What changed

29.01.2025

PA_NonLegDec

Mr Niclas Herbst

OPINION

Chair

The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs calls on the Committee on Budgetary Control, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following into its motion for a resolution:

Committee on Budgetary Control

1. Welcomes the progress in the implementation of Member States' national programmes in 2023; notes with concern that, despite the requirement to spend all funds for the programming period 2014-2020 by June 2024, 18% of AMIF funds and 25% of ISF funds allocated to Member States for that period remain undeclared;

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2. Welcomes the Commission’s timely proposal to increase the ceilings of Headings 4 and 6 as part of the Multiannual Financial Framework mid-term revision with a view to ensuring sufficient funding for the implementation of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum; stresses the need to ensure adequate and timely Union funding for Member States and Union agencies to facilitate the smooth implementation of Union law in the areas of asylum and migration; calls on the Commission to monitor and assist in the timely progress of the administrative, operational and legal steps required by Member States and Union agencies for the full implementation of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum by Summer 2026;

BRUSSELS

3. Notes with concern that the number of migrants arriving irregularly in the Union increased again in 2023 as compared to previous years; further notes the Commission’s ongoing efforts to assist Member States in addressing irregular arrivals and in successfully integrating legally residing third-country nationals; recalls that, while the Commission should continue to take action on migration and asylum within the framework of external action, the functioning of the ‘Team Europe’ approach must be clarified while safeguarding the role of Parliament; calls on the Commission to increase the transparency and accountability of the programming and implementation of the Union home affairs funds in third countries; renews its call on the Commission to support the Union agencies and the Member States in coordinating effective search-and-rescue operations in the Mediterranean, ensuring that such actions are carried out in accordance with international and Union law;

Subject: Opinion on 2023 discharge: General budget of the EU - Commission (COM 2024/0271 – C100067/2024 – 2024/2019(DEC))

4. Acknowledges the Commission’s continuous monitoring of rule of law benchmarks through the rule of law toolbox, including the annual rule of law report, while remaining concerned that, by adopting an overly diplomatic approach and failing to distinguish between individual and systemic issues, the annual rule of law report risks trivialising some of the most serious breaches of the rule of law; reiterates its regret and serious concern with respect to the lawfulness of the Commission’s decision concluding that, in Hungary, the horizontal enabling condition of the Charter had been fulfilled in relation to judicial independence which decision enabled the Hungarian authorities to start claiming reimbursements of up to approximately EUR 10,2 billion from Union funds; calls on the Commission to take steps towards the full implementation of Parliament’s recommendations on the establishment of an EU mechanism for democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights, contained in its resolution of 25 October 2016, and to ensure that assessments of rule of law benchmarks are more precise and qualitative than is presently the case, relying not only on legislative changes, but also on real and independent evidence of their implementation in practice;

Dear Chair,

5. Reiterates its great concern over the delays in the Commission’s procedures for granting access to documents; urges the Commission to address these deficiencies promptly, in line with Parliament’s recommendations;

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 3 October 2024, our committee decided to send the opinion in the form of a letter.

6. Continues to strongly regret the Commission’s lack of enforcement measures and legislative follow-up to Parliament’s recommendations regarding the use of Pegasus and equivalent spyware; calls urgently on the Commission to respect the principle of sincere cooperation between Union institutions and to present, without undue delay, an action plan to prevent the abuse of spyware in the Union, making full use of all available legislative and non-legislative means provided by the Treaties.

The Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development adopted the letter on 29 January 2025, and decided to call on the 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 (Court) concerning the financial year 2023; recalls that Agriculture and Rural Development expenditure accounts for 97 % of the spending on ‘Natural resources and environment’, representing 31,1 % of overall EU budget spending;

2. Welcomes the fact that the Next Generation EU instrument (NGEU) reinforced several existing EU programmes and policies, including the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, to further support farmers;

3. Welcomes also the fact that a large part of the budget (around 3/4) is managed under a system of shared management by the Commission in cooperation with the Member States, notably in the areas of structural funds and agriculture;

4. Notes that the execution rate of commitment appropriations slightly decreased compared to 2022, remaining at 97,97% (98,53% in 2022) and a total amount committed of EUR 54.067,25 million; understands that this decrease is linked to a lower rate of implementation for the NGEU, IPA II and EAFRD; observes also that the execution rate of payment appropriations has equally decreased to 97,17%, compared to 98,58% in 2022, and a total amount paid of EUR 57.555,70 million, for similar reasons;

5. Notes that the main component of expenditure recognised in the consolidated financial statements is expenditure under shared management mode, which includes, among others, the following funds: (i) the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF), (ii) the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and other rural development instruments;

6. Notes, in this context, the lower-than-expected implementation rate of EAFRD funding for the period 2023-2027, with an absorption rate of only 1 % at the end of 2023, with payments amounting to EUR 0.7 billion, and expects the absorption rate to increase significantly in the course of the next reporting period;

7. Recalls that, according to the Court, while the overall error rate for heading 3 is 2.2%, it is material, i.e. above 2.0%, only for high-risk spending areas such as rural development and market measures with the highest number of quantified errors found affecting rural development transactions; points out, however, that this is partly due to the complexity of environmental schemes in rural development programmes and the recognized negative issue of “gold plating” at national level; stresses that the estimated level of error found is mainly related to ineligible beneficiary/activity/project/ expenditure (35%), administrative errors (21%) and provision of inaccurate information on areas or animals (20%);

8. Welcomes the fact that the error rate for entitlement-based payments, including direct payments for farmers, remains below the materiality threshold, as it was in 2022; calls on the responsible authorities to continue working to reduce this figure even further;

9. Calls on the Commission to ensure that also under the new CAP delivery model the error rate remains low, including through the improved mobilisation of digital tools and enhanced transparency; stresses that the environmental schemes in rural development programmes must be clear in their objectives with realistically attainable targets for the beneficiary; welcomes the Court’s assessment that its recommendation to support the use of new technologies for preventing errors in CAP payments has been fully implemented;

10. Emphasises, furthermore, that the Annual Performance Reports (APRs) are a key element of the new performance-based delivery model for the CAP 2023-2027, and urges the Commission to support addressing the challenges arising from the development of the performance reporting systems in order to allow for the implementation of APR systems for all interventions;

11. Stresses that in order to enhance the competitiveness and sustainability of European agriculture, it is essential to alleviate excessive administrative, reporting and regulatory burden on farmers;

12. Welcomes the increased competitiveness achieved through market measures in the wine sector and encourages the Commission and Member States to persevere in their efforts to replicate this success in other sectors;

13. Notes the Court of Auditors’ recommendation to examine the effectiveness of national arrangements for capping EU support for large farms and to assess Member States’ measures to limit direct payments;

14. Continues to draw attention to the fact that abuse, fraud, maladministration and cases of conflict of interest all affect the achievement of EU policy objectives and the proper use of EU funds; anti-fraud measures should therefore be an important tool in the fight against irregularities for both the Commission and the Member States, as they share responsibility for combating fraud in CAP spending; notes that the Court has found that, although frameworks for identifying and managing conflicts of interest are in place, there are still gaps in promoting transparency and identifying situations where there is a risk of conflict of interest.

Yours sincerely,

Veronika Vrecionová

ANNEX: ENTITIES OR PERSONS FROM WHOM THE RAPPORTEUR HAS RECEIVED INPUT

The Chair 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.