17 Amendments of Jens GEIER related to 2017/2044(BUD)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. NRejects Council cuts of 4,5% in commitment appropriations and 1,4% in payment appropriations in budget lines related to the remit of ITRE Committee under Heading 1a of the Union budget 2018 compared to the Commission’s proposal; notes the increase of 5,5 % in commitment appropriations and 5,3 % in payment appropriations in budget lines related to the remit of ITRE Committee under Heading 1a of the Union budget 2018 compared to 20167; welcomes the focus of 2018 budget on the success of young generations; calls on and on the creation of stable and high-quality jobs put forward by the Commission to provid; notes the new increased levels of support for young researchers proposed by the Commission; in this context disapproves Council cuts in funding of the entrepreneurship programmes provided by the EIT;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. IDeeply regrets the significant Council cuts in commitment appropriations of 0.5 billion EUR and of 120 million EUR in payment appropriations in the Common Strategic Framework for Research and Innovation with an overwhelmingly negative impact on Horizon2020; notes that these cuts are a contradiction to current lack of R&D investments of approximately 150 billion EUR per year; therefore intends to completely reverse the cuts proposed by the Council; is concerned that insufficient funding for Horizon 2020 has resulted in a low success rate for applications; calls the Commission to respect the breakdown of Horizon 2020 budget as described in Annex II of Regulation (EU) 1291/2013;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls to restore the original annual profile of the budget lines for Horizon 2020 and CEF that were cut for the provisioning of the EFSI Guarantee Fund, e.g. by the use of all financial means available under the existing MFF Regulation; reminds that during the EFSI negotiations the Parliament called to reduce as much as possible the negative impact on these two programmes; is concerned that the proposed extension of EFSI may again weaken Horizon 2020 and CEF;
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Reminds that the goals of the Energy Union and the European climate goals are among the current main legislative priorities; calls on the Commission to provide the necessary financial resources for investments in this field; in this regard is concerned by the cuts proposed by the Council in commitments and payments appropriations of CEF-Energy;
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Stresses that the goals of the Digital Single Market need to be achieved to promote digital inclusion for our economy, public sector and our people and that for this, legislative initiatives such as WIFI4EU are crucial;calls on the Commission to provide sufficient funding for related budget lines and to keep its investment commitment for WIFI4EU between 2017 and 2020;
Amendment 20 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Insists that the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) is provided with sufficient resourcesfinancial resources and staff, to be able to cope with the extension of their mandate; further notes that the financial resources and the number of additional posts for European GNSS Agency, as well as for the European Agency for Network and Information Security, remains insufficient to fulfil the new tasks conferred to it bythem by the Union’s legislation;
Amendment 21 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Insists that the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators(ACER) is provided with sufficient resources to be able to cope with the extension of their mandate; notes that the number of additional posts for European GNSS Agency and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology remains insufficient to fulfil the new tasks conferred to it by Union’s legislation;
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Is aware of the high importance of the budget lines for Societal Challenges, and more specifically of the budget line for improving lifelong health and wellbeing to increase the standard of living in the European Union;encourages the Commission to maintain sufficient funding for such purposes and deplores the proposed Council cuts;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5 b. Underlines that SMEs are an essential part of the European economy as they provide a high number of employments within the EU and sees the need to create an SME-friendly business environment, as well as to support SME clusters and networks;welcomes the increase in funds for the SME instrument and the continuation of EFSI in the Commission proposal;notes however with deep concern the Commission’s cuts on COSME and the Council cuts on the SME instrument that send a contradictory signal to European businesses;
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 c (new)
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5 c. Takes note of the Preparatory Action for defence;stresses however that such an activity should be endowed with fresh resources given its significant impact on the EU budget;underlines that the research window needs additional funding under the post-2020 MFF;is concerned about the frontloading in CEF- Energy to make resources available in 2019-2020 for, for example, EU defence;
Amendment 28 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 d (new)
Paragraph 5 d (new)
