What changed

SUGGESTIONS

The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home AffairsDevelopment calls on the 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);

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;

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;

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. 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;

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;

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;

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. 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;

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. 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;

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. 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;

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. 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;

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. 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;

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. 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;

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. 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;

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. 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;

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.

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 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

23.1.2024

24.1.2024

Result of final vote

0:

42

18

13

2

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

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

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

Carlos Zorrinho

Substitutes under Rule 209(7) present for the final vote

Andrus Ansip, Hildegard Bentele, Maria da Graça Carvalho, Marisa Matias, Caroline Nagtegaal

Riho Terras

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.

FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL IN COMMITTEE ASKED FOR OPINION