What changed

SUGGESTIONS

The Committee on Developmentthe Environment, Public Health and Food Safety calls on the Committee on Budgetary Control,Budgets, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motionproposal for a resolution:decision:

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 aggression in 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 worried 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;

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. 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;

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, sufficient funding 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. Underlines the need to speed up progress on achieving the NDICI-GE spending targets for human development, gender, biodiversity and climate objectives; is worried, 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;

Environment and Climate Action

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;

3. 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. 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;

4. 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. 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;

5. 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;

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;

6. 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. 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;

7. 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;

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;

8. Underlines the importance of proper scrutiny of climate 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;

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;

9. 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. 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;

10. Regrets the Court's finding, in its Special Report 16/2021, 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. 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.

11. 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;

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

Public health, food safety, animal health and welfare, and plant health

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.

12. 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;

INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION

13. 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;

Date adopted

14. 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%;

24.1.2024

Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA)

Result of final vote

15. 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;

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16. Notes that in 2022, HERA managed expenditures of EUR 438 million and increased its staff from 30 to 80 members;

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17. Is of the opinion, on the basis of the data available and the implementation report, that discharge can be granted to the Commission in respect of expenditure in the areas of environmental and climate policy, public health and food safety for the financial year 2022.

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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

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