Sittings · Compare
What changed
PR_DEC_Com
PA_NonLeg
1. PROPOSAL FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT DECISION
on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission
(2023/2129(DEC))
– having regard to the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022,
– having regard to the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2022 (COM(2023)0391 – C90248/2023),
– having regard to the Commission’s report on the follow-up to the discharge for the 2021 financial year (COM(2023)384), and to the detailed replies to the specific requests made by the European Parliament,
– having regard to the Commission’s 2022 Annual Management and Performance Report for the EU Budget (COM(2023)401),
– having regard to the Commission’s annual report to the discharge authority on internal audits carried out in 2022 (COM(2023)323), and to the accompanying Commission staff working document (SWD(2023)214),
– having regard to the Court of Auditors’ annual report on the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2022, together with the institutions’ replies, and to the Court of Auditors’ special reports,
– having regard to the statement of assurance as to the reliability of the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions provided by the Court of Auditors for the financial year 2022, pursuant to Article 287 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
– having regard to the Council’s recommendation of 22 February 2024 on discharge to be given to the Commission in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2022 (06179/2024 – C90066/2024),
– having regard to Articles 317, 318 and 319 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
– having regard to Article 106a of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community,
– having regard to Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 July 2018 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union, amending Regulations (EU) No 1296/2013, (EU) No 1301/2013, (EU) No 1303/2013, (EU) No 1304/2013, (EU) No 1309/2013, (EU) No 1316/2013, (EU) No 223/2014, (EU) No 283/2014, and Decision No 541/2014/EU and repealing Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012, and in particular Articles 69, 260, 261 and 262 thereof,
– having regard to Rule 99 of and Annex V to its Rules of Procedure,
– having regard to the opinions of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Development, the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, the Committee on Transport and Tourism, the Committee on Regional Development, the Committee on Culture and Education, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality,
– having regard to the letter from the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development,
– having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A9-0139/2024),
1. Grants the Commission discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022;
2. Sets out its observations in the resolution forming an integral part of the decisions on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission and executive agencies;
3. Instructs its President to forward this decision, and the resolution forming an integral part of it, to the Council, the Commission and the Court of Auditors, and to the national parliaments and the national and regional audit institutions of the Member States, and to arrange for their publication in the Official Journal of the European Union (L series).
2. PROPOSAL FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT DECISION
on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency for the financial year 2022
(2023/2129(DEC))
– having regard to the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022,
– having regard to the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2022 (COM(2023)0391 – C90248/2023),
– having regard to the final annual accounts of the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency for the financial year 2022,
– having regard to the Commission’s report on the follow-up to the discharge for the 2021 financial year (COM(2023)384), and to the detailed replies to the specific requests made by the European Parliament,
– having regard to the Commission’s annual report to the discharge authority on internal audits carried out in 2022 (COM(2023)323), and to the accompanying Commission staff working document (SWD(2023)214),
– having regard to the Court of Auditors’ annual report on EU agencies for the financial year 2022, together with the agencies’ replies,
– having regard to the statement of assurance as to the reliability of the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions provided by the Court of Auditors for the financial year 2022, pursuant to Article 287 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
– having regard to the Council’s recommendation of 22 February 2024 on discharge to be given to the executive agencies in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2022 (06181/2024 – C90125/2024),
– having regard to Articles 317, 318 and 319 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
– having regard to Article 106a of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community,
– having regard to Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 July 2018 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union, amending Regulations (EU) No 1296/2013, (EU) No 1301/2013, (EU) No 1303/2013, (EU) No 1304/2013, (EU) No 1309/2013, (EU) No 1316/2013, (EU) No 223/2014, (EU) No 283/2014, and Decision No 541/2014/EU and repealing Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012, and in particular Articles 69, 260, 261 and 262 thereof,
– having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 of 19 December 2002 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes, and in particular Article 14(3) thereof,
– having regard to Commission Regulation (EC) No 1653/2004 of 21 September 2004 on a standard financial regulation for the executive agencies pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes, and in particular the first and second paragraphs of Article 66 thereof,
– having regard to Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/173 of 12 February 2021 establishing the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency, the European Health and Digital Executive Agency, the European Research Executive Agency, the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency, the European Research Council Executive Agency, and the European Education and Culture Executive Agency and repealing Implementing Decisions 2013/801/EU, 2013/771/EU, 2013/778/EU, 2013/779/EU, 2013/776/EU and 2013/770/EU,
– having regard to Rule 99 of and Annex V to its Rules of Procedure,
– having regard to the opinions of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Development, the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, the Committee on Transport and Tourism, the Committee on Regional Development, the Committee on Culture and Education, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality,
– having regard to the letter from the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development,
– having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A9-0139/2024),
1. Grants the Director of the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2022;
2. Sets out its observations in the resolution forming an integral part of the decisions on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission and executive agencies;
3. Instructs its President to forward this decision, the decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission and the resolution forming an integral part of those decisions, to the Director of the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency, the Council, the Commission and the Court of Auditors, and to arrange for their publication in the Official Journal of the European Union (L series).
3. PROPOSAL FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT DECISION
on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Education and Culture Executive Agency for the financial year 2022
(2023/2129(DEC))
– having regard to the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022,
– having regard to the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2022 (COM(2023)0391 – C90248/2023),
– having regard to the final annual accounts of the European Education and Culture Executive Agency for the financial year 2022,
– having regard to the Commission’s report on the follow-up to the discharge for the 2021 financial year (COM(2023)384), and to the detailed replies to the specific requests made by the European Parliament,
– having regard to the Commission’s annual report to the discharge authority on internal audits carried out in 2022 (COM(2023)323), and to the accompanying Commission staff working document (SWD(2023)214),
– having regard to the Court of Auditors’ annual report on EU agencies for the financial year 2022, together with the agencies’ replies,
– having regard to the statement of assurance as to the reliability of the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions provided by the Court of Auditors for the financial year 2022, pursuant to Article 287 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
– having regard to the Council’s recommendation of 22 February 2024 on discharge to be given to the executive agencies in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2022 (06181/2024 – C90125/2024),
– having regard to Articles 317, 318 and 319 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
– having regard to Article 106a of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community,
– having regard to Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 July 2018 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union, amending Regulations (EU) No 1296/2013, (EU) No 1301/2013, (EU) No 1303/2013, (EU) No 1304/2013, (EU) No 1309/2013, (EU) No 1316/2013, (EU) No 223/2014, (EU) No 283/2014, and Decision No 541/2014/EU and repealing Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012, and in particular Articles 69, 260, 261 and 262 thereof,
– having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 of 19 December 2002 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes, and in particular Article 14(3) thereof,
– having regard to Commission Regulation (EC) No 1653/2004 of 21 September 2004 on a standard financial regulation for the executive agencies pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes, and in particular the first and second paragraphs of Article 66 thereof,
– having regard to Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/173 of 12 February 2021 establishing the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency, the European Health and Digital Executive Agency, the European Research Executive Agency, the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency, the European Research Council Executive Agency, and the European Education and Culture Executive Agency and repealing Implementing Decisions 2013/801/EU, 2013/771/EU, 2013/778/EU, 2013/779/EU, 2013/776/EU and 2013/770/EU,
– having regard to Rule 99 of and Annex V to its Rules of Procedure,
– having regard to the opinions of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Development, the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, the Committee on Transport and Tourism, the Committee on Regional Development, the Committee on Culture and Education, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality,
– having regard to the letter from the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development,
– having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A9-0139/2024),
1. Grants the Director of the European Education and Culture Executive Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2022;
2. Sets out its observations in the resolution forming an integral part of the decisions on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission and executive agencies;
3. Instructs its President to forward this decision, the decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission and the resolution forming an integral part of those decisions, to the Director of the European Education and Culture Executive Agency, the Council, the Commission and the Court of Auditors, and to arrange for their publication in the Official Journal of the European Union (L series).
4. PROPOSAL FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT DECISION
on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency for the financial year 2022
(2023/2129(DEC))
– having regard to the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022,
– having regard to the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2022 (COM(2023)0391 – C90248/2023),
– having regard to the final annual accounts of the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency for the financial year 2022,
– having regard to the Commission’s report on the follow-up to the discharge for the 2021 financial year (COM(2023)384), and to the detailed replies to the specific requests made by the European Parliament,
– having regard to the Commission’s annual report to the discharge authority on internal audits carried out in 2022 (COM(2023)323), and to the accompanying Commission staff working document (SWD(2023)214),
– having regard to the Court of Auditors’ annual report on EU agencies for the financial year 2022, together with the agencies’ replies,
– having regard to the statement of assurance as to the reliability of the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions provided by the Court of Auditors for the financial year 2022, pursuant to Article 287 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
– having regard to the Council’s recommendation of 22 February 2024 on discharge to be given to the executive agencies in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2022 (06181/2024 – C90125/2024),
– having regard to Articles 317, 318 and 319 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
– having regard to Article 106a of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community,
– having regard to Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 July 2018 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union, amending Regulations (EU) No 1296/2013, (EU) No 1301/2013, (EU) No 1303/2013, (EU) No 1304/2013, (EU) No 1309/2013, (EU) No 1316/2013, (EU) No 223/2014, (EU) No 283/2014, and Decision No 541/2014/EU and repealing Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012, and in particular Articles 69, 260, 261 and 262 thereof,
– having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 of 19 December 2002 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes, and in particular Article 14(3) thereof,
– having regard to Commission Regulation (EC) No 1653/2004 of 21 September 2004 on a standard financial regulation for the executive agencies pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes, and in particular the first and second paragraphs of Article 66 thereof,
– having regard to Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/173 of 12 February 2021 establishing the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency, the European Health and Digital Executive Agency, the European Research Executive Agency, the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency, the European Research Council Executive Agency, and the European Education and Culture Executive Agency and repealing Implementing Decisions 2013/801/EU, 2013/771/EU, 2013/778/EU, 2013/779/EU, 2013/776/EU and 2013/770/EU,
– having regard to Rule 99 of and Annex V to its Rules of Procedure,
– having regard to the opinions of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Development, the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, the Committee on Transport and Tourism, the Committee on Regional Development, the Committee on Culture and Education, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality,
– having regard to the letter from the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development,
– having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A9-0139/2024),
1. Grants the Director of the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2022;
2. Sets out its observations in the resolution forming an integral part of the decisions on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission and executive agencies;
3. Instructs its President to forward this decision, the decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission and the resolution forming an integral part of those decisions, to the Director of the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency, the Council, the Commission and the Court of Auditors, and to arrange for their publication in the Official Journal of the European Union (L series).
5. PROPOSAL FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT DECISION
on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Research Council Executive Agency for the financial year 2022
(2023/2129(DEC))
– having regard to the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022,
– having regard to the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2022 (COM(2023)0391 – C90248/2023),
– having regard to the final annual accounts of the European Research Council Executive Agency for the financial year 2022,
– having regard to the Commission’s report on the follow-up to the discharge for the 2021 financial year (COM(2023)384), and to the detailed replies to the specific requests made by the European Parliament,
– having regard to the Commission’s annual report to the discharge authority on internal audits carried out in 2022 (COM(2023)323), and to the accompanying Commission staff working document (SWD(2023)214),
– having regard to the Court of Auditors’ annual report on EU agencies for the financial year 2022, together with the agencies’ replies,
– having regard to the statement of assurance as to the reliability of the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions provided by the Court of Auditors for the financial year 2022, pursuant to Article 287 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
– having regard to the Council’s recommendation of 22 February 2024 on discharge to be given to the executive agencies in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2022 (06181/2024 – C90125/2024),
– having regard to Articles 317, 318 and 319 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
– having regard to Article 106a of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community,
– having regard to Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 July 2018 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union, amending Regulations (EU) No 1296/2013, (EU) No 1301/2013, (EU) No 1303/2013, (EU) No 1304/2013, (EU) No 1309/2013, (EU) No 1316/2013, (EU) No 223/2014, (EU) No 283/2014, and Decision No 541/2014/EU and repealing Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012, and in particular Articles 69, 260, 261 and 262 thereof,
– having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 of 19 December 2002 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes, and in particular Article 14(3) thereof,
– having regard to Commission Regulation (EC) No 1653/2004 of 21 September 2004 on a standard financial regulation for the executive agencies pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes, and in particular the first and second paragraphs of Article 66 thereof,
– having regard to Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/173 of 12 February 2021 establishing the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency, the European Health and Digital Executive Agency, the European Research Executive Agency, the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency, the European Research Council Executive Agency, and the European Education and Culture Executive Agency and repealing Implementing Decisions 2013/801/EU, 2013/771/EU, 2013/778/EU, 2013/779/EU, 2013/776/EU and 2013/770/EU,
– having regard to Rule 99 of and Annex V to its Rules of Procedure,
– having regard to the opinions of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Development, the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, the Committee on Transport and Tourism, the Committee on Regional Development, the Committee on Culture and Education, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality,
– having regard to the letter from the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development,
– having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A9-0139/2024),
1. Grants the Director of the European Research Council Executive Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2022;
2. Sets out its observations in the resolution forming an integral part of the decisions on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission and executive agencies;
3. Instructs its President to forward this decision, the decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission and the resolution forming an integral part of those decisions, to the Director of the European Research Council Executive Agency, the Council, the Commission and the Court of Auditors, and to arrange for their publication in the Official Journal of the European Union (L series).
6. PROPOSAL FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT DECISION
on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Health and Digital Executive Agency for the financial year 2022
(2023/2129(DEC))
– having regard to the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022,
– having regard to the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2022 (COM(2023)0391 – C90248/2023),
– having regard to the final annual accounts of the European Health and Digital Executive Agency for the financial year 2022,
– having regard to the Commission’s report on the follow-up to the discharge for the 2021 financial year (COM(2023)384), and to the detailed replies to the specific requests made by the European Parliament,
– having regard to the Commission’s annual report to the discharge authority on internal audits carried out in 2022 (COM(2023)323), and to the accompanying Commission staff working document (SWD(2023)214),
– having regard to the Court of Auditors’ annual report on EU agencies for the financial year 2022, together with the agencies’ replies,
– having regard to the statement of assurance as to the reliability of the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions provided by the Court of Auditors for the financial year 2022, pursuant to Article 287 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
– having regard to the Council’s recommendation of 22 February 2024 on discharge to be given to the executive agencies in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2022 (06181/2024 – C90125/2024),
– having regard to Articles 317, 318 and 319 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
– having regard to Article 106a of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community,
– having regard to Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 July 2018 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union, amending Regulations (EU) No 1296/2013, (EU) No 1301/2013, (EU) No 1303/2013, (EU) No 1304/2013, (EU) No 1309/2013, (EU) No 1316/2013, (EU) No 223/2014, (EU) No 283/2014, and Decision No 541/2014/EU and repealing Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012, and in particular Articles 69, 260, 261 and 262 thereof,
– having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 of 19 December 2002 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes, and in particular Article 14(3) thereof,
– having regard to Commission Regulation (EC) No 1653/2004 of 21 September 2004 on a standard financial regulation for the executive agencies pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes, and in particular the first and second paragraphs of Article 66 thereof,
– having regard to Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/173 of 12 February 2021 establishing the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency, the European Health and Digital Executive Agency, the European Research Executive Agency, the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency, the European Research Council Executive Agency, and the European Education and Culture Executive Agency and repealing Implementing Decisions 2013/801/EU, 2013/771/EU, 2013/778/EU, 2013/779/EU, 2013/776/EU and 2013/770/EU,
– having regard to Rule 99 of and Annex V to its Rules of Procedure,
– having regard to the opinions of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Development, the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, the Committee on Transport and Tourism, the Committee on Regional Development, the Committee on Culture and Education, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality,
– having regard to the letter from the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development,
– having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A9-0139/2024),
1. Grants the Director of the European Health and Digital Executive Agency discharge in respect of the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year;
2. Sets out its observations in the resolution forming an integral part of the decisions on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission and executive agencies;
3. Instructs its President to forward this decision, the decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission and the resolution forming an integral part of those decisions, to the Director of the European Health and Digital Executive Agency, the Council, the Commission and the Court of Auditors, and to arrange for their publication in the Official Journal of the European Union (L series).
7. PROPOSAL FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT DECISION
on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Research Executive Agency for the financial year 2022
(2023/2129(DEC))
– having regard to the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022,
– having regard to the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2022 (COM(2023)0391 – C90248/2023),
– having regard to the final annual accounts of the European Research Executive Agency for the financial year 2022,
– having regard to the Commission’s report on the follow-up to the discharge for the 2021 financial year (COM(2023)384), and to the detailed replies to the specific requests made by the European Parliament,
– having regard to the Commission’s annual report to the discharge authority on internal audits carried out in 2022 (COM(2023)323), and to the accompanying Commission staff working document (SWD(2023)214),
– having regard to the Court of Auditors’ annual report on EU agencies for the financial year 2022, together with the agencies’ replies,
– having regard to the statement of assurance as to the reliability of the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions provided by the Court of Auditors for the financial year 2022, pursuant to Article 287 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
– having regard to the Council’s recommendation of 22 February 2024 on discharge to be given to the executive agencies in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2022 (06181/2024 – C90125/2024),
– having regard to Articles 317, 318 and 319 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
– having regard to Article 106a of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community,
– having regard to Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 July 2018 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union, amending Regulations (EU) No 1296/2013, (EU) No 1301/2013, (EU) No 1303/2013, (EU) No 1304/2013, (EU) No 1309/2013, (EU) No 1316/2013, (EU) No 223/2014, (EU) No 283/2014, and Decision No 541/2014/EU and repealing Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012, and in particular Articles 69, 260, 261 and 262 thereof,
– having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 of 19 December 2002 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes, and in particular Article 14(3) thereof,
– having regard to Commission Regulation (EC) No 1653/2004 of 21 September 2004 on a standard financial regulation for the executive agencies pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes, and in particular the first and second paragraphs of Article 66 thereof,
– having regard to Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/173 of 12 February 2021 establishing the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency, the European Health and Digital Executive Agency, the European Research Executive Agency, the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency, the European Research Council Executive Agency, and the European Education and Culture Executive Agency and repealing Implementing Decisions 2013/801/EU, 2013/771/EU, 2013/778/EU, 2013/779/EU, 2013/776/EU and 2013/770/EU,
– having regard to Rule 99 of and Annex V to its Rules of Procedure,
– having regard to the opinions of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Development, the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, the Committee on Transport and Tourism, the Committee on Regional Development, the Committee on Culture and Education, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality,
– having regard to the letter from the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development,
– having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A9-0139/2024),
1. Grants the Director of the European Research Executive Agency discharge in relation to the implementation of the Agency’s budget for the financial year 2022;
2. Sets out its observations in the resolution forming an integral part of the decisions on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission and executive agencies;
3. Instructs its President to forward this decision, the decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission and the resolution forming an integral part of those decisions, to the Director of the European Research Executive Agency, the Council, the Commission and the Court of Auditors, and to arrange for their publication in the Official Journal of the European Union (L series).
8. PROPOSAL FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT DECISION
on the closure of the accounts of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission
(2023/2129(DEC))
– having regard to the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022,
– having regard to the consolidated annual accounts of the European Union for the financial year 2022 (COM(2023)0391 – C90248/2023),
– having regard to the Commission’s report on the follow-up to the discharge for the 2021 financial year (COM(2023)384), and to the detailed replies to the specific requests made by the European Parliament,
– having regard to the Commission’s 2022 Annual Management and Performance Report for the EU Budget (COM(2023)401),
– having regard to the Commission’s annual report to the discharge authority on internal audits carried out in 2022 (COM(2023)323), and to the accompanying Commission staff working document (SWD(2023)214),
– having regard to the Court of Auditors’ annual report on the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2022, together with the institutions’ replies, and to the Court of Auditors’ special reports,
– having regard to the statement of assurance as to the reliability of the accounts and the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions provided by the Court of Auditors for the financial year 2022, pursuant to Article 287 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
– having regard to the Council’s recommendation of 22 February 2024 on discharge to be given to the Commission in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2022 (06179/2024 – C90066/2024),
– having regard to the Council’s recommendation of 22 February 2024 on discharge to be given to the executive agencies in respect of the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2022 (06181/2024 – C90125/2024),
– having regard to Articles 317, 318 and 319 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
– having regard to Article 106a of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community,
– having regard to Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 July 2018 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union, amending Regulations (EU) No 1296/2013, (EU) No 1301/2013, (EU) No 1303/2013, (EU) No 1304/2013, (EU) No 1309/2013, (EU) No 1316/2013, (EU) No 223/2014, (EU) No 283/2014, and Decision No 541/2014/EU and repealing Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012, and in particular Articles 69, 260, 261 and 262 thereof,
– having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 58/2003 of 19 December 2002 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes, and in particular Article 14(2) and (3) thereof,
– having regard to Rule 99 of and Annex V to its Rules of Procedure,
– having regard to the opinions of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Development, the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, the Committee on Transport and Tourism, the Committee on Regional Development, the Committee on Culture and Education, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality,
– having regard to the letter from the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development,
– having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A9-0139/2024),
1. Approves the closure of the accounts of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022;
2. Sets out its observations in the resolution forming an integral part of the decisions on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission and executive agencies;
3. Instructs its President to forward this decision to the Council, the Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the Court of Auditors and the European Investment Bank, and to the national parliaments and the national and regional audit institutions of the Member States, and to arrange for its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union (L series).
9. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION
with observations forming an integral part of the decisions on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission and executive agencies
(2023/2129(DEC))
– having regard to its decision on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission,
– having regard to its decisions on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budgets of the executive agencies for the financial year 2022,
– having regard to Rule 99 of and Annex V to its Rules of Procedure,
– having regard to the opinions of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Development, the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, the Committee on Transport and Tourism, the Committee on Regional Development, the Committee on Culture and Education, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality,
– having regard to the letter from the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development,
– having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgetary Control (A9-0139/2024),
– having regard to the inter-institutional agreement of 16 December 2020 on cooperation on budgetary matters and sound financial management, as well as on new own resources, including a roadmap towards the introduction of new own resources;
Political priorities
1. Recalls its strong commitment to the fundamental principles and values enshrined in the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), including sound financial management as set out in Article 317 of the TFEU and the combating of fraud and protecting the financial interests of the Union as set out in Article 325 of the TFEU;
2. Highlights the importance of the Union budget for achieving the Union’s political priorities, as well as its role in assisting Member States in unforeseen circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic, international conflicts or crises and their consequences; notes in this regard the continuing relevance of investments and support from the Union budget for reducing disparities between Member States and regions, for promoting economic growth and employment, for combating poverty and social exclusion, and thus for improving the daily life of Union citizens and economic impact within the Union; urges the Commission not to water down the pace and ambition needed to achieve the climate-related goals set in the European Green Deal and stresses the need for increasing the necessary investments for this purpose; stresses the fact that in 2022 the Union has fallen muchshort of the level of efficiency needed to achieve the climate-related goals set for 2030, 2040 and 2050;
3. Stresses that the sound and timely implementation of the budget contributes to addressing needs and challenges in different policy areas more efficiently and effectively; stresses that the simultaneous implementation of multiple instruments with different rules under time constraints, in addition to the pressure of the final closure of the 2014 - 2020 MFF, may lead to a delay in implementation and an increase in errors, irregularities and fraud; recalls the role of the Commission as guardian of the treaties to protect the financial interests of the Union;
4. Stresses the contribution of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) in supporting Member States in recovering from the economic and social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and creating a resilient Union that can shoulder the challenges of the future; notes the contribution of the RRF and RePowerEU in addressing the energy-related challenges caused by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine; regrets that milestones have not been better defined and calls on the Commission to monitor Member States' implementation of the associated actions in accordance with the agreed milestones and targets;
5. Highlights the crucial role the Union budget played in 2022 in addressing the consequences of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, namely to secure food supply chains, address energy-related challenges, support Member States in welcoming Ukrainian refugees, and provide assistance to Ukraine in caring for its citizens; notes that this has put pressure on the budget and that all available flexibility measures have been used; notes in that regard the adoption of the mid-term review of the Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) that re-orients funds, raises fresh funds; stresses the importance the Commission presents a clear and realistic roadmap to repay EU debt;
6. Recalls the importance of a strict application of the financial rules of the Union in all programmes and on all beneficiaries, in order to avoid all forms of fraud, conflicts of interest, corruption, double funding and money laundering; reminds in this framework of the key role played by the whole Union’s anti-fraud architecture and expresses some concerns about the refusal of some Member States to cooperate with one of its elements, notably the EPPO;
7. Recalls the importance of carrying out ex-post and mid-term evaluations of financial programmes created to respond to crises, concerning their relevance, coherence and European added value on top of compliance and regularity, efficiency, effectiveness, performance and long-term economic impact; notes that decisions related to the COVID-19 response instruments were made under enormous time pressure, although such instruments will be implemented until 2026; stresses that a quick response should not be to the detriment of proper control over expenditure and calls, therefore, on the Commission to draw lessons from such instruments;
8. Recalls the importance of the RRF in facing the economic downturn following the COVID-19 pandemic, reminds that the RRF delivery model puts much, lighter requirements on the Commission, and reduces the control burden from the Commission towards the Member States;
9. Underlines the risk of conflicts of interest in cases where actors involved in the implementation of the Union budget, at any level, might be compromised for reasons beyond economic interest, particularly family, emotional life, political or national affinity; notes the highly fragmented legal framework across Member States and regions concerning conflicts of interest and welcomes the Commission’s guidance in promoting a uniform interpretation and application; supports the Court’s observation in its Special Report 6/2023 that “data mining, by comparing information from different sources, has the potential to help detect possible conflicts of interest”;
10. Emphasises the role of the European anti-fraud office (OLAF), the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO), the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) and the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) in the fight against corruption; calls for the capacities of the EPPO and OLAF, as well as cooperation between them, to be strengthened further and their competences to be better defined; appreciates the efforts of the EPPO in the investigation and prosecution of fraud and other criminal offences affecting the financial interests of the Union and highlights the importance of its full independence and impartiality for the effective exercise of its functions; recalls the importance of providing the EPPO and OLAF with sufficient financial and human resources; calls for common anti-corruption rules applicable to all staff of Union bodies and calls to make the inter-institutional Transparency Register mandatory for all EU Institutions and Agencies, to ensure that the independence which is required of certain EU institutions is not affected; reiterates the need to step up the efforts in the fight against fraud both at Union and Member State level, in close cooperation with the EPPO and OLAF;
11. Stresses the deterioration of the Rule of Law in some Member States and emphasises the major importance of the Rule of Law Conditionality Mechanism for the protection of the Union budget; calls on the Commission to make full use of the tools available to address the clear risk of a serious breach of Union values and to promptly invoke the Conditionality Regulation when breaches of the Rule of Law risk impacting the Union's financial interests; supports the blocking of Union funds as long as the conditions are not entirely fulfilled and not giving in to blackmail; urges the Commission to guarantee a unitary, comprehensive and integrated approach across different funds and legislative instruments and to avoid a technocratic and contradictory approach across various financing instruments;
12. Notes the measures undertaken by the Commission in 2022 under the Conditionality Regulation, but considers them to be introduced with considerable delays and following long-lasting political considerations; asks the Commission to conduct thorough assessments and ensure adequate control mechanisms to guarantee the sound financial management and the protection of the Union budget in current and future cases of lack of respect for Union values and the Rule of Law affect or threaten to affect the Union’s financial interests;
13. Welcomes the agreement reached in the negotiations on the revised Union financial rules in December 2023; welcomes, in particular, the enhancements related to tracking Union funds through digital tools and interoperability that will bolster the protection of the Union Financial Interests, the targeted extension of the Early Detection and Exclusion System (EDES) to shared management post MFF 2027, the reference to the Rule of Law conditionality mechanism and Union values as enshrined in Article 2 TEU, as well as the opportunity to streamline support for small and medium-sized enterprises and individual applicants by the introduction of very low-value grants;
14. Reminds the Commission that all legislative proposals that have a significant economic, social and environmental impact have to be accompanied by solid and thorough impact assessments, including their impact on the cost of living for Union citizens, the level of bureaucratisation for beneficiaries and administration as well as gender-related issues, to guarantee a fair distribution of the Union budget.; stresses that this is part of the Commission’s better regulation agenda; underlines that the Commission should conduct impact assessments in a completely neutral and impartial way; furthermore, expects the Commission to improve the costs-and-benefits analysis of the concerned options by enhancing the participation rate of different stakeholders with different views in open public consultations;
15. Recalls that spending areas subject to more complex rules and eligibility criteria are at higher risk of errors and create an excessive administrative burden for recipients of support, specially newcomers; reiterates the need to implement simplification in Union spending programmes to the extent possible, striking a balance with robust checks and controls; stresses that the digitisation of the management, reporting and auditing of Union funds is essential to improve access for potential recipients in an equitable way and to make the management of funds more efficient and transparent for all citizens;
16. Is concerned that the late adoption of several sectoral regulations governing different Union policies, such as the Cohesion policy, resulted in a significant delay in the implementation of the 2021-2027 programming period; urges the Commission and the Member States once more to take all necessary measures to continue to speed up the implementation of the policies on the ground with a better geographical balance, while keeping a high focus on compliance with the rules, quality of projects, achievement of results and protection of the financial interests of the Union; highlights in this context the risk that outstanding commitments bear on the Union budget, possibly generating significant decommitments which in turn would decrease its impact; calls on the Commission to indicate to the discharge authority which measures it intends to take to address this situation;
