thus providing help and support on how to understand and interpret the outcome of annual accounting and audit reports;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11

11. Recalls that the political groups are responsible to the Parliament for managing the funds allocated to them, within the powers conferred upon them by the Bureau; notes with concern that the Court found weaknesses in checks on the authorisation and settlement of expenditure related to one political group and that the payments were being made without being covered by contracts resulting from a procurement procedure;deleted

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)

11a. Notes the specific findings concerning Parliament contained in the annual report of the Court for 2016; notes that for one payment to a political group, the Court found weaknesses in checks on the authorisation and settlement of expenditure made in 2015 but cleared in 2016; notes, in addition, that the Court found that payments were made without being covered by contracts resulting from a procurement procedure; notes, finally, that the Court detected similar shortcomings in a transaction relating to another political group in 2015;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12

12. ~~Takes note of the Court’s recommendation that the Parliament~~Notes the responses given by Parliament to the Court during the adversarial procedure; asks the Court to keep the responsible committee informed on the implementation of its recommendation to review ~~its~~the framework for monitoring the implementation of budget appropriations allocated to political groups, and to provide better guidance ~~and monitor~~to political groups and monitor more effectively how they appl~~ication of the rules more effectively~~y the rules for authorising and settling expenditure, and how they carry out procurement procedures;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13

~~13. Endorses the responses given by the Parliament in the adversarial procedure with the Court;~~deleted

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

18a. Regrets, however, that many of the recommendations in the 2015 discharge resolution have not been followed up and that no reason or justification has been given; expresses its deep concern that neither the Bureau, nor the Secretary- General published a progress report or did not make sufficient progress on the following requests for action or decision by the Bureau or the Secretary-General: - the call for Bureau agendas to be published on the Intranet well in advance of the meetings and for the minutes of the meetings to be published more promptly, without waiting until they are available into all languages and the call to publish on Parliament’s website the relevant documents submitted to the Bureau by the Secretary-General in a machine-readable format, unless the nature of the information contained therein makes this impossible, as is the case, for example for the protection of personal data; - the call on the Secretary-General to develop a system that Members can use to publish details of their meetings with interest representatives; - the call on the Secretary-General to make it possible for Members who wish to publish on their own websites details of payments to them of Parliament allowances, with appropriate data records that can be easily reprocessed; - the call on Parliament´s administration to produce a report on the use of Parliament´s premises by interest representatives and other external organisations; - its concerns about the current code of conduct for Members that may need to be further improved in order to avoid conflicts of interests paying specific attention to: - paid side-jobs for Members; - lobbying activities directed towards the European institutions of former Members while they are entitled to a transition allowance; - the registration of declarations of Members´ Interests; - the composition and competences of the advisory committee; - the call on the Bureau to enter into dialogue with the local authorities to see how the latter can contribute to the financing of the House of European History; - the call on the Bureau to ensure that social and pension rights are guaranteed for APAs that have worked with no interruption for the last two legislative parliamentary terms; - the call on the Bureau to reconsider the possibility for APAs, at certain conditions to be set, to accompany Members in official Parliament Delegations and Missions;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 b (new)

18b. Reiterates its call to the Bureau to follow-up all discharge decisions as follows from rule 25 of the Rules of Procedure, Article 6, Annex IV of the Rules of Procedure and Article 166 of the Financial Regulation;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 a (new)

23a. Notes that attention paid to performance based budgeting still varies between the directorates-general, and is still at a preliminary stage in parts of the administration; calls upon the Secretary- General to ensure that clear, measurable targets are set and monitored throughout the administration;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Dennis de JONG, Anna Maria CORAZZA BILDT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 c (new)

23c. Acknowledges that, according to the Court, the costs of the geographic dispersion of Parliament amount to EUR 114 million per year and notes the finding, in its resolution of 20 November 2013 on the location of the seats of the Union’s Institutions, that 78 % of all missions by Parliament staff coming under the Staff Regulations arise as a direct result of the fact that Parliament’s services are geographically dispersed; recalls that the estimate of the environmental impact of that dispersal is between 11 000 to 19 000 tonnes of CO2 emissions; calls on the Council to find a solution for this waste of taxpayers money;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28

28. Notes that DG COMM launched a new multi-annual work programme for grants in the area of media and events organisation covering the period 2016- 2019; acknowledges that for the award of a grant in the media category, 102 framework partnership agreements were established and 48 grant applications were selected for a total amount of EUR 3,99 million; notes that in the area of events organisation, 18 projects were selected for the award of a grant for a total amount of EUR 0,8 million; calls on DG COMM to concentrate on a more active approach towards those who are not automatically interested in Parliament’s activities or who may even be sceptical about its functioning;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 a (new)

