17 Amendments of Monica MACOVEI related to 2011/2154(INI)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 5 a (new)
Citation 5 a (new)
- having regard to its 2011 Resolution on the EU's efforts to combat corruption 1, its Written Declaration 2/2010 on the Union's efforts in combating corruption 2, and the 2011 Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee "Fighting corruption in the EU" 3; __________________ 1 European Parliament, Resolution of 15 September 2011 on the EU's efforts to combat corruption, P7_TA- PROV(2011)0388 2 European Parliament, Written Declaration 2/2010 on the Union's efforts in combating corruption, P7_DCL(2010)0002 3 Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee "Fighting corruption in the EU", COM(2011) 308 final, 6 June 2011
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes that in 2010 the financial impact of irregularities in the area of expenditure rose and amounted to EUR 1.8 billion. (or 1.27 % of allocations), as compared to EUR 1.4 billion (or 1.13 %) in 2009; the financial impact in the area of revenue is also higher: EUR 393 million (or 1.88 % of total collected traditional own resources, gross) as compared to EUR 357 million (or 1.84 %) in 2009.; underlines that out of 15076 irregularities reported in 2010, which represent an estimated financial of irregularities of EUR 2 200 million, including an estimated financial of suspected fraud of EUR 617 million, only EUR 1 005 million have been recovered;
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Takes note that for 2010 the number of irregularities reported has increased for all sectors but the pre-accession funds and the Traditional Own Resources and that the increase is related to the closure of the 2000-2006 implementing period of the Cohesion Funds and to the improvements made to the Irregularities Management System (IMS);
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Points out thatDeplores the fact that large amounts of EU funds are still wrongly spent and calls on the Commission musto take decisive action in order to recover more erroneous payments, to hold Member States more accountable for the amount in irregularities that have yet to be recovered, to improve the prevention and detection of irregularities and cases of fraud, and immediately to suspend payments and apply effective sanctions in cases of misuse of EU funds;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Is further concerned that some Member States are not yet using the electronic reporting system fully; calls on these Member States to remedy the situation as a matter of urgency;
Amendment 20 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Reminds that Union legislation requires Member States to report all irregularities no later than two months after the end of the quarter in which an irregularity has been subject to a primary administrative or judicial finding and/or new information about a reported irregularity becomes known; calls on the Member States to make all the necessary efforts, including the streamlining of national administrative procedures, to meet the required deadlines and reduce the time gap between the moment a irregularity is identified and that when it is reported; calls on the Member States to act primarily as a protector of taxpayers' money in their efforts to combat fraud;
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 a (new)
Paragraph 17 a (new)
17a. Is concerned that, in 2010, Italy and EU-12 Member States have qualified more than 90% of the reported cases of irregularities as "suspected fraud"; calls on the Member States to take all necessary measures, including close cooperation with European institutions, to address all causes leading to fraud relating to EU funds;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Is concerned that certain Member States, whose spending for the financial year 2010 was also high (by the suspiciously low fraud rates reported by France, Germany, Spain and United Kingdom), reported a very low number of suspected fraud cases, and this raises reasonable doubts as to whether reporting principles are being respectedespecially considering their size and financial support received, as described by the Commission's Report on the Protection of the Union's financial interests; is of the opinion that this raises reasonable doubts as to whether reporting principles are being respected; urges the Commission to include detailed information on the applied reported methodology and the fraud detection capability in these Member States; once again calls on the Commission to monitor closely the effectiveness of supervisory and control systems in the Member States and to ensure that information about the level of irregularities in the Member States reflects the true situation; calls on the Commission to provide information in the Protection of the EU's Financial Interests Report about actions taken in this area in 2011;
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 7 a (new)
Subheading 7 a (new)
Public Procurement, increased transparency and the fight against corruption
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 a (new)
Paragraph 28 a (new)
28a. Calls on the Commission, the relevant Union agencies and the Member States to take measures and provide resources to ensure that EU funds are not subject to corruption, to adopt dissuasive sanctions where corruption and fraud are found, to step up the confiscation of criminal assets involved in fraud, tax evasion and money-laundering related crimes;
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 b (new)
Paragraph 28 b (new)
28b. Underlines that the 2011 Communication from the Commission "Fighting corruption in the EU" estimates that EUR 120 billion per year is lost to corruption in the EU, inflicting financial damages, reducing public finances and undermining the trust in democratic institutions; emphasises moreover that the 2011 Resolution of the Parliament on the EU's efforts to combat corruption states that corruption leads to the misuse of public money in general and of EU funds provided by the tax payer and distort the market and calls – along with its Written Declaration 2/2010 – on the Commission and the relevant Union bodies to ensure that the EU funds are not subject to corruption;
Amendment 41 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 c (new)
Paragraph 28 c (new)
28c. Welcomes the European Parliament's decision setting up a special committee on organised crime, corruption and money laundering;
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 d (new)
Paragraph 28 d (new)
28d. Welcomes that Malta ratified the Convention on the protection of the EU financial interests on 20 January 2011; regrets that the Convention has not yet been ratified by the Czech Republic and invites the Member State to remedy the situation as soon as possible; invites also Estonia to ratify the Protocol of 29 November 1996 on the interpretation by way of preliminary rulings by the Court of Justice of the European Communities;
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 e (new)
Paragraph 28 e (new)
28e. Reminds that the Hercule II programme is the financial instrument managed by the Commission (OLAF) in the field of the protection of the EU financial interests and the prevention of related criminal activities, including cigarette smuggling; notes that the mid- term evaluation of the Hercule II programme confirmed its added-value; is of the opinion that the successor of this instrument, i.e. the Hercule III programme, should continue to improve technical equipment in the Member States, finance access to databases essential for investigations by Member State authorities and OLAF, and combat cigarette smuggling and counterfeiting in line with the legally binding agreements with tobacco manufacturers;
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 f (new)
Paragraph 28 f (new)
28f. Reiterates its call on the Commission and Member States to design, implement and periodically evaluate uniform systems of procurement to prevent fraud and corruption, to define and implement clear conditions for participation in public procurement, and criteria on which public procurement decisions are made, and also to adopt and implement systems to review public procurement decisions at the national level, to ensure transparency and accountability in public finances, and to adopt and implement risk management and internal control systems;
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 g (new)
Paragraph 28 g (new)
28g. Welcomes the launch in January 2011 of the Commission's Green Paper on the modernisation of EU public procurement policy Towards a more efficient European Procurement Market; notes that the evaluation report on this consultation has been adopted at the end of June 2011 and that in December 2011 the Commission adopted its proposals to reform the basic EU public procurement rules (Directives 2004/17/EC and 2004/18/EC);
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 h (new)
Paragraph 28 h (new)
28h. Recalls that last year the Parliament urged the Commission to take action to ensure one-stop transparency of the beneficiaries of EU-funds; regrets that this measure has not been implemented; reiterates therefore its call to the Commission to design measures to increase the transparency of legal arrangements and a system where all beneficiaries of EU funds are published on the same website, independently of the administrator of the funds and based on standard categories of information to be provided by all Member States in at least one working language of the Union; calls on the Member States to cooperate with and provide to the Commission full and reliable information regarding the beneficiaries of the EU funds managed by Member States; invites the Commission to evaluate the system of 'shared management' and provide Parliament with a report as a matter of priority;