On a revamped long-term budget for the Union in a changing world

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AMENDMENTS

The Committee on Budgetary Control submits the following to the Committee on Budgets, as the committee responsible:

Amendment 1

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 3

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

3. Emphasises that the post-2027 MFF must also become simpler and more transparent and be protected against misuse, fraud and breaches of the principles of the rule of law and the Union’s values;

3. Emphasises that the post-2027 MFF must also become simpler and more transparent and be protected against misuse, fraud and breaches of the principles of the rule of law and the Union’s values; underlines that simplified and streamlined procedures, administration and reporting will improve efficiency and accountability; emphasises that simplification should not negatively affect transparency and effectiveness; notes that reducing the administrative burden should primarily benefit final beneficiaries and make application procedures more accessible;

Or. en

Amendment 2

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 4

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

4. Underlines that a simpler, more flexible MFF requires more robust parliamentary accountability;

4. Underlines that a simpler, more flexible MFF requires more robust parliamentary accountability; recalls that EU citizens must be able to rely on being informed by those implementing the EU budget of how the funds have been spent and the objectives achieved; recalls that transparency is essential to retain citizens’ trust, and that fraud and misuse of funds are extremely detrimental to that trust; calls on the Commission to put in place solid anti-fraud mechanisms in all funding instruments for the post-2027 MFF that ensure the protection of the EU budget;

Or. en

Amendment 3

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 48 a (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

48a. Considers the rule of law conditionality mechanism to be a central pillar in protecting the EU budget against breaches of the rule of law; considers that ex-ante conditionalities and the permanent monitoring of their fulfilment play a central role in the protection of the EU’s financial interests;

Or. en

Amendment 4

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 48 b (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

48b. Underlines the fact that compliance with EU law, including with single market rules, constitutes a core pillar of the rule of law principle; calls on the Commission to include an assessment of the status of compliance with single market rules in the evaluation of the rule of law in each Member State and to trigger the conditionality mechanism if structural and persistent breaches occur at the national level that have a negative impact on the protection of the EU’s financial interests;

Or. en

Amendment 5

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 51 a (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

51a. Notes that the EU anti-fraud architecture currently consists of several institutions, offices and agencies, most notably the Court of Auditors, Eurojust, Europol, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) and the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF); considers that such offices and agencies need to enhance their cooperation, in particular in terms of exchanging information on criminal/fraudulent activities in relation to EU funds and providing access to one another’s data; insists that participation in the EPPO must be compulsory for Member States receiving EU funds; calls for exploring synergies in and the possible consolidation of Europe’s anti-fraud architecture;

Or. en

Amendment 6

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 56 a (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

56a. Acknowledges the importance of a clear monitoring framework for horizontal, cross-cutting EU objectives and ensuring that funding instruments are designed to achieve such EU objectives; notes the Commission’s efforts to enhance tracking of and reporting on such horizontal priorities, but urges stronger safeguards and clearer milestones for the completion of these measures; calls for a closer link between disbursements and the achievement of objectives in future funding instruments, along with proactive steps to mitigate the risks of non-completion;

Or. en

Amendment 7

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 56 b (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

56b. Calls on the Commission to establish a framework for monitoring and evaluating horizontal EU priorities; stresses the importance of robust performance monitoring and evaluation frameworks to track the contribution of investments to meeting horizontal targets; calls on the Commission to strengthen its commitment to Better Regulation principles to ensure that future funding instruments deliver measurable results;

Or. en

Amendment 8

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 59 a (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

59a. Recalls the need for more synchronised and interoperable national audit and control systems; expects national systems to be more synchronised at the start of the post-2027 MFF; expects systems to be more user-friendly, limiting any administrative burden involved; expects collected data to be accessible at EU, national and regional level; considers an EU-level database an asset to transparency and control by the European Parliament; considers this a precondition for the disbursements of funds to any Member State under the post-2027 MFF;

Or. en

Amendment 9

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 61 a (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

61a. Believes that, alongside strong control mechanisms, the next MFF should have a specific focus on a further simplification of the procedures for applicants and/or beneficiaries, in particular smaller beneficiaries; is of the opinion that the Commission’s de-regulation priorities should also be felt by applicants for EU funding; reiterates that such simplification should not be to the detriment of sufficient controls, sound financial management and transparency;

Or. en

Amendment 10

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 62 a (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