31a. Notes that the amount of spectators of the LUX Prize is still very low and raises the question whether the Prize is justifiable;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 b (new)

31b. Reiterates its call on the Bureau to stay into dialogue with the local authorities to see how the latter can further contribute to the financing of the House of European History;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 c (new)

31c. Expresses its deep concerns about the risk of the House of European History, in particular relating to the large number and complexity of loans and acquisition contracts for the permanent collection; is, furthermore, deeply concerned about the shortage of appropriate storage rooms inside and near the House of European History and the Parliament premises that pose a real risk to the preservation of artworks; calls on the Bureau to request the Secretary- General to investigate the possibility of using replica in order to avoid costly consequences for the Parliament due to any damage to artworks;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 d (new)

31d. Notes that, by 31 December 2016, a total of 5 375 officials and temporary staff were employed within the Secretariat (a decrease of 16 compared with 31 December 2015) and a total of 806 officials and temporary staff were employed within the political groups (an increase of 35 compared with 31 December 2015); notes that, together with contract agents, DG PERS was responsible for 9.617 staff (an increase of 264 compared with 31 December 2015);

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 31 d (new)

31d. Notes that at 1 January 2016, 57 posts were deleted from Parliament’s establishment plan in accordance with the 2014 revision of the Staff Regulations and the MFF for 2014-2020;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 35 a (new)

35a. Recognises that, for certain activities, such as running the canteens and cleaning, outsourcing has been Parliament’s preferred option and that, as a consequence, for certain DGs, the number of external staff on Parliament’s premises may even exceed the number of officials;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 35 b (new)

35b. Notes, however, that such outsourcing decisions cannot provide an explanation for the use of all external staff and that, for example in the Directorate-General Innovation and Technological Support (DG ITEC), the ratio between external staff and officials is difficult to explain;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 35 c (new)

35c. Reiterates the opinion that external staff should not be used to compensate for the reduction of the number of posts as agreed in the context of the 2014 revision of the Staff Regulations and the current MFF;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 35 d (new)

35d. Notes that, at the end of 2016, there were 1 924 accredited parliamentary assistants (APAs) working at Parliament, compared to 1 791 a year before; calls for special consideration of the rights of APAs and local assistants, as their contracts are directly linked to the mandate of the Members they support, bearing in mind that APAs are members of staff holding Parliament employment contracts, while local assistants are subject to various national legislations;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 35 e (new)

35e. Reiterates its concern about the alleged practice of Members obliging APAs to undertake missions, particularly to Strasbourg, without mission orders, without mission costs or simply without travel costs; is of opinion that such a practice leaves room for abuse: where APAs travel without a mission order they not only have to pay for the costs by their own means, they are also not covered by workplace insurance; calls on the Secretary-General to investigate this alleged practice and to report on this by the end of the year;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 35 f (new)

35f. Reiterates its call on the Bureau to ensure that social and pension rights are guaranteed for APAs that have worked with no interruption for the last two legislative parliamentary terms; in this regard, reiterates its invitation to the administration to put forward a proposal that takes into account the decision to have early elections in 2014 and the time spent in the recruitment procedure, when calculating the 10 year service period required by the Staff Regulations;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 35 g (new)

35g. Reiterates its call on the Conference of Presidents and the Bureau to reconsider the possibility for APAs, at certain conditions to be set, to accompany Members in official Parliament Delegations and Missions, as already requested by several Members; calls on the Secretary-General to investigate the budgetary consequences, and the organisation and logistics of these missions;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 35 h (new)

35h. Notes that Parliament is providing a budget to the Staff Committee, calls for a similar budget for the Accredited Parliamentary Assistants Committee , since they fulfil tasks provided by the statute, useful for all institutions and Members;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 35 i (new)

35i. Calls on the administration to involve the Accredited Parliamentary Assistants Committee in the decision making process of all rules that might concern Accredited Parliamentary Assistants Committee exclusively or commonly with all the other categories of staff represented by the Staff Committee;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 35 j (new)

35j. Welcomes the interest in keeping staff with British citizenship who have become European civil servants, asks the Secretary-General to report on the potential risks for British staff and on how to ensure that British staff do not become victims of Brexit, and that their statutory, contractual and acquired rights are fully safeguarded;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 35 k (new)

35k. Welcomes the exchange of views of the Bureau on changing Parliaments rules governing internships offered by Members and political groups, asks the Secretary-General to report on the developments on this issue, asks the Bureau to investigate a modification of the Rules on the Use of Appropriations from Budget Item 400;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 38

