Sittings · Document
2023 discharge: EU general budget – Commission, executive agencies and European Development Funds
2.5.2025 A10-0074/53
Amendment 53
Virginie Joron, Julien Sanchez, Nikola Bartůšek, Anders Vistisen
on behalf of the PfE Group
Report A10-0074/2025
Niclas Herbst
2023 discharge: EU general budget – Commission, executive agencies and European Development Funds
2024/2019(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Motion for a resolution
Amendment
1. Underlines its strong commitment to the Union’s fundamental values and principles which are enshrined in the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU); in the framework of the discharge process, stresses especially the principles of sound financial management as set out in Article 317 TFEU and the combatting of fraud and protection of the financial interests of the Union as set out in Article 325 TFEU;
1. Underlines its strong commitment to the Union’s fundamental values and principles which are enshrined in the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU); in the framework of the discharge process, stresses especially the principles of sound financial management as set out in Article 317 TFEU and the combatting of fraud and protection of the financial interests of the Union as set out in Article 325 TFEU; deplores the fact that, contrary to the stated values and very purpose of the founding of the Union, the European Commission is regularly the subject of scandals through its Commissioners or their close advisors: - alleged money laundering via lottery tickets by the Commissioner for Justice (potentially 1 million euros involved), the European Commission's inexplicable leniency towards its Director-General for Transport, who allegedly accepted free flights from Qatar airways, inexcusable decision by the Commission to pay a seven-year leave of absence with a total salary of 1.5 million euros for one of its directors accused of rape, without any attempt to recover the funds after the final conviction, case of pantouflage in a gas company of an adviser to the Vice-President of the Commission responsible for the environment and the Green Deal; - and through its operation: scandal of the administration of the Trust Fund for Africa denounced by the European Court of Auditors, scandal of the financing of NGOs by the European Commission with public funds to help it adopt a pseudo-climatic legislative package (Green Deal) via lobbying actions, financing of NGOs close to terrorist or Islamist movements;
Or. en
2.5.2025 A10-0074/54
Amendment 54
Virginie Joron, Julien Sanchez
on behalf of the PfE Group
Report A10-0074/2025
Niclas Herbst
2023 discharge: EU general budget – Commission, executive agencies and European Development Funds
2024/2019(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Motion for a resolution
Amendment
1 a. Recalls that the Ombudsman had criticized the European Commission and its procedure for dealing with the “pantouflage” movements of its staff (OI/1/2021/KR); the Commission had prohibited only 2 of the 100 cases studied during its strategic inquiry; notes that the Ombudsman had concluded that “The Commission should adopt a more rigorous approach to the movement of its senior executives to private sector jobs shortly after they leave”; however, the Commission has authorized former European Commissioner and former French Finance Minister Thierry Breton (2019-2024) to (re)join Bank of America's International Advisory Board ; an activity that will keep him busy for 3 days a year, and for which he has stated that he will be neither salaried nor employed, which raises questions about his motives and status; he is returning to functions previously held (2013-2019); regrets that the procedure does not provide for transparency on elements of remuneration or compensation; thus, calls on the Commission to prohibit the pantouflage of a Commissioner or Director General in a non-European company or organization of systemic size at the end of his term of office;
Or. en
2.5.2025 A10-0074/55
Amendment 55
Virginie Joron, Julien Sanchez, Nikola Bartůšek, Anders Vistisen
on behalf of the PfE Group
Report A10-0074/2025
Niclas Herbst
2023 discharge: EU general budget – Commission, executive agencies and European Development Funds
2024/2019(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Motion for a resolution
Amendment