62a. Considers that transparency is key to ensuring that EU funds achieve their objectives and reach their intended final beneficiaries and/or recipients; emphasises the need to identify and report on the real final beneficiaries of all EU funds to maintain public trust and enable the European Parliament to effectively fulfil its discharge authority role; stresses that a robust mechanism to prevent double funding and ensure accountability must be centrally integrated into and be applicable to all funding instruments, especially under the RRF and the financing not linked to costs (FNLTC) delivery model;

Or. en

Amendment 11

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 62 b (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

62b. Emphasises, in particular, the risk of double funding, which increases with the introduction of instruments based on FNLTC and is higher when different EU funding programmes with different delivery models, rules and governance and accountability frameworks are used to finance similar measures and actions during the same timeframe; calls on the Commission to align rules, governance and accountability frameworks; stresses the ex-ante need to prevent double funding through a clear demarcation of what kinds of action can be funded from which instruments; re-emphasises, in this regard, the increased need for the detection of double funding through a single integrated interoperable information and monitoring system as envisaged in the Financial Regulation;

Or. en

Amendment 12

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 62 c (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

62c. Regrets the Commission’s rejection of recommendations to clarify the definition of double funding under FNLTC models and to strengthen control requirements; considers that both the cost and the performance dimensions must be addressed to effectively mitigate risks; urges the Commission to formalise minimum control requirements and ensure their consistent application at the beneficiary level to safeguard EU funds and enhance oversight across Member States;

Or. en

Amendment 13

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 62 d (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

62d. Acknowledges the importance of coordination among funding programmes and instruments on account of the complexities introduced by the RRF and FNLTC models; calls on the Commission to address these challenges proactively in the post-2027 MFF by establishing robust data-sharing mechanisms and aligning reporting across funding instruments to strengthen oversight and accountability;

Or. en

Amendment 14

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 62 e (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

62e. Calls on the Commission to reform audit mechanisms with a view to strengthening the role of the European Court of Auditors in the implementation of MFF programmes and in its interaction with national audit offices, with a focus on timing, lessons learned and subsidiarity;

Or. en

Amendment 15

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 62 f (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

62f. Calls on the Commission to increase the transparency, and citizens’ awareness, of the MFF by gathering and setting up a real-time, publicly accessible digital dashboard detailing fund allocation, project purposes, outcomes and final beneficiaries;

Or. en

Amendment 16

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 62 g (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

62g. Regrets the fact that MFF funds from the LIFE programme are being used to promote lobbying activities targeting the European Parliament; calls on the Commission to ensure full transparency as Parliament investigates how other MFF programmes across different policy areas are being used to promote lobbying activities targeting the European Parliament;

Or. en

Amendment 17

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 63

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

63. Reiterates its long-standing position that all EU-level spending should be brought within the purview of the budgetary authority; calls, therefore, for the full budgetisation of (partially) off-budget instruments such as the Social Climate Fund, the Innovation Fund and the Modernisation Fund, or their successors;

63. Reiterates its long-standing position that all EU-level spending should be brought within the purview of the budgetary authority; calls, therefore, for the full budgetisation of (partially) off-budget instruments such as the Social Climate Fund, the Innovation Fund and the Modernisation Fund, or their successors, to ensure European Parliament oversight and audit rights for the Court of Auditors; reiterates the call for public audit mandates for all financing instruments supporting EU policies, including those outside the EU legal framework;

Or. en

Amendment 18

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 63 a (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

63a. Recalls that the EU’s financial landscape has become fragmented, with instruments featuring varying sources of funding and governance arrangements; considers that the post-2027 MFF provides a key opportunity to improve coherence and transparency; calls for a sufficient prior assessment of all financial instruments (re-)introduced in the post-2027 MFF, with a focus on their design, necessity and alignment with EU objectives; emphasises that for instruments introduced under urgent circumstances, where available time and resources are limited, assessment criteria should be integrated into their design, allowing the prior assessment to be waived;

Or. en

Amendment 19

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 63 b (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

63b. Considers that the reporting obligations for financial instruments should be aligned to ensure transparency and accountability; stresses that the increased focus on performance requires a more robust monitoring framework and effective use of tools such as ARACHNE to enhance transparency, data-driven oversight and governance under the post-2027 MFF;

Or. en

Amendment 20

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 63 c (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

