On the Council position on Draft amending budget No 3 to the general budget 2024 reinforcing the European Public Prosecutor's Office following the accession of Poland and the expected participation of Sweden

MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION

on the Council position on Draft amending budget No 3 to the general budget 2024 reinforcing the European Public Prosecutor's Office following the accession of Poland and the expected participation of Sweden

(08805/2024 – C90147/2024 – 2024/0090(BUD))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to Article 314 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 Article 44 thereof,

– having regard to the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2024, as definitively adopted on 22 November 2023,

– having regard to Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 2020/2093 of 17 December 2020 laying down the multiannual financial framework for the years 2021-2027 (‘MFF Regulation’),

– having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 16 December 2020 between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission on budgetary discipline, on cooperation in budgetary matters and on sound financial management, as well as on new own resources, including a roadmap towards the introduction of new own resources,

– having regard to Council Decision (EU, Euratom) 2020/2053 of 14 December 2020 on the system of own resources of the European Union and repealing Decision 2014/335/EU, Euratom,

– having regard to Draft amending budget No 3/2024, which the Commission adopted on 9 April 2024 (COM(2024)0090),

– having regard to the position on Draft amending budget No 3/2024, which the Council adopted on 22 April 2024 and forwarded to Parliament on the same day (08805/2024 – C9-0147/2024),

– having regard to Rules 94 and 96 of its Rules of Procedure,

– having regard to the letter from the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs,

– having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets (A9-0179/2024),

A. whereas, following Poland’s 5 January 2024 notification of its intention to participate in the enhanced cooperation on the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), the Commission adopted a corresponding implementing decision on 29 February 2024 confirming Poland’s participation;

B. whereas, on 26 January 2024, the Swedish government put forward draft legislation that would pave the way for Sweden’s participation in the EPPO, which is expected to be confirmed later in 2024;

C. whereas Draft amending budget No 3/2024 therefore reinforces the EPPO’s 2024 budget with an additional EUR 3,6 million in commitment and payment appropriations and an additional 20 establishment plan posts;

D. whereas, in the absence of any margin in Heading 2b (Resilience and Values), the Commission proposes to cover the additional costs by mobilising the Flexibility Instrument;

1. Warmly welcomes Poland’s accession to the EPPO and Sweden’s expected participation, which would take the number of participating Member States to 24; notes that, with this enlargement, the EPPO will also be in a position to investigate and prosecute offences affecting the Union’s financial interests committed in those Member States, thus better protecting the Union’s interests and its budget and helping to uphold the rule of law;

2. Underlines the need to provide the EPPO with additional financial and human resources, including to cover the recruitment of European Prosecutors, the necessary support functions and related operational and salary expenditure; welcomes the fact, therefore, that the Commission heeded Parliament’s call in proposing a corresponding draft amending budget with due urgency;

3. Understands that the Commission will no longer provide the EPPO with digital workplace services from 2025; notes that the EPPO has repeatedly requested the necessary additional financial and human resources to make the transition to full IT independence and ensure the security of its IT system;

4. Regrets the fact that Draft amending budget No 3/2024 does not provide the resources necessary to ensure that the EPPO is fully equipped to pursue effectively its investigations, can manage its growing operational workload and has sufficient resources to prepare for full and secure IT systems autonomy as of 2025; calls on the Commission to include the necessary additional resources, as set out in Decision 016/2024 of the College of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office of 21 February 2024, in a future draft amending budget and to provide IT services until such time as the EPPO has the necessary resources to become IT-independent;

5. Underlines the importance of ensuring that the EPPO enjoys full independence, which depends on budgetary autonomy and thus adequate resources; notes that the possibility for the EPPO to make use of administrative support from Eurojust under Article 100 of its founding regulation has not materialised; recalls that, in Amending Letter 1/2022, the Commission committed to an assessment of the EPPO’s staffing situation by the end of 2023; calls on the Commission to transmit the results of that staffing review to the budgetary authority without delay so that it can factor them into its work for the 2025 budget;

6. Approves the Council position on Draft amending budget No 3/2024;

7. Instructs its President to declare that Amending budget No 2/2024 has been definitively adopted and arrange for its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union;

8. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the national parliaments.