17. Calls on the Commission to take initiatives, such as technical assistance, to increase the absorption rate in the Member States on a permanent basis; calls on the Commission to closely monitor the progress of implementation in Member States, in particular in cases of under-implementation and low absorption rates and to deliver a country-analysis to the discharge authority, identifying the recurrent problems, as well as the measures taken to optimise the situation;
18. Stresses the importance of Union cohesion policy for economic and territorial convergence and development in the regions of the Union, as well as for supporting the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights; highlights the synergies of the cohesion funds in coordination with other Union programmes, particularly the RRF, to maximise the impact and efficiency of public spending;
CHAPTER I - Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF)
The European Court of Auditors' statement of assurance and budgetary and financial management
Reliability of the accounts
19. Welcomes that the Court finds in its Annual report on the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2022, that the consolidated accounts of the European Union for the year 2022 are reliable; notes with satisfaction that the Court has given a clean opinion on the reliability of the accounts every year since 2007;
20. Notes that at 31 December 2022, total liabilities amounted to EUR 577,2 billion, compared with EUR 445,9 billion of total assets; notes that the difference of EUR 131,3 billion represented the (negative) net assets, comprising reserves and the portion of expenses already incurred by the Union up to 31 December 2022 that must be funded by future budgets;
21. Notes that at the end of 2022, the estimated value of incurred but not yet claimed eligible expenses due to beneficiaries, recorded as accrued expenses, was EUR 148,7 billion (2021: 129,9 billion), of which EUR 22,6 billion is related to accrued RRF expenditure;
22. Notes that after the end of the transition period following the UK’s withdrawal process, the Commission estimated that, at the balance sheet date, the Union accounts showed a net receivable due from the UK of EUR 23,9 billion (2021: 41,8 billion), of which it is estimated that EUR 9,1 billion will be paid in the 12 months following the reporting date;
23. Notes that the Court has assessed the impact of Russia's unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine on the Union accounts; welcomes the Court’s conclusion that this impact has been appropriately accounted for and disclosed in the consolidated annual accounts;
24. Welcomes the Court’s conclusion that the assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses, including those related to the European Recovery Instrument 'NextGenerationEU' (‘NGEU’), are presented fairly in the consolidated annual accounts;
Legality and regularity of Union revenue and expenditure
25. Regrets the adverse opinion on the legality and regularity of the Union budget expenditure issued by the Court for the fourth year in a row; underlines the importance of reinforcing the control mechanisms of the Commission and Member States which are considered unreliable by the Court, therefore compromising the reliability of the Annual Management and Performance Report (AMPR); notes the Court’s conclusion that the revenue is free from material error and that the managing systems examined by the Court were generally effective;
26. Is concerned that the Court estimates the level of error for the 2022 expenditure to be 4,2 %, which is more than double the materiality threshold; notes that this is a further deterioration compared to the previous two years (3,0 % in 2021 and 2.7 % in 2020); notes with concern that the Court detected substantial issues in reimbursement-based expenditure, which accounts for 66 % of the Court’s audit population, where the estimated level of error is 6 %; notes that the effects of the errors found by the Court are estimated as both material and pervasive to the year's accepted expenditure;
27. Notes that the Commission´s own estimation of the risk at payment is 1.9 % for 2022 (similar to 2020 and 2021), which is below the materiality threshold; notes that the Commission’s estimation of the risk at closure, after ex-post controls and corrections have been applied, is 0,9 %; notes the divergence between the Court’s overall error rate and the Commission’s risk at payment, which is observed for the overall Union budget expenditure in 2022, although not in all expenditure areas, notes that this is particularly evident in headings 1 and 2 as in the past; and remarks the fact that the Commission’s estimates for risk at payment are consistently in the lower range or below the statistical estimations of the Court; welcomes the Court’s estimate of the level of error as important indicator for the existing risks; calls for a common understanding to be found to avoid such divergence between the Court’s overall error rate and the Commission’s risk at payment;
28. Reiterates the concerns about the Court observation that the Commission’s risk assessment is likely to underestimate the level of risk in several areas; is also concerned by recurrent weaknesses identified by the Court on Member States’ ex post checks in heading 2, limiting the reliance that can be placed on their work;
29. Underlines that the general estimate of the level of error in the Union budget, as presented in the Court’s Statement of Assurance, is an estimate of the money that should not have been paid out because it was not used in accordance with the applicable rules and regulations, and not an indicator of fraud or corruption; regrets that the general estimate of the level of error in the Union budget might give each year a negative impression to citizens;
30. Recalls that the audit approach and methodology of the Court are based on international audit standards that require the testing of a random, representative sample of transactions that result in an estimate of the error rate; recalls that the Court differentiates between low-risk expenditure, i.e. entitlement-based payments under simplified rules, and high-risk expenditure, i.e. reimbursement-based payments subject to complex rules; notes that for the 2022 expenditure, the Court has selected 66 % of its audit population from the high-risk expenditure (63,2 % in 2021), amounting to EUR 110,1 billion, and 34 % from the low-risk expenditure, amounting to EUR 56,7 billion; notes that the Court’s estimated error rate for 2022 (4,2 %) is mainly driven by ‘Cohesion, resilience and values’ (2,5 % of the overall error rate), ‘Natural resources and environment (0,8 %), ‘Neighbourhood and the world’ (0,4 %), and ‘Single market, innovation and digital’ (0,3 %), for the most part considered high-risk expenditure areas by the Court; notes that the Commission in its AMPR categorises the expenditure into higher, medium and lower risk segments; notes that the Court uses the risk categories in a large part to determine the sample size to ultimately support its opinion on the legality and regularity of expenditure, whereas the Commission’s use of risk categories serves to identify areas where additional managerial attention is needed to correct errors; emphasises that the use of different risk categories by the Court and the Commission hinders the possibility for the discharge authority to make a comparative analysis between clerical form errors and substantial administrative errors;
31. Recalls that the Court’s audit focuses on the year under review; considers, nevertheless, that the Court takes into account findings of several years in its annual report and deepens the focus on specific topics within its Special Reports; notes that in contrast to this method, the Commission takes into account the whole lifecycle of Union programmes and funds covering multiple years, as well as corrections and recoveries after the end of the year under review; is of the opinion, however, that these different approaches do not entirely explain the large difference in the estimation of the error rate;
32. Recalls that Union spending programmes are multiannual by design and consequently their related control systems and management cycles also cover multiple years; recalls that the Commission’s estimates of the risk at closure have a multiannual perspective that takes account of corrections and recoveries over several years; notes that the Commission’s approach is based on tests as defined in control strategies aiming to check compliance with Union rules to ultimately establish whether funds need to be recovered from beneficiaries; notes that the range of the risk at payment, determined as part of this approach, resembles most of the Court’s estimated error rate and is considered by the Commission as the best estimate to express the exposure to the Union budget;
33. Considers that both approaches serve different purposes and have their benefits, disadvantages, strengths, and weaknesses, and should be used to complement each other while understanding the differences and particularities, such as the different concepts of error and the risk categorisation used by each institution; considers the Court’s error rate to be an important indicator of compliance with the legality and regularity of the implementation of the Union budget; is concerned about the great divergence in the rates provided by the Court and the Commission in relation to the weaknesses identified on the Commission side; welcomes in this regard the Court’s findings, observations and recommendations as a very useful contribution to the further improvement of the budget management and implementation under different management modes and by all relevant stakeholders; deplores that the analysis of the risk alone neglects the real performance, the quality, the sustainability and the European added value of implemented projects; invites the Commission to cooperate with the Court with a view to increasing harmonisation and to providing for more comparable figures;
34. Notes that, on several issues, the Court’s and Commission’s findings are aligned, most notably concerning the main sources of irregularities in ‘Cohesion’, and the higher risks for market measures and rural development in ‘Natural resources and environment’; notes that specifically in ‘Cohesion’ some cases of eligibility errors identified and quantified by the Court are not necessarily considered to be ineligible by the Commission; the Commission does not see a legal basis to qualify the error as an irregularity to be corrected in line with the definition laid down in Article 2(36) of Regulation (EU) No 1060/2021 (‘the Common Provisions Regulation’ or CPR) and thus, the Commission cannot pursue financial correction procedures, and such errors would not enter into the Commission’s estimate of risk at payment;
35. Welcomes that the Commission improved its reporting on preventive and corrective measures to protect the Union budget from illegal and irregular expenditure; notes that the Commission clarified that the total amount reported in the Annual Management and Performance Report (AMPR) as financial corrections and recoveries (EUR 4,95 billion) includes preventive and corrective measures taken by the Commission and Member States; notes that the Commission reported EUR 734 million in net corrections and EUR 195 million in recovered undue payments from final recipients;
36. Notes that the Court, in the exercise of its mandate, does not investigate fraud but does take account of the risk of fraud; notes that the Court forwards to the EPPO suspicions of criminal offences falling in its competences and to OLAF suspicions of fraud, corruption or other illegal activity affecting the Union’s financial interests identified while performing its audits; notes that, in 2022, the Court reported 14 cases of suspected fraud to OLAF, and in parallel reported 6 of these cases to the EPPO, resulting so far in 6 OLAF investigations and 3 EPPO investigations;
Budgetary and financial management
37. Highlights that in 2022, 98,5 % of the available commitment appropriations were used (EUR 179,4 billion out of EUR 182,2 billion); notes that the available appropriations were higher than the MFF ceiling of EUR 179,9 billion due to the use of special instruments, justified by unforeseen events, using all flexibility available under the MFF; notes that 98,1 % of payment appropriations were used (EUR 167,3 billion of EUR 170,6 billion available); commends the Commission and the budgetary authority for its decisive and flexible budgetary response to the challenges faced in 2022;
38. Notes with concern that the total outstanding commitments, which represent future debts if not decommitted, reached an all-time high of EUR 450 billion in 2022, caused by both increased commitments related to NGEU (with all National Recovery and Resilience Plans adopted in 2022) and the slow start of the implementation of the 2021-2027 programming period; notes that the Commission expects this amount to further increase in 2023 towards EUR 460 billion, and foresees a decrease from 2024 to 2027 when committed amounts for both NGEU and the 2021-2027 programming period should be paid out; notes that approximately EUR 90 billion of loans will not be used and recalls that the Commission and Member States are currently behind schedule for payments established in the implementing decision approving their national recovery and resilience plans (RRPs); notes that commitments under MFF are still increasing and will continue to rise in the coming years due to the slow start of the programming period with payments following even later;
39. Highlights that the time available for implementing shared-management funds under the 2021-2027 MFF is shorter than under previous MFFs because of the n+2 rule for the last year of the period; is aware of the challenges in relation to managing and controlling the combined MFF and NGEU funds due to their volume and the different managing, programming, implementing and controlling mechanisms; notes with concern the significant differences in absorption rates per Member State; regrets the insufficient initiatives taken by the Commission, in conjunction with the Member States, to increase the absorption capacity of the programs and thus bring about a sharp and lasting reduction in outstanding commitments; demands the Commission takes all the necessary measures and administrative support to the Member States needed especially to improve their absorption capacity;
40. Underlines that the Commission’s projections for the reduction of the outstanding commitments are based on the assumptions that Member States effectively make more efforts to accelerate the absorption of the 2021-2027 shared management funds and that automatic technical adjustments of payments ceiling are sufficient to cover the payments needs; is concerned that these two assumptions may not be fulfilled hence creating a very dangerous situation for the Union budget;
41. Notes the Court’s warning that for the 2021-2027 shared management funds under the CPR, the decommitment risk has risen significantly due to a series of factors, namely the slow start because of the late adoption of sector-specific regulations, the prioritisation of the remaining European Structural and Investment (ESI) Funds and NGEU funding, the fact that those funds have a shorter payment timeframe by one year compared to the previous MFF period and the overlap with NGEU payments until 2026; stresses, therefore, the Court’s 2021 recommendation for the Commission to ensure that there is additional advisory support to national authorities so all bodies responsible for managing and controlling these funds can ensure sound financial management;
42. Welcomes the vital role played by NGOs in representing civil society and in promoting and defending the values enshrined in the Treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (‘the Charter’) while implementing programmes and projects financed by the Union budget in full respect of the Union’s financial rules and the protection of the Union’s financial interests; calls to ensure that all Union funding beneficiaries, including NGOs, that have misused or misappropriated Union funds, or engaged in activities contrary to Union values, including inciting terrorism, hate speech, supporting or glorifying violence, political and religious extremism are listed in the Early Detection and Exclusion System (EDES) and blocked from access to Union institutions and funding programmes; considers that fraud, conflicts of interest, double funding, corruption and money laundering or embezzlement must be prevented and tackled in all situations and for all beneficiaries irrespective of their nature and legal status (as noted in Parliament resolution of 17 January 2024 on the transparency and accountability of non-governmental organisations funded from the Union budget ); calls on the Commission to implement the recommendations of that resolution;
43. Notes with concern that Union debt increased from EUR 236,7 billion in 2021 to EUR 344,3 billion in 2022; notes that of the entire debt, only the share of NGEU non-repayable support (EUR 185,6 billion, 53,9 %) creates interest rate risk for the Union budget; notes that, due to growing market interest rates, the cost of new NGEU funding rose from 0,14 % in the second half of 2021 to 1,24% in the first half of 2022, and a further increase to2.60% in the second half of 2022, resulting in EUR 0,5 billion of interest payments for NGEU in 2022, and a considerable increase was projected for 2023; is concerned about the strong increase in interest rates since 2020 resulting in a higher financial burden for the annual budget; recalls that, in addition, the repayments of NGEU borrowing should start in 2028 and must be completed by 2058, which will require sufficient financial resources; notes that the maximum utilisation of the Union budget in 2022, using all available flexibility, does not allow any repayment of debts, unless cuts are made in other areas of Union expenditure; calls on the Members States to develop and agree on a repayment plan out of new own resources without damaging the new MFF;
44. Notes that since December 2022, the Commission has a new debt management strategy in place, namely a “diversified funding strategy” which consists of the techniques and funding instruments used by sovereign issuers; recalls the Court’s Special Report 16/2023 on NGEU debt management that concluded that the Commission quickly established its debt management system, allowing for a timely start of borrowing operations, that met all regulatory requirements concerning debt portfolio and risk management;
45. Supports the Court recommendation that the Commission should act more proactively to ensure the tools available to mitigate the exposure risks have sufficient capacity;
46. Notes that the total exposure of the Union budget because of guarantees and contingent liabilities for loans rose to EUR 248,3 billion, of which EUR 57,8 billion for an additional safeguard has been created through the Common Provisioning Fund (‘CPF’); notes that higher interest rates also require a higher provisioning rate in the future;
47. Notes that in 2022 the Commission changed the disclosure of contingent liability in its consolidated accounts, making the comparison of year by year extremely complex and long; invites the Commission to report more clearly on its annual account, in order to facilitate conclusions and analysis also in view of the discharge procedure;
48. Notes that the exposure of the Union budget to Ukraine increased in 2022 to EUR 15,6 billion, with related provisions; notes with concern that for the MFA+ support to Ukraine with a value of EUR 18,0 billion, agreed at the end of 2022 and disbursed throughout 2023, no provisions were required in the CPF to cover the risks of default, posing a serious risk to the Union budget as expressed in the Opinion 07/2022; draws attention that possible losses related to MFA+ will have to be covered by future Union budgets or by the budgetary ‘headroom’ between the MFF ceiling and the own resources ceiling; invites the Commission to provide additional measures to protect the Union budget from future losses related to the MFA+;
49. Notes that during 2022 consumer price inflation increased significantly, affecting the Union budget in several ways, by reducing the relative size of the Union budget and reducing the efficiency of the Union funds to achieve the objectives to the same extent as initially planned; considers that high inflation affects the proportion of revenue from different sources, with a net reduction of the share of the GNI-based own resources; strongly supports the Court recommendation to the Commission to assess the impact on the Union budget of increasing inflation in order to proactively apply mitigating measures;
50. Welcomes the online based transparency platforms developed and maintained by the Commission which provide data on the implementation of Union spending programmes and allow to search through the recipients Union funding and projects, such as the Financial Transparency System, giving information about Union funding under direct and indirect management, the RRF Scoreboard, the Cohesion Open Data Platform and Kohesio platform;
51. Notes the Commission’s methodology for tracking gender aspects of expenditure as of 2023; recalls that only 2% of the Union’s budget was assessed as having a principle objective of improving gender equality; calls on the Commission to improve this score by mainstreaming gender from the start of programme design; reiterates that further detail is needed so that the majority of spending (73%) currently assessed as 0* ‘potential to contribute to gender equality’ can be fully understood; notes with concern that Special Report 10/2021, published by the ECA confirmed that the Union’s budget cycle does not yet adequately take gender equality into account since key elements, such as gender analysis, gender-related objectives, indicators and accountability through reporting, are largely missing;
52. Repeats its calls for a dedicated budget line for gender equality, in particular within the Daphne programme in the light of the crisis of gender-based violence facing the Union; stresses the importance of strengthening the specifically dedicated Daphne initiative by increasing its resources, in particular measures that aim to combat all levels and all forms of gender-based violence against women and girls and domestic violence in line with Article7(6) of Regulation (EU) 2021/692 and to properly support victims; stresses, in addition, the importance of using European Structural and Investment Funds such as the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) to promote gender equality, women’s employment, women's empowerment, entrepreneurship, leadership and management roles, as well as long-term care facilities; notes that a study requested by FEMM committee shows that men are often favoured over women and marginalized groups when it comes to the design of subsidies and support under the Fit for 55 package, as well as in other policies, programmes and funding for the green transition;
Recommendations
53. Strongly supports the recommendations of the Court in its Annual Report on the implementation of the budget for the financial year 2022 (‘Annual Report for the 2022 financial year) as well as in related special reports; calls on the Commission to implement them without delay and to keep the discharge authority informed on the progress of the implementation;
54. Calls on the Court of Auditors to:
(i) differentiate the types of errors and to make more transparent the rate of errors caused by severe misuse, fraud or other criminal activities and the errors caused by administrative oversight or inaccurate application of rules;
(ii) to assess more intensively also the quality, the European added value, the sustainability, the performance and the practicability of the implemented projects;
55. Calls on the Commission, in particular, to:
(i) engage with the Court in order to increase understanding, convergence and comparability of the two approaches to address irregularities;
(ii) undergo an ex-post evaluation of the reliability of their own estimation of the risk at closure for the financial year for which the programs were closed and presents the results of such an evaluation to the Discharge authority;
(iii) continue to simplify rules and procedures without compromising the quality of the controls; and continue to digitalise audit procedures;
(iv) step up efforts to improve transparency in the use of funds, including as regards information on final beneficiaries;
(v) continue to support the administrative capacity of Member States’ authorities; identify ways to help member states accelerate the use of Union funds, and reducing the level of outstanding commitments, notably in shared management funds under the Common Provisions Regulation;
(vi) report as part of its disclosure on contingent liabilities and what the annual exposure of the Union budget is, arising from budgetary guarantees and from financial assistance to third countries, making public its estimate of total annual exposure;
(vii) provide sufficient measures to protect the Union budget from the different risks identified in particular the RAL, the increasing debt, the increased budget exposure including to Ukraine, the increasing inflation etc;
(viii) continue monitoring the possible risk of corruption and fraud across all funds, using feedback from investigations by the EPPO and OLAF; and encourage the systematic use of Archane and EDES databases systems;
(ix) ensure the protection of the Union budget by making general and systematic use of digital and automated systems for reporting, monitoring and audit and urgently establish a compulsory integrated and interoperable system building on, but not limited to, existing tools and databases in the context of the concluded recast of the Financial Regulation;
(x) modify and improve the Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard as well as the respective Commission RRF website to ensure that the implementation, the performance and fulfilment of indicators are regularly updated, accurate and, clearly structured and transparent;
(xi) ensure that the outcome of the audits is transparent;
(xii) ensure that all Member States use the systems and central registers to report on beneficial owners and final beneficiaries;
(xiii) assess the impact on the Union budget of high inflation continuing over several years and identify tools to mitigate resulting key risks;
Performance of the Union budget
56. Notes the re-integration of the Court’s work on performance of the Union budget into its Annual Report; regrets to note that the content of the related chapter is of considerably less depth than the previous year’s annual report on performance; regrets in particular that the link to the Sustainable Development Goals has become much less evident in the current set-up; notes that the Court’s work on performance as included in its 2022 Annual Report lies primarily in summarising the findings from Special Reports;
57. Notes that the Court has followed-up on the implementation of 213 of its recommendations made in 2019, out of which 179 were addressed to the Commission; notes that four of the 179 recommendations were not yet due for implementation by the time the follow-up review was carried out and that, of the remaining 175 recommendations, the Commission has fully implemented 101 (58 %), 26 in most respects (15 %), 24 in some respects (13 %), and has not implemented 17 (10 %) of them at all, the Court being unable to conclude in 7 cases (4 %) where the auditee had not accepted them or it was too early to assess the implementation;
58. Considers the overview of special reports, which spans the largest part of chapter three of the Court’s Annual report, gives a good overview of reports presented by the Court that relate to 2022 strategic areas; considers a deep analysis of the performance of the Union budget could be an added value to the follow-up of the auditor recommendations; notes the issue of timing concerning to the publication of the AMPR;
59. Notes that the Commission publishes the ‘Programme Performance Statements’, which is an overview of the performance information of the programmes of the 2021-2027 Union budget, and the ‘Horizontal priorities’, a section on how the Commission tracks and reports on what is spent on green budgeting, gender equality mainstreaming, digital tracking and the sustainable development goals;
60. Notes the Court’s review 06/2023 on the Commission’s 2022 AMPR for the Union budget and its conclusion that Volume I of the 2022 AMPR followed the Commission’s corporate management board strategic guidance when it presented the facts and achievements concerning budgetary management for 2022, and notes that there was scope to improve the quality of performance data; notes the Commission’s replies to written questions on an IAS audit on the Commission’s control system in relation to the reliability of performance information and the reassurance given that the identified issue is being dealt with;
61. Welcomes that the Commission has included information in its AMPR on green budgeting, digital tracking and the gender-equality dimension in the Union budget; notes that the number of programmes for which the contribution to gender equality is unknown decreased to 72 %; supports the Commission’s position that this figure needs to be reduced further;
62. Recalls the findings of the Court’s Special Report 09/2022 “Climate Spending in the 2014-2020 EU budget”; notes in addition the Court’s Special Report 26/2023 on the Performance monitoring framework in the RRF; concludes that the Court identified in both Special Reports issues with the method the Commission presents performance information, both in the MFF and the RRF; notes in particular that disclosure about shortcomings in the performance monitoring methodologies show weaknesses in particular because of mixing estimates with actual numbers of achieved results and realised projects or blending budgeted amounts with actually paid amounts; considers that performance data presented by the Commission should not include estimations but only figures of realised actions; remains concerned about the Court’s finding that limited improvements are expected in the 2021-2027 climate reporting; regrets that the Commission has not yet addressed weaknesses in the reported figures of their new methodology;
Revenue
63. Notes that the revenue of the Union budget comprises own resources, external assigned revenue and other revenue; notes that in 2022 the Gross National Income (GNI)-based own resource accounted for EUR 103,9 billion (42,3 %), external assigned revenue accounted for EUR 62,2 billion (25,4 %), traditional own resources (TOR) accounted for EUR 25,9 billion (10,6 %), contributions and refunds connected with the Union agreements and programmes accounted for EUR 20,9 billion (8,5 %), value added tax (VAT)-based own resource accounted for EUR 19,7 billion (8,0%), non-recycled plastic packaging waste-based own resources accounted for EUR 6,3 billion (2,6 %), and other revenue accounted for EUR 6,4 billion (2,6 %);
64. Notes the Court’s Special Report 25/2022 on verification of Gross National Income (GNI) for financing the Union budget; recalls that the GNI data reported by Member States are the basis for calculating the Member States’ contributions and considers it therefore essential for the Commission to improve the efficiency in the verification cycle following the recommendations of the Court; welcomes the Court’s conclusions that the verification process of the GNI data carried out by the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) was effective; welcomes that Eurostat has prepared an action plan to address the recommendations with a view to implementing them after the 2020-2024 cycle;
65. Notes that the Union budget needs to respond to multiple challenges with additional financial programmes, such as the NGEU recovery instrument; notes that for 2022, the revenue from traditional own resources remained relatively stable, while budgetary guarantees for borrowing and lending operations were a substantial part of revenue; recalls in that regard Parliament’s resolution of 10 May 2023 on own resources: a new start for Union finances, a new start for Europe;
66. Welcomes the Court’s conclusion in its Annual Report for 2022 that the level of error in revenue transactions was not material and that the systems for managing the revenue are generally effective; is concerned by the weaknesses identified by the Court in certain Member States’ accounting and management of TOR, and in the Union action taken to reduce the customs gap and ensure that TOR is complete; welcomes the actions undertaken by the Commission and Member States in that regard;
67. Notes from the Annual Report on the Protection of the Union financial interests (PIF Report) that in 2022, the number of fraudulent irregularities relating to TOR (454) fell by 6,8 % and non-fraudulent irregularities (4 207) rose by 9,4 % compared to the 5-year average for 2018-2022; notes that most fraudulent cases reported in 2022 relate to incorrect value and incorrect classification or misdescription of goods, while smuggling remains one of the primary modus operandi; notes that most fraudulent cases are detected by inspections by national anti-fraud services together with customs release controls; notes that the recovery rate is currently 48 %, although it can be expected that it will go up in the future due to the length of the process;
68. Notes the summary of waivers of recoveries and established amounts receivable in Annex 9 of the 2022 AMPR; notes that the total general value of waived recoveries was EUR 40,4 million, an increase of 28 % in comparison with 2021 (EUR 31,4 million) and considers this is a loss of revenue for the Union budget;
69. Calls the Commision to conduct a deep analysis of all amounts recovered on the basis of EPPO notfications and to inform the discharge authority about the results; recalls that the Commission plays the primary role in the follow up and recovery of damages to the EU budget, following EPPO notifications; regrets that EPPO until now is not aware of the mechanisms set up by the Commission to that effect; notes that the issue of EPPO notifications has been raised in the inter-institutional exchange of views on Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2223 ); welcomes the EPPO Working Arrangement and the set up of a working group to ensure that EPPO notifications will enable the Commission to maximize recovery to the EU budget;
70. Welcomes the developments that have resulted in lifting both the quantified and unquantified reservation in the area of textiles and shoes imported from China; notes with satisfaction that the United Kingdom has now paid the total amount due (final payment of EUR 1,57 billion in January 2023) including interest (EUR 1,4 billion in February 2023); notes that by the end of 2023, 27 Member States had made significant provisional payments for their expected amounts due to the Union budget and that in line with the CJEU judgment in the case C-213/19 the Commission will apply the same quantification method for these Member States as for the United Kingdom, which will result in recalculated amounts, allowing the Commission to finalise the exercise completely;
Recommendations
71. Calls on the Commission to:
(i) take over the suggestions of the European Parliament in its resolutions on own resources in order to ensure sufficient resources to repay the investments made under NGEU;
(ii) make use of all means available to stimulate cooperation between anti-fraud services and customs agencies to detect, prevent and correct fraud affecting Union revenue;
(iii) inform the discharge authority about the results of the review of the collected own resources;
(iv) examine carefully the differences in recovery rates by Member States in order to identify possible specific weaknesses;
(v) provide detailed explanations to the discharge authority on reasons why the Commision only partially implemented 13 % of the Court’s recommendations from 2019 and has not implemented further 10 % of their recommendations;
Single market, Innovation and Digital
72. Notes that the budget for the programmes under MFF heading 1 ‘Single Market, Innovation and Digital’ was EUR 25,2 billion (12,9 % of the Union budget) distributed as follows: EUR 15,8 billion (62.8 %) for Research, EUR 3,5 billion (14.0 %) for Transport, Energy and Digital, EUR 2,7 billion (10.6 %) for InvestEU Programme, EUR 2 billion (8.0 %) for Space, and EUR 1,2 billion (4.6%) for other areas; notes that as of 31 December 2022 the final adopted budget commitments appropriations were EUR 21 845,08 million and 99,99 % of them were implemented (EUR 21 842.58 million); notes further that the final adopted budget payment appropriations amounted to EUR 20 605.64 million and 99,35 % of them were implemented (EUR 20 4710.31 million);
Innovation and research
73. Highlights the importance of Union R&I funding programmes for the scientific, societal, and technological/economic development of the Union, to reduce inequalities, for the recovery, the green and digital transitions and the need to decrease Union energy dependency on Russia; recalls that Horizon Europe is the most significant research and innovation programme in Europe, with a total budget of EUR 95.5 billion, including EUR 5.4 billion from the NGEU instrument; notes that the RRF has allocated around EUR 48 billion in investments to R&I;
74. Notes the late adoption of the Horizon Europe legal bases in 2021 and welcomes that the Commission managed to reach close to 100 % budget implementation in 2021 and 2022; notes that the number of grant agreements signed by the end of 2022 was 5 509; notes that, despite the fact the average success rate of proposals has increased from 11,9 % in Horizon 2020 to 15,9 % in Horizon Europe, 7 out of 10 high-quality proposals still cannot be funded and an extra EUR 34,3 billion would have been needed to fund those proposals;
75. Notes that the Court has examined 127 transactions covering the full range of spending under this MFF heading, notably the Horizon2020 programme, the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), financial instruments and the space programme, including the regularity information in the annual activity reports of the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) and Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space (DG DEFIS);
76. Notes that the Court estimates that the level of error in spending on ‘Single Market, Innovation and Digital’ in 2022 was material at 2,7 % ; notes with satisfaction that this is a considerable decrease compared to 4,4 % in 2021; notes the Court’s observation that the research and innovation expenditure is most affected by error, particularly in the area of personnel costs; is concerned that the Commission calculated an error rate of 1,5 % for this heading, which is in the lower half of the range of the Court estimation; is concerned that the Court’s observation of the underestimation of the rate by the commission has persisted for a number of years, with a specific weakness identified in the Commission’s ex post audits;
77. Notes that quantifiable errors relating to ineligible costs represent 98 % of the Court’s estimated level of error of 2,7 % in 2022; notes with concern, in particular, that the rules for declaring personnel costs under Horizon 2020 remain complex and that their calculation remains a significant source of error (67 % of the estimated error level in 2022); notes that the Commission has developed and promotes the use of the ‘Personnel Costs Wizard’ to help beneficiaries to declare their personnel costs correctly;
78. Notes that Horizon 2020 continues to represent the large majority of projects in the Court’s sample, with just one Horizon Europe project in the 2022 sample; stresses that, according to the Court, certain simplifications in Horizon 2020, in particular the introduction of a flat rate for indirect costs, have reduced the administrative burden on beneficiaries and have the potential to reduce the risk of error;
79. Notes the remarks made by the Director-General for Research and Innovation in his discharge hearing that the Commission intends to increase the disbursement of Horizon Europe funds through lump sums from 2 % in 2022 to 50 % in 2027; notes, in that context, the Court’s specific review of the Commission’s procedures and guidance on lump-sum funded grants in research; notes the Commission’s statement that the level of scrutiny in terms of economy, efficiency and effectiveness is higher in the evaluation of lump-sum proposals; emphasises the need to check the actual implementation of projects using lump sums;
80. Stresses the crucial role of the private sector in addressing the innovation gap in the Union and improving Union competitiveness and growth; believes, in particular, that it is imperative to keep promoting and facilitating as much as possible the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Union R&I funding programmes; notes the Court’s conclusion that SMEs and newcomers are more prone to errors than other beneficiaries, since they lack the experience and resources to administer the funds, and welcomes the efforts made by the Commission to specifically support them, for example through information campaigns, contacts with the system of National Contact Points and the dedicated helpdesk of the Research Enquiry Service; considers that the simplification of rules and procedures are the most important driver for increased participation of SMEs;
81. Stresses the importance of having transparent and clear rules applied to the selection procedure and to the public procurement procedures in all executive agencies; regrets the rise of complaints of researchers for non-transparency, notably for the Research Excutive Agency; recalls that under the 2021-2027 long-term Union budget, the REA manages several Union programmes and support services; calls for the Commission to conduct an assessment of all procedures and an ex-post evaluation of the added value of all their executive agencies in accordance with Article 3.1 of the Council Regulation (EC No 58/2003 of 19 December 2002 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes (Official Journal L 011 , 16/01/2003 P. 0001 – 0008));
82. Notes that the R&I Family Fraud Risk Assessment was updated in 2022 as work preceding the 2023 update of the Common Anti-Fraud Strategy; notes the drafting and adoption in 2022 of the ‘Guidance on Horizon Europe ex-ante anti-fraud checks’, which is part of the Horizon Europe ex-ante control strategy; notes that the main forum of the R&I Family on anti-fraud matters is the committee for Fraud and Irregularities in Research (FAIR Committee), that met two times in 2022; notes that DG RTD also updated its Anti-fraud Strategy in 2022; considers that a zero-tolerance policy for fraud is also necessary in the area of research; in light of the ongoing simplification efforts it is important to guarantee that all European grants and subsidies benefit the projected goals and to develop effective tools to identify fraud and fraud patterns in the context of lump sums; notes that one important element to avoid fraudulent misuse is the referral of respective cases to the Early Detection and Exclusion System panel;
83. Recalls that fostering, attracting and retaining talent is one of the five flagships comprising the New European Innovation Agenda (NEIA), adopted on 5 July 2022; notes the statements of Commissioner Ivanova in her discharge hearing on the efforts made by the Commission to increase inclusivity in Horizon2020 and Horizon Europe; notes the Commissioner’s acknowledgement that further efforts are necessary to increase the participation of women and young people in Union R&I programmes; notes in that regard the efforts made by the Commission to implement the provisions on gender equality plans in Horizon Europe, and the joint RTD-EAC effort to attract female talent to STEM; welcomes that, in addition to other Union initiatives aiming to support and empower women in tech and innovation, in 2022 the Commission launched the second edition of Women TechEU call with an increased budget of EUR 10 million, which attracted a record number of interest with 467 applications from 35 Member States and Horizon Europe Associated Countries;
84. Welcomes the role of the ERC in supporting top researchers in Europe, which is underlined by numerous awards, including 14 Nobel Prizes, 6 Fields Medals and 11 Wolf Prizes; welcomes the 2 300 patent applications and 400 spin-off companies generated thanks to ERC projects;
85. Stresses the independence and autonomy of the ERC when fulfilling its role in supporting excellent research in the Union; recalls that the ERC requires a unique set-up to host ERCEA staff, the ERC Scientific Council and the experts responsible for the panel evaluations and that this configuration is indispensable for its work; is astonished by the Commission's plan to move several executive agencies and the ERCEA into new buildings without proper consultation and their agreement, while disregarding their actual office needs and thus endangering business continuity; highlights that even some Commission services were not adequately informed about these plans; stresses that the ERCEA has the right to sign lease contracts on its own and without the Commission's approval to maintain its extraordinary business model; underlines that the Commission must plan and collaborate with the ERCEA in good time to find suitable office spaces that fulfil their requirements and do not endanger their activities;