1 b. Deplores the scandal of the purchase of 4.6 billion doses of Covid vaccine for 71 billion euros by the President of the Commission and the recent purchase of a further 146 million doses for an unknown amount ; Whereas the European Commissioner for Health testified on 27/03/2023 before the COVI Special Committee that President Von der Leyen was not involved in any COVID vaccine contract negotiations, contrary to the information published by the New York Times (28/04/2021) and the conclusions of the European Court of Auditors in its special report on the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines; whereas the Commission has required certain Members of Parliament on the COVI Committee to sign a confidentiality undertaking on May 30, 2023, without specifying an end date for this confidentiality obligation concerning an indemnity paid per dose by Europeans to Pfizer in exchange for the non-delivery of certain doses still to be delivered ; expresses its disappointment at the Commission's persistent lack of transparency regarding the agreements it has concluded with the pharmaceutical companies responsible for producing COVID-19 vaccines, as well as the SMS communications between the Commission President and the CEO of a pharmaceutical company, to the extent that legal action has tarnished the Commission's reputation when the President could easily have explained herself to Parliament; deplores the Commission's inaction in relation to the serious side-effect victims of COVID vaccines in terms of medical research and compensation; deplores the fact that the Commission has chosen to defend Pfizer rather than the Member States in the legal dispute between them over the refusal to order doses of vaccine no longer needed after the end of the pandemic; notes the extreme slowness of the European Public Prosecutor's Office in investigating the purchase of COVID vaccines or the Qatar scandal;
Or. en
2.5.2025 A10-0074/56
Amendment 56
Virginie Joron, Julien Sanchez, Mathilde Androuët, Anders Vistisen
on behalf of the PfE Group
Report A10-0074/2025
Niclas Herbst
2023 discharge: EU general budget – Commission, executive agencies and European Development Funds
2024/2019(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Motion for a resolution
Amendment
2. Underlines the importance of the principle of separation of powers in the Union and recalls that according to the Treaty, the institutions shall practice mutual sincere cooperation; believes that under no circumstances the actions of one Union institution should affect the independence of another institution; urges all other institutions to respect the role of the Parliament as the sole Union institution directly elected by the citizens and to refrain from any undue, direct or indirect interference in its legislative processes, thereby ensuring that Parliament’s decision making-process remains free and independent from other Union institutions or any other entities;
2. Underlines the importance of the principle of separation of powers in the Union and recalls that according to the Treaty, the institutions shall practice mutual sincere cooperation; believes that under no circumstances the actions of one Union institution should affect the independence of another institution; in this respect, deplores the fact that LIFE funds have been allocated to entities engaged in direct lobbying of EU institutions, in contradiction with the principles of sound financial management, transparency and separation of powers; Considering that details of grant contracts and the results of actions should be public, except in cases of national security, deplores the fact that the Commission grants access to only one contract out of all the projects it funds to members of the Committee on Budgetary Control; urges the Commission to step up ex-ante and ex-post checks on LIFE beneficiaries to ensure that funds are used in accordance with the EU's financial regulations and the Interinstitutional Agreement on " better law-making"; invites the Commission to make full use of the conclusions and recommendations of the European Court of Auditors' reports on the transparency of NGO funding to reform its mechanisms for awarding and monitoring grants, and to make its actions and funding transparent and easily accessible, since the financial transparency system is currently incomplete, updated late and contains unreliable data; urges all other institutions to respect the role of the Parliament as the sole Union institution directly elected by the citizens and to refrain from any undue, direct or indirect interference in its legislative processes, thereby ensuring that Parliament’s decision making-process remains free and independent from other Union institutions or any other entities;
Or. en
2.5.2025 A10-0074/57
Amendment 57
Tamás Deutsch, Nikola Bartůšek, Anders Vistisen, Julien Sanchez, Virginie Joron
on behalf of the PfE Group
Report A10-0074/2025
Niclas Herbst
2023 discharge: EU general budget – Commission, executive agencies and European Development Funds
2024/2019(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Motion for a resolution
Amendment
3 a. Rejects the integration of political agendas such as the Green Deal and so-called woke ideology into the EU’s financial framework, viewing them as the imposition of failed left-liberal concepts that undermine economic pragmatism, social cohesion, and Member State sovereignty;