63c. Calls on the Commission to provide detailed, transparent and publicly accessible information on established irregular expenditure and the corrective measures taken; emphasises that sufficient and transparent reporting is essential for effective oversight and accountability; stresses the importance of addressing weaknesses in recovery mechanisms, including delays in shared management and inconsistencies in external actions, to ensure irregularities are properly identified and managed; highlights the critical need to align disbursements with the completion of milestones and objectives under instruments such as the RRF; underlines the need to include robust recovery provisions and safeguards in future funding instruments to mitigate risks associated with incomplete measures or double funding;

Or. en

Amendment 21

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 63 d (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

63d. Insists on more automatic corrective measures in the next MFF, in particular where deficiencies in control mechanisms at the national level are identified; calls on the Commission to apply a very strict approach in such cases and immediately suspend funding where structural and persistent deficiencies endanger the sound financial implementation of the EU budget;

Or. en

Amendment 22

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 63 e (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

63e. Considers that strengthening oversight and transparency is crucial for the sound management of EU funds, particularly under the RRF; emphasises the need for enhanced mechanisms to give assurance on the absence of double funding, especially in simplified financing models such as financing not linked to costs, by expanding audit coverage to include both cost and performance dimensions; calls for sufficient internal guidance on flat-rate corrections for deficiencies in Member States’ control systems, including in performance-based instruments; urges the Commission to strengthen the focus on using flat-rate corrections for systemic irregularities to better safeguard the Union’s financial interests; stresses that addressing gaps in detailed reporting on irregular expenditure and corrective actions is vital to ensure the effective protection of the EU’s financial interests and ensure the credibility of the Union’s system for recoveries;

Or. en

Amendment 23

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 67 a (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

67a. Notes that different programmes and projects could have varying timelines for implementation; warns against excessively burdensome administrative obligations associated with changing such programmes or projects; underlines the need for flexibility of funding destinations to ensure that funding can be re-allocated if it is not spent on an envisaged project (‘use or lose’);

Or. en

Amendment 24

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 71 a (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

71a. Considers that, given the significant changes and simplifications envisaged, there is an increased need to adjust the Financial Regulation to an entirely new way of working in the post-2027 MFF, in parallel with the adoption of the MFF regulation;

Or. en

Amendment 25

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 72 a (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

72a. Calls on the Commission to focus more closely on results and outcomes in the post-2027 MFF, alongside outputs and costs, and to place greater emphasis on cross-border EU added-value; warns against embedding political objectives in a performance-based system, justifying the need to focus on results and outcomes;

Or. en

Amendment 26

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 72 b (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

72b. Considers that any shift to a more performance-based approach needs to be based on a clear and reliable performance framework where EU expenditure is clearly attributed to the objectives being pursued therewith, both ex ante on the basis of estimates, and ex post on the basis of actual expenditure, and that this should be clearly disclosed in the Commission’s progress and performance reports; considers that this should be reflected in the legal bases for the post-2027 MFF to allow the Commission to collect this information from the Member States;

Or. en

Amendment 27

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 75

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

75. Points out that any application of an RRF-style delivery model in the next MFF would have to correct the RRF’s fundamental flaws, by involving regional and local authorities from design to delivery through a place-based and multilevel governance approach, ensuring the cross-border dimension of investment projects, focusing on results and impact rather than outputs, guaranteeing full transparency in relation to final recipients of Union spending and safeguarding Parliament’s role as legislator, budgetary and discharge authority and in holding the executive to account;

deleted

Or. en

Amendment 28

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 75 a (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

75a. Notes the Commission’s intention to increase the focus on performance-based implementation of the EU budget; notes the experience with performance-based instruments in the current MFF and the increased focus on agreeing inputs, outputs and results, indicators, monitoring of performance, and achievement of objectives; is of the opinion that any shift to a performance-based approach based on the RRF as a blueprint cannot take place as long as the issues identified in the implementation of the RRF, as acknowledged by the Commission, are not addressed; notes that these issues include limited accountability and limited insight at EU level into compliance with (EU) rules and regulations in the implementation of EU funds, limited transparency with regard to final recipients, limited EU added value on account of, in particular, the limited number of cross-border projects, and the limited involvement of sub-national entities, in particular local and regional authorities, in the design and implementation of the instrument; calls for a continued and increased focus on performance, which, at the same time, should not come at the expense of controls and sound financial management;

Or. en

Amendment 29

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 75 b (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

75b. Re-iterates its position that the involvement of regional and local authorities, as well as relevant civil society organisations, is key in the design and implementation of any national approach for the next MFF and recalls the deficiencies identified in the RRF in this regard;