86. Notes the disparities in R&I development within the Union and welcomes the different measures taken by the Commission to boost Member States’ R&I investments, especially less performing R&I countries, including around EUR 48 billion from the RRF, coupled with EUR 43 billion from the cohesion Policy and EUR 3 billion from the ‘Widening participation and spreading excellence’component of Horizon Europe; notes that despite the Commission’s efforts to increase funding allocated to researchers in widening countries several ‘catch-up countries’ are not yet showing progress;
87. Notes that, following Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the Commission stopped the participation of Russian public entities in ongoing Horizon 2020 projects and future Horizon Europe projects; notes that the latest amendment of the ‘main’ Horizon Europe work programme 2021-2022, adopted on 10 May 2022, included actions to support researchers previously active in Ukraine; notes that the Commission provided financial support of in the form of a grant of EUR 1.5million to the National Research Foundation of Ukraine for the establishment of a Horizon Europe Office in Ukraine (Kyiv), which will promote funding opportunities and offer support in drafting proposals and finding partners in Europe;
88. Acknowledges that, in 2022, CEF reached its full implementation phase and deems it an achievement; regrets the decrease, compared to 2021, in funding for calls for proposals under the CEF Transport 2022 funding instrument on projects targeting new, upgraded and improved European transport infrastructure; takes note that CEF Transport 2022 calls that were launched during the 3rd quarter of 2022 opened additional funding possibilities with an extra EUR 6 billion. of Union co-funding; insists that a sufficiently high CEF Transport budget line is key to ensuring implementation of the Trans-european Transport Network (TEN-T) network, including the enlargement in the Eastern region to provide connection to the Eastern partners such as Ukraine, greening of European transport, increased military mobility and offsetting the unprecedently high inflation rates;
89. Applauds the initiative of the European Air Traffic Management Voluntary Solidarity Fund for Ukraine and Moldova under the responsibility of Eurocontrol, aiming to sustain staff/training costs and any other costs to ensure operational readiness when air traffic recovers; furthermore, welcomes another Eurocontrol solidarity mechanism to assist the front-line states struggling with the effects of a sharp drop in air traffic; points out that the Eurocontrol Member States decided to establish two specific funds: one in the form of a donation to Ukraine and Moldova of EUR 46.5 million. and one in the form of a loan of EUR 46,1 million. to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland;
Energy
90. Notes the complexity of the energy policy framework in the Union and stresses that ensuring better interconnectivity is at the core of the Union energy market; welcomes the adoption of the new trans-European energy infrastructure Regulation (EU) 2022/869 (‘TEN-E Regulation’); considers that the Union has, through TEN-E, CEF and the RRF/ RePowerEU Plan, made a robust legal framework available for investments in energy infrastructure, addressing the challenges of decarbonisation and decreasing dependency on imports of fossil fuel; notes the efforts made to coordinate the construction of high-priority electricity infrastructure across Member States, digitalise the Union energy system, and stimulate the grid investment with the right regularity environment, in particular through CEF Energy;
91. Notes that, in total, CEF Energy 1 and 2 (2014-2022) provided EUR 6,24 billion of support to energy projects (EUR 5,74 billion works, EUR 0.5 billion studies) to 118 Projects of Common Interest (PCIs) and by the end of 2022, 123 actions that received support from CEF-1 Energy were completed;
92. Notes that Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and weaponisation of energy upended energy markets in 2022, triggering price volatility and energy insecurity across the Union’s energy system; highlights the Commission’s response to the crisis by developing the REPowerEU Plan aiming to reduce dependence on Russian fossil fuels and phase out Russian energy imports before 2030; notes that the REPowerEU Plan mobilises close to EUR 300 billion, approximately EUR 72 billion in grants and EUR 225 billion in loans; notes that the REPowerEU Plan has additionally provided a legal basis for both Member States and the Commission to modify national RRPs and to check whether Milestones and Targets (M&Ts) are well defined to clarify them where necessary;
Recommendations
93. Calls on the Commission to:
(i) include extra funds needed for Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe in the draft 2025 budget to improve on the current state where 7 out of 10 high-quality proposals still cannot be funded;
(ii) continue to apply simplified rules and procedures, digitalisation measures and simplified cost options (SCOs) while addressing, in particular, the risk of irregularities and fraud and the costs of controls;
(iii) continue to simplify rules and procedures in line with the new financial regulation, to support training sessions and practical information for applicants in member states, in particular for SMEs, spin-offs, start-ups, regional NGOs or local action groups;
(iv) continue to promote the use of the ‘Personnel Costs Wizard’ to beneficiaries, in particular newcomers and SMEs, to decrease the error level related to personnel costs;
(v) continue its efforts to achieve a more inclusive Union research programme by giving support, setting clear targets and organising special research programmes for under-represented target groups, such as women and young people, also aspiring for balanced geographical distribution across the Union;
(vi) encourage and support Members States, specially ‘catch-up countries’, to fully exploit the synergies between available Union funds, including RRF and Cohesion funds, to increase the number of research and innovation activities in these countries; and
(vii) continue the funding to create an integrated, innovative and resilient Energy Union that promotes secure, sustainable, competitive and affordable energy for all, particularly SMEs and vulnerable and energy-poor consumers, while accelerating Europe’s clean and just energy transition for it to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050;
(viii) increase awareness, coherence, and sustainability of the support to SME internationalisation;
(ix) check the actual implementation of projects using lump sums;
(x) report to the discharge authority:
a. how many cases of suspected fraud have been referred by the competent Commission departments to the EDES panel, for what exclusion grounds, and how many of these cases have resulted in 1. an early detection decision, 2. an exclusion decision of the panel;
b. for how long entities have been excluded from participation in Union funds;
c. if any of the excluded entities has received Union funds after the exclusion decision had ended;
Cohesion, Resilience and Values
94. Notes that the budget for the programmes under MFF heading 2 ‘Cohesion, resilience and values’ was EUR 79,1 billion (40,4 % of the Union budget) distributed as follows: 53,6 % for the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and other regional operations, 23,6 % for the European Social Fund (ESF), 12,6 % for the Cohesion Fund (CF), 4,4 % for Erasmus+, 2,3 % for CEF Transport, 0,6 % for ESI and 2,9 % for other areas; notes that as of 31 December 2022 the final adopted budget commitments appropriations were EUR 67 805,19 million and 98,29 % of them were implemented (EUR 66 644,24 million); notes further that the final adopted budget payment appropriations amounted to EUR 63 104,31 million and 99,86 % of them were implemented (EUR 63 054,76 million);
95. Notes that in 2022, the implementation of the cohesion policy under the 2014-2020 programming period continued and that for the 2021-2027 period, the Commission concluded the negotiations of all programmes and made only advance payments, which amounted to EUR 6,5 billion;
96. Recalls that spending under the subheading “Economic, social and territorial cohesion” (Subheading 2a) focuses on reducing development disparities between the different Member States and regions of the Union; stresses the importance of Union cohesion policy in supporting the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights and achieving its headline targets and assisting Member States and regions to harness new opportunities and address challenges, such as globalisation, unemployment, poverty and social exclusion, industrial change, digitalisation and supporting up and re-skilling and lifelong learning;
97. Recalls the Court’s Special Report 27/2021 “EU Support to tourism – Need for a fresh strategic orientation and a better funding approach”; recalls the Court’s recommendation to the Commission to set out a consolidated new strategy for the Union’s tourism ecosystem in cooperation with the Member States in order to develop an effective tourism agenda for 2030 and to apply selection procedures for ERDF-funded tourism investments to support this new strategic orientation; underlines the Commission’s responsibility to support the Member States in promoting tourism-related investments, in accordance with the strategic agenda;
98. Notes that the absorption rate for cohesion policy funds under the programming period 2014-2020 reached 79,2 % at the end of 2022 (86 % at the end of 2023, including newly added Recovery assistance for cohesion and the territories of Europe (REACT-EU) in 2021-2022), having a similar level at the same point in time as in the period 2007-2013; is concerned that this level of absoption was only achieved through a temporary 100% Union co-financing rate waiving any requirement for national co-financing of projects that have been a long-established principle of Union finances; notes that the 2014-2020 programmes account for over 1 million projects and that so far, they have supported 2,4 million businesses, created 370 000 new jobs, increased the energy performance of more than 540 000 households, created 6 000 megawatts of new renewable energy sources and that 6,3 million households benefited from broadband; notes that absorption in 2022 improved for a large part because of CRII, CRII+, CARE, and FAST-CARE for the purpose of crisis response, diminishing projects to support the structural cohesion objectives of creating convergence and cohesion in the Union;
99. Welcomes the financial flexibility available in the use of cohesion funds and underlines that, thanks to this flexibility, cohesion policy played a frontline role in addressing the COVID-19 crisis, the war-related emergencies, as well as the energy crisis; reminds, however, that the rationale of this policy is to ensure a long-term planning of measures that should strengthen economic, social, and territorial cohesion between European regions; believes that post-2027 cohesion policy must provide the flexibility needed in the use of funds to enable the Member States and regional and local authorities to steer resources in an appropriate and reliable manner, always in line with cohesion policy long-term objectives;
100. Notes further that, in 2022, Cohesion's Action for Refugees in Europe (CARE) and the Flexible Assistance to Territories (FAST-CARE) mobilised over EUR 1,3 billion to help Member States and regions to support millions of Ukrainian refugees seeking shelter in Union territory, including mainstream social integration programmes, healthcare, food or essential assistance, and orientation for the job market; welcomes that the proposed measures are subject to the same obligations regarding adequate management and control systems and sound financial management that apply to cohesion policy funds;
101. Notes that the Court has examined a sample of 260 transactions covering the full range of spending under MFF Heading 2; notes with concern that the Court’s estimated overall level of error in ‘Cohesion, resilience and values’ in 2022 increased to 6,4 %, which is significantly above the materiality threshold, having already taken into account corrections with a total value of EUR 618 million applied by Member States in 2022; draws attention to the marked increase in the overall level of error estimated by the Court in 2022 compared to previous years (3,6 % in 2021, 3,5 % in 2020) while the Commission’s estimates of the payment risk for 2022 is between 1,9 % and 2,7 %, similar to previous years (1,9 %-2,5 % in 2021, 2,1 %-2,6 % in 2020); draws attention to the Court’s report that a significant part of errors (3 % out of 6,4 %) were made in expenditure originating from CRII and CRII+;
102. Is concerned about the Court’s observation that approaching the end of the eligibility period for 2014-2020 programmes (31 December 2023) added absorption pressure and that during the COVID-19 period, the effectiveness of the checks and verifications by managing and audit authorities may have been reduced, potentially increasing the risk of undetected errors and irregularities; notes that the Commission acknowledges that the specific situation and flexibilities given during COVID-19 may have played a role in the risk of irregularities due to the need to find alternative (remote) ways to control expenditure; stresses, however, that according to the Commission the risks and irregularities identified are rather linked to the type of actions implemented during the COVID-19 period or to the implementation or understanding of the flexibility introduced in public procurement rules;
103. Notes the Court’s explanations that its error rate refers to the share of expenditure declared, for which it considers that the conditions for payment set out in Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2018/1046 (‘the Financial Regulation’) , the CPR and in Directive (EU) 2017/1371 on the protection of the Union’s financial interests (‘PIF Directive’) have not been fully met, leading to a direct and measurable financial impact on the payment amount authorised at the time from the Union budget; notes the Court’s clarification that the error rate should not be interpreted as being equivalent to the potential amount of financial corrections the Commission can impose in accordance with the applicable rules; considers that the high error rate indicates a waste of resources, in particular in cohesion policy, where many managing authorities are confronted with the parallel implementation of the RRF;
104. Notes that in the annual activity reports, the Commission reports the risk at payment, for each programme and overall for the funds, that refer to irregularities leading to financial corrections; notes that to impose financial corrections, the Commission needs to conclude that an irregularity within the meaning of the Article 2(36) of the CPR has occurred, while not all formal breaches and errors included by the Court as quantifiable errors in its estimated error rate lead to ineligible expenditure because they do not qualify as an irregularity as defined in Article 2(36) of the CPR; notes that it is helpful for the discharge authority to have a managerial perspective on errors identified;
105. Notes with concern that the Court identified an increase in the specific types of errors, such as ineligible costs and projects and infringements of internal market rules, including public procurement and state aid rules, stresses that these types of errors could be related to poor governance; notes that 3 % of the Court’s estimated 6,4 % error rate in Heading 2 is related to 100 % co-financed priorities under the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative (CRII+) which allowed for more flexible spending; reiterates that more flexibility should never lead to compromising quality and controls; asks for a review from the Commission of the current situation in order to avoid similar situations in the future; notes that the Commission has not found audit evidence of a significant impact overall of the new types of measures and flexibilities introduced on the programme error rates and notes the fact that the Commission took measures to prevent such risk;
106. Notes that the Court identified cases of projects for which ineligible expenditure was accepted, as well as their contribution to the overall estimated level of error; stresses the importance of remedying the systemic root causes and the need for audit authorities to effectively assess the eligibility criteria;
107. Notes that the Commission considers that self-declarations are a useful tool for providing assurance when finding alternative supporting evidence would be difficult or administratively too costly for the beneficiaries; supports the Court’s recommendation to improve checks by audit authorities of self-declarations issued by beneficiaries of the funds in order to ensure their validity and reliability;
108. Notes that for ERDF and CF, the Commission implemented financial corrections and withdrawals amounting to EUR 11 billion over the programming period, including EUR 2,4 billion for the accounting year 2021-2022; notes that these financial corrections have not resulted in any loss of funding for Member States so far, as the Commission has not yet implemented any net financial correction in the 2014-2020 period; notes further that the Commission continues the implementation of its targeted ‘action plan on public procurement and State aid’ in cooperation with Member States; acknowledges that national authorities are primarily responsible for making the financial corrections decided by the Commission but believes that additional checks shall be implemented in order to confirm that all corrections have been implemented correctly;
109. Notes the Court’s remark that the overlap of programming periods, combined with the availability of additional funding instruments under NGEU (REACT-EU and the RRF), with a more limited lifetime, may have put a strain on the administrative capacity of Member States in the programming period and at the start of the implementation of their 2021-2027 cohesion programmes; notes that in 2022, national and regional authorities had to shift their focus on reprogramming the 2014-2020 cohesion policy programmes, including the introduction of measures funded under CRII(+), REACT-EU, Flexible Assistance to Territories (FAST-CARE) and Supporting Affordable Energy (SAFE), as well as implementing the national plans under the RRF, in order to address different crisis, recovery and rescue measures; notes that the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban policy (DG REGIO) provides support to the national and regional authorities to ensure full implementation of the 2014-2020 programmes;
110. Notes that complementarity characterises the relation between the cohesion policy funds and the other Union funding instruments; recalls that, although the cohesion policy funds and the RRF are different in terms of general objectives, timeline, management mode and financing, current experience shows that several RRPs foresee investments which would have been eligible for financing under cohesion policy; highlights that complementarity between cohesion policy funds and RRF is possible and expected, provided that the RRF brings real added value and that the same costs are not covered twice; underlines that the risk of overlaps will increase towards the end of the RRF lifetime and points to the Commission to do its utmost to mitigate these risks;
111. Urges the Commission to monitor the situation, in particular when RRF national coordinating authorities are the same as for cohesion policy funds, and insisted on having sufficient additional administrative capacity and human resources allocated to the different strands of Union funding; nevertheless, points to the potential risks that this parallelism may lead to unidentified cases of double funding; calls on the Commission to draw lessons from the experiences out of two different funding models;
112. Welcomes that for the moment neither the Court nor the Commission identify any cases where the obligatory national co-funding of a cohesion project was paid for by RRF funds in the 2022 RRF disbursements; urges the Commission to continue to monitor the situation and prevent such financing from happening;
113. Is concerned by the Court’s persistent comments on the shortcoming identified in the way audit and managing authorities work notably weaknesses in the ex post checks by the audit authorities and in controls by the managing authorities that do not always effectively prevent or detect irregularities in expenditure declared by beneficiaries and the over-reliance of the Commission on the quality of programme authorities’ work, related to inherent limitations in the Commission’s desk reviews;
114. Notes the Commission’s reply that its assessment, based on a combination of desk and on-the-spot audit work covering the different individual programmes and assurance packages, enables it to establish a reasonable and fair estimate of the error rates for each programme, every year, and cumulatively for cohesion policy funds; agrees with the Court that the Commission’s desk reviews have inherent limitations in confirming the validity of the residual total error rates reported by audit authorities; notes that these weaknesses might also affect the Commission’s estimated risk at closure, as the Commission may not in all cases carry out the necessary corrections to bring the residual error rate below materiality;
115. Stresses with concern that the Court’s finding that the proportion of assurance packages with residual error rates of above 2 % reached a peak of 61 % of the expenditure in the Court’s sample in 2022 compared to 39 % in the previous year, reflecting the persistent shortcomings in the work of the audit authorities; stresses with concern that the Court’s audit results over the last six years demonstrate that the controls currently in place do not yet sufficiently offset the high inherent risk of error in cohesion, and that managing authorities do not always effectively prevent or detect irregularities in expenditure declared by beneficiaries; notes with concern that the errors found by the Court represent significant weaknesses in the audit authorities’ work on verifying the eligibility of expenditures and projects, and the compliance with internal market rules; notes that a part of the residual error rates recalculated by the Court above 2 % in the audited assurance packages are attributable to the aforementioned divergences;
116. Is concerned about the persistent shortcomings observed by the Court in the national audits, which can be due to inadequate scope, unclear documentation of audits and sample filtering performed by national audit authorities, as well as resource issues, such as inadequate funding and a lack of a skilled experts; stresses its concern that the Court observed weaknesses in a wide range of audits, for example cases of insufficient checks on information provided by beneficiaries on the eligibility of projects, on the compliance with internal market rules and on the risk of fraud and conflict of interest; notes that the Commission, on the other hand, considers the work of the majority of the audit authorities to be reliable and that only 10 out of 116 audit authorities need serious improvements; recalls its recommendations in the Parliament resolution of 21 November 2023 on possibilities to increase the reliability of audits and controls by national authorities in shared management;
117. Notes the Commission’s commitment to continue its close work with the audit authorities in order to strengthen their capacity to prevent and correct errors, to better document their audit work and therefore to contribute to the assurance process;
118. Notes the Court’s finding that, as a way to simplify expenditure, beneficiaries of cohesion policy funding used SCOs for 77 transactions, or 30% of its sample, applying either flat rates, standard sales of unit costs or a combination of both; stresses that SCOs are one of the most important measures to reduce administrative costs and burdens for the beneficiaries and thus, to facilitate the access of small beneficiaries to the funding and focus more on the achievement of the objectives while reducing the error rate; highlights that the Court considers that SCO’s are not always adequately implemented and shares the Court’s audit conclusion that SCOs should not result in an excessive financial benefit for a member state; on the other side SCO should in practice lead to real reductions of bureaucratic burden and not to an exhaustive ex-ante and ex-post control; notes that slight variations of prices in SCO estimates compared to the prices identified during ex-post controls should be acceptable;
119. Notes that, for the 2021-2027 programmes, the Commission has encouraged the use by programme authorities of the simplification measures foreseen under the CPR, in particular, the use of SCOs and financing not linked to costs (FNLC) schemes to tackle eligibility issues, ease management verifications and control the burden on beneficiaries; notes that, as a result of this effort, for the ERDF and the CF for example, 120 SCO schemes at programme level were adopted so far in 11 Member States and for Interreg programmes (EUR 5,7 billion of total contribution) as well as 4 FNLC schemes in 4 Member States (for EUR 1,2 billion of total contribution); underlines that urgently further simplification and flexibility is needed; calls on the Commission to find the right balance between necessary flexibility for slight price variations and on the other sider inappropriate intentional cost and price overestimations;
120. Is concerned by the Court’s finding regarding an ERDF programme in Slovakia aimed at renovating a public building’s interior space, despite the fact that under that program only energy-efficiency measures were eligible; notes the Court’s observation that this project should not have passed the evaluation phase, as in the application the threshold of at least 25 % of the expenditure for the project linked to energy efficiency was not met; notes similar cases identified by the Court that lack a Commission response;
121. Recalls that for the 2021-2027 period, Member States need to comply with certain horizontal or thematic enabling conditions of the CPR, which are prerequisite conditions for the effective and efficient implementation of the specific objectives of the funds; recalls that when enabling conditions are not fulfilled at the time of submission of a payment application to the Commission for the specific objective concerned, the related expenditure will not be reimbursed from the Union budget until the Commission is satisfied that the enabling condition has been fulfilled;
122. Recalls that on 15 December 2022, based on a Commission proposal, the Council adopted Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/2506 on measures for the protection of the Union budget against breaches of the principles of the Rule of law in Hungary; stresses that the decision was based on the Commission’s concerns regarding severe issues related to the public procurement system in Hungary; welcomes the temporarily suspension of 55 % of commitments for certain cohesion policy programmes for the period 2021-2027; notes that the Commission has been monitoring the implementation of the remedial measures proposed by Hungary in the framework of the ‘Conditionality Regulation’; notes that in December 2023, the Commission reassessed on its own motion the situation in Hungary and concluded that the Union’s budget remains at the same level of risk as there are still commitments that were neither correctly nor timely fulfilled;
123. Notes that in December 2022, the Commission concluded that Hungary was not fulfilling the horizontal enabling conditions under the CPR on the Charter with regard to judicial independence and the provisions of several laws posing serious risks to LGBTIQ+ rights, academic freedom and the right to asylum; strongly regrets the Commission decision of 13.12.2023 considering that Hungary has fulfilled the horizontal enabling condition related to the judiciary independence, thus enabling the Hungarian authorities to submit reimbursement claims of up to EUR 10.2 billion without adequate control mechanisms or public procurement procedures in place to guarantee sound financial management and the protection of the Union budget; believes that this decision politically contradicts the prolongation of the measures adopted under the Conditionality Regulation and expresses its disappointment that Parliament was not adequately informed during the process; reiterates its concerns regarding the judicial independence, even after the recent reforms, as expressed in its Resolution of 18 January 2024 on the situation in Hungary and frozen Union funds;
124. Reiterates the need of treating as a single, integral package all the measures required for the release of Union funding under the Conditionality Regulation, the CPRs and the RRF Regulation; stresses the importance of the protection of the Union financial interests also for disbursement of pre-financing;
125. Notes from the Annual Report on the Protection of the EU’s Financial Interests for the year 2022 (PIF Report) that from 2021 to 2022, the number of fraudulent irregularities relating to the Cohesion Policy decreased by 11,6 % (233 reported in 2021 compared to 206 reported in 2022), while non-fraudulent irregularities increased by 9,3 %; notes that the Commission requested audit authorities to pay particular attention to new risks related to the multiplication of Funds and additional funding under NGEU, in particular, ‘double funding’, conflicts of interest, fraud or corruption; notes the efforts made by the Commission to promote the use of the ARACHNE risk scoring tool to the reluctant Member States, and to introduce improvements in the tool; notes that the audit authorities explicitly addressed the risk of fraud for 65 % of the audited operations in the 2014-2020 period, which is an improvement on the 38 % found in 2021 by the Court;
126. Stresses that the Court, OLAF and the EPPO should have access to a single integrated IT system for data-mining and risk-scoring provided by the Commission, in a proportionate manner, within the exercise of their respective competences, as is envisaged in the recast of the Financial Regulation;
127. Highlights the importance of the legality and regularity of cohesion spending as well as the crucial role that managing and audit authorities play in this respect; recalls the need to simplify and rationalise audits, concentrating on what is necessary to fight against fraud; recalls, in addition, that according to the 21-27 Common Provisions Regulation, Member State authorities should report all cases of suspected or established fraud related to Union-funded projects that they identify, and that they should report these cases even if they detect them before declaring expenditure to the Commission;
128. Highlights the significant role of the European Anti-Fraud Office and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in protecting the Union budget; calls on all Member States to join the EPPO; reminds that, in her appearance before the Committee on Regional Development on 25 May 2023, the European Public Prosecutor noted that the management and control system for Union expenditure currently in place is not designed to detect fraud and that audits or administrative investigations rarely detect financial crime, which often has a cross-border dimension; stresses the need to provide the EPPO with the necessary means to carry out its duties; is of the opinion that a strengthened EPPO would make it possible for the legislator to further simplify the regulatory framework for cohesion in order to improve the implementation of the funds;
129. Requests OLAF to carry out a thorough investigation on the possible misuse of Union funds through Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps by networks of associations that present false projects, with the aim of verifying recent reports on this matter by some national agencies, measuring the scale and importance of such cases of fraud, and analysing their treatment by competent authorities in the Member States;
Recommendations
130. Calls on the Commission to:
(i) proactively engage in constructive dialogue with the Court to overcome the growing number of situations where the Commission’s official response to the Court’s findings is to ‘agree to disagree’ and continue its cooperation with the Court in order to align the results of their estimated error rates and the interpretation of legal texts;
(ii) match the Court’s findings concerning Member States’ declarations with the information coming from the Commission’s risk at payment and risk at closure exercise on managing authorities to identify error hotspots that need to be addressed with urgency;
(iii) continue its close work with the audit authorities in order to strengthen their capacity to prevent and correct recurring errors, to better document their audit work and therefore to contribute to the assurance process;
(iv) improve and strengthen Member States' management and control system to ensure member states declare only eligible expenditure to the Commission;
(v) ensure that audit authorities have appropriate methods in place to check self-declarations by means of identifying good practices and issuing a guidance to Member States;
(vi) carry out specific targeted checks as part of the closure audits to ensure that Member States have applied the necessary financial corrections for errors detected;
(vii) pay particular attention in its audits to the risks linked to the flexibilities introduced with the CRII/CRII+ amendments; launch an immediate review of spending under these programmes to identify and correct systemic issues which have led to an abrupt increase of the error rate;
(viii) continue its support to Member States and at the same time prepare an action plan on how to best avoid the administrational over-burden towards the end of the MFF that will come on top of the planned RRF eligibility period, given the completion of the 2014-2020 programming period and the implementation of the current one, in particular by supporting administrative capacity building;
(ix) continue the implementation of its 4th revision of the“action plan on public procurement” in cooperation with Member States to help programme authorities and contracting authorities to improve their practices in the area of public procurement, including how to avoid the most common errors in public procurement linked to the management of the ESI Funds, as well as targeted training sessions for Member States’ officials;
(x) deliver on its promise to provide both the Discharge Authority as well as the general public with the list of Union funds’ biggest final beneficiaries, where such a list considers the final beneficiary to be the natural person or an entity that, as the last in the chain of recipients, receives the Union funds;
(xi) further enhance simplification in the implementation of cohesion programmes; furthermore encourages the Commission to implement tools for digitalisation of public procurement based on the the model of e.procurement , and to help Members states in this transition;
(xii) work, in order to achieve a successful uptake of SCOs, in parallel with all stakeholders, on methodological and assurance harmonisation so that there is sufficient predictability for the beneficiaries on how those options are expected to be implemented; and ensure that audits do not lead to further bureaucratisation of implementation and an unnecessary audit burden on beneficiaries; ensure SCOs are not implemented in a way that Member States gain excessive financial benefit, while guaranteeing an appropriate flexibility in the cost and price estimations;
(xiii) work together with Member States' audit authorities to ensure that the specific risk of double funding, especially with the RRF financing, is reduced by adequate national controls and audits; insists that the Commission performs thematic or compliance audits tailored to target high-risk areas and Member States; and
(xiv) establish a comprehensive mechanism for the use of cohesion funds in the event of exceptional or unforeseen circumstances using guiding provisions on its scope, funding availability, governance, audit and control, and application; underlines that such use for exceptional circumstances should be restricted to specific and well defined situations, limited in time and scope and with an increased degree of controls to mitigate risks;
(xv) calls on the Commission to re-assess its decision to “unfreeze” EUR 10.2 billion of cohesion funds to Hungary and to refrain from disbursing any funds until the relevant legislation has been implemented and the adopted measures have proven to be effective in practice;
(xvi) make the use of IT tools such as EDES and ARACHNE mandatory and systematic for all Union funds including shared management and ensure better use of new technology in order to increase controls and protect the Union budget against fraud and misuse of funds in the context of the concluded revision of the Financial Regulation;
(xvii) grant the Court, OLAF and the EPPO access to a single integrated IT system for data-mining and risk-scoring provided by the Commission, in the terms agreed in the recast of the Financial Regulation;
(xviii) report on the early preventive system audits (EPSA) performed at the beginning of the programming period, in order to confirm the effectiveness of the control systems in the Member States, including the system in place to prevent irregularities;
(xix) report to the discharge authority how the use of flexibility measures in cohesion policy, that have improved absorption, has affected the structural cohesion objectives of convergence and cohesion;
Culture and education
131. Welcomes the Commission’s and the European Education and Culture Executive Agency’s (EACEA) efforts to adapt Erasmus+, the European Solidarity Corps and Creative Europe to a changing reality, for instance by reviewing upwards individual support rates for grants to safeguard their inclusive character, extending application deadlines and project duration, and a voluntary refocusing of activities on Ukraine, and expects more efforts to further reinforce inclusion measures and support to facilitate the participation of vulnerable groups;
132. Appreciates that the Commission and the EACEA managed to achieve nearly full budget execution for Erasmus+ and full budget execution for the European Solidarity Corps in 2022, making it even necessary to redeploy credits from other programmes to cover payment needs; notes the challenges to the payment implementation of Creative Europe in 2022, with some EUR 50 million having been deferred to 2023 as a result of operational issues and delays in the granting processes; recognises DG Education, Youth, Sport and Culture’s (DG EAC) and the EACEA’s efforts to limit the impact of these delays and return to a normalised pace in 2023;
133. Reaffirms the need for increasing further the budgetary envelopes of the EU’s youth, cultural and educational programmes, in particular to increase the outreach to and involvement of young people, artists and professionals with fewer opportunities and to support citizenship education; in this respect, requests the Commission to continue cooperating closely with the Member States;
134. Welcomes the fact that, thanks to a EUR 3 million reinforcement of the 2022 European Year of Youth at the Parliament’s insistence, a number of actions under the Year could be strengthened, such as solidarity projects, volunteering and networking activities; underlines that the successful results of the Year should now be sustainably implemented to ensure its lasting legacy;
135. Notes the continued frontloading of the Creative Europe budget in 2022 for mitigating the persisting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the cultural and creative sectors; notes that, thanks to this frontloading, a higher number of European cultural cooperation projects could be selected in 2022 than ever before; is, however, concerned that the frontloading of 2021 and 2022 may lead to a shortage of funding from 2023 and deplores that the programme as a whole remains underfinanced in relation to the objectives to be achieved, notably given its high subscription rate;
136. Notes with concern the persisting challenges in 2022 with the e-Grant tools for beneficiaries of calls managed by the EACEA; strongly urges the Commission and EACEA to address these IT issues once and for all to avoid repercussions on target achievement, to reduce the risk of errors and to simplify procedures; believes that a more efficient and accessible IT infrastructure would also facilitate small beneficiaries’ access to programme resources;
137. Notes the positive development in the EACEA’s staffing situation, with a significant increase of staff by the end of 2022;
Natural resources
138. Notes that the budget for the programmes under MFF heading 3 ‘Natural resources’ was EUR 58,3 billion (29,7 % of the Union budget) distributed as follows: 65,9 % for direct payments under the European Agricultural Guarantee fund (EAGF), 26,2 % for the Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EARDF), 4,7 % for market-related expenditure under the EAGF, 1,8 % for Maritime and Fisheries, 0,9 % for Environment and Climate (LIFE), and 0,5 % for other areas; notes that as of 31 December 2022, under MFF heading 3 ‘Natural Resources and Environment’ the final adopted budget commitments appropriations were EUR 56 681,11 million and 98,92 % of them were implemented (EUR 56 069,86 million); notes further that the final adopted budget payment appropriations amounted to EUR 55 826,77 million and 98,89 % of them were implemented (EUR 55 205,48 million);
139. Notes that 2022 was the second and last year of the transitional period during which funds from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2021-2027 budget allocation and an additional EUR 8 billion of externally assigned revenue from the NextGenerationEU funds for the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development Fund (EAFRD) could be committed by Member States in anticipation of the entry into force of the new CAP on 1 January 2023 and that the related payments by Member States to farmers and other CAP beneficiaries can be made until 31 December 2025;
140. Notes that, in the financial year 2022, there were more than 5,9 million beneficiaries of direct support schemes, around 3,5 million beneficiaries of rural development measures and some 0,11 million beneficiaries of market measures; stresses that the resilience of the Union farmers and food system has continued to ensure food security in the Union and beyond, despite the challenges they faced in 2022;
141. Notes that Russia’s unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine triggered, among other actions, the activation of the crisis reserve in the form of a support package that amounted to EUR 500 million, out of which EUR 350 million was made available for affected producers from the reserve and another EUR 150 million from the EAGF; welcomes the high execution rate (above EUR 492 million) and the fast implementation; notes that Member States were given flexibility in deciding on the sectors they considered most hit by the market disturbance and also the types of aid schemes, which determined the control system applied;
142. Notes that the Court has examined a sample of 218 transactions covering the full range of spending under this MFF heading; notes that the Court also examined the regularity information given in the annual activity reports of the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) and the Directorate-General for Climate Action (DG CLIMA), as well as selected systems in 17 Member States and the United Kingdom; notes that the Court estimates the level of error for ‘Natural Resources’ to be 2,2 % (1,8 % in 2021) and that the majority of the errors found affected rural development transactions; notes that DG AGRI estimates a risk at payment of 1,76 %;
143. Notes that the Court found 21 quantifiable errors in rural development, 7 in direct payments, 2 in expenditure related to market measures and 2 in non-CAP expenditure; is reassured by the fact that the Commission stated that 8 of the quantifiable errors have a financial impact below EUR 100 (over-declaration of areas) and for most of them, the amount misspent is below EUR 1 000;
144. Notes that the majority of errors found by the Court were related to the provision of inaccurate information on areas or animals (42 %) and ineligible beneficiary, activity, and project, expenditure; notes with concern, as in 2021, that the Court found in several cases that the Member State authorities and the Commission had sufficient information to prevent, or to detect and correct the error before accepting the expenditure and that, had the Member States' authorities and the Commission made proper use of all the information at their disposal, the estimated level of error for this chapter would have been 1.3 percentage points lower;
145. Recalls that both the Commission and Member States are responsible for addressing fraud in CAP spending; Points out that anti-fraud measures should remain a high priority for the Union and Member States as fraud prevents Union resources from achieving the policy objectives.