18.4.2024

LETTER OF THE COMMITTEE ON CIVIL LIBERTIES, JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS

Mr Johan Van Overtveldt

Chair

Committee on Budgets

BRUSSELS

Subject: Opinion on Draft Amending Budget No 3 for the year 2024 (DAB 3/2024) (2024/0090(BUD))

Dear Mr Chair,

Under the procedure referred to above, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs has been asked to submit an opinion to your committee. At its meeting of 15 April 2024, the committee decided to send the opinion in the form of a letter.

The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs considered the matter at its meeting of 18 April 2024. At that meeting, it decided to call on the Committee on Budgets, as the committee responsible, to incorporate the following suggestions into its motion for a resolution.

Yours sincerely,

Juan Fernando López Aguilar

SUGGESTIONS

1. Support that the Commission’s Draft Amending Budget 3/2024 increases the budget line of the European Public Prosecutor's Office (‘the EPPO’) to reflect the need for increased financing following the Commission decision confirming the participation of Poland in the enhanced cooperation on the establishment of the EPPO that was adopted on 29 February 2024, as well as the expected participation of Sweden; regrets at the same time that this is not sufficient to enable the EPPO to deal diligently either with its increasing workload mainly because of enlargement of the EPPO, nor with EPPO’s administrative and IT challenges;

2. Highlights that the operational workload of the EPPO has constantly increased since the start of its operations; highlights the importance to secure the EPPO with funding that is proportionate to its growing operational workload;

3. Stresses that the EPPO’s tasks are proportionate to the number of active investigations and cases in the trial phase, which is very likely to increase in the next years as the levels of detection and reporting are improving; notes that investigations are often unpredictable and can require unexpected additional costs;

4. Expresses strong concerns that in case the EPPO does not have enough resources to conduct investigations, collect evidence and submit it in courts, justice will not be served and rule of law not applied in an appropriate manner;

5. Stresses that the resources allocated to the EPPO do not only contribute to the protection of the financial interests of the EU, but also strengthen the rule of law and justice by being a benchmark for judicial independence and by fighting against corruption and organised crime;

6. Emphasises that since the start of its operation, the EPPO has proven to the most efficient body to protect the budget of the EU, and expresses therefore its disappointment that the Commission seems reluctant to propose sufficient resources;

7. Urges the Commission to engage immediately and constructively with the EPPO in order to re-assess its needs to meet the operational workload, as announced by the Commission in 2021, and to table both a further Amending Budget 2024 and a Draft 2025 Budget, enabling the EPPO to function adequately; calls in particular on the Commission to delay the application of its decision to stop providing Digital Workplace Services to the EPPO until additional human and financial resources are granted in order to enable it to securely ensure the EPPO’s IT independence;

8. Notes that the appropriation is intended to cover the EPPO’s recruitment and staff-related expenditure, buildings (including building security), infrastructure and administrative information technology-related expenditures; further notes the Commission’s proposal to mobilise the Flexibility Instrument in line with Article 12 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2093 in the absence of margins and room for redeployment under sub-heading 2b;

9. Emphasises that EPPO is an independent body of the EU, established through the concept of enhanced cooperation in criminal matters responsible for investigating, prosecuting and bringing to judgment crimes against the financial interests of the Union; recalls the utmost importance to ensure the full independence of the European Delegated Prosecutors as they directly carry out the proceedings in their respective Member States;

10. Notes that the independence of the EPPO is also linked to the allocation of financial resources that are sufficient to fulfil its mandate and to the necessary budgetary autonomy to manage them; stresses that adequate financing of the EPPO lies with both the EU and with each participating Member State;

11. Recalls the exceptional results achieved by the EPPO in the fight against crimes affecting the financial interests of the Union; notes that the scale of fraud affecting the financial interests of the EU, in particular on the revenue side of the budget, can only be explained by the heavy involvement of serious organised crime groups; reiterates that proper funding of the EPPO allows it to generate large scale savings to the Union budget by enabling the recovery of proceeds of crimes already committed and preventing further losses which would result from continuous criminal activity; stresses that ensuring support to the EPPO’s work in defending the Union financial interests is also crucial to counter the growth and expansion of serious organised crime groups; calls for significantly more resources for EPPO to reinforce independence and operational capacity to fulfil its mandate;

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 has received input from the following entities or persons in the preparation of the opinion, until the adoption thereof in committee:

The list above is drawn up under the exclusive responsibility of the rapporteur.

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 he has received input from the following entities or persons in the preparation of the report, until the adoption thereof in committee

The list above is drawn up under the exclusive responsibility of the rapporteur.

INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE