2022/2133(DEC) | [ParlTrack]

Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)

1 a. Notes that the Council Regulation (EU) 2021/2085 of 19 November 2021 established Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking to replace Shift2Rail under the Horizon Europe programme for the period ending on 31 December 2031;

Amendment 10 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)

6 b. Congratulates the Undertaking for the definition of key goals to strengthen the role of rail in the transport system in its Multi-Annual Action Programme, in order to maximise its contribution to reaching the goals of the European Green Deal and the defined climate goals therein;

Amendment 11 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 c (new)

6 c. Notes that digital transformation can improve the ecosystems related to mobility and transport; notes that digitalisation can improve environmental and cost performance and simultaneously increase safety levels contributing to a higher quality of life; calls for more advanced levels of automation, faster and more reliable connectivity and IT enabled profound transformation of the management of mobility service; believes that the public could also benefit from fast internet connectivity for passengers on most stations and lines, user-oriented telematics and facilitated multi-modality;

Amendment 12 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 d (new)

6 d. Commends, for the year 2021, the continued supervision by the Programme Office of the implementation of 105 projects and operational contracts of the Shift2Rail Programme, awarded and signed since 2016, for an estimated R&I total value of EUR 805,1 million;

Amendment 13 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 7

7. Welcomes the commitment of the Undertaking to facilitate research and innovation activities to deliver an integrated European railway network by design, eliminating barriers to interoperability and delivering smart, sustainable, and resilient rail system to ensure a harmonised approach to the evolution of the Single European Rail Area.; highlights the importance of supporting the Undertaking given rail’s inherent advantages in terms of environmental performance, land use, energy consumption, and safety;

Amendment 14 #

Maria GRAPINI

Draft opinion
Paragraph 7

7. Welcomes the commitment of the Undertaking to facilitate research and innovation activities to deliver an integrated European railway network by design, eliminating barriers to interoperability and delivering smart, sustainable, and resilient rail system to ensure a harmonised approach to the evolution of the Single European Rail Area so as to ensure connectivity throughout the Union.

Amendment 15 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)

7 a. Welcomes the fact that issues with the publication of the CVs and declarations of interest of the governing board of the Undertaking, which were raised in the European Parliament’s discharge procedure for 2020, have reportedly been solved with the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking and its new Governing Board, as stated in the Undertaking’s response to the European Parliment’s discharge for the year 2020; strongly stresses the importance that CVs as well as annual declarations of interests of all EU-Rail Governing Board members coming from the private sector are indeed publicly available in the Undertaking´s official website and encourages follow-up on this assurance;

Amendment 16 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)

7 a. Underlines the importance of the cooperation of the Undertaking with the European Agency for Railways in order to ensure interoperability for the developed projects;

Amendment 17 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 b (new)

7 b. Congratulates the Undertaking for its continued, active reporting on the undertaking’s contributions to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as its contribution to the goals outlined in the Commission’s Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy and the Digital Decade, thereby maximizing its potential alignment with the EU strategic goals and the necessary shift of transport flows to rail;

Amendment 18 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 b (new)

7 b. Notes that the Undertaking played an active role for the visibility of the sector during the Year of Rail 2021;

Amendment 19 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 c (new)

7 c. Notes the continued effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the activities of the Undertaking, its predecessor, and the rail sector in general and the resulting further delays in some of the programme outputs, as reported in the Undertaking’s annual activity report; calls attention to the fact underlined by the Undertaking, that the pandemic will continue to affect certain operations in the rail sector even after its most severe effects are receding; congratulates and encourages, therefore, the Undertaking to continue the detailed risk analysis and mitigation plans that have been carried out by its Programme Team and Project Coordinators since the onset of the pandemic;

Amendment 2 #

Tomasz Piotr PORĘBA

Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)

1 a. Stresses that the Financial Regulation and high management standards have to be respected by all the Union’s institutions.

Amendment 20 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 c (new)

7 c. Calls on the Commission to clarify together with the Undertaking the legal provisions regarding the Undertaking’s employer contributions to the Union pension scheme to avoid any future possible differences of interpretation;

Amendment 3 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 3

3. Notes that 2021 has seen the full commitment of the remaining budget appropriations related to the H2020 funded Shift2Rail Programme for the operational activities. The Undertaking’s annual budget for 2021 was EUR 13.6 million in commitment appropriations and EUR 68.4 million in payment appropriations; notes that the budget implementation rate was 100 % for the commitment appropriations and 85 % of the active funds for the payment appropriations; notes that the implementation rate for the Undertaking’s 2021 operational payment budget available fell to 61 %, compared to 76% in 2020;

Amendment 4 #

Maria GRAPINI

Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)