38. Notes that the updated proposal for the Parliament’s medium-term building strategy, taking into account recent developments on the Luxembourg and Strasbourg premises, should be focused on the Brussels premises and in particular on the future of the Paul-Henri Spaak building; notes in addition that crucial Brexit-related factors defining the future of the building policy, such as potential consequences of Brexit on multilingualism, on the number of posts for officials in the establishment plan and on the number of Members of the European Parliament are still unknown; acknowledges that reliable planning can be done only after the Brexit process has come to its conclusion; asks the Secretary-General to propose a detailed plan on how the staff will be handled;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 43

43. Notes that the revision of prices in Parliament’s self-service canteen was required in order to move away from subsidised services and towards a concession type of contract, where the catering provider bears the full economic and commercial risk; ~~welcom~~however, expresses its concerns about the unjustified price increases in the restaurants, requests an internal audit on the price raise with an average of 6%, notes the fact that trainees in the Parliament continue to be entitled to a discount of EUR 0,50 on the main dishes in all self-service restaurants in Brussels and Luxembourg, considers, however, that, taking into account their average pay levels and the high prices charged, these discounts are not sufficient to have even a minimal impact on their finances; reiterates its call on the Secretary-General to grant price reductions in line with their earnings; asks DG INLO to monitor future price increases to ensure the services remain appropriately and fairly priced;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 43 a (new)

43a. Reiterates its deep regret regarding the decision to change the furniture in the offices of Members and their assistants in Brussels; notes that most of the furniture is perfectly serviceable and presentable, and that there is therefore absolutely no need to change it; reconsiders that feedback from a number of Members – as opposed to a general survey – is not, on its own, sufficient justification for the change, while arguments put forward by the administration on matters of taste, fashion or outdated style are equally inadequate; individual items of furniture should only be changed if there are clear signs of deterioration, major wear and tear or health risk at the workplace of a specific or general nature (such as the possible development of more ergonomic office desks or chairs);

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 43 b (new)

43b. Reminds the Secretary-General to the outcome of the survey of the Staff Committee regarding shared offices for staff that resulted in 3000 reactions and 80% of the staff who are against shared offices; calls the Secretary-General to prepare a solution for the consultation and to follow up the results of the survey;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 43 c (new)

43c. Calls on the Secretary-General to develop a voluntary and transparent mobility policy that takes interests and skills of staff into account in the framework of a genuine career development strategy; several jobs are to be excluded from the mobility exercise given the specialised qualifications, e.g. the Translation assistants, sufficiently long transitional measures should be put in place and the specific situation of colleagues in the Information Offices must be taken into account, the accelerated mobility for newly recruited staff should be abolished;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 44

44. Notes that the overall average number of hours per week staff interpreters spent delivering interpretation services in their booth increased from 11:54 in 2014 to 13:25 in 2016; recalls that, when the staff regulations were revised in 2013, the weekly working time for all staff of the European institutions increased from 37,5 to 40-42 hours which resulted in an increase in the weekly working time in the interpretation service as well; encourages future cooperation between the trade unions and the Secretary-General; notes that the increase in the committed appropriations for ´other staff´ was partly explained by the increased need for external interpretation in 2016 (EUR 2,2 million up over 2015), moreover, for meetings of political groups, as well as for committee meetings, increasingly there is a lack of interpretation for all languages, finally, also the scheduling of committee meetings at irregular hours is partly attributed to the need for efficient use of interpretation capacity;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 45 a (new)

45a. Calls for an urgent solution for the risk of technical and functional obsolescence of the IT systems used by DG Finance;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Subheading 11 a (new)

Voluntary Pension Fund

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 47 a (new)

47a. Notes that the voluntary pension fund increased its actuarial deficit to EUR 326,2 million at the end of 2016; further notes that at the end of 2016, the amount of net assets to be taken into account and the actuarial commitment amount to EUR 146,4 million and EUR 472,6 million respectively;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 47 b (new)

47b. Recalls that these projected future liabilities are spread over several decades but notes that the total amount paid in 2016 by the voluntary pension fund amounts to EUR 16,6 million;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 47 c (new)

47c. Points out that this raises concerns about the possible exhaustion of the fund and that Parliament is the guarantor for the payment of pension rights when and if this fund is unable to meet its obligations;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 47 d (new)

