Activities of Karin KADENBACH related to 2014/2075(DEC)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION 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
Amendments (26)
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Is satisfied with the overall implementation of the budgetary headings for environment, climate action, public health and food safety in 2013; recalls again that only less than 0.5 % of the Union budget is dedicated to those policy instruments while bearing in mind the clear Union added value in these fields and the support from European citizens for Union environmental and climate policies as well as for public health and food safety; regrets that this percentage has fallen to 0.5% from 0.8% in 2012;
Amendment 173 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading after heading Agriculture
Subheading after heading Agriculture
Agriculture: demographic and beneficiaries' structure challenges
Amendment 175 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 48
Paragraph 48
48. Points out that demographic changes affect the common agricultural policy (CAP) more than any other Union policy since nearly one third of the 12 million Union farmers sharing more than 45 % of the Union budget are over the age of 65 years and only 6% are younger than 35 years old96 ; __________________ 96 See Court of Auditors landscape review 'Making the best use of EU money: a landscape review of the risks to the financial management of the EU Budget', 2014, p. 67.;
Amendment 178 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 49
Paragraph 49
49. Regrets that the measures initiated by the Commission in agricultural policy failedhas so far been unable to correct the demographic imbalance and calls on the Commission to adaptre-examine the agricultural budget support to this effectin light of this;
Amendment 180 #
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 endangers the political acceptance of CAP;
Amendment 183 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 51
Paragraph 51
51. Points out that the Czech Republic followed by Slovakia, Hungary, Germany and Bulgaria maintain the most unequal agricultural systems97 ; cCalls on the Commission and the Member States to better balance the structure of payments to their beneficiaries' structure and demands that the Director General of DG AGRI attach yearly to its annual activity report indicative figures on the distribution of CAP direct aid payment to producers by Member States and category of beneficiaries; __________________ 97 Indicative figures on the distribution of aid by size-class of aid, received in the context of direct aid paid to the producers according to Council regulation EC 1782/2003 and Council Regulation 73/2009, transmitted by Commissioner Hogan on 8 December 2014.
Amendment 184 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 52
Paragraph 52
52. Regrets that the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) payments are not free from material error in 2013, the most likely error rate being estimated by the Court of Auditors at 3,6 % (3,8% in 2012)98 and, but acknowledges that of the five control systems examined for expensed payments two were found to be ineffective,error rate has decreased from 2012 to 2013 and calls on the commission and the Member States two partiallyensure effective and only one was considered as effectivecontrol systems for expensed payments; __________________ 98 The frequency increased quite significantly: from 41% in 2012 to 61% in 2013.
Amendment 186 #
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 propermptly the most likely error rate for this area wcould have been 1,1 % lower and thus relatively close to the materiality threshold of 2%;
Amendment 187 #
Motion for a resolution
New subheading after paragraph 53 and paragraph 53 a (new)
New subheading after paragraph 53 and paragraph 53 a (new)
53a. Cross-compliance Points out that the audit by the Court of Auditors covered cross-compliance requirements and that cases where cross- compliance obligations were not met were treated as error where it was established that the infringement existed in the year in which the farmer applied for aid; Points out that the Court of Auditors includes deficiencies in the area of the crosscompliance in their calculation of the error rate while noting that, in the view of the Commission, cross-compliance does not concern the eligibility to payments but only triggers administrative penalties.
Amendment 191 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 55
Paragraph 55
55. Stresses that the reservations introduced by the Director-General of DG AGRI into its 2013 annual activity report confirm the alarming state of play in market measures as seven aid schemes in nine Member States are targetidentified, in particular the sectors of fruit and vegetables, the restructuring of vineyards, wine investment, export refunds for poultry and the school milk scheme;
Amendment 193 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 56
Paragraph 56
56. Deplores the significant shortcomings in the control procedures applied when granting recognition to producer groups99 for fruit and vegetables in Poland, Austria, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom as revealed by the Court of Auditors in its Annual Report for 2013 and confirmed by the Director-General of DG AGRI who has issued in its 2013 annual activity report a reservation based on its estimate that around 25% of total expenditure under this measure is at risk, namely EUR 102,7 million; __________________ 99 In accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 of 22 October 2007 establishing a common organisation of agricultural markets and on specific provisions for certain agricultural products (Single CMO Regulation) (OJ L 299, 16.11.2007, p.1), in certain regions, transitional support may be given to encourage producers who wish to acquire the status of producer organisation (PO) to form producer groups; this funding may be partially reimbursed by the EU and ceases once the producer group is recognised as a PO.