Or. en
2.5.2025 A10-0074/58
Amendment 58
Tamás Deutsch, Nikola Bartůšek, Anders Vistisen, Virginie Joron
on behalf of the PfE Group
Report A10-0074/2025
Niclas Herbst
2023 discharge: EU general budget – Commission, executive agencies and European Development Funds
2024/2019(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Motion for a resolution
Amendment
3 b. Opposes any spending or references linked to the European Green Deal, considering it excessively costly for taxpayers and economically damaging for key sectors of the European economy;
Or. en
2.5.2025 A10-0074/59
Amendment 59
Tamás Deutsch, Nikola Bartůšek, Anders Vistisen, Julien Sanchez, Virginie Joron
on behalf of the PfE Group
Report A10-0074/2025
Niclas Herbst
2023 discharge: EU general budget – Commission, executive agencies and European Development Funds
2024/2019(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 c (new)
Motion for a resolution
Amendment
3 c. Stresses that all EU spending must fully respect the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, ensuring that national governments maintain the right to determine their own financial priorities without unnecessary interference from Brussels; demands the European Commission to avoid using its budgetary powers to pressure Member States into compliance with centrally dictated policies that undermine their sovereignty;
Or. en
2.5.2025 A10-0074/60
Amendment 60
Virginie Joron, Julien Sanchez, Anders Vistisen
on behalf of the PfE Group
Report A10-0074/2025
Niclas Herbst
2023 discharge: EU general budget – Commission, executive agencies and European Development Funds
2024/2019(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Motion for a resolution
Amendment
4. Notes that the Court of Auditors (the Court) for the financial year 2023 has issued a clean opinion concerning the reliability of the accounts and the legality and regularity of revenue; at the same time, regrets that the Court has had to issue for the 5th consecutive year an adverse opinion on the legality and regularity of Union budget expenditure and a qualified opinion on the legality and regularity of expenditure under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF);
4. Notes that the Court of Auditors (the Court) for the financial year 2023 has issued a clean opinion concerning the reliability of the accounts and the legality and regularity of revenue; at the same time, regrets that the Court has had to issue for the 5th consecutive year an adverse opinion on the legality and regularity of Union budget expenditure and a qualified opinion on the legality and regularity of expenditure under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF); in this respect, deplores the use of this new type of so-called temporary and flexible but extremely costly instrument, which the European Court of Auditors regularly deplores for its lack of transparency in achieving milestones and objectives, as well as its lack of objectivity in granting funding, entirely in the hands of the European Commission ; regrets the planned development of this type of instrument, which offers few guarantees of follow-up and thus of protection of the Union's financial interests; furthermore, denounces the fact that the colossal debt generated by this type of instrument places the Union in a situation of dependence on its creditors, potentially exposing it to risks of extra-European interference;
Or. en
2.5.2025 A10-0074/61
Amendment 61
Tamás Deutsch, Nikola Bartůšek, Anders Vistisen, Virginie Joron
on behalf of the PfE Group
Report A10-0074/2025
Niclas Herbst
2023 discharge: EU general budget – Commission, executive agencies and European Development Funds
2024/2019(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Motion for a resolution
Amendment
9 a. Stresses that it has been proven that the European Union’s financial interests were not well protected in the European Commission, noting the unprecedented number of high scale scandals in those institutions, stipulates the need to further strengthen and revise the anti-corruption and transparency rules of the institution and to apply the lessons learned;
Or. en
2.5.2025 A10-0074/62
Amendment 62
Tamás Deutsch, Ondřej Knotek, Nikola Bartůšek, Virginie Joron
on behalf of the PfE Group
Report A10-0074/2025
Niclas Herbst
2023 discharge: EU general budget – Commission, executive agencies and European Development Funds
2024/2019(DEC)
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Motion for a resolution
Amendment
10 a. Points out that the Union has played a vital role in achieving lasting peace on its territory and that it must do everything in its power to bring peace back to Europe, which is essential for the economic prosperity, stability and security of the European Union and the continent;
Or. en