146. Notes the Commission’s statement that the 2023-2027 CAP delivery model aims to simplify rules and to emphasise the use of new technologies, such as the Area Monitoring System, that will help reduce errors; notes that, together with errors made by the farmers, the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) is the basis for the geospatial aid application and recalls the significant potential benefits of technologies for monitoring area aid for farmers, administrations and the environment;
147. Notes the example of an incorrect declaration of agricultural activity presented by the Court in its annual report, quoted in several media outlets as the “lemon trees’ case”, where a farmer declared to cultivate permanent crop, where in reality the plot was not cultivated for several years; notes the financial impact of this error was EUR 8 349,06 as reported by the Commission, along with the corrective actions taken by the responsible national authorities, including the recovery of the claimed amount; commends the thorough audit work of the Court and the Commission and the swift follow-up by the paying agency concerned; stresses though that this case should not be understood as an rare and individual coincidence but rather as a risk of systematic way allowing for fraudulent way to receiving the Union funds and should thus not be underestimated;
148. Notes that SCOs are applied across the CAP, including in rural development where eligibility conditions are more complex and the risk of error is higher, and that there is still potential to simplify measures that are not based on area or animal declarations, where Member States can decide whether to reimburse actual costs or pay according to predefined outputs; notes that the Commission reports almost 92 % of Rural Development Programmes make use of SCOs; calls on the Commission to disclose the amount disbursed through SCOs;
149. Recalls that the CAP assurance model includes the first level controls by the paying agencies, the audit work carried out by the independent certification bodies that provide annual opinions on the legality and regularity of the expenditure of paying agencies, and the Commission's work through the clearance of accounts; welcomes that, despite some inconsistencies due to the different update schedules of the control and payment datasets, the Court found that the selected paying agencies’ systems reliably calculated the aid payments, which is a testament to the overall quality and coherence of the Member States’ control statistics and payments data reported to the Commission;
150. Welcomes the increased interest in and use of the integrated IT tool for data mining ARACHNE by the Member States, with 13 Member States using the tool for at least some measures, and five Member States participating in a general introduction workshop on ARACHNE; regrets the fact that the use of the integrated IT tool for data mining ARACHNE by the Member States, is not compulsory; notes the obstacles reported by Member States and the continued efforts of the Commission to improve ARACHNE; regrets the selective adoption of ARACHNE by Member States;
151. Notes that, in 2022, the Commission reported an implementation rate of 99,69 %, for commitments under the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF), a marked improvement from the 15,98 % implementation rate of EMFAF in 2021; notes, however, that 94,76 % from the EUR 1 135,74 million committed appropriations in 2022 and 97,06 % from EUR 148,12 million in 2021 remained unpaid at the end of the corresponding year; notes further that the implementation rate of the authorised payment appropriations for EMFAF in 2022 was 99,99 % and for EMFF in 2021 was 86,55 %;
152. Notes the Court’s Special Report 09/2023 on securing agricultural product supply chains during COVID-19 and its conclusion that the Commission’s response to the threat posed to agricultural product supply chains by the COVID-19 pandemic was appropriate in most respects but insufficiently targeted; recalls that direct support, with a budget of EUR 712 million, was implemented quickly through reallocation of unused funds from EAFRD, which resulted in this measure mostly being taken up by the Member States with a significant portion of the EAFRD budget unused at the end of 2019; recalls further that 5 of the 14 member states made the Union funding available to all farmers that suffered losses, whereas the other 9 targeted selected sectors and supported beneficiaries irrespective of whether they had suffered losses;
153. Notes that preliminary estimates (based on commitment appropriations) of the climate contribution of the main programmes show that 34,8 % of the Union budget in 2022 was dedicated to climate action, in line with the Interinstitutional Agreement plans for at least 30 % of 2021-27 MFF to be used for this purpose;
154. Notes the changes made to the Commission’s climate-tracking methodology in 2022 in response to the concerns expressed about the Court's finding in Special Report 09/2022, stating that the reported spending was not always relevant to climate action, that the amount reported as having been spent for that purpose had been overstated by at least EUR 72 billion, meaning that only around 13 % of the 2014-2020 budget was spent on climate related purposes; is of the opinion that this fact serves as a warning; urges the Commission to distinguish between climate mitigation and climate adaptation in the tracking methodology by breaking monitoring and reporting category into climate adaptation and climate mitigation;
155. Underlines the importance of proper scrutiny of climate and biodiversity expenditure in the Union budget, and holds the Commission accountable for the implementation of a robust and reliable methodology, in line with the commitments undertaken in the MFF agreement and paragraph 16d of the IIA of 16 December 2020; calls on the Commission to avoid misleading approximation of the spending contribution to climate and biodiversity objectives, lack of explicit targets, as well as only partial coverage of potential negative or unclear climate and biodiversity impacts; acknowledges that there are the interventions with common benefits but underlines the need to avoid double counting;
156. Calls on the Commission to provide Parliament with an annual report setting out in detail the contribution of each budget item to the climate mainstreaming and the biodiversity targets, in order to facilitate their monitoring; calls further on the Commission to report whether any budget item fails to respect the "do no significant harm" criterion as referred to in the Taxonomy Regulation;
157. Notes that the European Health Emergency Response Authority (HERA), following its establishment as an internal Commission service on 1 October 2021, increased its operations throughout 2022 and that its mission is to support the Commission’s priorities for public health, preparedness and crisis management in the sectors of health, research and innovation and industry; notes with concern the overlap of responsibilities and duplication of efforts between mandates of DG HERA with DG SANTE and the ECDC; calls on the Commission to ensure the added value of HERA as an integral part of the Commission and to prevent duplication of work and resources;
158. Regrets that the Commission’s decision on financing HERA heavily relied on the EU4Health Programme, cutting its budget by more than half with an EU4Health contribution of EUR 2,795 billion to HERA between 2021 and 2027; notes with concern that such reduction affected EU4Health’s capability of ambitious financing of other activities as foreseen by the Regulation (EU) 2021/522, including putting at risks actions under Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and the necessary support for creation of the European Health Data Space; deplores that by assigning such significant amounts to HERA, the Commission breached the agreed funding ceilings for minimum and maximum spending set in the EU4Health Regulation;
Recommendations
159. Calls on the Commission to:
(i) devote explicit attention in the ex-post evaluation of the CAP 2014-2020 to the transitional period 2021-2022 and the additional requirements included in the transitional provisions in Regulation (EU) 2020/2220 ;
(ii) keep the discharge authority informed on the use of SCOs in the current and new CAP and evaluate their use with Member States’ authorities and (potential) beneficiaries to understand the relatively slow uptake of these options;
(iii) continue to promote the use of ARACHNE to increase both the number of Member States using the system, and to increase the extent of use to include all programmes in the context of the concluded revision of the Financial Regulation;
(iv) to carefully consider the risk indicators in ARACHNE with the aim of reducing the number of false indicators and make the remaining ones more efficient in detecting situations with a high risk for the protection of the Union’s financial interests; and
(v) promote, provide incentives and support the Member States’ paying agencies in using IT tools like Copernicus Satellite imagery and other imaging technologies in the field of agri-monitoring;
(vi) make better use and encourage the use of AI and data from new technologies such as the Union owned Copernicus Sentinel satellites to monitor and control the correct use of CAP funds;
Migration and Border management, Security and Defence
160. Notes that the budget for the programmes under MFF heading 4 ‘Migration and Border Management’ was EUR 3,4 billion (1,7 % of the Union budget) distributed as follows: 43,9 % for the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), 23,1 % for the Integrated Border Management Fund (IBMF) and 33 % for three decentralised agencies: European Boarder Coast Agency (FRONTEX), European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) and European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (EU- LISA); notes that, as of 31 December 2022, the final budget commitment appropriations adopted amounted to EUR 3 410,39 million and 99,54 % of them had been implemented (EUR 3 394,69 million); notes further that the final adopted budget payment appropriations amounted to EUR 3 372,54 million and 97,61 % of them have been implemented (EUR 3 292,03 million);
161. Notes that the budget for the programmes under MFF heading 5 ‘Security and Defence’ was EUR 1,2 billion distributed as follows: 45,6 % for the European Defence Fund (EDF), 17 % for the Internal Security Fund (ISF), 19,2 % for decentralised agencies The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), Europol and European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL), 6,8 % for nuclear safety and decommissioning, and 11,4 % for other areas; notes that, as of 31 December 2022, the final adopted budget commitment appropriations were EUR 1 813,03 million and 99,8 % of them had been implemented (EUR 1 809,43 million); notes further that the final adopted budget payment appropriations amounted to EUR 1 158.67 million and 97,54 % of them have been implemented (EUR 1 130,20 million);
162. Notes that a significant portion of the spending under MFF headings 4 and 5 in 2022 concerned the completion of projects remaining from the 2014-2020 MFF; notes that significant amounts of AMIF and ISF national programmes for 2014-2020 remain undisbursed (26 % for AMIF and 33 % for the ISF at the end of 2022) while funding for 2014-2020 has to be spent by June 2024;
163. Notes that the Court examined a sample of 23 transactions, which is not representative enough of the spending under MFF headings 4 and 5 and, therefore, cannot provide an estimate of the error rate; stresses with concern that the Court’s audit results show that the expenditure is affected by eligibility and procurement issues and that it is a high-risk area (11 out of 23 transactions audited, i.e. 48 %, were affected by errors) and thus, invites the Court to provide a clear estimation of the error rate for this chapter; notes that the Court quantified nine errors which had an impact on the amounts charged to the Union budget and that it also found four cases of non-compliance with legal and financial provisions, which had no impact on the Union budget; notes that the Commission concludes that the risk at payment is below 2% for the expenditure on migration and border management, as well as for security and defence;
164. Welcomes the progress identified by the Court in its review of the work done by six Member States’ audit authorities in preparation for the 2021-2027 AMIF, the Border Management and Visa Instrument (BMVI) and ISF annual accounts; notes the Court’s observation that, at the time of its visits (between September 2022 and February 2023), the six Member States’ audit strategies had not yet been adopted, which is a prerequisite for submitting an ‘assurance package’; notes that, at the time of the Court’s visit, the IT systems to store information and documentation needed for audits of the six Member States’ managing authorities were either under development or yet to be developed;
165. Notes that DG DEFIS’ anti-fraud strategy was updated in February 2022 and its implementation is being monitored and reported to the management annually; welcomes that 100 % of OLAF’s recommendations regarding DG DEFIS were implemented and that no incidences of fraud have been reported at the Commission level or by its partners; notes that the last update of the Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME)’s anti-fraud strategy took place in October 2021 and is currently being implemented; welcomes that, by the end of 2022, 72 % of OLAF’s financial recommendations from the previous year were fully implemented and 28 % were under implementation;
Migration and border management
166. Notes that in 2022 the funds under MFF heading 4 were instrumental in addressing the impact of Russia’s war of agression against Ukraine; notes that more flexibility was introduced under the 2014-2020 funds to enhance Member States’ possibilities to channel funding towards new needs, and EUR 400 million of Emergency Assistance was triggered under the Thematic Facilities; notes that the adoption of the Member States’ programmes for 2021-2027 allowed them to access to more than EUR 10 billion under the new funds for the programming period;
167. Notes that more than 16 million people from Ukraine and Moldova have been recorded as having entered the Union since the beginning of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and over 4 million persons fleeing the war obtained protection in the Union; notes that the Commission provided financial support to the International Organisation for Migration to support the process, as part of a EUR 15 million project facilitating transfers from Moldova of vulnerable people fleeing Ukraine; notes further that on 30 November 2022, the Commission announced the decision to award financial support of EUR 5,5 million to a project to be carried out by the International Federation of the Red Cross and Crescent Societies (IFRC) to support hosts and all those involved in providing private accommodation to displaced people, putting together good practices for future needs; notes that, in 2022, in the context of financing Ukraine, the Commission adopted decisions authorising the use of the funding not linked to costs amounting to EUR 248 million (May 2022) and EUR 137 million (August 2022), as well as for smaller grants, safe homes and psychosocial support amounting to EUR 15 million;
168. Notes that in 2022 DG HOME provided EUR 27 million for the exchange of security-related information and EUR 25,5 million for combatting and preventing crime, including terrorism; notes further that in July 2022, through the Internal Security Fund (ISF), the Commission allocated EUR 15,7 million to Member States to further support long-term projects and activities within the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats (EMPACT) - a security instrument “driven” by Member States to identify, prioritise and address threats posed by organised and serious international crime,
Security and defence
169. Welcomes that the participation of SMEs in the EDF (European Defence Fund) (in particular the cross-border participation of SMEs in industrial consortia) is being facilitated through targeted EDF calls, financial bonuses, specific award criteria, and the use of SCOs to decrease the administrative burden; notes that in the 2022 EDF calls, 38,2 % of the participating entities were SMEs, and 20 % of the total funding available through these calls will be for SMEs (EUR 166 million);
170. Recalls that the Preparatory Action on Defence Research (PADR) was a precursor programme of the EDF with a budget of EUR 90 million that funded 18 research projects selected following calls for proposals in the years 2017 to 2019; notes with concern that the Court, in its Special Report 10/2023 ‘The Preparatory action on defence research’, observes that the Union still lacks a long-term strategy for the projects under the EDF, particularly in terms of impact, additional research, development, manufacturing, procurement, and other aspects; welcomes that the Commission has accepted all of the Court’s recommendations;
171. Notes the Court’s observations in its Special Report 10/2023 regarding the limited availability of human resources at the Commission and the subsequent risk for the EDF; notes that, as a result of security issues, the number of staff needed to manage defence projects is higher than for other projects; notes that the ever-growing number of proposals to evaluate and projects to manage puts considerable pressure on human resources and creates challenges in terms of recruiting qualified and suitably experienced staff;
Recommendations
172. Calls on the Commission to:
(i) develop a longer-term strategy for the EDF, building on the experience with PADR and the Court’s recommendations;
(ii) secure the provision of adequate budget and skilled human resources to enhance defence cooperation and investment and to implement the EDF; and
(iii) focus its controls on expenditure found by the Court to be highly affected by eligibility and procurement issues in 2022 and asks the Court to expand a sample of audited transactions to be able to provide an estimate of the error rate;
(iv) monitor the implementation of the outstanding OLAF’s financial recommendations;
Neighbourhood and the world
173. Notes that the budget for the programmes under MFF heading 6 ‘Neighbourhood and the world’ was EUR 14,5 billion (7,4 % of the Union budget) distributed as follows: 64,8 % for the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument - Global Europe (NDICI-Global Europe), 16,8 % for Humanitarian Aid (HUMA), 14,4 % for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA III) and 4 % for other actions and programmes; notes that as of 31 December 2022, the final adopted budget commitment appropriations were EUR 17 670,49 million and 99,79 % of them were implemented (EUR 17 632,52 million); notes further that the final adopted budget payment appropriations amounted to EUR 13 156,10 million and 99,19 % of them were implemented (EUR 13 049,50 million);
174. Notes that the Court examined a sample of 72 transactions, which is not representative enough of the spending under this MFF heading and, therefore, cannot provide an estimate of the error rate; considering that the Court’s audit results show that this is a high-risk area (34 out of 72 transactions audited, i.e. 47 %, were affected by errors), invites the Court to provide a clear estimation of the error rate for this chapter; notes that the Court found 25 errors that had a financial impact on the Union budget, relating to ineligible costs, absence of supporting documents, public procurement and expenditure not incurred, areas that could point to risks of unreliable functioning of the national authorities’ control mechanism or even the administrative or political unwillingness to properly execute Union financial rules;
175. Recalls that the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) reports the risk at closure in its Annual Activity Reports (AARs) based on a study carried out by an external contractor, known as the residual error rate (RER), the aim of which is to estimate the rate of errors not detected by the internal control system and to conclude whether it is effective or not; notes the results of the 2022 RER study that the residual error rate in 2022 is 1 % and thus, below the materiality threshold of 2 %;
176. Notes that the Court identified limitations regarding the methodology used to determine the RER that may contribute to its underestimation, in particular, that the contractor can rely entirely on the results of previous control work in some cases and the fact that the estimation of the residual error rate for grants under direct management is not included in the calculation of DG NEAR’s overall RER; notes that the Commission affirms that it is not subject to such limitations because (i) the reliance on previous control work is subject to strict conditions and (ii) the global error rate includes grants under direct management;
177. Welcomes that the Commission implemented the Court’s recommendations to disclose the limitations of the RER study in DG NEAR’s AARs since 2021, to strengthen checks by identifying and preventing recurrent errors, and for DG NEAR to establish obligations for the RER study contractor to report to the Commission any suspected fraud against the Union budget detected during its work on the RER study;
178. Notes with concern that the AARs of DG NEAR and the Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) reported difficulties in the implementation of the new operational information system OPSYS, which was at times unstable, failing to meet expectations, and requiring frequent intervention from DG DIGIT support teams, leading to it being identified as a critical risk in DG NEAR’s risk assessment exercise;
179. Notes that the Court assessed awareness raising among Union delegation staff in the areas of fraud prevention, ethics and integrity; notes with concern that some members of staff interviewed by the Court had not been trained in fraud prevention in the past five years; notes that DG NEAR makes a series of tools and resources available to its staff to cover fraud-related issues, such as training, an anti-fraud network with focal points and guidance; notes the positive results of the surveys carried out by DG NEAR to monitor the level of fraud awareness of its staff, as well as that some areas for improvement were identified and an action plan is being implemented;
180. Recognises the importance of NGOs in ensuring that the Union, as the largest donor of development aid in the world, continues to contribute to promoting stability and peace, overcoming poverty and advancing sustainable development; commends in particular the activity of NGOs in areas of conflict in ensuring that humanitarian aid reaches the civilian population in a rapid and effective manner; notes the control and audit, transparency and accountability requirements applicable to all Union funding and different stakeholders, but considers that there is always room for improvement, particularly by making the most of digitalisation;
181. Stresses the role of local NGOs and partners in service delivery and support to local communities; underlines the importance of enhancing their capacity to manage and implement actions financed by the Union and invites the Commission to facilitate adequate training towards this aim; is concerned about the continued difficulties faced by small local organisations to access Union funding; encourages the Commission to improve these funding procedures and to systematically prioritise local organisations in order to provide better capacity-building on the ground; highlights the efficacy of local ownership in project implementation in terms of prioritisation, allocation of resources and building local know-how;
182. Highlights the fact that the legitimacy and effectiveness of Union development cooperation hinges on the correct implementation of activities and their proper funding; recognises the work of the Commission in applying controls to make sure that transactions are made in a legitimate manner and that activities are implemented in accordance with the priorities set by the legislator; calls on the Commission to further improve controls in order to decrease the amount of transactional errors, to act upon ECA recommendations that have not been implemented and to redouble efforts to find eligible projects and to ensure a sufficient amount of payments under the current expenditure ceiling; welcomes the finding of the ECA report on the Union budget for 2022 that DG ECHO implemented ECA recommendation and established a procedure ensuring that partner organisations base their allocation of shared costs on expenditure actually incurred;
183. Calls on the Commission to send clear signals to those candidate countries in which a backlash against rule of law standards - including limitations on the freedom of expression, the freedom of press, women’s and minority rights, the harassment of NGOs and human rights defenders - is jeopardising or delaying their accession to the Union; invites the Commission to examine the efficiency of the funds spent on the improvement of the state of the Rule of Law in the accession countries and report back to the AFET and CONT committees;
184. Welcomes the implementation by the Commission of several mechanisms to mitigate risks and safeguard the proper use of Union funds spent in unstable or conflict zones; notes that the Commission systematically assesses corruption risks in partner countries and uses an array of tools to mitigate them, at the same time applies conditions and performance indicators to promote fiscal transparency and accountability through its budget support; welcomes the fact that, according to World Bank data, countries benefiting from Union budget support have improved in the control of corruption over time;
185. Notes with concern that the Court, in its Special Report 14/2023 “Programming the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe” found that, although the Commission and the EEAS had merged funding into a single instrument, the NDICI-Global Europe Instrument, which covers more than 70 % of the Union funding allocated for external action in the 2021-2027 financing period, they followed two different fund allocation methodologies for Neighbourhood and non-Neighbourhood countries, and that the multiannual indicative programmes did not ensure that the selected sectors of intervention were those in which Union funding could achieve a high impact;
186. Emphasises the significance of meeting all spending and program-related targets outlined in the NDICI-GE instrument and calls for comprehensive information to be provided on the progress achieved; expresses regret over the significant shortfalls in reaching the Instrument's 30% climate target, in contributing to the 10% biodiversity target in the MFF for 2026 and 2027, and in ensuring that the Union's global financial commitments under the UN framework are fulfilled, in particular as regards the contribution to the Loss and Damage Fund; highlights the increasing pressure climate change puts on food production and access, particularly in vulnerable regions, impacting food security and nutrition; reminds that biodiversity is key in combating climate change, and its loss undermines progress on approximately 80% of the assessed targets for the SDGs; calls on the Commission for a detailed plan outlining how it intends to meet spending and gender targets by the end of the MFF;
187. Urges the Commission to increase transparency and accountabililty of the programming and implementation of Home Affairs funds in third countries, and NDICI funding, such as in countries like Tunisia and Libya; calls the Commission to generate a publicly available overview of all migration related spending in third countries, and urges for ex ante human rights impact assesments for migration related spending in third countries, and to share these assesments with the Parliament where required by rules;
188. Stresses that, following the despicable terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas against Israel on 7 October 2023, the Commission announced on 9 October 2023 its decision to review the Union’s assistance for Palestine; notes that the review, finalised on 21 November 2023, has shown that the Commission applies adequate ex-ante and ex-post controls, that the safeguards in place are effective and that no evidence has been found to date that money has been diverted for unintended purposes; insists on the need for European funds to go only to beneficiaries that share Union values regarding Rule of law, democracy and human rights; recalls in this regard the Parliament’s report 2023/2122 INI adopted the 17 January 2024 on transparency and accountability of non-governmental organisations funded from the Union budget calling for a reinforcement of the Commission control mechanisms and the development of a harmonised monitoring system aiming to track Union funds up to final beneficiaries;
189. Underlines that the Union budget must continue to provide support to build peace and stability in the Middle East region, to combat hate and fundamentalism and to promote human rights; awaits the review the Commission is conducting on the use of Union funds; underlines the interlinkages between stability and sustainable development, particularly in fragile countries and regions;
190. Stresses that Union aid should under no circumstances - directly or indirectly - be financing terrorism, hence it should not support any entity connected to Hamas or any other terror organisation; stresses that the Union should help the Palestinian civilian population and should foster peace in the region; asks the Commission to keep Parliament informed about new developments and efforts undertaken to provide direct support to Palestinian civilians and refugees and to prevent terrorist from diverting funds;
191. Is concerned by the serious allegations made by Israel that 12 employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) might have participated in the despicable terrorist attacks in October 2023; notes that the Agency immediately terminated their contracts and welcomes the launch of an UN investigation; notes that the allegations involve 12 out of 13 000 local members of staff of UNRWA in Gaza alone, who are themselves victims of the ongoing humanitarian tragedy while playing a critical role in distributing food, water, and medicine; notes that UNRWA has developed a specific framework to ensure the neutrality and independence of its operations in line with the UN standards, which includes vetting and due diligence measures, and shares the list of all its staff with the host countries, including Israel, on an annual basis; calls for full transparency regarding the conclusions of the UN investigation;
192. Expresses deep concern regarding the recent announcement by some countries of suspension of funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) pending the outcome of the investigation; calls for increased and sustained funding in recognition of the agency's crucial role in the humanitarian response in Gaza, and to ensure the uninterrupted delivery of vital services to a vulnerable population in the Middle East; recalls the essential role of humanitarian aid given to the Palestinian refugees throughout the Middle East;
193. Stresses the importance of education and the critical need to denounce and eradicate all manifestations of hate speech and violent actions on both sides; underscores that the suspension of funding should not occur arbitrarily or without transparent and independent evidence of misuse; commends UNRWA for its indispensable humanitarian endeavours in Gaza and its pivotal role in delivering quality education, with a specific emphasis on fostering a human rights culture, even in challenging times;
194. Recalls that the findings of the study commissioned by the Commission to Georg Eckert Institute on the Palestinian Textbooks revealed a complex picture where the textbooks (i) adhere to UNESCO standards and adopt criteria that are prominent in international education discourse, including a strong focus on human rights, (ii) express a narrative of resistance within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and (iii) display an antagonism towards Israel; notes that the Union does not fund the Palestinian Textbooks and that neither are they the responsibility of UNRWA, which works to deliver quality education with an emphasis on fostering a human rights culture, even in challenging times; underlines that education and pupils’ access to peaceful and unbiased textbooks is essential; stresses Parliament’s position that textbooks drafted by Union funds, must be made conditional on full compliance with UNESCO standards of peace and tolerance; as already was decided upon by the Parliament in its 2023 recommendation on relations with the Palestinian Authority, and as repeatedly requested in its latest adopted resolutions on Prospects for the Two-State Solution;
195. Recalls the Union strategy to promote and ensure quality education for children across the world, especially when specific Union financial support is provided; condemns the problematic and hateful contents encouraging violence, spreading antisemitism and inciting hatred in Palestinian school textbooks drafted by Union-funded civil servants as well as in supplementary educational materials developed by UNRWA staff and taught in its schools; reaffirms in the context of the despicable terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas on 7 October 2023, that education to hatred have direct and dramatic consequences on the security of Israelis as well as on the perspectives of a better future for young Palestinians; therefore requests the Commission to closely scrutinise that no funds are allocated or linked directly or indirectly to the use of such educational materials and that the Palestinian Authority modifies the full curriculum expeditiously as repeatedly requested in the discharge decisions in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the Union for the financial years 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021; stresses that financial support from the Union to the Palestinian Authority in the area of education shall be provided on the condition of a national Palestinian curriculum, with reference textbooks and educational material, that is free from anti-Semitic contents and incitement to violence and complies with quality education; calls in that regard the Commission and Member States to provide expertise, share knowledge, guidance and technical support to empower Palestinian teachers, trainers and experts towards the implementation of education that fully complies with UNESCO standards;
196. Highlights that according to the answers of commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement for the 2021 Discharge Report the ongoing development portfolio for the Palestinians, under the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI) Regulation, is EUR 681 million between 2021 and 2023, for the Palestinian Authority, UNRWA and development projects in the West Bank and Gaza; notes that about one third of the funding benefitted projects in Gaza and two third in the West Bank; underlines that the Union provided EUR 271 million to UNRWA for the provision of social services to the Palestinian refugees and in addition, the Union provided support to the Palestinian Authority’s recurrent expenditures, mainly the salaries and pensions of civil servants, the social allowances paid through the cash transfer programme and part of the costs of referrals to the East Jerusalem Hospitals through the PEGASE mechanism;
197. Underlines that the ECA AR 2022 highlights an example of ineligible expenditure included in the cost claim concerning a project in Palestine on the sustainable use of natural resources to support Palestine’s transition to a green economy with an incentive component that was intended to support SMEs in the form of grants for ‘green’ projects in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy and pollution abatement; Underlines that EUR 190.500 had been approved and paid to a development agency, with the task to monitor the implementation of the project by the final beneficiary, but the project was not realised;
198. Is concerned about the destruction and confiscation of Union-funded projects in the West Bank and notes that in 2022, 101 structures funded by the Union or Member States were demolished or seized by Israel with a value at EUR 337 019, representing the third highest financial injury since 2016; recalls that representatives of Union institutions, concerned Member States and other donors have requested on several occasions the return or compensation for Union-funded assets demolished, dismantled or confiscated; recalls the position of the Council expressing its commitment to ensure that all agreements between Israel and the Union must unequivocally and explicitly indicate the inapplicability to the territories occupied by Israel since 1967, as well as to continue the effective implementation of existing Union law and bilateral arrangements applicable to settlement products;
199. Notes that, in 2022, DG NEAR paid EUR 910,8 million in bilateral assistance to Ukraine, out of which EUR 698 million was paid through Budget Support; notes that close to EUR 200 million of ongoing projects were successfully repurposed to reach the beneficiaries before humanitarian partners could mobilise their aid programmes; notes that the constraints on adequately monitoring projects in Ukraine lead to a reservation in the 2022 AAR of DG NEAR and that corrective actions are being implemented, such as monitoring progress on project implementation through desk reviews, remote solutions and using a service provider;
200. Notes the Reform Growth Plan for the Western Balkans which was proposed by the Commission to further support convergence efforts in the region; stresses the need for a more clarity on the use of different financial instruments toward the region, primarily among IPA III, Economic and Investment Plan, and the Reform Growth Plan; urges the Commission to provide the sub-national level to have more direct access to Union funds;
201. Welcomes that the Ukraine Facility lays out provisions to ensure effective controls; recalls that on 7 April 2022, the Parliament called for the confiscation of Russian assets owned by Russian individuals and entities, frozen as a result of Union restrictive measures, in order to finance Ukraine’s reconstruction;
202. Welcomes the Global Gateway strategy as a concerted Union response to global challenges bringing together public and private investment; notes that 2022 was the first full year of the implementation of the Global Gateway strategy; stresses the need for more transparency, accountability and regular assessments of the Global Gateway implementation as well as for enhanced Parliament’s involvement in respect of its democratic scrutiny role;
203. Welcomes that OLAF signed administrative cooperation arrangements with both the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine on 11 February 2021 and the State Audit Service of Ukraine in March 2023; notes that Ukraine is soon expected to be associated with the Union Anti-Fraud Programme (UAFP) and welcomes that OLAF is providing support to the Ukrainian authorities in their national anti-fraud efforts and strategies; welcomes that the EPPO signed working arrangements with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, in July 2023, aiming to facilitate the cooperation in investigating corruption cases, and with the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office, in March 2022, to protect the financial interest of the Union and Ukraine through effective investigation and prosecution;
Recommendations
204. Calls on the Commission to:
(i) as regards the OPSYS application system, enhance the quality of the new software, stabilise the application and improve interfaces between the different OPSYS modules, and allocate resources needed to enhance its maturity/robustness;
(ii) continue ensuring that all contracts involving Union funding fully respect applicable Union values, Union legislation, including accountability, transparency and protection of Union funds; ensure that strict monitoring and ex ante and ex post control mechanisms make sure that all individuals involved in Union funded actions exclusively pursue the Union objectives and activities approved for Union funding, request, where necessary, the restitution, or compensation for Union-funded assets that have been demolished, dismantled or confiscated;
(iii) to intensify its communication with international organizations in order to provide the ECA with complete, unlimited and timely access to documents necessary to carry out its task in accordance with the TFEU, and not just in read-only format;
(iv) put in place adequate ex ante and ex post control measures in unstable or conflict zones to ensure the proper control of spending of Union funds and ways to recover the Union funds;
(v) ensures the proper, timely and thorough audit, including with the inclusion of the EPPO and European Court of Auditors, of all funds provided under the Ukraine Facility and the upcoming Western Balkans facility;
European public administration
Human Resources
205. Notes that the budget for the programmes under MFF Heading 7 ‘European Public Administration’ was EUR 11,6 billion (5,9 % of the Union budget), which comprises the expenditure of the Union institutions and bodies on human resources and pensions (about 70 % of the total), buildings, equipment, energy, communications and information technology; notes that of the total amount, 58,6 % is spent by the Commission (EUR 6,7 billion); notes that, as of 31 December 2022, the final adopted budget commitment appropriations for the European Commission were EUR 6 298,13 million (99,84 % of them were implemented, i.e. EUR 6 288,14 million), as well as that the final adopted budget payment appropriations amounted to EUR 6 298,22 million (94,66 % of them were implemented, i.e. EUR 5 961,72 million);
206. Notes that the Court examined a sample of 60 transactions covering the full range of spending under the MFF Heading 7 involving all the Union institutions and bodies; notes that the Court also examined the regularity information given in the AARs of all the institutions and bodies, including those of the Commission’s directorates-general and offices primarily responsible for administrative expenditure, and then included in the Commission’s AMPR; notes with satisfaction that the Court estimates that the level of error in the MFF Heading 7 was not material and notes that there are no new recommendations addressed to the Commission;
207. Notes that the Commission adopted its new Human Resources strategy (‘HR Strategy’) in April 2022, which aims to address emerging needs after the COVID-19 crisis and focuses on achieving an attractive workplace, faster and more agile selection and recruitment, and a flexible and rewarding career for all staff; notes that the document is a set of intentions for change and improvement that should gradually be implemented, and that part of its content shall be first negotiated in social dialogue with staff representatives;
208. Notes that the Commission has increasingly recruited contractual or temporary agents on permanent posts to carry out new tasks stemming from rapidly evolving priorities, in response to special or urgent situations and even to compensate geographically unbalanced recruitments; recalls its concerns about the loss of knowledge for the institutions, as well as the negative impact on perspective and job security of the members of staff concerned; highlights that recruiting contractual or temporary agents is not a sustainable solution to the decreasing and geographically unbalanced applications of those applying for Union competitions and, most importantly, to the long-identified and complex issue of the Union’s decrease of attractiveness as an employer;
209. Notes with satisfaction that the percentage of women in management functions has risen considerably since the beginning of the mandate: in July 2023, the share of women in management functions was 45,2 % at senior management level (up nearly 9 percentage points since the beginning of the mandate) and 47,5 % at middle management level (up 6 percentage points);
210. Acknowledges that, in order to ensure recruitment on the broadest possible geographical basis it is necessary to address the causes of the under-representation from the point of initial recruitment; welcomes that, to strengthen geographical balance across different categories of Commission staff, the Directorate-General for Human Resources and Security (DG HR) met all Member States to discuss their representation and finalised all joint action plans taking into account the specificities of each Member State to address the possible causes of under-representation jointly;
211. Notes the adoption and implementation of an action plan to increase the attractiveness of careers in Luxembourg; notes the Commission’s considerations against introducing a correction coefficient for Luxembourg at this stage in its report assessing the evolution of purchasing power of remuneration and pensions of Union officials (COM(2022) 180 final); recalls its reiterated requests to the Commission to find ways to mitigate the growing problem of the purchase power disparity suffered by the members of staff posted to Luxembourg, which is mainly due to the cost of living;
212. Recalls the Court’s audit of the activities of the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) and the observations regarding its efficacy and efficiency; notes that, in 2022-2023, EPSO introduced remotely proctored testing and deplores that this system is now being reappraised due to the numerous technical difficulties experienced by many candidates; regrets the inconvenience caused to candidates, the direct budgetary costs of the suspension of the external competitions, and the additional effort made by the Commission’s recruiting services to find an adequate replacement;
213. Recalls the Court’s conclusion in its Special Report 13/2019 that “any unethical behaviour by staff and Members of EU institutions and bodies is unacceptable and, even if it is only alleged, attracts high levels of public interest and reduces trust in the EU”; regrets the two cases of potential conflicts of interests involving high-ranked officials in DG MOVE for missions and DG NEAR for ownership reported by the press in 2022; notes the Commission implements effective internal control system in matters of ethics management according to the Court in its 2019 report and the European Ombudsman in its decision on the revolving doors inquiry; points out that unethical behaviour also has a budgetary cost for the institution concerned and reiterates its position and expectations of the Union's Ethics Body;
Buildings and administration
214. Notes that the new central corporate financial system of the Commission, SUMMA, was planned to go into production by the end of 2023 and had progressed in line with the objective of going live at the beginning of 2024; regrets that the deadline for implementing the new accounting system was extended by one year because implementing the connections of operational programmes (shared management, e-grants, e-procurement, staff payments) with SUMMA simultaneously has proven to be a more complex exercise than expected; stresses with concern that the cost of the SUMMA programme since its inception at the beginning of 2018 until the end of 2022 was around EUR 95 million and that its timeline extension will require additional resources in 2024, estimated at around EUR 7 million euro;
215. Notes the adoption on 5 April 2022 of the ‘Communication on greening the Commission’, which aims to achieve climate neutrality by 2030, including an action plan to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions; notes the Commission intends to achieve these objectives by acquiring more energy efficient and greener buildings, shifting to dynamic collaborative workspaces and reducing the number of offices, and reiterates its warning that staff wellbeing and satisfaction should be taken into account in all future decisions in this regard;
216. Notes the media reports on negotiations between the Belgian Government and the Commission on a real estate transaction worth nearly EUR 1 billion and, likewise, the Commission’s plans to rent office spaces in the Brussels North area, including reluctance on the part of the staff concerned; stresses that any development in the Commission’s real estate policies shouldn't degrade the working conditions of its personnel;
217. Is concerned that the Commission has refused to provide records of the discussions with a pharmaceutical company and regrets the lack of transparency related to the text messages between the Commission’s President and the pharmaceutical companies regarding the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines; notes the European Ombudsman decision on the related case 1316/2021/MIG considering that not recording text messages in its document register constitutes “maladministration” and is concerned that the Commission has not followed up on the recommendation to conduct another search for relevant text messages; notes that, to date, the Commission has not made available to the Members of the European Parliament the non-redacted versions of the contracts signed; recalls the Parliament resolution of 13 July 2023 on public access to documents – annual report for the years 2019-2021;
European Schools
218. Notes with satisfaction that the Court, in its Annual Report on the accounts for he European Schools for the 2022 financial year, found no material errors in the final consolidated annual accounts of the European Schools for 2022; welcomes further improvements highlighted by the Court in the quality of the final individual and consolidated accounts compared to previous years;
219. Notes with concern that both the Court and the external auditor found immaterial errors, which mainly related to the calculation of provisions for post-employment benefits and that the audit opinions of the external auditor were not in line with the framework contract concluded with the Office of the Secretary-General (the ‘Central Office’);
220. Notes that the Court, while praising improvements in recruitment and procurement procedures in the Central Office, found, for two out of the seven schools it reviewed (Frankfurt and Luxembourg I), shortcomings in these procedures; notes with concern that the Court, once again, noted weaknesses in terms of payment procedures for both the Central Office and the two schools that were reviewed;
221. Recalls that the Parliament, in its resolution of 12 September 2023 on the system of European Schools: state of play, challenges and perspectives, stressed that the current system of teacher recruitment in the European Schools System (EES) has serious shortcomings, resulting in a mismatch between the needs on the ground and the actual staff seconded by the Member States, issues with yearly recruitment plans, difficulties in finding qualified teachers and staff, precarious working conditions for locally recruited teachers and other educational staff and problems with continuous professional development;
Recommendations
222. Calls on the Commission to:
(i) take into account on an equal footing the efficient use of office spaces and the health and well-being of staff while implementing the new HR strategy, in particular regarding people with disabilities, as well as duly involve staff representatives when changing work conditions;
(ii) remain vigilant regarding the prevention, identification and adequate management of burnout cases in the larger context of staffing, workload and staff well-being;
(iii) reinforce the measures to support women pursuing a management career in order to increase the number of applications from highly qualified women to middle and senior management functions within both the Commission and the Union agencies;
(iv) continue its work to strengthen the geographical balance of its staff at all levels while at the same time fulfilling the requirements in the Staff Regulations regarding competences and merits of candidates;
(v) address without further delay and in an efficient way the challenges faced by members of staff who are assigned to and reside in Luxembourg;
(vi) making appropriate investments in building IT capabilities and resources for EPSO to be more efficient and effective and, in particular, to ensure optimal testing conditions in future selection processes; and
(vii) ensure a better and stricter risk management approach towards the readiness of the SUMMA deployment and avoid material risks of temporary disruption until the new accounting system is fully operational;
(viii) follow up on the Ombudsman’s recommendation in case 1316/2021/MIG, as well as ensure that its internal guidelines on document registration are in line with Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001;
223. Furthermore, calls on the Commission to continue to support the European Schools to:
(i) implement without delay the Court’s recommendations in its Report on the accounts of the European Schools for the 2022 financial year, and to keep the discharge authority informed on the progress;
(ii) urgently resolve ongoing teacher shortages and ensure a stable and fair employment situation for all by retaining staff and reducing turnover, thereby also avoiding a brain drain; and
(iii) perform an in-depth review under an independent chairperson of the governance and management structures across the System of European Schools and involve the Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sports and Culture of the Commission;
CHAPTER II - Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF)
General remarks
224. Recalls that the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 abruptly changed the economic and social outlook of the Union and led to a unified effort to launch the recovery package for Europe, consisting of the 2021-2027 MFF and NGEU, of which the cornerstone is the RRF; recalls that the objective of the RRF is to provide Member States with financial support to mitigate the serious economic and social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and make European economies and societies more sustainable, resilient, inclusive and better prepared for the challenges and opportunities of the green and digital transitions; recalls that the RRF is an innovative, temporary instrument based on performance, which means that payments are linked to the satisfactory fulfilment of milestones and targets (M&Ts) reflecting progress on reforms and investments included in the national recovery and resilience plans (RRPs), which are set in a Council Implementation Decision;
225. Notes that all 27 RRPs were adopted by the end of 2022, allocating EUR 335,1 billion in grants and EUR 165,3 billion in loans, that will be paid out upon the fulfilment of 2 557 measures (consisting of approximately one third for reforms and two thirds for investments), and their related 6 237 milestones and targets, by 2026; notes that, in 2022, the Commission disbursed a total, including pre-financing, of EUR 74,4 billion (EUR 47,2 billion in grants and EUR 27,2 billion in loans);
226. Notes that the REPowerEU Plan was launched in May 2022 to help the Union to reduce its dependency on Russian fossil fuels by saving energy, producing clean energy and diversifying its energy supplies, which is aligned with the green transition; notes that the amendments introduced to Regulation (EU) 2021/241 (‘the RRF Regulation’) by Regulation (EU) 2023/435 on REPower EU added additional financing and priorities to the RRF; notes that all 27 Member States have submitted modified RRPs to include REPowerEU chapters, but also to request additional loan support, to make adjustments following the update of the maximum financial contribution or to make amendments due to objective circumstances, as enabled by the RRF Regulation; notes that the revision of the RRPs are subject to the same assessment criteria as the original plans, together with specific requirements applicable to the REPowerEU chapters;
227. Recalls that, under NGEU, the Commission can raise up to EUR 806,9 billion between mid-2021 and 2026 through the issuance of Union-bonds; notes that in June 2022, the Commission announced a funding plan for the period June to end-December 2022 and raised an additional EUR 50 billion in long-term funding for NGEU, complemented by short-term EU-bills issuances, bringing the total outstanding amount of NGEU bonds to EUR 171 billion, of which EUR 36,5 billion were raised by issuing green bonds; notes that this debt consists of borrowed amounts with different maturities, ranging from 1 year to more than 25 years; notes that repayment of NGEU debt will only start after 2028;
228. Notes the efforts of the Commission to raise funds on the financial markets to provide the financial means for the RRF; notes that, in 2020, an amount of EUR 14,9 billion was planned in the MFF 2021-2027 to cover the interest payments for NGEU non-repayable support; is concerned about the impact of the higher interest rates on the purchasing power of the Union budget, with the interest rates on 10-year EU-Bonds increasing from 0,09 % in 2021 to 3,2 % in 2023; notes that Commission’s AAA borrowing costs are higher than some Member States with a lower rating; notes that borrowed amounts need to be repaid and borrowing activities remain needed not only to raise new funds, but also to replace existing debt; is concerned about the rising interest rates, particularly in 2022, and the resulting debts and uncertain capacity to repay the loans, taking into account the large amount of money that the Commission is borrowing in order to finance the RRF; notes however that the debt is currently EUR 90 billion less than initially forecasted; notes the Commission’s long-term plan for repayment of the debt and calls on the Commission to regularly update it and inform the discharge authority of any new risks that might influence its implementation; notes the Commission’s statement that the Union will meet its obligations towards bondholders in all circumstances and its proposal for a technical modification to the MFF to optimise the budgetary treatment of NGEU borrowing costs; notes that information on the EU debt and planned repayments are part of the regular reporting within the NGEU dialogue; requests that the Commission continues to provide more information to the European Parliament on how repayment will be made and from which institutions funds are being borrowed; emphasises that this debt burdens the EU budget;
229. Welcomes the Commission’s estimate that the full implementation of quantifiable milestones and targets up until the end of 2026 funded by NGEU Green Bonds, corresponding to 57 % of the NGEU Green Bond eligible expenditure, can reduce Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 44 million tonnes of CO2 per annum– equivalent to 1,2 % of the aggregate for the Union’s GHG emissions in 2022, and insists on proper implementation; stresses furthermore the importance that reforms and investments under the Recovery and Resilience Plans meet the climate targets of the regulation and fully respect the “do no significant harm” principle;
Court’s observations
230. Notes that the Court issued a qualified opinion on the legality and regularity of the RRF expenditure in 2022; is concerned that the Court concluded that 11 out of 13 RRF payments made in 2022 were affected by quantitative findings and that 6 of these payments were affected by material error; notes that in the Court’s opinion, except for those matters, the RRF expenditure accepted in the accounts for the year 2022 is legal and regular in all material respects; notes that the nature of the RRF spending model relies on the assessments to be made by the Commission and thus, the Court does not provide an error rate but estimates the minimum financial impact of its findings to be below, but close to the materiality threshold;
231. Notes that the Court audited 244 out of 274 milestones and all 37 targets included in 2022 payment requests for grants; regrets that the Court considers that 15 of them were affected by regularity issues (below 5 % of the total); notes that the Court considers that the requirements had not been satisfactorily fulfilled for 8 M&Ts in 8 payments and that the Commission had made the corresponding payments; notes that the Court's conclusions are based on extensive audit work and that the Commission contests the Court's interpretation of the legal requirements set by the Council or qualitative judgements different from the Commission; notes that all the RRF payments must be assessed against the framework communicated and applied by the Commission, who must take into consideration for each payment the opinion of the Economic and Financial Committee and the scrutiny by Member State experts under the comitology procedure;
232. Notes that the Court has identified what it considers to be two cases of continuation of a pre-existing project, that started before the eligibility period, and targets that were a substitution of recurring national budgetary expenditure; is concerned about such situations, although this conclusion does not agree with the Court’s own consideration that recurring actions refers to types of expenditure like staff and operating costs of government entities; recalls that the RRF shall not be used to finance recurring budgetary expenditure and calls for adequate measures to be taken, including partial payments, when such cases are identified by the Commission;
233. Recalls the Court’s observation in Special Report 21/2022 and its Annual Report for 2021 that milestones and targets often lack clarity and are not well defined and that the Court makes the same observation in its annual report 2022; calls on the Commission to draw on lessons learned when designing future performance based instruments;
234. Is concerned by the Court’s findings in SR 26/2023 that milestones and targets vary in ambition between Member States and considers this is yet another example where the Commission does not treat MemberSstates equally; notes that the Commission confirmed the differences and will try to enhance equal treatment during the implementation phase; considers that Member States by default should be treated equally and regrets this has not been the case when negotiating the RRPs; insists that equal treatment should be ensured when evaluating the completion of milestones and targets;
235. Notes with concern that the Court considers that a case of double funding occurred in 2022, even though the measure in question does not have any costs attached to it under the RRF; notes the Commission’s observation that, according to the RRF Regulation, ‘double funding’ is explicitly linked to costs and thus, there can be no 'double funding' if the Member State has not submitted any cost estimate as part of its national plan; notes that the Commission underlines that no-cost reforms do not increase the financial envelope but are nevertheless essential criteria for the Commission's positive assessment of RRPs, as well as their full implementation for the relevant payments;
236. Notes with concern that the Court also identified several cases of weak design in M&Ts and problems with the reliability of information that Member States included in their management declarations, notes that the Commission agrees to review M&Ts provided there is a legal justification to change the elements of a Council Implementing Decision, namely that a Member State submits an amended plan and a legal basis justifies the changes;
237. Stresses that, by end 2022, the Commission reported 6 cases of potential irregularities to OLAF, identified during ex-post audits or from open sources in respect of RRF supported actions; welcomes that, in 2022, OLAF disseminated a risk framework for the RRF and provided over 50 fraud awareness-training sessions to Commission departments, agencies and other external partners, including Member States’ authorities;
238. Emphasises that the protection of the financial interests of the Union is a top priority and that more precise implementation and performance monitoring will help prevent and reduce fraud at early stages; emphasises that in particular rule of law and anti-corruption related M&Ts are essential in hindering corrupt individuals, organisationsn, governments or criminal systems; calls on the Commission to monitor closely the fulfilment of rule of law and anti-corruption M&Ts and report on possible reversals;
239. Expresses concern about the Court’s finding that reporting of fraud involving RRF expenditure lacks a standardised approach with strong coordination and cooperation between Member States; welcomes that the Commission has already adapted the Irregularity Management System so it can be used for the RRF by the competent national authorities; encourages the Commission, EPPO and other relevant entities on Union and national level to engage in a structured cooperation to identify and report, according to their respective competence, cases and possible patterns of fraud and crimes against the financial interest of the Union to better protect the taxpayers’ money; asks Member States to strengthen their capacities to uncover crimes in this area;
240. Welcomes the effort made in the systematic and comprehensive audit work of the Court regarding the RRF, with emphasis on the protection of the Union’s financial interests, which provides a thorough analysis of the relevant aspects of the Facility and valuable insight into its implementation; notes with satisfaction that the Commission broadly accepts and applies the Court’s recommendations and acknowledges that many of the issues identified by the Court are related to the legal basis of the RRF; considers that the Court’s recommendations stemming from its audit work on the RRF are particularly relevant to the co-legislators for future Union performance-based financing instruments;
241. Stresses the fact that the RRF was established as the Union’s common instrument for mitigating the serious economic and social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and for making European economies and societies more sustainable, resilient, inclusive and better prepared for the challenges and opportunities of the green and digital transitions, and its financial means thus can not be understood as Member States’ own budget resources; emphasises the crucial role of the Court and the Commission in their proactive ex-ante and ex-post controls in making sure the funds are spend effectively with satisfactory fulfillment of M&Ts;
Audit and control
242. Underlines that the control framework is tailored to the unique nature of the RRF and built upon two types of controls, namely (i) controls by the Commission to provide reasonable assurance over the legality and regularity of commitments and payments, based on the satisfactory achievement of M&Ts as set in the Council Implementing Decisions approving the RRPs, and (ii) controls by the Member States to ensure adequate protection of the financial interests of the Union as provided in Article 22 of the RRF Regulation;
243. Notes that, based on the Court’s recommendations and the experience gained, the Commission presented its methodologies on (i) assessing the satisfactory fulfilment of M&Ts, (ii) calculating the suspended amounts in case of non-fulfilment of a milestone or target, and (iii) dealing with potential situations where M&Ts initially assessed as satisfactorily fulfilled by the Commission were subsequently reversed by the Member State;
244. Notes that the framework for assessing M&Ts lacks explanations, including why the verification mechanism as described in the operation arrangement should not be considered for the assessment; notes that definitions of “satisfactory fulfilment” of the relevant M&Ts are defined through terms that lack a clear definition and contain discretionary elements, such as ‘minimal deviation from a requirement’ or ‘proportional delays’, and that the methodology for the determination of partial payment does not provide an explanation for the values chosen as coefficients; asks that further clarifications are given;
245. Expresses concern that the Commission is dependent on the information provided by the Member States and recommends a more active communication to proactively identify any potential reversal of M&Ts; welcomes that the Commission accepts the recommendation to carry out a revision of its ex-post audit procedures to verify the potential reversal of M&Ts after the payment, although regrets that it does not foresee any post-2026 monitoring on potential reversals; is particularly concerned that there is no legal provision in Regulation (EU) 2021/241 establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility (the ‘RRF Regulation’) that addresses the reversal of M&Ts after the last date for payments from the RRF and that the Commission’s methodology, consequently, does not provide legal clarity in case a M&T is reversed after the implementation period of the RRF once all payments have been made, especially given that some important M&Ts included in RRPs are probably to be fulfilled in the last part of the RRF lifetime;
246. Notes that 12 national RRPs contain Rule of law or anti-corruption reforms in their milestones and targets; notes the recent case of a potential reversal of two milestones concerning the Rule of law in one Member State; emphasises the need for the Commission to pay more attention to the potential reversal of M&Ts in the area of the Rule of law as they are particularly vulnerable to arbitrary governmental decisions;
247. Notes that the Commission verified the adequacy of the control systems of Member States as a precondition for the positive assessment of the RRPs; notes that additional specific ‘control milestones’ were added, in turn, as a precondition for the first payments in the RRPs of 16 Member States where gaps or deficiencies required additional measures to ensure the full adequacy of the systems to protect the financial interests of the Union; is concerned about the Court’s observation of persisting weaknesses in the Member States’ control systems that put the sound financial management of RRF funding at risk and urges the Commission and national authorities to address them swiftly; welcomes that the Court did not raise any issues related to their satisfactory fulfilment assessed during 2022; notes problems with the reliability of the information provided in the management declarations by Member States, casting doubts on the possibility to rely on them when assessing milestones and targets; notes that the Commission performed 16 system audits in 2022 and 14 in 2023, including whether they check compliance with Union and national rules, so that all Member States’ control systems will have been audited at least once by the end of 2023; understands that the RRF Regulation places the principal responsibility to ensure respect for national and Union law on the Member States but is concerned about the Court’s observation on an assurance and accountability gap regarding compliance because there is an absence of compliance audits by the Commission on RRF funded investments projects; calls on an adequate and equal application of Article 22 of the RRF Regulation for all Member States and recalls that non-fulfilment of M&Ts related to a Member State's control system may lead to the suspension of the full instalment and all future instalments;
248. Recalls that Council Regulation (EU) 2017/1939 (the ‘EPPO Regulation’) provides that the EPPO shall be competent in respect of the criminal offences affecting the financial interests of the Union that are provided for in Directive (EU) 2017/1371 in the terms set out in the EPPO Regulation and specifically in its Chapter IV;
249. Expresses concern about the cases reported to the EPPO after the first year of implementation of the RRF, namely 15 active cases as reported in the EPPO Annual Report 2022; calls on the Commission to cooperate with OLAF and the EPPO in order to identify patterns of fraud, corruption and money laundering related to RRF and calls on the Commission to act in such situations; calls on the Commission to draw consequences for Member States with too many cases of fraud;
250. Notes with concern, that EPPO’s responsibility in investigating crimes involving RRF funds is being put into question in 9 cases in a Member State; notes that the European Court of Justice was asked via a preliminary question to give an opinion in one of these cases;
Implementation and impact
251. Notes that in 2022, the Commission made 13 payments to 11 Member States amounting to a total of EUR 72,2 billion, following the satisfactory fulfilment of 366 M&Ts (328 milestones and 38 targets); notes that as of the date of publication of the second implementation report in September 2023, the Commission has received 32 payment requests from 20 Member States and disbursed a total amount of EUR 153,4 billion (EUR 106,3 billion in grants and EUR 47,1 billion in loans);
252. Notes that the Commission reports that the achievement of M&Ts is broadly on track, after the first year of the RRF's functioning was more focused on the necessary reforms to build the framework for subsequent investment projects to have a higher impact; notes that the Commission reports delays compared to the indicative calendar of payments, due to the process of revising the RRPs in the context of the REPowerEU Plan and implementation challenges Member States are facing, such as administrative capacity issues, investment bottlenecks, and consequences of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, including the energy crisis, unexpected price shocks, shortages of certain materials and high inflation;
253. Notes that Member States may be overwhelmed administratively with the transfers of large RRF funds and cohesion funds at the same time, thus delaying implementation and potentially threatening transparency; notes the risk of double funding between the RRF and the European Structural and Investment Funds and encourages the Commission to actively check, including the relevant databases, and to communicate with Member States about their administrative capacities to ensure double funding does not occur;
254. Notes that several Member States have proposed to use RRF funds through financial instruments implemented by the EIB and other national investment banks to incentivise private investments under certain conditions; is concerned about the possible use of these instruments with the goal of extending the use of RRF funds beyond 2026; recalls that the RRF is a crisis instrument and that funding should be implemented within its lifetime;
255. Notes that the Commission is supporting all Member States in accelerating the implementation and revision of their plans, including through the Technical Support Instrument; stresses the importance of the Commission’s proactive role in supporting the Member States to best avoid the delays and under-implementation problem, as well as to ensure that Member States protect the financial interests of the Union and that EU taxpayers’ money is adequately spent; points out that, in particular, the countering of serious irregularities and double funding should receive appropriate resources and attention; notes concerns, as brought to the attention of the discharge authority, about the administrative capacity of the Member States to absorb the funds and the implementation of high quality projects, especially towards the end of the RRF period;
256. Is concerned that according to the Commission’s RRF scoreboard, 3 Member States have not submitted any payment request to the Commission by end December 2023; calls for speedy implementation of RRPs, including an evaluation by the Commission regarding barriers and results; is concerned that under-implementation, unless swiftly mitigated, might result in a payment crisis;
257. Criticises that in contradiction to the main goals of the facility the definition of “resilience” is insufficient to ameliorate the preparadeness of future crisis situations;notes that very little emphasis is placed on resilience or added-value in contributing to resilience when milestones and targets are emphasised; urges the Commission to create a ‘contribution to resilience’ indicator for the RRF scoreboard and to present the impact in the area of resilience in a table; further urges the Commission to consider contribution to resilience when considering new milestones and targets that are introduced into revised national recovery and resilience plans; encourages the Court to look more closely at RRF impact of resilience in all the pillars in a future study;
258. Emphasises that when reviewing revised national recovery plans, the Commission should still diligently apply the ‘Assessment guidelines for the Facility’ as outlined in Annex V of the RRF Regulation, which requires the Commission to assess and rate national recovery and resilience plans under the criteria of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and coherence (article 19(3)), as well as coverage of the six pillars, namely a) green transition, b) digital transformation, c) smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, d) social and territorial cohesion, e) health and economic, social and institutional resilience, f) policies for the next generation (Article 3); asserts that this is an important process to avoid revised national recovery plans that are much weaker than the original plans or that no longer fulfil the criteria;
259. Notes that the RRF should create synergies and measures implemented should lead to structural reforms that have added-value; is concerned that some countries have repackaged old national reforms into the national RRPs;
260. Emphasises that there should be a better co-governance approach in all Member States so that local and regional authorities, civil society organisations, social partners, academia or other relevant stakeholders are adequately involved in the design and the implementation of the national RRPs; calls for their involvement based on clear, fair, transparent and non-politicised principles, in the implementation of the national RRPs to the maximum extent possible under the national legislative framework;
261. Calls on the Commission to ensure that Member States apply a zero-tolerance approach to corruption and fraud, including embezzlement, without any exception;
262. Welcomes the RRF's crucial contribution to preventing a severe economic downturn and social crisis following the COVID-19 pandemic, and the fact that it enabled an unprecedented wave of reforms and investments across the Union that will have an important long-lasting effect on the Gross domestic product( GDP); points out that the European added value of the RRF has long been proven by the fact that its innovative and flexible nature allows Member States to achieve common Union policy objectives; notes that, at the same time, the RRF enables Member States to address country specific challenges through the design of the RRPs while a single assessment framework is applied equally for all Member States and payments requests;
263. Welcomes that reforms and investments proposed by the Member States in support of the green and digital transitions have exceeded the objectives set in the RRF Regulation, as the estimated climate expenditure amounts to about 40 % and the digital expenditure to 26 %, while the objectives were set at lower percentages of 37 % and 20 % respectively;
264. Notes the progress reported on the six pillars of the RRF and, in particular, on the implementation of country-specific recommendations (CSRs), with at least some progress having been made for 68 % and substantial progress in 12 % of 2019-2020 CSRs, which shows the incentives provided by the RRF; notes that progress in the implementation of the 2022 CSRs has also been substantial, with at least some progress in almost 52 % of the recommendations addressed to Member States in July 2022;
265. Recalls that the COVID-19 pandemic revealed structural weaknesses in health systems across the Union, such as lack of resilience and crisis response capacity; highlights that health is a policy area within one of the six pillars of the RRF, which make possible reforms and investments to strengthen their capacity, quality and resilience; notes that 531 M&Ts and 223 measures, as well as 48 % of the estimated contribution to this pillar is related to healthcare but regrets that some national RRPs have a health-related milestones or targets that do not contribute to strengthening the national health system; notes that an estimated 45 million people can use or be served by new or modernised health care facilities thanks to the RRF; urges the Commission to strengthen M&Ts related to preparedness and resilience in the health sector where possible when revising national RRPs and to report to the discharge authority;
266. Notes from Special Report 26/2023 that, despite the little time available to design the performance model of the RRF, the Commission and Member States managed to set up a monitoring system, including an IT-system, that allows implementation progress to be measured; welcomes the Commission’s commitment to work on the identified issues and implement the related recommendations;
267. Stresses that the mere completion of projects financed by the RRF funds does not guarantee a positive economic and social impact as well as quality and sustainability; notes the Court’s observations highlighting some of the drawbacks of using a performance-based framework, in particular trying to quantify results as M&Ts rather measure outputs; urges the Commission to apply the lessons learned and the Court’s observations, and to ensure that the design of future performance-based instruments also measure results and not only outputs;
268. Welcomes the considerable progress shown by the common indicators and across all policy pillars by December 2022, such as 22 million Megawatt (‘MWh’) of savings in annual energy consumption achieved, 1,43 million enterprises helped either through monetary or in-kind support, 4 million people trained, and support provided to 4 115 196 young people aged 15-29 years;
269. Recalls that on 15 December 2022, the Council adopted an Implementing Decision on the approval of the assessment of the RRP for Hungary based on the Commission’s positive evaluation; recalls that 27 ‘super milestones’ were added to the national RRP with remedial and audit and control measures; notes that on 7 December 2023, the Council adopted the Implementing Decision approving Hungary’s amended RRP, including a REPowerEU chapter, which allows Hungary to receive EUR 0,9 billion in pre-financing of the REPowerEU funds; regrets that the mentioned pre-financing is not subject to the ongoing procedure under the rule of law conditionality mechanism;