Amendment 196 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 57
Paragraph 57
57. Regrets in particular the deficiencies detected by the Commission as regard the measure concerningfor 'Vineyard restructuring' in Spain that justified the reservation issued by the Director-General of DG AGRI on the basis of a corrected error rate of 33 % and an amount at risk of EUR 54 million and the measure for 'Poultry export in France' on the basis of a corrected error rate of 69,6% and an amount at risk of EUR 29,3 million;
Amendment 197 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 60
Paragraph 60
60. Points out that despite the fact that almost all the paying agencies for the direct payments were under accreditationed and certified by the certifying authorities and while 79 of the 82 statements of assurance made by the paying agencies received an unqualified opinion from the certification bodies in 2013, thus confirming the accuracy of the statements of assurance presented by the directors of the paying agencies, the Commission had to correct upwards the error rates communicated by 42 out of 68 paying agencies with a residual error rate above 2%;
Amendment 200 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 61
Paragraph 61
Amendment 202 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 62
Paragraph 62
Amendment 205 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 64
Paragraph 64
64. Deplores that persistenRecognises that updating of data to record changes in the Land Parcel Identification system (LPIS) is a cyclical task which must be implemented constantly by Member States, and now aided somewhat by technological changes, regrets however that weaknesses in excluding ineligible land from the Landfill Parcel Identification System (LPIS) and in the administrative treatment claims from farmers contribute significantly to the material level of error remaining in EAGF payments;
Amendment 206 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 65
Paragraph 65
65. Stresses once again the horizontal dimension of thecertain deficiencies detected in the LPIS; notes that since 2007 the Court of Auditors examined IACS in 38 paying agencies in all 28 Member States and deeply regrets that only seven of the control systems were assessed as effective, 22 were found to partially effective and nine control systems were considered as ineffective;
Amendment 208 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 65 a (new)
Paragraph 65 a (new)
65a. Stresses that when there are doubts about the eligibility of a parcel because the ortho-image is not precise enough on- the-spot visits are required; points out that the updating of LPIS is a continuous work. To be of the required quality, the LPIS database needs to be updated regularly to reflect the changes in the landscape; calls for technological improvements to facilitate the update, speed up the process by making good quality ortho-images more easily available or cheaper;
Amendment 210 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 66
Paragraph 66
66. Is worried by the fact reportconcerned by the Court of Auditors reports102 that sums were lost as a result of irregularities or negligencein the declarations under the LPIS relating to claims for the year 2008 or earlier had been brought to the attention of debtors in Ireland after considerable delay and were not subject to any recovery or enforcement procedure for several year; therefore welcomes action plans to ensure recovery of undue payments and effective payment and control systems; __________________ 102 See Court of Auditors' Annual Report for 2013, point 3.23 and following.
Amendment 216 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 72
Paragraph 72
72. Stresses thatNotes improvements in the 2013 increase of the average level of financial correction by comparison with the period 2008- 2012 is according to the findings of the Court of Auditors105 mainly explained by the reduction of the backlog of open audit files from 553 at the end of 2012 to 516 at the end of 2013 and that the resolution of these files which related to financial years prior to 2010 resulted in financial corrections of EUR 881 million (79 % of the total); __________________ 105 See 2013 ECA annual report, point 4.27.
Amendment 218 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 73
Paragraph 73
Amendment 219 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 74
Paragraph 74
74. RegretNotes that the payments in rural development, environment, fisheries and health are not free from material error in 2013, thatwith a reduction in the most likely error rate wasto 6,7 % (from 7,9 % in 2012) and that seven of the 13 supervisory and control systems examined for expensed payments in Member States were assessed as being partially effective and six as ineffective;
Amendment 220 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 75
Paragraph 75
Amendment 222 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 76
Paragraph 76
76. DeplorNotes the fact that the averagsteady reductions in the error rate calculated by the Court of Auditors for the rural development incurred during the past three years was 8,2% andfrom 8,4 % in 2011 thatn in 2013 it was 7,9%107 ; strongly deploregrets that it is the highest error rate in a policy area for 2013; __________________ 107 and notes that due to the delay between payment claims, payments, controls and reported statistics more significant impact on the error rate is likely only from the 2014 financial year onwards; __________________ 107 See Court of Auditors' Special Report See Court of Auditors' Special Report No 23/2014 on Errors in rural development spending, p. 10: the 8,2% is an average for the three years with a lower limit of 6.1% and an upper limit of 10.3%. The average is composed of 8,4% for 2011, 8,3% for 2012 and 7,9% for 2013.
Amendment 223 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 77
Paragraph 77
77. Notes that the errors found by the Court occurred mainly because beneficiaries did not respect the eligibility requirements, the procurement rules were not properly applied and agri- environmental commitments were not respected;
Amendment 224 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 79
Paragraph 79
79. Concurs with the view voiced by the Court of Auditors109 that the errors awere partly caused by the complexity of rules and the large variety of aid schemes under the 2007-2013 programmes: 46 measures in total for rural development, each with its own rules and requirements; __________________ 109 Statement by the Member of the Court of Auditors, Rasa Budbergyte, CONT hearing with Commissioner Phil Hogan on 1 December 2014.