47d. Calls once again on the Bureau to make an assessment as soon as possible of the current situation of the Pension Fund; asks the Bureau urgently to reconsider its decision of 1 April 2009 according to which “Parliament would assume its legal responsibility to guarantee the right of members of the Scheme to the additional pension which could be retained after exhaustion of the Pension Fund” and to find solutions to reduce the deficit by introducing a premium increase or by doing appeals on former Members concerned to help on a voluntary basis in this regard by voluntarily reducing or relinquishing their Voluntary Pension;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 47 e (new)

47e. Recalls Paragraph 108 of last year’s discharge resolution that calls for an assessment of the current situation of the pension fund; welcomes the Secretary- General´s announcement that he will submit to the Bureau a plan of action concerning the Pension Fund and requests the Bureau to consider in this respect also the functioning of the Insurance Company administering the Fund, as well as to consider publishing the names of those who benefit of the Fund, insofar as this is in line with Union legislation on the protection of personal data;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 47 f (new)

47f. Welcomes the decision of the Bureau to create an ad-hoc Working Group for defining and publishing the rules concerning the use of the general expenditure allowance (GEA); reminds the Bureau that the plenary has already appealed for greater transparency and an urgent need to audit the GEA; believes any revision of the GEA should incorporate previously adopted discharge recommendations concerning transparency and financial accountability;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 49

49. Acknowledges that, in the framework of the cybersecurity action plan, the “cybersecurity culture” pillar focuses on awareness-raising and training activities to ensure that the Parliament’s ICT users are informed of the risks and contribute to its first line of defence in this regard; takes note of the awareness-raising campaign concerning cybersecurity risks, which includes visual reminders throughout the Parliament’s premises, articles published on the Parliament’s internal newsletter concerning cybersecurity and information sessions for MEPs, assistants and staff; however, expresses its concern regarding the threats against cyber security; welcomes the appointment of the Chief Information Security Officer, the creation of an ICT Security Unit with a Security Management and a Security Operations team; calls on the Secretary-General to investigate the possibility of adopting a 100% in-house expertise system, also in order to avoid a high turnover rate;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 51 a (new)

51a. Reiterates the call in its 2014 and 2015 discharge resolution for the creation of an emergency rapid alert system which allows DG ITEC, in collaboration with the Directorate-General for Security and Safety (DG SAFE), to send swift communications by SMS or e-mail to Members and staff that agree to their contact details being included on a communication list for use in specific emergency situations;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 52 a (new)

52a. Welcomes the continuous efforts to work on safety and security in and around Parliament’s premises; acknowledges that safety within Parliament must seek to achieve a delicate balance between taking a number of protective measures into account, and introducing an overly security conscious regime that slows down the activity of Parliament; nevertheless, insists that Parliament’s security should be further reinforced, and reiterates its call on the Secretary-General to ensure that staff are correctly trained and able to perform their tasks professionally, including in emergency situations;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 52 b (new)

52b. Calls on DG SAFE’s security staff, in the case of evacuations, to carefully check the entire building for which they are responsible, to ensure that is has been evacuated and provide assistance to persons who are hearing-impaired or who have any other form of disability, when people have to be evacuated;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 64 a (new)

64a. Notes with concern that, in the cases of the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, the European Alliance for Freedom and the Alliance for Peace and Freedom (major) irregularities have been detected, relating to prohibited direct or indirect financing of national parties and to donations;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 64 b (new)

64b. Expresses its concern about the reputational risk for Parliament any such irregularities constitute and is convinced of the need for quick and effective action to prevent and address any similar irregularities in the future; considers however that these irregularities are limited to a limited number of political parties and foundations; is of the opinion that these irregularities should not question the financial management of the other political parties and foundations;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 64 c (new)

64c. Is aware of the new regulations, namely Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014 and Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1142/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2014, which will start to affect the funding of European political parties and foundations for the financial year 2018, and of the important role of the newly established Authority for European political parties and European political foundations, as well as of the on-going discussions in the Bureau of the proposals of the Secretary-General to address a number of issues not resolved by those Regulations; acknowledges that the Commission proposal to amend the Regulation No 1141/2014 is an improvement, calls on Parliament’s internal auditor to make a new audit report on the financing of the European political parties and foundations as soon as possible after the entry into force of the new Regulation;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 64 d (new)

64d. Calls on the Bureau, in so far as the principle of confidentiality allows it, to facilitate access to the underlying documents contained in the final reports of European political parties and foundations and, in particular the accounts and the audits undertaken;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 64 e (new)

64e. Requests the new established Authority to submit a progress report to Parliament after its first year of activity, namely 2017; and calls on the Secretary- General to ensure that the authority will have at his disposal all necessary resources to fulfil its tasks;

2018/03/02
Committee: CONT