270. Notes that the RRF Scoreboard provides real-time information on the disbursements and progress made by Member States, as well as additional data, indicators and thematic analysis and welcomes the launch of the Union-wide interactive map showing RRF projects by geographical location and providing information on the state of play; is concerned, however, that the Court concluded that presented performance lacks transparency as regards inclusion of estimates and that aggregated information is not comparable, as well as that the information on the progress under the six pillars is misleading, i.e. when a measure is assigned to a primary and a secondary policy area belonging to the same pillar, the contribution of each measure is counted twice; highlights that transparency about limitations is of the utmost importance as it affects the (perceived) reliability of all presented information; calls on the Commission to immediately remedy the detected shortcomings and to proactively inform on the limitations of the data presented on the RRF Scoreboard;
271. Notes that many purely national projects are listed as cross-border projects as soon as they have energy saving or energy reducing elements; criticises the overestimation of the published number of cross-border projects as misleading;
272. Notes that the Court found that, concerning reporting on the common indicators, quality and underlying methodologies are not checked by national audit authorities in any visited Member State; is astonished that in a Member State, for expenditure under MFF heading 3, the indicated planting of trees did not exist when the Court made an on-the-spot check; notes that the Commission does not require supporting evidence or explanations on the reported data, except in cases where estimates are reported; notes that the Court concludes that this poses a risk to data reliability and comparability across member states; concludes that data reliability in the absence of audits might affect the performance information reported on common indicators to a larger extent than information based on milestones and targets; considers this, given the issues identified in the milestones and targets by the Court, a worrying situation and calls on the Commission to improve its assurance on the reporting on common indicators; notes the differing practices among audit authorities regarding the timing of the checks on the fulfilment of targets and reforms; believes that such checks should be better harmonised and should include a compulsory check on the reliability and accuracy of the data on milestones and targets before those milestones and targets are included in a payment request; points out the risks of an approach that uses mostly ex-post checks and calls on Member States to avoid such practices;
Transparency
273. Notes that the Ombudsman acknowledges that progress has been made in pro-active transparency, specifically through the RRF Scoreboard and the publication of the 100 largest recipients; notes however the points for improvement indicated by the Ombudsman and supports its recommendations to ensure greater transparency and accountability with regard to the RRF;
274. Notes that, following an explicit demand of the Parliament, the amended RRF Regulation requires Member States to publish information on the 100 final recipients receiving the highest amount of funding under the RRF; regrets the late publication of the lists by Member States and notes that all Member States have published the required list on the RRF Scoreboard by December 2023; observes a large variety of the size of the payments both across the Member States and within each country, which is explained by the heterogeneous nature of RRPs; expresses concern over the interpretation of the Commission of the concept of “final recipient” under the RRF, as often they are listed only at the ministry level, and that the descriptions are extremely vague, with many examples available in almost all lists provided by Member States; reiterates its demand that the list of 100 largest final recipients provides the factual natural person or entity that is the last in a chain of money transfers; is concerned that otherwise it will be problematic to measure the impact and guarantee visibility of the RRF funds to the citizens;
275. Recalls that transparency and accountability in the implementation of the Union budget are crucial and stresses, in this context, the need for further efforts by both the Commission and the Member States; welcomes the other initiatives undertaken by the Commission to increase transparency on the implementation of the RRF; notes that key documents governing the implementation, such as RRPs, Operational Arrangements, methodologies for assessment, and documents supporting or containing key decisions concerning Member States’ implementation are publicly available and easily accessible;
276. Is concerned about reports from the Court regarding difficulties in accessing RRF data to perform its duties; urges the Commission to ensure full access to the Court to the relevant databases of the Member States and the Union; urges the Commission to guarantee that data in the FENIX database are updated in a timely manner for the purposes of audit and control; underlines that data should be accurate and transmitted in a standardised format;
277. Recommends when implementing performance-based instruments in the future, that milestones and targets are clearly defined and linked in a timely manner to avoid accountability gaps and that the measuring of outputs and results is possible; recommends for performance based instruments to create a clear and precise verification mechanism from the beginning; notes that this is crucial in the context of transparency and accountability to the Union taxpayer;
278. Is concerned about transparency and accountability towards the public; urges that the Commission communicates with Member States about appropriate labelling of projects including reference that a project received Recovery and Resilience Funds; regrets following the Court’s annual report 2022 that even at the Commission level there is no clear oversight what specific projects RRF funds are supporting; underlines that the European taxpayer has the right to see what projects EU funds are supporting, where the projects are occurring, and what their added value is; calls on the Commission to increase visibility to insist on clear labelling of projects whether in the form of plaques for physical buildings or renovations, notifications on websites, announcements at conferences or trainings, or labelled on printed documents;
Recommendations
279. Supports the Court’s recommendations in its Annual Report as well as in related special reports, and welcomes that the Commission accepts a majority of them; calls on the Commission to implement them and to keep the discharge authority informed on the progress of the implementation;
280. Furthermore, calls on the Commission to:
(i) improve the ex-post monitoring of the continued satisfactory fulfilment of M&Ts, including in the area of the Rule of Law, and strictly apply the provisions of the RRF and the adopted guidelines to address concrete instances of reversal resorting to clear financial measures, including suspension of payments and recovery of funds when reversal of M&Ts occurs in accordance with the RRF Regulation and methodologies;
(ii) work in close cooperation with the discharge authority to map different options, and the relevant legal base, to address the reversal of milestones after the end of the implementation period of the the RRF;
(iii) keep improving the clarity of the measures and the related M&Ts, as well as ensure that they fully respect the horizontal principles of the Regulation, when the Member State submits a revision of the national RRP;
(iv) include clear verification mechanisms in the operational arrangement for M&Ts to allow for an unambiguous assessment of their fulfilment and to better outline its purpose in future performance-based instruments, as well as taking into account the verification mechanism when analysing the satisfactory fulfilment of M&Ts to contribute to the accuracy of measurements;
(v) continue to undertake Member States’ system audits in order to check their adequacy, as well as to obtain reasonable assurance on the compliance with Union and national rules, particularly public procurement, and work closely with the Court to find ways to remove its concerns about the assurance gap;
(vi) look not just into the adequacy of the set-up, but also into the actual functioning of the Member States’ audit and control systems for future performance-based instruments;
(vii) help Member States to implement the RRF projects in the foreseen timeline and to change the methodology of categorisation of cross-border projects so only a real geographical cross-border component is considered;
(viii) further support Member States to increase their administrative capacity to handle the simultaneous implementation of funds and help them reduce unnecessary administrative burdens, particularly for SMEs, simplify tenders and provide for more targeted information;
(ix) pay special attention and maintain an ongoing dialogue with the Member States so that reforms and investments meet the climate targets of the RRF Regulation and fully respect the “do no significant harm” principle;
(x) address reported delays at an early stage by providing, inter alia, technical assistance to Member States;
(xi) keep working with the Court in order to bring the interpretation of M&Ts as close together as possible;
(xii) improve the transparency and presentation of the RRF Scoreboard by eliminating any possibility of misinterpretation of figures and to measure the contribution to resilience more accurately as part of the RRF’s ex-post evaluation;
(xiii) consistently and accurately apply the provisions related to the “final recipients” of the RRF Regulation and to communicate with Member States on the correct application of the definition of “final recipients”;
(xiv) grant the Court, OLAF and EPPO access to the RRF related data, including to FENIX, within the exercise of their respective competences;
(xv) communicate actively with Member States on EPPO’s competence for criminal cases related to RRF funds since corruption or fraud using RRF funds constitutes a crime against the financial interests of the European Union;
(xvi) to communicate more actively with Member States regarding fraud prevention and to encourage them to align the reporting on fraud in a digital standardised way and to make use of the Irregularity Management System;
(xvii) report to OLAF at an aggregated level on the cases of suspected fraud, corruption, and conflict of interests detected in its own audits and by the Member States as reported in the management declarations, and to evaluate the information received to offer guidance to Member States if necessary;
(xviii) address the interaction between Cohesion and RRF funds and, in particular, those requirements that may facilitate using one fund rather than the other, and as well as to work with and guide Member States to select funds according to what is most fitting and efficient for the project in question; encourages the Commission to actively cross-check between databases to ensure double funding does not occur;
(xix) encourage Member States to put more emphasis on the involvement of local and regional authorities needs by requesting Member States to work more actively in a co-governance approach;
(xx) keep the goal of resilience and recovery in mind, in particular with regard to sectors that are critical in case of crisis, such as the health and the good sectors;
(xxi) use the recommendations of the Court from its work on the RRF and the experience gained in the implementation for the design and implementation of future Union performance-based instruments when relevant;
(xxii) ensure a comparable and proportionate level of precision in the assessment of milestones and targets and keep ensuring equal treatment to Member States when evaluating the satisfactory fulfilment of M&Ts;
(xxiii) be more proactive in publishing documents and statistics regarding how they handle document access requests, as such information would help with assessing the institutions’ proactive approach to document access; calls that an application for access to a document must be handled promptly;
ANNEX: ENTITIES OR PERSONS FROM WHOM THE RAPPORTEUR HAS RECEIVED INPUT
Pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure, the rapporteur declares that she has received input from the following entities or persons in the preparation of the report, until the adoption thereof in committee:
Entity and/or person
DG BUDG - Director-General
ECA - President, rapporteur member of the 2022 annual report, rapporteur members of the selected chapters
DG REGIO - Commissioner
ECA - President and rapporteur member of the 2022 annual report
DG BUDG - Deputy Director-General
DG RTD - Commissioner
ECA - Rapporteur member of the Cohesion chapter
DG INTPA - Commissioner
UNRWA - Representative office for Europe
The list above is drawn up under the exclusive responsibility of the rapporteur.
31.1.2024
OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
for the Committee on Budgetary Control
on 2022 discharge: General budget of the EU - Commission
(2023/2129(DEC))
Rapporteur for opinion: Katalin Cseh
SUGGESTIONS
The Committee on Foreign Affairs calls on Parliament’sCommittee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution:
1. Calls attention to the fact that the current year of audit is the one during which Russia launched its full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine, the worldwide effects of which have dramatically increased pressure on many EU partners and increased the need for investments in sustainable development and humanitarian assistance; expresses satisfaction that the flexibility of the Neighbourhood, Development, and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe of the Neighbourhood, Development, and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe (NDICI-GE) allowed the Union to quickly adapt to the extraordinary set of circumstances; urges, however, the Commission and the EEAS to take further measures to ensure that the cushion of the Instrument in the future is used more as intended, since its excessive early use has resulted in its being depleted very quickly and used beyond its core purpose of responding to emerging challenges and priorities; recalls Parliament’s standing position that new priorities should be financed with additional resources;
2. Reiterates commitment to the goals of the NDICI-GE instrument namely eradicating poverty, combating climate change, addressing food insecurity and promoting sustainable human development; recalls that the EU and Member States' commitment to increase Official Development Assistance (ODA) to 0.7% of the gross national income by 2030, allocating at least 20% under the Instrument to social inclusion and human development, including inequalities, gender equality, education and women’s empowerment;
3. Recalls that the rule of law, the EU’s fundamental values and the respect for human rights in recipient countries are embedded in the basic acts of IPA III and of NDICI-GE; calls on the Commission to modify assistance should threats to democracy, the rule of law, human rights of fundamental freedoms so require;
4. Stresses the need for the EFSD+ to support investments for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); highlights the importance of a holistic approach to human security; calls accordingly for full implementation of the EU Gender Action Plan III, operationalising the EU Global Health Strategy and Youth Action Plan in external action; emphasises the need to enhance the EU's efforts in promoting and protecting human rights, welcoming the mid-term review of the EU Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy; strongly supports the Council conclusions of May 4, 2023, on corruption as an obstacle to development;
5. Calls on the Commission to send clear signals to those candidate countries in which a backlash against rule of law standards - including limitations on the freedom of expression, the freedom of press, women’s and minority rights, the harassment of NGOs and human rights defenders - is jeopardising or delaying their accession to the EU; invites the Commission to examine the efficiency of the funds spent on the improvement of the state of the Rule of Law in the accession countries and report back to the AFET and CONT committees;
6. Notes the European Court of Auditors’ Special Report regarding the programming which concluded that it was comprehensively designed, addressing a broad range of partner country needs and EU priorities; highlights the identified deficiencies in the methodologies used for allocating funding to countries and in the setup of the monitoring framework; recommends therefore that the Commission and the EEAS improve the methodology for allocating funding and the assessment of the impact of EU support, focus the scope of the programming process, simplify and consistently use the indicators in the multiannual indicative programmes; suggests, in the framework of the mid term evaluation of the Instrument that the nomenclature be revised introducing a higher level of detail for transparency, predictability, accountability, scrutiny, and to enhance the budgetary authority’s capacity to make choices reflecting political priorities; regrets the two different approaches applied by the Commission and EEAS within the Instrument for the allocation of funding to Neighbourhood and non-Neighbourhood countries and asks that they be standardised, comparable and transparent in order to facilitate the audit trail;
7. Emphasises the significance of meeting all spending and program-related targets outlined in the NDICI-GE instrument and calls for comprehensive information to be provided on the progress achieved; expresses regret over the significant shortfalls in reaching the Instrument's 30% climate target, in contributing to the 10% biodiversity target in the MFF for 2026 and 2027, and in ensuring that the EU's global financial commitments under the UN framework are fulfilled, in particular as regards the contribution to the Loss and Damage Fund; highlights the increasing pressure climate change puts on food production and access, particularly in vulnerable regions, impacting food security and nutrition; reminds that biodiversity is key in combating climate change, and its loss undermines progress on approximately 80% of the assessed targets for the SDGs; calls on the Commission for a detailed plan outlining how it intends to meet spending and gender targets by the end of the MFF;
8. Reiterates its call on the Commission to implement the recommendations of the European Court of Auditors Special Report 01/2022 in order to ensure an effective impact of EU financial assistance in support for the rule of law in the Western Balkans, in particular by developing guidelines on the application of the provisions on modulation and conditionality under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) III;
9. Encourages further mobilisation of the European Peace Facility in response to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, which sends a clear signal of a paradigm shift for EU foreign and security policy; notes the Special Report of the European Court of Auditors which recommends sequencing of existing EU defence planning and cooperation tools to assess how to further develop planning for EU defence funding;
10. Welcomes the Commission’s revised Code of Practice on Disinformation, adopted in 2022; calls for the established Task Force which meets on a regular basis to monitor and adapt the commitments in view of technological, societal, market and legislative developments; stresses the need for the EU to increase the visibility of its actions through a better, more strategic communication of its external actions towards its own citizens and beyond;
11. Commends the Commission’s adoption of the EUR 25 million assistance program “EU4Belarus: Supporting societal resilience and human capital development” which further strengthens the resilience and capacity of the Belarusian people to promote democratic changes in Belarus at the time of political crisis;
12. Underlines that the Union budget must continue to provide support to build peace and stability in the Middle East region, to combat hate and fundamentalism and to promote human rights; awaits the review the Commission is conducting on the use of Union funds; underlines the interlinkages between stability and sustainable development, particularly in fragile countries and regions;
13. Notes the conclusion of the Commission’s internal review regarding the Union funds for Palestine, which concluded that the Commission controls and existing safeguards in place work well and found no evidence that money has been diverted for unintended purposes; calls on to the Commission to duly disburse the EU funds to Palestine, notably to Palestinian civil society, which plays a pivotal role in promoting human rights and secular values, as well as the fight against radicalisation;
14. Underlines that the EU´s budget should be managed in compliance with the Treaties and EU acquis, including provisions related to fundamental rights compliance, transparency and accountability towards the European Parliament and EU citizens; regrets, against that backdrop, the modus operandi of the Commission in its management of the external migration budget lines, notably the absence of fundamental rights impact assessments prior to migration projects in third countries, absence of publicly available overviews of budgets and projects and the Commission´s systematic refusal to provide Parliament with budgetary migration related spending overviews per country and MOCADEM related documentation, despite several formal requests and commitments under the Framework Agreement on relations between the European Parliament and the Commission: urges the Commission to significantly improve these practices with immediate effect, notably by performing ex ante human rights impact assessments before projects, creating a public overview of all migration related projects in third countries and systematically putting Parliament on equal footing with the Council in terms of the level of information provided;
15. Stresses the importance of education and the critical need to denounce and eradicate all manifestations of hate speech and violent actions on both sides; underscores that the suspension of funding should not occur arbitrarily or without transparent and independent evidence of misuse; commends the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) for its indispensable humanitarian endeavours in Gaza and its pivotal role in delivering quality education, with a specific emphasis on fostering a human rights culture, even in challenging times;
16. Urges the Commission to enhance the Rule of Law conditionality based approach of IPA III funding, in order for the instrument to serve its’ purpose of effectively preparing accession countries to fulfil the conditions of becoming EU Member States, considers a particular emphasis on the Rule of Law and democracy related conditions to be of importance in this regard;
17. Highlights the importance of the Global Gateway strategy which can significantly contribute to initiatives on connectivity, green and digital cooperation and that it needs to be focused and clearly structured in order to deliver transformational impact in partner countries while promoting universal values and using resources in the best way possible; strongly supports leveraging the EU budget and private sector involvement for contributing to Agenda 2030; calls on the Commission to set a clear and transparent accountability mechanism for implementation of the strategy and to demonstrate clear rationale for the use of development finance for the projects branded under the Global Gateway strategy and its equal benefits to recipient countries’ public and private sectors;
18. Recognises the multiple roles that Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) play; recalls the EU’s commitment to support CSOs in all external instruments and programmes and in all areas of cooperation, including through a flexible and tailor-made approach to funding in order to reach all types of CSOs; calls on the Commission to involve CSOs more systematically in the Global Gateway and Team Europe Initiatives;
19. Regrets the fact that the CFSP budget for civilian CSDP missions has only marginally increased from the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2014-2020 to the MFF 2021-2027 (from a starting point of approximately EUR 350 million per year), while at the same time the number and tasks of the missions have increased, the security environment has become more challenging, the cost of operations has increased, inflation has risen and the number of contracted personnel has increased, therefore limiting the potential for expanding the current missions’ mandates or possibly establishing new missions in response to urgent security needs; calls for a substantive increase of funding for the CFSP budget, while at the same time ensuring the efficient use of the funds allocated to the CSDP civilian missions, in order to make sure that they effectively respond to crisis situations and unforeseen events, and to actively identify where complementary projects and programmes could be funded from other relevant EU budgets, ensuring sound financial management and the careful prioritisation of existing resources;
20. Calls also for the structure of the CFSP budget to be changed and for the generation of one budget line per civilian CSDP mission, in order to allow for better scrutiny and increased transparency.
ANNEX: ENTITIES OR PERSONS FROM WHOM THE RAPPORTEUR HAS RECEIVED INPUT
The rapporteur declares under her exclusive responsibility that she did not receive input from any entity or person to be mentioned in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.
INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION
Date adopted
23.1.2024
Result of final vote
+:
–:
0:
48
2
9
Members present for the final vote
Alexander Alexandrov Yordanov, Maria Arena, Petras Auštrevičius, Krzysztof Brejza, Reinhard Bütikofer, Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz, Anna Fotyga, Michael Gahler, Giorgos Georgiou, Sunčana Glavak, Raphaël Glucksmann, Klemen Grošelj, Bernard Guetta, Márton Gyöngyösi, Dietmar Köster, Andrius Kubilius, Ilhan Kyuchyuk, Jean-Lin Lacapelle, Miriam Lexmann, Nathalie Loiseau, Leopoldo López Gil, Antonio López-Istúriz White, Thierry Mariani, David McAllister, Vangelis Meimarakis, Francisco José Millán Mon, Alessandra Moretti, Javier Nart, Matjaž Nemec, Demetris Papadakis, Kostas Papadakis, Tonino Picula, Thijs Reuten, Nacho Sánchez Amor, Mounir Satouri, Jordi Solé, Tineke Strik, Dominik Tarczyński, Hermann Tertsch, Viola von Cramon-Taubadel, Thomas Waitz, Isabel Wiseler-Lima, Tomáš Zdechovský, Bernhard Zimniok, Željana Zovko
Substitutes present for the final vote
Attila Ara-Kovács, Adam Bielan, Özlem Demirel, Christophe Grudler, Arba Kokalari, Georgios Kyrtsos, Katrin Langensiepen, Karsten Lucke, Erik Marquardt, Juozas Olekas, Bert-Jan Ruissen, Christian Sagartz, Mick Wallace
Substitutes under Rule 209(7) present for the final vote
Theresa Bielowski
FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION
Key to symbols:
25.1.2024
OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON DEVELOPMENT
for the Committee on Budgetary Control
on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, section III - Commission
(2023/2129(DEC))
Rapporteur for opinion: Antoni Comín i Oliveres
SUGGESTIONS
The Committee on Development calls on Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution:
1. Is alarmed about the rising number of crises worldwide, the highest-ever humanitarian funding gap and increasing inequalities between and within countries exacerbated by Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine which worsened the global food crisis, triggered an energy, cost of living and debt crisis worldwide and created economic uncertainty; is also concerned about the growing political and economic influence of China in Africa and Russian interference on that continent; is concerned that Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument - Global Europe (NDICI-GE) is stretched to its limits and is not sufficient to address existing needs; calls on the Member States to ensure that the cushion is mobilised only for purposes within its intended scope;
2. Welcomes the Global Gateway strategy as a concerted EU response to global challenges; notes that 2022 was the first full year of the implementation of the Global Gateway strategy; underlines that actions bringing together public and private investment must be focused on areas where they can add value to the local economy and be consistent with development objectives and national strategies of partner countries, as well as with the Agenda 2030, the SDGs and the Paris Agreement; calls for more transparency, accountability and regular assessments of the Global Gateway implementation as well as for Parliament’s involvement, beyond a simple observer role, in strategic choices involving Union funds in respect of the scrutiny role of the European Parliament of the NDICI-GE, which is the main source of financing of the Global Gateway; calls on the Commission to ensure that projects branded under the Global Gateway strategy contribute to the development objectives laid down in the NDICI-GE Regulation; insists that Global Gateway should not only align with the EU priorities but also with the needs of partner countries and contribute to the achievement of the SDGs;
3. Underlines the need to speed up progress on achieving the NDICI-GE spending targets for human development, gender, biodiversity and climate objectives; is concerned, in particular, about the Commission’ capacity to ensure reaching the Instrument’s climate target of 30% and the biodiversity target of 10% for 2026 and 2027; recalls that the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services will undermine progress in approximately 80 % of the SDGs targets and that climate change will increasingly put pressure on food production and access, especially in vulnerable regions, undermining nutrition and food security; calls for concrete actions outlining how the climate and biodiversity targets are going to be met; recalls the commitment set out to ensure a strong gender perspective and mainstreaming implementing the EU Gender Action Plan III;
4. Reminds the Commission’s commitment to dedicate at least 10% of the EU’s development portfolio to support access to quality education; welcomes the progress reached so far and calls on the Commission to continue the implementation of this commitment; further calls on the Commission to involve local actors with relevant experiences in providing quality education into the implementation of the EU financing for education in developing countries;
5. Is concerned about the depletion of the cushion within the NDICI-GE; insists that the Commission always notifies Parliament before the cushion is mobilised, respecting Parliament’s right of scrutiny and that the Commission fully takes into consideration Parliament's observations on the nature, objectives and financial amounts envisaged; stresses that the Parliament is responsible for democratic oversight and scrutiny of the NDICI-GE instrument as a co-legislator under the co-decision procedure; urges the Commission in its future actions to preserve the initial purpose of cushion funds, which is to respond to unforeseen crises; notes that in 2022 EUR 501 million were mobilised from the cushion of the NDICI-GE instrument as part of the bilateral assistance for Ukraine; welcomes, in this regard, the proposal to create a new instrument, the Ukraine Facility, to provide predictable financial support for Ukraine over the 2024-2027 period;
6. Stresses the role of local NGOs and partners in service delivery and support to local communities; underlines the importance of enhancing their capacity to manage and implement actions financed by the EU and invites the Commission to facilitate adequate training towards this aim; is concerned about the continued difficulties faced by small local organisations to access Union funding; encourages the Commission to improve these funding procedures and to systematically prioritise local organisations in order to provide better capacity-building on the ground; highlights the efficacy of local ownership in project implementation in terms of prioritisation, allocation of resources and building local know-how;
7. Stresses the important role of the official development assistance (ODA); notes that the European Union and its 27 EU Member States together remain the world’s biggest provider of external assistance, accounting for approximately 43% of the total ODA provided by all OECD ODA donors to developing countries in 2021; recalls the obligation under the NDICI-GE Regulation for 93% of the Instrument funding to be compliant with the ODA criteria; stresses that blending and public-private partnerships alone cannot guarantee universal access to, or replace public investments in fields such as education, social protection or health care, that provide crucial long-term prospects for the graduation from poverty and, therefore, advocates for a cautious approach in using them;
8. Calls for ex ante assessments to determine the possible implications and risks of EU programs with regard to human rights, especially in projects dealing with tourism and biodiversity protection, as well as in refugee and diaspora-focused programs;
9. Asks the Commission to guarantee that EU funding programs are not linked to cases of transnational repression, affecting refugees, asylum seekers, and naturalized citizens in the EU;
10. Calls on the Commission and Member States for a suspension or modulation of EU funding programs that (in)directly contribute to human rights violations, with particular regard to the rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs), including their right to self-determination, land, free assembly, and free, prior and informed consent;
11. Highlights the fact that the legitimacy and effectiveness of EU development cooperation hinges on the correct implementation of activities and their proper funding; recognises the work of the Commission in applying controls to make sure that transactions are made in a legitimate manner and that activities are implemented in accordance with the priorities set by the legislator; calls on the Commission to further improve controls in order to decrease the amount of transactional errors, to act upon ECA recommendations that have not been implemented and to redouble efforts to find eligible projects and to ensure a sufficient amount of payments under the current expenditure ceiling; welcomes the finding of the ECA report on the EU budget for 2022 that DG ECHO implemented ECA recommendation and established a procedure ensuring that partner organisations base their allocation of shared costs on expenditure actually incurred;
12. Welcomes the European Court of Auditors (ECA) Special Report 14/2023 entitled ‘Programming the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe: Comprehensive programmes with deficiencies in the methods for allocating funds and impact monitoring’; expects the Commission to act on the recommendations made by the ECA especially as regards more predictable and transparent programming as well as clearer methodology for assessing the impact of EU’s support and reiterates in this regard the recommendations made it its resolution of 12 December 2023 on the implementation of the NDICI-GE; encourages the ECA to prepare special reports relating to development cooperation expenditure and to regularly cover development cooperation aspects in its special reports on horizontal issues in accordance with the Policy Coherence for Development principle set in article 208 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU.
ANNEX: ENTITIES OR PERSONS FROM WHOM THE RAPPORTEUR FOR THE OPINION HAS RECEIVED INPUT
The rapporteur declares under his exclusive responsibility that he did not receive input from any entity or person to be mentioned in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.
INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION
Date adopted
24.1.2024
Result of final vote
+:
–:
0:
18
2
1
Members present for the final vote
Alessandra Basso, Hildegard Bentele, Stéphane Bijoux, Dominique Bilde, Mercedes Bresso, Catherine Chabaud, Christophe Clergeau, Antoni Comín i Oliveres, Mónica Silvana González, Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, György Hölvényi, Rasa Juknevičienė, Beata Kempa, Karsten Lucke, Erik Marquardt, Janina Ochojska, Eleni Stavrou, Miguel Urbán Crespo, Bernhard Zimniok
Substitutes present for the final vote
Carlos Zorrinho
Substitutes under Rule 209(7) present for the final vote
Riho Terras
FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION
Key to symbols:
5.2.2024
OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS
for the Committee on Budgetary Control
on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022 – Commission
(2023/2129(DEC))
Rapporteur for opinion: Romana Tomc
SUGGESTIONS
The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs calls on Parliament’sthe Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution:
– having regard to the European Court of Auditors’ Annual report on the implementation of the EU budget for the 2022 financial year;
– having regard to the European Commission’s Annual management and performance report for the EU budget 2022;
1. Is concernedworried by the fact that by the end of 2022, total outstanding commitments reached a record level of over €450 billion; takes note, however, that the increase is mainly a result of an increased commitment of funds during the second year of implementation of NextGenerationEU (NGEU), as well as the start of 2021- 2027 shared management fund implementation, and that according to the Commission, after a further increase to some €460 billion in 2023, the outstanding commitments should decrease from 2024 until 2027 to €314 billion;
2. Expresses satisfaction that the biggest part of the Union budget spending in 2022 went to the Heading 2 “Cohesion, resilience and values” (EUR 79.1 billion, or 40.4 %); emphasizes that the ESF+ aims to support Member States and regions to achieve high employment levels, fair social protection and a skilled and resilient workforce ready for the future world of work; furthermore, underlines the importance to closely involve regional actors in the implementation of ESF+ funded activities;
4. Recalls that spending under the subheading “Economic, social and territorial cohesion” (Subheading 2a) focuses on reducing development disparities between the different Member States and regions of the EU; stresses the importance of EU cohesion policy in supporting the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights and achieving its headline targets and assisting Member States and regions to harness new opportunities and address challenges, such as globalisation, unemployment, poverty and social exclusion, industrial change, digitalisation and supporting up and re-skilling and lifelong learning;
5. Is greatly concernedworried that the overall level of error, estimated by the European Court of Auditors to 4.2 %, thus is higher compared to 3.0 % in 2021 as well as largely above the 2 % materiality threshold; is particularly concernedworried that the level of error is mainly driven by ‘Cohesion, resilience and values’, which was the biggest contributor to this rate (2.5 %); recognises that the majority of spending in this area is deemed high-risk expenditure as mainly reimbursement-based and often subject to complex rules; notes that the most common errors under the Cohesion heading were ineligible projects and infringements of internal market rules, in particular non-compliance with public procurement and state aid rules; calls for urgent action to decrease the error rate in the future, especially for the new funding period, and calls on the Commission to assist the agencies to improve their internal procedures in order to ensure compliance with applicable public procurement and state aid rules;
6. Notes that the EU budget’s loss of purchasing power will affect its expenditure to differing degrees, as parts of the EU budget are fixed costs and they typically correlate with inflation, and these budget items will thus increase more than had been expected at the start of the MFF period; acknowledges that a key example of this is administration costs, which are impacted by inflation; notes that in 2022, the Commission already had to allocate an additional €0.2 billion to heading 7 – European Public Administration – because of rising inflation and energy prices;
10. Calls on the Commission to promote good working conditions and staff retention policies in order to ensure a stable and resilient workforce;
11. NotesTakes note of the Commission’s commitment to continue its close work with the audit authorities in order to strengthen their capacity to prevent and correct errors, to better document their audit work and therefore to contribute to the assurance process;
12. Asks the Commission to implement as soon as possible all outstanding recommendations of theCourt's Court.recommendations.