3 a. Notes that as part of the assessment of the controls on the operational payments of the Undertaking, the Court of Auditors audited, at the level of final beneficiaries, randomly selected payments under the Horizon 2020 program that had been made in 2021, with the aim of corroborating the error rates calculated from the audits ex post.The Court of Auditors did not identify any errors or control deficiencies in the sampled Undertaking beneficiaries, which is welcome;

Amendment 5 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)

5 a. Recalls that in order to achieve climate neutrality, a substantial part of the 75% of inland freight carried today by road should shift onto rail and inland waterways; notes that automated and connected multimodal mobility will play an increasing role, together with smart traffic management systems enabled by digitalisation;

Amendment 6 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)

6 a. Welcomes the efforts of the Undertaking, based on its replies to the European Parliament’s discharge of 2020, to further develop synergies between the new partnership and existing funding mechanisms of the Union, including projects funded under Union programmes such as the Connecting Europe Facility, the Digital Europe Plan, the European Regional Development Fund and the Cohesion Fund, as well as InvestEU; notes that these efforts include activities planned to promote potential links with other Union programmes, work with Member States in the States Representatives Group, and the setting up of a Deployment Group to support the identification and alignment of deployment and investment plans with other Union funding instruments; underlines the importance of continuing this work in order to achieve a more sustainable, reliable and attractive railway system for the Union's long-term climate ambitions, as outlined in the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy and the broader European Green Deal objectives;

Amendment 7 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)

6 a. Salutes the new Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy of the Commission, launched in December 2020, which includes more concrete milestones for the railway sector to enhance a smart and sustainable future; notes that the Action Plan of 82 initiatives lays the foundation for how the EU transport system can achieve its green and digital transformation and become more resilient to future crises;

Amendment 8 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)

6 a. Commends the Undertaking’s continued reporting, since 2018, on its contribution to the attainment of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals;

Amendment 9 #

Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)

6 b. Highlights that the Horizon Europe programme should contribute to the high-speed rail traffic will increase of 50% by 2030; the scheduled collective travel of under 500 km should be carbon neutral within the Union and automated mobility will be deployed at large scale and by 2050 rail freight traffic should double; high-speed rail traffic should triple and the multimodal Trans- European Transport Network (TEN-T) equipped for sustainable and smart transport with high speed connectivity should be operational for the core network by 2030. A full deployment of ERTMS by 2030 is a matter of highest priority;

source: 739.650

2023/02/02 CONT 18 amendments...

Amendment 1 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1

1. ~~Notes, from the report of the Court of Auditor’s (the ‘Court’s report’) on the annual accounts of the Joint Undertaking for the financial year 2021,~~Welcomes that the annual accounts present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Joint Undertaking on 31 December 2021, the results of its operations, its cash flows, and the changes in net assets for the year then ended, in accordance with its Financial Regulation and with accounting rules adopted by the Commission’s accounting officer; ~~notes,~~highlights furthermore~~, from the Court’s report~~ that the underlying transactions to the accounts are, in all material respects, legal and regular;

Amendment 10 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18

18. ~~Note~~Regrets that, in 2021, the staff turnover continued to be high with some staff members and one SNE leaving the Joint Undertaking; notes that this was attributable, besides other aspects, to the fact that other Union Joint Undertakings are in the position to offer Temporary Agent posts (TA) instead of Contractual Agent posts (CA);

Amendment 11 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18

18. Notes that, in 2021, the staff turnover continued to be high with some staff members and one SNE leaving the Joint Undertaking; notes that this was attributable, besides other aspects, to the fact that other Union Joint Undertakings are in the position to offer Temporary Agent posts (TA) instead of Contractual Agent posts (CA); calls for increased efforts in human resources to minimise staff turnover;

Amendment 12 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19

19. ~~Not~~Welcomes that, as it was the case already in 2020, the Joint Undertaking continued also in 2021 to follow the EC approach in response to the Covid-19 pandemic by implementing special measures designed to protect staff; notes that, in particular, this was ensured by applying teleworking arrangements, and, when working onsite, by decreasing physical contacts between colleagues and utilising protective measures; ~~notes, in addition~~is pleased that the Joint Undertaking strived to tackle the negative effects of the pandemic on the staff’s mental health by introducing already in 2020 a wellbeing programme;

Amendment 13 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 a (new)

19 a. Notes, from the Annual Activity Report 2021, in terms of gender balance, that the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking has a lower percentage of women on the Governing Board than in the previous year, namely 10% and 13% respectively, taking into account the alternating board members, with the number of women represented in the Representatives Group and in the Scientific Committee being 33%, as in 2019 and 2020; regrets that these numbers have decreased or stagnated compared to previous years and calls for increased efforts in terms of gender balance;