5 d. Takes note of the increase for nuclear decommissioning assistance programmes;recognises the need for financial assistance for decommissioning, but regrets delays in the programmes;calls on the Commission to make well-analysed and reasonable increases, considering such delays;
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Underlines that Heading 3 has been largely mobilised in recent years to address challenges arising from the migratory and refugee crisis and that such actions should continue for as long as needed; insistnotes however that in the light of recent security concerns across the Union, funding under that heading should also pay particular attenfunding provided so far is insufficient for enhancing security and ensuring an effective management of asylum applications to measures which will lead to enhancing security of Union citizenhat respects the basic human rights of asylum applicants; decides for this reason to reinforce agencies in the field of Justice and Home Affairs which due to increased workload and additional tasks, have been facing shortage of staff and funding in the past years;
Amendment 60 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13 a. Takes note that OLAF has investigated in the beginning of 2017 in a severe case of customs fraud in the UK which was caused by undervaluation of imported products and which has created a loss of income of almost EUR 2 billion for the Union budget in the period 2013- 2016; is concerned that this fraud has not been stopped to date and that losses to the Union budget are still on-going; asks the Commission to take into account the lax reaction of the UK administration to its recommendations in this regard when negotiating Brexit; asks those Member States that objected to the Union legal framework for customs infringements and sanctions to reconsider their position in order to allow for a speedy solution of this problem;
Amendment 75 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Stresses the importance of stimulating cooperative defence research in Europe for addressing key capability shortfalls at a time when international developments increasingly require Europe to step up its efforts on defence; fully supportsbelieves that additional expenses on the Union level in the field of defence research should be compensated by savings on the national level; takes note of the increased allocation for the Preparatory Action on defence research; reiterates, nevertheless, its longstanding position that new initiatives shouldall be financed through fresh appropriations and not ato the expensedetriment of existing EU programmes;
Amendment 122 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 43 a (new)
Paragraph 43 a (new)
43 a. Notes that, by end of September 2017, a total of EUR 795 million has been committed for Union Trust Funds in the 2017 Union budget; asks the Commission to present to the two arms of the budgetary authority how much it intends to commit in 2018; reiterates its concern that Member State contributions to these Trust Funds tend to lag behind their pledges; takes note of the European Court of Auditors Special Report 11/2017 on the Bekou EU Trust Fund for the Central African Republic; is concerned about the deficiencies identified by the ECA, such as the lack of assessment for overall needs and the dysfunctional coordination mechanisms with other donors; regrets the limited parliamentary scrutiny when setting-up and in managing the Trust Fund; expresses its intention to assess the added value of Union Trust Funds as an instrument of Union external policy;
Amendment 141 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 48
Paragraph 48
48. Endorses, as a general rule, the Commission's estimates of the budgetary needs of agencies; considers, therefore, that any further cuts proposed by the Council would endanger the proper functioning of the agencies, in particular the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and would not allow them to fulfil the tasks they have been assigned; considers that the new posts adopted in its position are needed to fulfil additional tasks due to new policy developments and new legislation; reiterates its commitment to safeguard resources and where necessary provide additional resources as to ensure the proper functioning of the agencies;
Amendment 146 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 53
Paragraph 53
53. Reiterates that, as agreed in the IIA of 2 December 2013, 2018 is the last year of implementation of the 5% staff reduction and redeployment pool approach to the staffing of agencies; considers that the new posts adopted inreiterates its opposition are needed to fulfil additional tasks due to new policy developments and new legislationtowards any continuation of a global approach on agency resources after 2018; reaffirms its openness to release posts by means of achieving efficiency gains between agencies through increased administrative cooperation or even mergers where appropriate and through pooling certain functions with either the Commission or another agency; welcomes in this regard the initiative to further coordinate agencies activities via establishing the Network of EU Agencies’ Permanent Secretariat (now called the Shared Support Office) and supports the allocation to the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) an additional establishment plan post whose costs will be mutualised from the EU Agencies’ existing budgets and seconded to this office;