ANNEX: ENTITIES OR PERSONS FROM WHOM THE RAPPORTEUR HAS RECEIVED INPUT
Key to symbols:
12.2.2024
OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE ENVIRONMENT, PUBLIC HEALTH AND FOOD SAFETY
for the Committee on Budgetary Control
on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022 – Section III, Commission and executive agencies
(2023/2129(DEC))
Rapporteur for opinion: Pascal Canfin
SUGGESTIONS
The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety calls on Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its proposal for a decision:
1. Is satisfied with the Commission's overall implementation of the budgetary headings for environment, climate action, public health and food safety in 2022;
2. Is satisfied with the work carried out by the five decentralised agencies which are under its remit, which carry out technical, scientific or managerial tasks that help the Union institutions elaborate and implement policies in the area of environment, climate action, public health and food safety, as well as with the way in which those agencies' budgets are implemented; stresses that, given the scale of current and upcoming challenges, adequate funding and staffing must be guaranteed for the agencies and the Commission Directorates-General ('DG') working in the areas of environment, climate action, public health and food safety;
3. Highlights that the Commission is responsible for making sure that all EU countries properly apply EU law and thus calls on the Commission to ensure that there is sufficient staff capacity in DG Environment and other environmentally relevant services such as DG Sante and DG Clima, and of the environmental team within the Commission’s Legal Service to ensure the full enforcement of environmental legislation;
Environment and Climate Action
4. Notes that in 2022, DG Environment's budget reached EUR 567 million in commitment appropriations and EUR 470 million in payment appropriations and that it had 511 members of staff; points out that the appropriations administered directly by DG Environment had implementation rates above 99% at year-end;
5. Notes the fact that the share of payments executed by DG Environment that exceeded legal deadlines increased in 2022 (3,93% compared to 1,51% in 2021);
6. Notes that in 2022, DG Climate Action managed EUR 33,80 million under the title “Climate action” of the Union budget whilst EUR 2 897,4 million was available for the innovation fund; notes also that the DG had 310 members of staff at the end of the year; considers that this number should grow, in view of the increasing volume of tasks related, inter alia, to the Union's path towards climate neutrality by 2050;
7. Notes that preliminary estimates (based on commitment appropriations) of the climate contribution of the main programmes show that 34,8% of the EU budget in 2022 was dedicated to climate action, in line with the Interinstitutional Agreement plans for at least 30 % of 2021-27 MFF to be used for this purpose;
8. Notes the changes made to the Commission’s climate-tracking methodology in 2022 in response to the concerns expressed about the Court's finding in Special Report 09/2022, stating that the reported spending was not always relevant to climate action, that the amount reported as having been spent for that purpose had been overstated by at least EUR 72 billion, meaning that only around 13% of the 2014-2020 budget was spent on climate related purposes; is of the opinion that this fact serves as a warning; urges the Commission to distinguish between climate mitigation and climate adaptation in the tracking methodology by breaking monitoring and reporting category into climate adaptation and climate mitigation;
9. Underlines the importance of proper scrutiny of climate and biodiversity expenditure in the EU budget, and holds the Commission accountable for the implementation of a robust and reliable methodology, in line with the commitments undertaken in the MFF agreement and paragraph 16d of the IIA of 16 December 2020; calls on the Commission to avoid misleading approximation of the spending contribution to climate and biodiversity objectives, lack of explicit targets, as well as only partial coverage of potential negative or unclear climate and biodiversity impacts; Acknowledges that there are the interventions with common benefits but underlines the need to avoid double counting;
10. Calls on the Commission to provide Parliament with an annual report setting out in detail the contribution of each budget item to the climate mainstreaming and the biodiversity targets, in order to facilitate their monitoring; calls further on the Commission to report whether any budget item fails to respect the "do no significant harm" criterion as referred to in the Taxonomy Regulation;
11. Regrets the Court's finding, in its Special Report 16/20212 , that EU agricultural funding destined for climate action has not contributed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions; shares the Court's view that the new Common Agricultural Policy should have a greater focus on reducing agricultural emissions, and be more accountable and transparent about its contribution to climate mitigation;
12. Reiterates its strong concern that the reservation on significant security risks identified in the maintenance and the operation of the Union Registry system of the EU Emissions Trading System, as reported in AARs since 2010, is repeated in DG Climate Action’s 2022 AAR;
Public health, food safety, animal health and welfare, and plant health
13. Highlights the role DG Health and Food Safety continued to play in securing a coordinated response to the COVID-19 pandemic across the Member States during 2022; recognises the work on the creation of a European Health Union, on making HERA fully operational, on actions under the Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and the Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe, as well as on the implementation of the Farm to Fork Strategy;
14. Notes that, in 2022, DG Health and Food Safety managed a budget in its policy areas of EUR 644,20 million (down from EU 1 162,42 million in 2021, mainly due to a decreased spending on emergency support within the Union) and it had 791 members of staff; notes that the implementation rates of commitments and payments increased to 92,43,% and 90,90%, respectively;
15. Notes that, in 2022, DG Health and Food Safety presented an average residual error rate of 0,7%, which is below the materiality threshold of 2%;
Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA)
16. Notes that HERA, following its establishment as an internal Commission service on 1 October 2021, increased its operations throughout 2022 and that its mission is to support the Commission’s priorities for public health, preparedness and crisis management in the sectors of health, research and innovation and industry; notes with concern the overlap of responsibilities and duplication of efforts between mandates of DG HERA with DG SANTE and the ECDC; calls on the Commission to ensure the added value of HERA as an integral part of the Commission and to prevent duplication of work and resources;
17. Notes that in 2022, HERA had payments of EUR 438 million and increased its staff from 30 to 80 members; notes that HERA’s financial management is fully delegated to other entities; notes that a) DG INTPA paid EUR 430 million on behalf of HERA under the Emergency Support Instrument through a cross-subdelegation, and that b)100% of HERA EU4Health 2022 budget was implemented by the Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) for a total amount of EUR 275 million in commitment appropriation; c) HERA co-delegated EUR 580.5 million in commitment appropriations to DG ECHO under the Union Civil Protection Mechanism for the development of stockpiles of medical countermeasures to respond to large-scale Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear (CBRN) emergencies; d) Projects for approximately EUR 125 million, contributing to HERA objectives were earmarked for HERA by DG RTD under the Horizon Europe 2022 programme; remarks that HERA has entrusted partner DGs with the implementation of internal control processes to ensure the adequate management of the risks related to the legality and regularity of the underlying transactions they are responsible for, taking into account the multiannual character of programmes and the nature of the payments concerned. Notes that the partner DGs bear the responsibility for the delegated appropriations and report on them in their own AAR;
18. Regrets that the Commission’s decision on financing HERA heavily relied on the EU4Health Programme, cutting its budget by more than half with an EU4Health contribution of 2,795 billion EUR to HERA between 2021 and 2027); notes with concern that such reduction affected EU4Health’s capability of ambitious financing of other activities as foreseen by the Regulation (EU) 2021/522, including putting at risks actions under Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and the necessary support for creation of the European Health Data Space; deplores that by assigning such significant amounts to HERA, the Commission breached the agreed funding ceilings for minimum and maximum spending set in the EU4Health Regulation;
19. Notes with strong concern the close collaboration of Commission officials and industry within the activities of HERA; calls for strong transparency and conflict of interest rules to be put in place to ensure public trust in and commercial independence of HERA. is concerned that by the end of 2022, HERA did not developed and implemented a Procedure for reporting exceptions and non-compliance events, and an Anti-Fraud Strategy;
20. Highlights that the Commission's “lessons learned” report on the COVID-19 pandemic did not examine the performance of the vaccine procurement process, beyond its overall outcome. Urges the Commission to apply a high degree of transparency to all current and future contracts under the joint procurement and related purchase agreements in the field of health; insists that its relevant DGs should put in place a solid and transparent EU public procurement framework, when funds from the EU budget are fully or partially involved, that would allow for comprehensive scrutiny by the Parliament, especially concerning major health crisis-related spending areas; in line with the overriding public interest stated in Regulation 1049/2001 and the need for ensure public trust; calls on the Commission to make fully available all concluded vaccine and therapeutics (advanced) purchase agreements for COVID-19;
21. Is of the opinion, on the basis of the data available and the implementation report, that discharge can be granted to the Commission, despite certain caveats described above in respect of expenditure in the areas of environmental and climate policy, public health and food safety for the financial year 2022, provided that sufficient guarantees are given that the shortfalls described will be remedied in the coming period;
22. Recalls the Commission’s commitment to carry out a thorough review of the implementation of HERA’s operations by 2025 and to consider changing its structure and governance, including in order to transform it into a genuine agency with an autonomous budget.
ANNEX: ENTITIES OR PERSONS FROM WHOM THE RAPPORTEUR HAS RECEIVED INPUT
The Chair in his capacity as rapporteur declares under his exclusive responsibility that he did not receive input from any entity or person to be mentioned in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.
INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION
Date adopted
24.1.2024
Result of final vote
+:
–:
0:
67
12
6
Members present for the final vote
Catherine Amalric, Maria Arena, Hildegard Bentele, Michael Bloss, Delara Burkhardt, Pascal Canfin, Sara Cerdas, Mohammed Chahim, Maria Angela Danzì, Esther de Lange, Christian Doleschal, Bas Eickhout, Heléne Fritzon, Malte Gallée, Anja Hazekamp, Martin Hojsík, Jan Huitema, Karin Karlsbro, Petros Kokkalis, Peter Liese, Javi López, César Luena, Marian-Jean Marinescu, Lydie Massard, Liudas Mažylis, Marina Mesure, Silvia Modig, Dolors Montserrat, Alessandra Moretti, Ville Niinistö, Ljudmila Novak, Nikos Papandreou, Francesca Peppucci, Stanislav Polčák, Jessica Polfjärd, Erik Poulsen, Frédérique Ries, María Soraya Rodríguez Ramos, Günther Sidl, Maria Spyraki, Edina Tóth, Achille Variati, Petar Vitanov, Mick Wallace, Emma Wiesner, Michal Wiezik
Substitutes present for the final vote
Christophe Clergeau, Margarita de la Pisa Carrión, Martin Häusling, Ska Keller, Sara Matthieu, Manuela Ripa
Substitutes under Rule 209(7) present for the final vote
Mazaly Aguilar, Katarina Barley, Sergio Berlato, Daniel Buda, Asger Christensen, Nathalie Colin-Oesterlé, Ana Collado Jiménez, Marie Dauchy, Matthias Ecke, Pietro Fiocchi, Gianna Gancia, Paola Ghidoni, Catherine Griset, Teuvo Hakkarainen, Peter Jahr, Billy Kelleher, Danilo Oscar Lancini, Elżbieta Katarzyna Łukacijewska, Thierry Mariani, Nora Mebarek, Dace Melbārde, Nicola Procaccini, Maria Veronica Rossi, Silvia Sardone, Ivan Vilibor Sinčić, Sara Skyttedal, Michaela Šojdrová, Idoia Villanueva Ruiz, Alexandr Vondra, Veronika Vrecionová, Thomas Waitz, Jörgen Warborn, Stefania Zambelli
FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION
Key to symbols:
23.01.2024
OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORT AND TOURISM
for the Committee on Budgetary Control
on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission and executive agencies
(2023/2129(DEC))
Rapporteur for opinion: Petar Vitanov
SUGGESTIONS
The Committee on Transport and Tourism calls on Palriament’s Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution:
1. Welcomes the findings of the European Court of Auditors (‘the Court’) that the consolidated accounts of the EU for 2022 present fairly, in all material respects, the EU’s financial position; regrets that the level of error for budget expenditure increased from 3 % to 4.2 %; notes that this level of error stems mainly from the heading ‘Cohesion, resilience and values’; points out that, in line with the Court’s assessment, the errors are both material and pervasive and that their higher rates correlate with more complicated rules;
2. Notes that the implementation of the 2022 budget was still partly impacted by the late adoption of the MFF Regulation, high inflation and higher interest payments of NGEU related to overall higher interest rates brought upon by soaring inflation; furthermore, points out that it was heavily affected by illegal and unjustified Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine as well as the need to provide complex humanitarian and financial support;
3. Notes that the final budget for commitment appropriations of EUR 182.2 bln. above the MFF ceiling of EUR 179.8 bln. was made possible by the use of special instruments, such as the Flexibility Instrument, the Brexit Adjustment Reserve, the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund and the Solidarity and Emergency Aid Reserve, for amounts over and above the ceilings of the 7-year financial framework (maximum EUR 21.1 bln. in 2018 prices for the 7-year MFF);
4. Highlights that, under the RRF, some milestones and targets lacked clarity or did not cover all key implementation stages of the measure; calls on the Commission and the Member States to improve the utilisation of the RRF funding and implementation of the national plans as well as the control in order to ensure the best usage and value added of those funds, especially in the transport and tourism sector;
5. Calls on the Commission to ensure that there is additional advisory support to the national authorities of the Member States in order to navigate simultaneous funding related to absorbing funds from several instruments at the same time, namely closing the remaining European Structural and Investment Funds programmes from the 20142020 MFF, considering that the implementation of the 20212027 shared management funds under CPR has also begun, albeit with a delay; regrets that the late adoption of the legislation for the shared management funds from the 20212027 MFF and the parallel implementation of several instruments resulted in pressure on administrative resources leading to delays in approval of all partnership agreements with the Member States and of most of the programmes; notes at the same time that most of the Member States have reached the implementation phase of NGEU financing; stresses that, alongside all this, they need to pursue measures introduced in connection with Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, such as CARE and FAST-CARE, causing the Member States on losing funding;
6. Acknowledges that, in 2022, CEF reached its full implementation phase and deems it an achievement; regrets the decrease, compared to 2021, in funding for calls for proposals under the CEF Transport 2022 funding instrument on projects targeting new, upgraded and improved European transport infrastructure; takes notice that CEF Transport 2022 calls that were launched during the 3rd quarter of 2022 opened additional funding possibilities with an extra EUR 6 bln. of EU co-funding; insists that a sufficiently high CEF Transport budget line is key to ensuring implementation of the TEN-T network, including the enlargement in the Eastern region to provide connection to the Eastern partners such as Ukraine, greening of European transport, increased military mobility and offsetting the unprecedently high inflation rates;
7. Notes that 2022 was the second year of Horizon Europe, the Framework Programme supporting transport research and innovation in 20212027 MFF; welcomes the successful completion of 3 major transport calls in January, April and September, for EUR 122 mln., EUR 253 mln. and EUR 91 mln. respectively, that led to new transport research and innovation projects in the areas of road, aviation and waterborne transport, as well as on infrastructures, multimodal network / traffic management, logistics and new mobility services;
8. Highlights that connectivity is crucial for cohesion and even more so for the Member States at the periphery of the Single Market; therefore, believes that it is fundamental for the EU to play a leading role in fostering a global level playing field in the aviation and maritime sectors;
9. Reiterates that mobility is a right of European citizens; therefore, stresses that it is critical that mobility and transport are available, interconnected, efficient and affordable for all and that all EU transport policies are designed in accordance with this essential principle; maintains that nobody can be left behind, that rural and remote regions need to be better connected, furthermore, that transport and mobility have to be accessible for persons with reduced mobility and persons with disabilities;
10. Notes that 2022 was the inaugural year of the implementation of the New Urban Mobility Framework, an integral component of the Efficient and Green Mobility package, to improve urban mobility; points out that DG MOVE has taken proactive measures, including the establishment of a reformed Commission expert group on urban mobility, and prepared the Commission’s Recommendation on National Support Programmes for Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning; welcomes the fact that throughout 2022, a series of meticulously organized communication events were executed with the express purpose of advancing awareness on and understanding of Urban Mobility initiatives; however, observes with concern that this Framework does not recognise that all modes of transport have their role to play and that every citizen has a right to choose the mode of transport according to their preferences and needs;
11. Endorses the work of European Climate Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) in effectively managing its delegated programmes and supporting DG MOVE in achieving its strategic objectives as per the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy;
12. Welcomes the Commission’s willingness to explore the benefits and possibilities of new transport modes, such as Hyperloop;
13. Commends the legislative work of DG MOVE to contribute to the climate goals of the Union, such as FuelEU Maritime, AFIR or Refuel Aviation; regrets however that the proposals of the Greening Transport Package, such as the Weights and Dimensions or the Combined Transport, are delayed;
14. Calls for the preparation of the revision of the regulatory framework for: a) rail, to remove the existing regulatory obstacles so that it can be a competitive alternative, with a particular emphasis on provisions on capacity management that are necessary to better suit the needs of freight services and to regulate technical and operational standards that are currently national; b) both combined transport, enlarging its scope to intermodal transport, and road-only transport; notes that these revisions should aim to reduce the diverging implementation by the Member States, to include provisions on the digitalisation of information flows, and to reinforce the incentives for intermodal transport;
15. Calls for cross-border and multi-country projects and to simplify, accelerate and harmonise digitalisation and the regulatory process for infrastructure projects, especially for cross-border interconnections and bottlenecks;
16. Points out that continued and increasing public investment in ensuring large scale infrastructure, especially the TEN-T network, is key to providing interconnectivity, boosting of economic growth and benefitting fully from the opportunities of the Single Market; stresses the importance of finalizing the core TEN-T network by 2030; calls on the Commission to provide the Member States with clear guidelines on how to perform the market study and how to draw up a terminal development plan, with particular regard to cross-border aspects and along the Core Network Corridors; stresses the importance of setting up a target implementation date within 12 months after entry into force of the new TEN-T regulation;
17. Underlines that funding of the TEN-T network revision shall well reflect and further focus on the extension of connection towards the Eastern Neighbourhood; in this regard insists on not delaying the acception of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen Area any longer to ensure seamless transport connection to the East;
18. Welcomes the agreement reached on 30 December 2023 by the EU Member States on lifting air and maritime internal border controls with Romania and Bulgaria; urges the Commission to analyse all possible options to defend the right of Romanian and Bulgarian citizens to free movement, ensuring seamless road transport and mobility between Romania and Bulgaria and the rest of the Union to make certain that the Single Market works for all; underlines that the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area is essential, as an enlarged Schengen area without internal border controls will make the EU stronger; emphasises that the prolongation of the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area for road transport can lead to the anti-European sentiment in these countries and, in turn, to a decline in confidence in the EU project and its institutions; highlights that the current situation goes against one of the main European principles of free movement; urges in this regard the Commission to analyse all possible procedures to defend the right to free movement of Romanian and Bulgarian citizens;
19. Notes that all citizens of Romania and Bulgaria are discriminated against because they face delays, excessive bureaucratic burden and additional costs when travelling for the purposes of tourism, work, studying or doing business abroad, compared to their counterparts from the Schengen countries; stresses that identity checks raise trade costs for goods by approximately 0.4 % to 0.9 % of the value of trade at every Schengen border, while even higher costs apply to trade in services; stresses that trade costs for the entire Schengen area amount to EUR 6.513 bln. per year;
20. Welcomes ECA’s Special Report 13/2022 “Free movement in the EU during the COVID-19 pandemic - Limited scrutiny of internal border controls, and uncoordinated actions by Member States”; urges both the Commission and the Member States to diligently implement the recommendations delineated therein, including closer scrutiny of border controls, the establishment of streamlined procedures for data collection on restrictions, and the provision of more actionable guidance on implementation; further recalls the role of the ECDC in enhancing the oversight of the implementation of its guidance;
21. Welcomes the adoption by the Commission of an amended proposal, in line with its ‘Solidarity Lanes’, for the revised TEN-T Regulation in June 2022, which aims to strengthen the links with Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, by extending four European Transport Corridors to these neighbouring countries; welcomes that on 11 November 2022, the Commission, Czechia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the World Bank Group published a Joint Declaration announcing the pooling of EUR 1 bln. for the Solidarity Lanes to enhance the capacity of these transport corridors; commends the dedicated calls within CEF Transport 2022 launched to support the projects that aim at improving transport infrastructure along the Solidarity Lanes and at Border Crossing Points (BCPs) between the EU and Ukraine and Moldova, stressing that continued help and support to Ukraine is of uttermost importance; in this regard also welcomes the signature of the three grant agreements under the CEF Transport worth almost EUR 45 mln. to improve transport connections between Moldova and Romania along the TEN-T network, as the projects will modernise transport infrastructure at the road border crossing points Ungheni, Albița Leușeni, and Reni-Giurgiulești-Galați; notes that these investments will strengthen the EU-Ukraine Solidarity Lanes – the routes used since Russia's blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports to transport Ukraine's and Moldova's exports and imports;
22. Welcomes the substantive contribution of DG MOVE to the subsequent packages of the sanctions against Russia and Belarus; recalls that in aviation, they covered both flights of Russian owned, operated or controlled aircraft in the EU airspace and the export of aviation goods to Russia or support to the use of such goods by Russia, to inhibit Russia’s international connectivity and hamper Russia’s aviation industry;
23. Applauds the initiative of the European Air Traffic Management Voluntary Solidarity Fund for Ukraine and Moldova under the responsibility of Eurocontrol, aiming to sustain staff/training costs and any other costs to ensure operational readiness when air traffic recovers; furthermore, welcomes another Eurocontrol solidarity mechanism to assist the front-line states struggling with the effects of a sharp drop in air traffic; points out that the Eurocontrol Member States decided to establish two specific funds: one in the form of a donation to Ukraine and Moldova of EUR 46.5 mln. and one in the form of a loan of EUR 46.1 mln. to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland;
24. Commends the Commission’s legislative proposals in the field of transport to help Ukraine during the unjustified illegal war of Russian aggression such as the proposal for a Regulation regarding Ukrainian driving licences including the driving licence for professional drivers;
25. Welcomes that Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia obtained the observer status in the Regional Steering Committee of the Transport Community Treaty (TCT) in November 2022;
26. Welcomes the Action Plan on Military Mobility 2.0 presented by the Commission, which builds on the success of the first action plan of 2018; highlights that the 2022 action plan broadens the scope of Military Mobility by addressing the threats and challenges emerging within the new security landscape;
27. Points out that the EU Member States largely use the same transport infrastructure for both civilian and military movements and transportation; highlights that at the heart of military mobility is the need to upgrade the dual use transport infrastructure along the military mobility network – comprising multi-modal transport routes connected by logistical hubs – so that it is capable of handling potentially heavy and large-scale military transports at short notice; notes therefore that strengthening of the dual-use transport infrastructure across the TEN-T involves the development of multi-modal transport corridors and transport nodes; considers that, as a result, development of the dual-use transport infrastructure through co-funding from the CEF funding instrument continues to be an essential pillar of this Action Plan; points out that, in accordance with the Strategic Compass, the EU will continue strengthening the dual-use transport infrastructure across the trans-European transport network in order to promote rapid and seamless movement of military personnel, material and equipment for operational deployments and exercises, working in close cooperation with NATO and other partners;
28. Welcomes that the Commission accelerated the evaluation for the CEF 2021 Military Mobility call and anticipated by several months the 2022 Military Mobility funding opportunities; notes that this triggered the faster award of almost EUR 1 bln. of CEF funds to the key dual use infrastructural components, covering all transport modes and helping the deployment of the dual use infrastructure, for instance, improving technical parameters for railway bridges and tunnels, upgrading the airport infrastructure for civilian-military traffic, and adapting technical specifications for port infrastructures; welcomes the Commission’s engagement to redeploy funding envisaged for the short-term defence instrument; takes notice of the funding from the European Defence Fund and the proposal to enhance the Union’s strategic transport infrastructures to make them fit for military mobility; further calls on the Commission to ensure a clear commitment as well as to find and present solutions to sufficiently increase the military mobility budget line beyond the Flexibility Instrument, in order to strengthen European security and to include military mobility infrastructure within the TEN-T; points out that the identification of the gaps and bottlenecks in the physical transport infrastructure in the Member States, which might hamper short notice and large-scale deployments of military forces, will be assessed in 2023;
29. Welcomes action taken by the Commission in December 2022 to speed up the financing of 35 military mobility projects along the TEN-T; notes that accelerated evaluation of the CEF 2021 Military Mobility call triggered the faster award of almost EUR 1 bln. of CEF funds to key dual use infrastructural components;
30. Recalls the Court’s Special Report 27/2021 “EU Support to tourism – Need for a fresh strategic orientation and a better funding approach”; recalls the Court’s recommendation to the Commission to set out a consolidated new strategy for the EU tourism ecosystem in cooperation with the Member States in order to develop an effective tourism agenda for 2030 and to apply selection procedures for ERDF-funded tourism investments to support this new strategic orientation; underlines the Commission’s responsibility to support the Member States in promoting tourism-related investments, in accordance with the strategic agenda;
31. Calls for examples of relevant investments dedicated to the tourism sector related to the diversification of the tourism offer, extension of the tourism season, and development of high value added tourism products or targeting specific groups, innovative services and digitalisation;
32. Reiterates the Parliament’s request for the creation of a new budgetary line for tourism to support this sector, severely hit by the COVID-19 and now suffering from energy crisis, inflation and facing significant challenges connected to impacts of green and digital transitions in the transport and tourism sector; calls on the Commission to develop a new strategy for the tourism sector and a roadmap for smart and sustainable tourism backed up by budgetary means taking also into account that majority of the tourism industry consists of SME;
33. Proposes to grant the Commission and its executive agencies discharge in respect of the implementation of the Union general budget for the financial year 2022 in the fields of Transport and Tourism.
ANNEX: ENTITIES OR PERSONS FROM WHOM THE RAPPORTEUR HAS RECEIVED INPUT
The rapporteur declares under his exclusive responsibility that he did not receive input from any entity or person to be mentioned in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.
INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION
Date adopted
23.1.2024
Result of final vote
+:
–:
0:
30
3
2
Members present for the final vote
Magdalena Adamowicz, Andris Ameriks, Izaskun Bilbao Barandica, Ciarán Cuffe, Karima Delli, Carlo Fidanza, Mario Furore, Isabel García Muñoz, Elsi Katainen, Kateřina Konečná, Bogusław Liberadzki, Peter Lundgren, Elżbieta Katarzyna Łukacijewska, Marian-Jean Marinescu, Tilly Metz, Cláudia Monteiro de Aguiar, Caroline Nagtegaal, Philippe Olivier, Rovana Plumb, Tomasz Piotr Poręba, Bergur Løkke Rasmussen, Dominique Riquet, Thomas Rudner, Vera Tax, Achille Variati, Petar Vitanov, Elissavet Vozemberg-Vrionidi, Lucia Vuolo
Substitutes present for the final vote
Markus Ferber, Vlad Gheorghe, Roman Haider, Pär Holmgren, Ljudmila Novak, Dorien Rookmaker
Substitutes under Rule 209(7) present for the final vote
Viola von Cramon-Taubadel
FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION
Key to symbols:
25.1.2024
OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
for the Committee on Budgetary Control
on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission and executive agencies
(2023/2129(DEC))
Rapporteur for opinion: Younous Omarjee
SUGGESTIONS
The Committee on Regional Development calls on Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution:
1. Reminds that cohesion spending is reimbursement-based and hence very complex and more prone to error than other spending areas; acknowledges that the proximity of the closure of the 2014-2020 period, the flexibilities and additional funding made available through CRII(+), CARE and REACT-EU and the parallel implementation of the RRF may have contributed to increasing the pressure on the managing authorities and beneficiaries and thus the number of errors;
2. Stresses, in this regard, the inherent risks posed by these simultaneous activities for all bodies responsible for managing and controlling these funds and concurs with the Court of Auditors that an additional advisory support from the Commission to national authorities would be needed in this particular context;
3. Urges the Commission to simplify administrative procedures with a view to ensuring that cohesion policy funds are spent responsibly and appropriately; stresses in particular the need for further simplification of rules, greater use of simplified cost options and improved effectiveness of ex ante and ex-post checks;
4. Notes the Commission’s statement which mentions that particular attention is being paid to the implementation of the Just Transition Fund (JTF) due to the timeframe to spend NextGenerationEU (NGEU) resources by the end of 2026, but underlines the quite insufficient progress in its implementation and absorption rate;
5. Welcomes the financial flexibility available in the use of cohesion funds and underlines that, thanks to this flexibility, cohesion policy played a frontline role to address the Covid crisis, the war-related emergencies, as well as the energy crisis; reminds, however, that the rationale of this policy is to ensure a long-term planning of measures that should strengthen economic, social, and territorial cohesion between European regions; believes that post-2027 cohesion policy must provide the flexibility needed in the use of funds to enable the Member States and regional and local authorities to steer resources in an appropriate and reliable manner, always in line with cohesion policy long-term objectives;
6. Reminds that, without prejudice to the need to support the authorities, including in particular local and regional authorities, as well as beneficiaries to better comply with spending rules and minimise errors, the most pressing issues to be addressed in the area of cohesion policy are the overly complex rules and procedures, with the need of more flexible processes, and the disproportionate administrative burden they entail, and the effective targeting of the funds;
7. Also highlights the recurrent problems caused by the diversion of cohesion funds towards other policy areas as a rule and not as an exception, as happened recently with the STEP proposal;
8. Points out the importance of the legality and regularity of cohesion spending as well as the crucial role that managing and audit authorities play in this respect; recalls the need to simplify and rationalise audits, concentrating on what is necessary to fight against fraud; reminds, in addition, that according to the 21-27 Common Provisions Regulation, Member State authorities should report all cases of suspected or established fraud related to EU-funded projects that they identify, and that they should report these cases even if they detect them before declaring expenditure to the Commission;
9. Highlights the significant role of the European Anti-Fraud Office and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in protecting the EU budget; calls on all Member States to join the EPPO; reminds that, in her appearance before the Committee on Regional Development on 25 May 2023, the European Public Prosecutor noted that the management and control system for EU expenditure currently in place is not designed to detect fraud and that audits or administrative investigations rarely detect financial crime, which often has a cross-border dimension; stresses the need to provide the EPPO with the necessary means to carry out its duties; is of the opinion that a strengthened EPPO would make it possible for the legislator to further simplify the regulatory framework for cohesion in order to improve the implementation of the funds;
10. Welcomes the adoption of national anti-fraud strategies by 24 Member States in total, as it should increase the protection of the EU´s financial interests; calls for more effort at EU level and in the Member States to tackle fraud;
11. Expresses concerns about the Commission’s reported plans to disburse the suspended 6.3 billion EUR from the RRF to Hungary in exchange for its endorsement of the aid for Ukraine; points out, that the suspended funds should not be released to Hungary until the remedial measures adopted by the Hungarian government have proven effective in practice;
12. Notes that according to the European Court of Auditors (ECA) Annual report for the financial year 2022, the estimated level of error in spending on ‘Cohesion, resilience and values’ is 6.4% while the Commission’s error estimates, between 1.8 % and 2.6 %, are above the materiality threshold but are significantly lower than the Court’s; points out that, although both institutions apply different methodologies, the growing discrepancy between their assessments, especially in the area of cohesion, raises great concerns;
13. Acknowledges that both the Commission and the ECA identified ineligible expenditure, public procurement, audit trail and State aid as the main sources of irregularities; underlines that recurring errors such as ineligible costs and projects could be better addressed to support managing authorities in reducing these errors, but that this should be done in a way that does not complicate the management of the funds to the detriment of regional and local authorities and final beneficiaries;
14. Draws attention to the increased risk of decommitments in the coming years and urges the Commission to continue and strengthen its cooperation with the Member States and the regions to speed up and ease complete and correct good closure of the 2014-2020 programming period, allowing for these authorities to draw lessons for the implementation of the ongoing one;
15. Is concerned that the prioritisation of the RRF in the Member States is causing delays in the implementation of funds under the CPR 2021-2027; draws attention to the cases of weak design that the ECA has found in relation to the measures and underlying milestones or targets in the recovery plans; highlights that these latter should clearly define all milestones and targets and stresses that all the problems regarding the reliability of information that member states included in their management declarations should be properly addressed;
16. Calls on the Member States to accelerate the investment of cohesion resources to support the creation of jobs, economic growth, business competitiveness as well as inclusion of socially vulnerable groups and urges the Commission to take concrete measures to this end, such as the development of a one-stop-shop that consolidates the information relative to all available funds including updated and detailed information on beneficiaries;
17. Highlights the findings of the Court’s Special Report 09/2022 on climate-spending information for 2014-2020 and welcomes that the Commission accepted the three recommendations on the climate relevance of agricultural funding, the need for enhancing climate reporting and the link of the EU budget to climate and energy objectives;
18. Stresses the importance of cohesion policy in promoting gender equality and regrets that, in the EU’s budget cycle, gender equality has not been adequately taken into account and that the Commission has not yet lived up to its commitment to gender mainstreaming in the EU budget; welcomes nevertheless that the Commission implemented the methodology to track all EU spending programmes’ contributions to gender equality under the 2021-2027 multiannual framework and that this methodology was piloted in the 2023 draft budget.