Amendment 14 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21

21. ~~Not~~Welcomes that, following the Court’s observations, that the EU-Rail agrees to pay its employer’s pension contributions in line with the calculation to be provided by the Commission’s services, once de-jure aspects are ascertained; calls on the Joint Undertaking not to wait for the final calculation of outstanding contributions, but to consider this obligation when planning its future budget e.g. through a corresponding accrual for pension contributions;

Amendment 15 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21

21. Notes that, following the Court’s observations, that the EU-Rail agrees to pay its employer’s pension contributions in line with the calculation to be provided by the Commission’s services, once de-jure aspects are ascertained and calls for the Commission to take steps to avoid similar issues in the future;

Amendment 16 #

Michal WIEZIK, Ramona STRUGARIU, Olivier CHASTEL, Alin MITUȚA

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 25

25. ~~Note~~Highlights that, in 2020, the Joint Undertaking adopted a revised Internal Control Framework~~; notes~~ and that a first annual self-assessment of the revised Internal Control Framework was performed in Q1 2021 in order to evaluate the compliance and effectiveness of internal controls, looking back to 2020, as well as reflecting the current situation in internal control activities existing at that time;

Amendment 17 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 a (new)

28 a. Welcomes that in 2022 all Joint Undertakings have started implementing actions for error rate reductions in line with the action proposed by the ECA including exploring the options of simplified forms of costs such as unit costs, lump sums and flat rates, targeting more “error-prone” types of beneficiaries such as SMEs and new beneficiaries;

Amendment 18 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 29

29. ~~Not~~Underlines that, as for the treatment of potential conflicts of interests, and to implement the requirements following from its constituent act with regard to this matter, the Joint Undertaking has adopted the respective rules by means of its internal legal framework in relation to its Members, staff, as well as the members of its Governing Board~~; notes~~ and that the annual declarations of interests of the latter are publicly available in the Joint Undertaking official website.

Amendment 2 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)

1 a. Acknowledges that Horizon Europe envisages ambitious goals for the Joint Undertaking, that can only be achieved if effective solutions that address the weaknesses in the internal control systems and prepare for the future challenges arising from increased responsibilities, e.g. in the area of human resources management and planning, are designed and implemented; points out, in this context, that particularly complicated and burdensome calculations and reporting requirements represent a significant risk of error and calls therefore, to explore the possibilities of simplifications wherever possible and compatible with the existing legal framework;

Amendment 3 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)

2 a. Notes that there is no harmonised definition of "administrative costs" among the Joint Undertakings, which is a basis for calculating the financial contributions of its members and a precondition for the purpose of comparable figures; calls with this in mind for common guidelines for all Joint Undertakings to take a harmonised approach for the classification of certain administrative cost expenditure categories, such as expenditure for consultations, studies, analysis, evaluations, and technical assistance;

Amendment 4 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4

4. ~~Notes, from the Report on the Budgetary and Financial Management 2021,~~Underlines that the 2021 EU-Rail Budget does not include any revenue or commitment/payment appropriations in relation with EU-Rail resources coming from Horizon Europe or its Private Members~~; notes~~ and that it consists only of appropriations related to Shift2Rail and Shift2Rail Members;

Amendment 5 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6

6. ~~Not~~Welcomes that, at the year-end 2021, the Undertaking had implemented 100% of its commitment appropriations made available in its active budget, which include staff and administrative expenditure~~; notes~~ and that the payment appropriations were implemented up to 85% of the active funds; notes that the implementation when compared to the full Joint Undertaking budget, including unused appropriations not required in current Year, was 100% in commitment and 63% in payment appropriations;

Amendment 6 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9

9. ~~Notes, from the Court’s report,~~Highlights that the Joint Undertaking implemented 100% of its commitment budget available for Horizon 2020 projects; notes that the implementation rate for the Joint Undertaking’s 2021 operational payment budget available, including operational unused and reallocated appropriations, fell to 61% (2020: 76%); ~~notes~~is aware that this situation was mainly caused by the poor quality of the beneficiaries’ technical reports and/or the need to request from the beneficiaries, additional evidence confirming the achievement of project results; calls on the Joint undertaking to explore any additional means of facilitating the reporting rules for achievements of project results in order to avoid delays in the future; notes, moreover, that most of the Joint Undertaking’s payment are lump- sumps paid for project work packages that have been properly implemented by multiple beneficiaries; notes, therefore, that the delay of a single beneficiary affects the payment of the whole lump-sum amount related to the work package;

Amendment 7 #

Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11

11. ~~Not~~Welcomes that, during 2021, the Joint Undertaking has further progressed in delivering the Shift2Rail Programme, although operational activities have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, further delaying the programme outputs of about additional 6 months compared to 2020 delays, in particular due to the increased number of demonstration activities on-site that were active in 2021; ~~notes~~is pleased that the internal control system in place has ensured effective and efficient sound financial management;

Amendment 8 #