ANNEX: ENTITIES OR PERSONS FROM WHOM THE RAPPORTEUR HAS RECEIVED INPUT
The rapporteur declares under his exclusive responsibility that he did not receive input from any entity or person to be mentioned in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.
INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION
Date adopted
23.1.2024
Result of final vote
+:
–:
0:
33
0
3
Members present for the final vote
Pascal Arimont, Isabel Benjumea Benjumea, Stéphane Bijoux, Vlad-Marius Botoş, Corina Crețu, Rosa D’Amato, Christian Doleschal, Matthias Ecke, Mircea-Gheorghe Hava, Peter Jahr, Manolis Kefalogiannis, Elżbieta Kruk, Cristina Maestre Martín De Almagro, Nora Mebarek, Eric Minardi, Andżelika Anna Możdżanowska, Niklas Nienaß, Andrey Novakov, Younous Omarjee, Witold Pahl, Alessandro Panza, Tsvetelina Penkova, Wolfram Pirchner, Caroline Roose, Marcos Ros Sempere, Monika Vana
Substitutes present for the final vote
Franc Bogovič, Daniel Buda, Isabel Carvalhais, Sandro Gozi, Denis Nesci, Mauri Pekkarinen, Rovana Plumb, Bronis Ropė
Substitutes under Rule 209(7) present for the final vote
Jordi Cañas, Marie Dauchy
FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION
Key to symbols:
20.11.2023
LETTER OF THE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Ms Monika Hohlmeier
Chair
Committee on Budgetary Control
Spinelli 14E201
Brussels
IPOL-COM-AGRI D (2022) 39270
Subject: Opinion the 2022 discharge: General budget of the EU – Commission (COM(2023)0391 – C90248/2023 – 2023/2129(DEC))
Dear Chair,
Under the procedure referred to above, the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development has been asked to submit an opinion to your committee. At its meeting of 19th July 2023, the committee decided to send the opinion in the form of a letter.
The Coordinators of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development adopted the letter on 11th December 2023, and decided to call on Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into their motion for a resolution:
1. Welcomes the findings of the Court of Auditors concerning the financial year 2022; recalls that Agriculture and Rural Development expenditure accounts for 96,8 % of the spending on ‘Natural resources and environment’, representing 28,75 % of overall EU budget spending;
2. Notes with satisfaction that the execution rate of commitment appropriations increased compared to 2021 reaching 98,53% (89,40% in 2021) and a total amount committed of EUR 59.640,93 million; understands this increase is due to a high rate of implementation for the Next Generation EU instrument contrasting with the very low rate of implementation in 2021 mainly due to a delay in submitting the amendments of the EAFRD programmes; notes that an increase has also been observed for the execution rate of payment appropriations reaching 98,58% (97,84% in 2021) and a total amount paid of EUR 56,476.35 million;
3. Understands the fact that the estimated level of error for “Natural resources” is slightly above the materiality threshold up from 1,8% in 2021 to 2,2% in 2022 and that the majority of quantified errors found affected rural development transactions (over 65% of errors found); stresses that the level of error was not material for direct payments (66% of spending under this MFF heading) but was still material for other spending areas including rural development and market measures;
4. Notes that much of the estimated level of error found in the sample is related to the provision of inaccurate information areas or animals (42%) closely followed by ineligible beneficiary, activity, project or expenditure (39%) and further down the non-respect of agri-environmental commitment (13%);
5. Highlights the fact that corrective measures applied by Member State authorities and the Commission reduced the estimated level of error by 0,9 percentage points; deplores however the findings of the ECA that the estimated level of error would have been 1,3 percentage points lower had the Member State authorities and the Commission made proper use of all the information at their disposal; Underlines the importance of simplifying bureaucratic processes, identifying the factors leading to the improper use of information by Member State authorities and the Commission, and promoting a more efficient utilization of data to minimize the margin of error;
6. Supports the Court’s recommendation that the Commission should continue monitoring the quality of agricultural data and how accurately Member States assess the eligible area in the Land Parcel Identification System given that agricultural area will be the basis for performance indicators under the new CAP 2023-2027;
7. Deplores the Court of Auditors’ findings, in its Special Report on conflict of interest in EU cohesion and agricultural spending (06/2023), showing that although both the Commission and the Member States had made efforts to address conflicts of interest, gaps remained, particularly in terms of promoting transparency, and, in Member States, detecting situations at risk, as well as comprehensive reporting; Support the Court’s recommendation to the Commission to improve its capacity to prevent, detect and report conflicts of interest and promote transparency;
8. Recalls that both the Commission and Member States are responsible for addressing fraud in CAP spending; Points out that anti-fraud measures should remain a high priority for the EU and Member States as fraud prevents EU resources from achieving the policy objectives.
As AGRI committee Chair, I would like to ask the CONT committee to take due account of this opinion in its reports on the proposed discharge.
Yours sincerely,
Norbert Lins
ANNEX: List of entities or persons
from whom the rapporteur for the OPINION has received input
The rapporteur declares under his exclusive responsibility that he did not receive input from any entity or person to be mentioned in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.
08.2.2024
OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON CULTURE AND EDUCATION
for the Committee on Budgetary Control
on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission and executive agencies
(2023/2129(DEC))
Rapporteur for opinion: Romeo Franz
SUGGESTIONS
The Committee on Culture and Education calls on Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution:
1. Welcomes the Commission’s and the European Education and Culture Executive Agency’s (EACEA) efforts to adapt Erasmus+, the European Solidarity Corps and Creative Europe to a changing reality, for instance by reviewing upwards individual support rates for grants to safeguard their inclusive character, extending application deadlines and project duration, and a voluntary refocusing of activities on Ukraine, and expects more efforts to further reinforce inclusion measures and support to facilitate the participation of vulnerable groups;
2. Notes that, despite a challenging context created by long-lasting effects of the pandemic, the impact of rising inflation and energy prices on beneficiaries and Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the Erasmus+ programme could in 2022 fully resume its long-standing mission to support transnational learning mobility, with the number of mobilities supported comparable to pre-pandemic years;
3. Notes that 2022 saw the launch or further roll-out of important initiatives such as the European Education Area, the MediaInvest blending facility, the new mobility scheme Culture Moves Europe and the 2022 European Year of Youth; regrets the limitations included in the Culture Moves Europe scheme excluding air travel for journeys below 600 km and forcing participants to make lengthier, more expensive trips; notes that the top-up provided to offset such costs represents lost mobility opportunities for more potential participants;
4. Appreciates that the Commission and the EACEA managed to achieve nearly full budget execution for Erasmus+ and full budget execution for the European Solidarity Corps in 2022, making it even necessary to redeploy credits from other programmes to cover payment needs; notes the challenges to the payment implementation of Creative Europe in 2022, with some EUR 50 million having been deferred to 2023 as a result of operational issues and delays in the granting processes; recognises DG Education, Youth, Sport and Culture’s (DG EAC) and the EACEA’s efforts to limit the impact of these delays and return to a normalised pace in 2023;
5. Notes that DG EAC’s and the EACEA’s overall risk at payment continued to be relatively low and their overall error rate remained below the 2 % materiality threshold in 2022;
6. Reaffirms the need for increasing further the budgetary envelopes of the EU’s youth, cultural and educational programmes, in particular to increase the outreach to and involvement of young people, artists and professionals with fewer opportunities and to support citizenship education; in this respect, requests the Commission to continue cooperating closely with the Member States;
7. Reiterates its concern about the strongly backloaded budget profile of Erasmus+; welcomes the extra EUR 35 million awarded to Erasmus+ in 2022 due to the Parliament’s insistence, which is helping to reinforce support to pupils, students, teachers and qualified staff fleeing from Ukraine;
8. Notes with regret that the procedures to apply for EU funding under those programmes are often still too burdensome and create obstacles for potential beneficiaries; urges the Commission to simplify the application process for Erasmus+ applicants and make it less time-consuming in order to ensure that small and volunteer-based organisations can also successfully apply for funding; acknowledges that new measures, notably the extension of the accreditation scheme to the Erasmus+ programme’s main sectors, have simplified access to funding for mobility activities;
9. Highlights that the Erasmus+ programme framework of inclusion measures adopted in 2021 seems to bear fruit, with 23% more projects having gender equality as their main or an important and deliberate objective in 2022 than in 2021;
10. Requests OLAF to carry out a thorough investigation on the possible misuse of EU funds through Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps by networks of associations that present false projects, with the aim of verifying recent reports on this matter by some national agencies, measuring the scale and importance of such cases of fraud, and analysing their treatment by competent authorities in the Member States;
11. Calls on the Commission to make proposals to strengthen trust in the newly established accreditation mechanisms by ensuring that applicants continue to fully respect European values even after their accreditation;
12. Welcomes the fact that, thanks to a EUR 3 million reinforcement of the 2022 European Year of Youth at the Parliament’s insistence, a number of actions under the Year could be strengthened, such as solidarity projects, volunteering and networking activities; underlines that the successful results of the Year should now be sustainably implemented to ensure its lasting legacy;
13. Recalls the need for EU funded measures to bridge the digital gap in education and lifelong learning; calls on the Commission to provide an assessment of the Member States’ Recovery and Resilience plans related to this topic; asks the Commission to assess and actively support the recommendations made by the Parliament related to a minimum 10% allocation for education, 2% for the cultural sector and 20% for digital transformation within the RRF plans; regrets that the EU budget does not adequately support the ethical use of artificial intelligence and robotics in the education and cultural sectors;
14. Notes the continued frontloading of the Creative Europe budget in 2022 for mitigating the persisting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the cultural and creative sectors; notes that, thanks to this frontloading, a higher number of European cultural cooperation projects could be selected in 2022 than ever before; is, however, concerned that the frontloading of 2021 and 2022 may lead to a shortage of funding from 2023 and deplores that the programme as a whole remains underfinanced in relation to the objectives to be achieved, notably given its high subscription rate;
15. Welcomes the recent introduction of ‘cascade funding’ as a means to optimise Creative Europe’s reach, especially to small organisations; invites the Commission to further develop such schemes in all programmes of relevance to the sector;
16. Welcomes the fact that almost all proposals submitted in the Media Strand are requested to provide a strategy to improve the industry’s greening measures; urges the Commission, building on these promising results and the recommendations of a 2022 study on greening Creative Europe, to push ahead more strongly; calls on the Commission to assess the practical implementation of the greening policy in EU programmes such as Erasmus+ and Creative Europe with a view to improving its effectiveness, for instance with regard to the current policy on sustainable travel modalities;
17. Reiterates its call to urgently address the outstanding issues related to personal data protection for beneficiaries of and participants in Erasmus+ and the European Solidarity Corps, in particular as regards third country personal data transfers; urges DG EAC to roll out the new ‘transfer tool’ immediately following authorisation from the European Data Protection Supervisor to ensure appropriate safeguards for such transfers in the future;
18. Encourages DG EAC and DG CNECT to implement their Anti-Fraud Strategies fully;
19. Welcomes DG EAC’s roll-out of a new project management tool for National Agencies, which includes a new risk and potential exclusions feature; encourages DG EAC and DG CNECT to implement their Anti-Fraud Strategies fully, including by offering mandatory fraud awareness raising and data protection training for staff, in particular newcomers, and entrusted bodies and organising a fraud awareness survey;
20. Is concerned that the EACEA’s recurrent high rate of carry-overs could be indicative of structural issues in its implementation or budget planning cycles, which the EACEA should address;
21. Notes with concern the persisting challenges in 2022 with the e-Grant tools for beneficiaries of calls managed by the EACEA; strongly urges the Commission and EACEA to address these IT issues once and for all to avoid repercussions on target achievement, to reduce the risk of errors and to simplify procedures; believes that a more efficient and accessible IT infrastructure would also facilitate small beneficiaries’ access to programme resources;
22. Stresses that Erasmus+, the European Solidarity Corps and Creative Europe should focus even more on implementing the inclusion priority, in order to better reach local authorities from small, rural or remote communities, SMEs and NGOs working with vulnerable groups;
23. Encourages the EACEA to swiftly implement the recommendations of its internal audit service to improve the quality of transactions, such as the use of checklists, the modification of financial circuits and the harmonisation of processes;
24. Notes the positive development in the EACEA’s staffing situation, with a significant increase of staff by the end of 2022;
25. Welcomes the EACEA’s efforts to implement EMAS and encourages it to increase its efforts by further implementing a sustainability plan and publishing the agency’s sustainability report;
26. Emphasises the need for a stronger coordination between the different actors implementing education, youth and culture actions and the different programmes, as well as for better communication on those synergies;
27. Calls for a joint assessment of the current process of selecting pilot projects and preparatory actions, with a view to enhancing the effectiveness, efficiency and fairness of the preassessment procedure for the purpose of maximising their full potential for advancing innovative policy ideas;
28. Encourages DG Connect to continue implementing media literacy strategies, such as the 2022 European Media Literacy Week, and underlines the need to continue the fight against disinformation in all relevant Commission initiatives.
ANNEX: ENTITIES OR PERSONS FROM WHOM THE RAPPORTEUR HAS RECEIVED INPUT
The rapporteur has received input from the following entities or persons in the preparation of the opinion:
Entity and/or person
Network of European Voluntary Service Organisation (NEVSO) TR: 363064351314-63
The list above is drawn up under the exclusive responsibility of the rapporteur.
INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION
Date adopted
11.1.2024
Result of final vote
+:
–:
0:
18
1
0
Members present for the final vote
Asim Ademov, Christine Anderson, Andrea Bocskor, Tomasz Frankowski, Romeo Franz, Sylvie Guillaume, Irena Joveva, Petra Kammerevert, Niyazi Kizilyürek, Predrag Fred Matić, Peter Pollák, Marcos Ros Sempere, Michaela Šojdrová, Sabine Verheyen, Maria Walsh
Substitutes present for the final vote
Ibán García Del Blanco, Domènec Ruiz Devesa, Viola von Cramon-Taubadel
Substitutes under Rule 209(7) present for the final vote
Clara Aguilera
FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION
Key to symbols:
24.1.2024
OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON CIVIL LIBERTIES, JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS
for the Committee on Budgetary Control
on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2022, Section III – Commission
(2023/2129(DEC))
Rapporteur for opinion: Tomáš Zdechovský
SUGGESTIONS
The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs calls on Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution:
1. Notes that the Court of Auditors (the ‘Court’) audited spending areas comprising various policies related to migration and border management (heading 4) and security and defence (heading 5);
2. Notes that for the audited spending areas related to migration and border management, security and defence policies, the Court examined a sample of 23 transactions, under MFF headings 4 and 5; notes the Court’s explanation that the audit scope was not designed to be representative for these headings, but nevertheless contributed to their statement of assurance; reiterates the call from the Parliament to carry out the audit in a way that would allow calculating the estimated level of error;
3. Notes with concern that 11 out of the 23 transactions examined by the Court contained quantifiable errors which had a financial impact on the amounts charged to the Union budget; highlights that such cases may have negative reputational impact;
4. Notes that Member States stepped up implementation of their national programmes in 2022; is concerned that significant amounts remain undisbursed for both Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) (26 %) and the Internal Security Fund (ISF) (33 %), meanwhile acknowledges that funding for 2014-2020 has to be spent by June 2024; urges the Commission to step up its efforts towards assisting Member States in the effective implementation of their respective national programmes;
5. Notes that the Commission did not use its full prerogatives, as guardian of the treaties, to make sure Romania and Bulgaria are accepted into Schengen, despite the fact that both countries are meeting since 2011 all the conditions to be fully members of the Schengen area;
6. Regrets practice of the Commission in providing an often only very limited amount of information on the implementation of EU legislation to Parliament; calls on the Commission to be more proactive in publishing such statistics in order to prove that policies are necessary and proportionate to achieving their objective;
7. Notes the prompt actions by DG HOME following the Russian aggression, especially the timely drafting of a decision on the activation of the Temporary Protection Directive for the first time;
8. Notes that the number of undocumented arrivals at the external borders keeps rising compared to previous year; notes the actions by DG HOME on the one hand to create partnerships against human trafficking networks, to support Member States in carrying out relocations and other transfer mechanisms, in improving quick and efficient asylum and return procedures, like those related to EU visa policy and bilateral cooperation, and on the other hand actions to promote integration policies for legally residing non-EU nationals; calls on the Commission to continue working towards a strategy for more effective returns in full compliance with the Charter of Fundamental rights and human rights of those arriving to the EU; further calls on the Commission to continue extending its external cooperation on migration and asylum with due regard of Article 218 TFEU, as well as promote integration policies for legally residing non-EU nationals, with support from the AMIF;
9. Urges the Commission to increase transparency and accountabililty of the programming and implementation of Home Affairs funds in third countries, and NDICI funding, such as in countries like Tunisia and Libya; calls the Commission to generate a publicly available overview of all migration related spending in third countries, and urges for ex ante human rights impact assesments for migration related spending in third countries, and to share these assesments with the Parliament where required by rules;
10. Acknowledges the continuing support of DG JUST to the Commission’s policy on upholding the rule of law in the Union, especially and the yearly edition of the Justice Scoreboard and the third Annual Rule of Law Report, which contained recommendations to the Member States for the first time; encourages the Commission to closely monitor the effective follow up of reccommendations provided to the Member States concerned, and to take action in case adequate measures to address existing concerns are not adopted at the national level;
11. Notes with concern the European Ombudsman's Special Report concerning the time the Commission takes to deal with requests for public access to documents, which outlined that in 85% of the cases the Commission does not deal with confirmatory applications within the legal time limits; calls on the Commission to urgently address this matter and comply with Regulation 1049/2001 on public access to documents, a key precondition for transparency and public trust in the Commission; recalls that in 2022, the Ombudsman urged the Commission to treat access to document requests concerning EU recovery funds with greater consistency and to better explain its reasoning if it decides not release the asked-for information and that the Ombudsman opened an inquiry on the Commission’s refusal to give public access to documents related to its proposal for a Regulation on the European Health Data Space;
12. Strongly regrets the Commission’s lack of enforcement measures and legislative follow-up to Parliament’s recommendation, including on recommendation of 15 June 2023 to the Council and the Commission following the investigation of alleged contraventions and maladministration in the application of Union law in relation to the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware; calls on the Commission to respect the principle of sincere cooperation between Union institutions, and to comply with the obligations set out in the Framework Agreement and the Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Law-Making;
13. Is strongly concerned about the revelations on conflicts of interests involving high level Commission’s officials and the use of X advertising campaign related to the Child Sexual Abuse regulation; calls on the Commission to publish all documents requested by the Parliament and make full transparency on this case;
ANNEX: ENTITIES OR PERSONS FROM WHOM THE RAPPORTEUR HAS RECEIVED INPUT
The rapporteur declares under his exclusive responsibility that he did not receive input from any entity or person to be mentioned in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.
INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION
Date adopted
23.1.2024
Result of final vote
+:
–:
0:
42
13
1
Members present for the final vote
Magdalena Adamowicz, Abir Al-Sahlani, Katarina Barley, Pietro Bartolo, Theresa Bielowski, Patrick Breyer, Saskia Bricmont, Jorge Buxadé Villalba, Damien Carême, Patricia Chagnon, Lena Düpont, Lucia Ďuriš Nicholsonová, Cornelia Ernst, Nicolaus Fest, Maria Grapini, Sylvie Guillaume, Andrzej Halicki, Evin Incir, Sophia in ‘t Veld, Patryk Jaki, Marina Kaljurand, Assita Kanko, Łukasz Kohut, Moritz Körner, Alice Kuhnke, Jeroen Lenaers, Juan Fernando López Aguilar, Erik Marquardt, Javier Moreno Sánchez, Maite Pagazaurtundúa, Diana Riba i Giner, Isabel Santos, Birgit Sippel, Vincenzo Sofo, Tineke Strik, Jana Toom, Milan Uhrík, Tom Vandendriessche, Elissavet Vozemberg-Vrionidi, Elena Yoncheva, Javier Zarzalejos
Substitutes present for the final vote
Cyrus Engerer, José Gusmão, Beata Kempa, Leopoldo López Gil, Janina Ochojska, Anne-Sophie Pelletier, Bergur Løkke Rasmussen, Róża Thun und Hohenstein, Maria Walsh, Tomáš Zdechovský
Substitutes under Rule 209(7) present for the final vote
Andrus Ansip, Hildegard Bentele, Maria da Graça Carvalho, Marisa Matias, Caroline Nagtegaal
FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION
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25.1.2024
OPINION OF THE COMMITTEE ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND GENDER EQUALITY
for the Committee on Budgetary Control
on the 2022 discharge: General budget of the EU - European Commission
(2023/2129(DEC))
Rapporteur for opinion: Robert Biedroń
SUGGESTIONS
The Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality calls on Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution:
A. Whereas gender equality is a core value of the Union enshrined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union; whereas Article 8 TFEU commits the Union to eliminate inequalities and to promote gender equality between men and women, as well as gender mainstreaming;
B. Whereas the European Parliament has repeatedly asked the Commission to promote and implement the use of gender mainstreaming, gender budgeting and gender impact assessments in all Union policy areas such as the implementation of the Union budget and reporting;
C. Whereas in a number of Member States with low birth rates, women and couples would like to have children but are in practice prevented from doing so as a consequence of economic difficulties, not by choice but as a result of more difficult living and working conditions, giving rise to higher levels of unemployment for women and making it harder for them, as well as for parents, to enjoy their respective maternity and paternity rights in the workplace, and making access to high quality public services and childcare facilities harder; whereas it is vital to ensure that women have the right to work with rights and without it affecting the right to motherhood, as women continue to be the worst affected and suffer the most discrimination; whereas examples of this discrimination include pressure from employers on women attending job interviews at which they are asked whether they have children and how old they are along with economic and work-related pressures on female employees not to take maternity leave;
D. whereas gender equality in the Union has been particularly impacted by the consequences of Russia’s war of agression against Ukraine, the cost of living crisis, which women are disproportionately affected by, and the backlashes against gender equality and women’s rights, especially around sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in several Member States; whereas this further deepens inequalities and hampers gender equality;
1. Stresses that a gender equality perspective should be integrated and ensured into all policy areas, stages and alleviation measures, particularly in the light of the gendered aspects of ongoing crises such as wars, the climate and energy crisis, inflation, and the backlash against women’s rights, especially sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in the Union and world-wide; stresses the importance of gender budgeting in all recovery and alleviation measures to make use of EU programmes for mitigating gendered impacts of different crises;
2. Repeats its concern at the interrelation between the attacks on the rule of law, democracy and human rights and the backlash against gender equality and women’s rights; calls on the Commission to continue its efforts to strengthen the rule of law in the Union, in particular those legal proposals aimed at protecting the EU budget in case of generalised deficiencies as regards the rule of law, breaches of human rights, including women’s rights and violations of the fundamental values of the European Union; calls on the Commission to explore the core mission of those to whom EU funds are granted and to withhold funding and ensure that EU funds are not made available to any entity that use EU funds for the purposes of backsliding human rights, particularly women’s fundamental rights and gender equality, including SRHR and women’s rights to bodily integrity, autonomy and self-determination; calls on the Member States to safeguard sexual and reproductive health and rights, including access to safe and legal abortion care and in particular by ensuring the availability of reproductive health programmes and services providing the types of care and medicines required for voluntary family planning and maternal and new-born health;
3. Notes the Commission’s methodology for tracking gender aspects of expenditure as of 2023; recalls that only 2% of the Union’s budget was assessed as having a principle objective of improving gender equality; calls on the Commission to improve this score by mainstreaming gender from the start of programme design; reiterates that further detail is needed so that the majority of spending (73%) currently assessed as 0* ‘potential to contribute to gender equality’ can be fully understood; notes with concern that Special Report 10/2021, published by the ECA confirmed that the Union’s budget cycle does not yet adequately take gender equality into account since key elements, such as gender analysis, gender-related objectives, indicators and accountability through reporting, are largely missing;
4. Welcomes the Commission's work on a new classification to measure the gender impact of Union spending; calls on the Commission to ensure that this classification focuses on an accurate and comprehensive representation of the impact of programmes on gender equality; calls on the Commission, in view of the end of this legislative term, to continue its work on gender equality and calls for a Commissioner on gender equality for the next term; welcomes the fact that gender equality and mainstreaming is one of the horizontal principles for Union funds in the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2021-2027 and in the Recovery and Resilience Facility; calls nevertheless on the Commission to fully implement the European Court of Auditor’s recommendations, including in the mid-term review of the current Multiannual Financial Framework and the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility; calls on the Commission to ensure that this classification focuses on an accurate and comprehensive representation of the impact of all existing programmes and funds; reiterates in this context that a comprehensive gender tracking methodology needs to include reporting on negative impacts on gender equality;
5. Insists that women and men should benefit equally from the Recovery and Resilience Facility, in particular in the light of the Union’s gender pay gap of 13%; recalls that the Commission introduced a gender assessment of the Member States’ Recovery and Resilience Plans only as an ex-ante assessment, which revealed that some Member States had no measures tagged as focusing on gender equality; stresses therefore the importance of data collection requirements to enable a systematic and comprehensive collection of gender-disaggregated data in the context of all relevant EU policies; urges the Commission to treat this as a priority and make use of the opportunities to improve data collection requirements and indicators in new legislation and reviews, such as the recast of the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union; calls on the Commission to deliver on the positive commitment made by President von der Leyen to promote gender equality in all policymaking and calls on the Commission to deliver on its commitments under Gender Equality Strategy 2020 - 2025 and stresses as well that much more needs to be done since a gender perspective is lacking in the main climate, environmental and economic Commission proposals presented; stresses that in the last decade, with the onset of the economic and financial crisis, economic, social, employment and gender inequalities within and between Member States have made life harder for women and girls; to that end recalls the important role of the European Institute for Gender Equality in raising awareness of the extent and causes of gender inequality in the EU; calls, therefore, for its budget, staff and independence to be increased;
6. Repeats its calls for a dedicated budget line for gender equality, in particular within the Daphne programme in the light of the crisis of gender-based violence facing the Union; stresses the importance of strengthening the specifically dedicated Daphne initiative by increasing its resources, in particular measures that aim to combat all levels and all forms of gender-based violence against women and girls and domestic violence in line with Article7(6) of Regulation (EU) 2021/692 and to properly support victims; stresses, in addition, the importance of using European Structural and Investment Funds such as the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) to promote gender equality, women’s employment, women's empowerment, entrepreneurship, leadership and management roles, as well as long-term care facilities; notes that a study requested by FEMM committee shows that men are often favoured over women and marginalized groups when it comes to the design of subsidies and support under the Fit for 55 package, as well as in other policies, programmes and funding for the green transition;
7. Is of the opinion, on the basis of the data currently available, that discharge can be granted on the General budget of the EU in respect of the implementation of its budget for the financial year 2022.
ANNEX: ENTITIES OR PERSONS FROM WHOM THE RAPPORTEUR HAS RECEIVED INPUT
The Chair in his capacity as rapporteur declares under his exclusive responsibility that he did not receive input from any entity or person to be mentioned in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.
INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION
Date adopted
24.1.2024
Result of final vote
+:
–:
0:
23
4
2
Members present for the final vote
Christine Anderson, Robert Biedroń, Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, Maria da Graça Carvalho, Margarita de la Pisa Carrión, Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, Frances Fitzgerald, Lívia Járóka, Arba Kokalari, Alice Kuhnke, Elżbieta Katarzyna Łukacijewska, Andżelika Anna Możdżanowska, Johan Nissinen, Carina Ohlsson, Sandra Pereira, Samira Rafaela, Evelyn Regner, Diana Riba i Giner, Eugenia Rodríguez Palop, María Soraya Rodríguez Ramos, Maria Veronica Rossi, Sylwia Spurek, Marco Zullo
Substitutes present for the final vote
Laura Ballarín Cereza, Sylvie Brunet, Marina Kaljurand, Eleni Stavrou
Substitutes under Rule 209(7) present for the final vote
Milan Brglez, Rainer Wieland
FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION
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INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE
Date adopted
4.3.2024
Result of final vote
+:
–:
0:
21
4
0
Members present for the final vote
Dominique Bilde, Gilles Boyer, Olivier Chastel, Caterina Chinnici, Ilana Cicurel, Carlos Coelho, Daniel Freund, Isabel García Muñoz, Monika Hohlmeier, Joachim Kuhs, Markus Pieper, Petri Sarvamaa, François Thiollet
Substitutes present for the final vote
Katalin Cseh, Bas Eickhout, Hannes Heide, Sabrina Pignedoli, Wolfram Pirchner
Substitutes under Rule 209(7) present for the final vote
Malin Björk, Marc Botenga, Michael Gahler, Evin Incir, César Luena, Matjaž Nemec, Barbara Thaler
FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL IN COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE
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