Or. en

Amendment 30

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 75 c (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

75c. Underlines the need for tailor-made approaches for Member States; considers it of the utmost importance that the Commission maintain a strong horizontal approach to prevent the ‘nationalisation’ of Union policies, resulting in 27 national approaches that together do not form a Union approach and where Member States are treated differently on similar issues; notes that the experience so far with national recovery and resilience plans has not been positive, as it has not always been possible to quantify each Member State’s contribution to EU objectives due to a lack or incomparability of available data, and larger Member States with more budgetary resources have been treated differently from smaller ones with tighter budgets; considers that the European Parliament should be involved in defining such national approaches;

Or. en

Amendment 31

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 75 d (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

75d. Notes that in the case of existing performance-based instruments implemented under direct management, there is no obligation for Member States to report cases of suspected fraud in the Irregularity Management System (IMS), as is the case for funds implemented under shared management; calls on the Commission to mitigate this information gap for future performance-based instruments, either by requiring use of the IMS or by defining new reporting obligations that would give EU-level anti-fraud organisations access to such information from Member States;

Or. en

Amendment 32

Motion for a resolution

Subheading 6 a (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

A long-term budget that demonstrates performance

Or. en

(To be inserted after paragraph 75d)

Amendment 33

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 75 e (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

75e. Notes the Commission’s wish to put the post-2027 MFF on a stronger performance-based footing; notes the experience in the current and previous MFFs with performance frameworks that had to define, measure and report on performance; recalls the reports of the Court of Auditors that looked into performance frameworks from a compliance or performance perspective and repeatedly found similar shortcomings, regardless of the policy area; recalls that this concerned the poor definition of performance indicators and/ or objectives, a lack of available performance data to measure achievements on indicators or objectives, the poor quality of performance data and a lack of comparability between providers (e.g. Member States); calls on the Commission to address these issues in a performance monitoring and evaluation framework for the post-2027 MFF that is linked to the political priorities of the Commission, while bearing in mind the potential costs and administrative burdens on Member States, stakeholders and project promoters;

Or. en

Amendment 34

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 75 f (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

75f. Understands that defining and agreeing on indicators and/or objectives between the Commission and the Member States constitutes a process of negotiation and may therefore result in politicised compromises; is concerned that this may result in differences in treatment among Member States, notably between larger and smaller Member States; stresses, however, the importance of clear and measurable ex-ante definitions, since the outcome of the entire implementation process relies on it; stresses therefore the ex-ante need to define clear, measurable indicators and/or objectives; notes that indicators and objectives can be defined at various levels, including as input, output, results and impacts, and that measuring the actual contribution from Union activities varies per level, with inputs and outputs having a relatively strong link, while results and outcomes are more difficult to attribute to Union policies; stresses the need for the post-2027 MFF to have in place methodologies for identifying the link between the activities deployed under Union policies and the results and impacts observed; stresses the need to align definitions across Union policy areas, and therefore the need for an effective performance monitoring and evaluation framework;

Or. en

Amendment 35

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 75 g (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

75g. Regards identifying and defining performance data, once indicators and objectives have been established, as a more technical undertaking requiring major improvements in the post-2027 MFF; stresses that performance data, both existing and new, should be accurate and consistent to avoid an unnecessary administrative burden and to ensure data comparability between Member States; calls on the Commission to make full use of the data and knowledge available in Eurostat and the JRC; calls on the Commission to identify baselines for indicators and objectives before the start of the post-2027 MFF;

Or. en

Amendment 36

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 75 h (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

75h. Notes that for performance-based instruments, where payments are based on the achievement of indicators/ objectives defined ex ante, verification of the actual achievement of these objectives is of the utmost importance; considers that agreed verification mechanisms can provide clarity on the actions and deliverables that are necessary to determine whether an objective has been achieved and a linked payment can be made; recalls the need to properly consult with all relevant Commission services when verifying the achievements made, and to document the process;

Or. en

Amendment 37

Motion for a resolution

Paragraph 86 a (new)

Motion for a resolution

Amendment

86a. Regrets the continuing uncertainty surrounding the repayment of NGEU borrowing costs, as no repayment plan was agreed; notes the issues identified by the Court of Auditors with regard to the introduction of the own resource based on non-recycled plastic packaging waste; considers that for the post-2027 MFF the Commission must create a legal basis on which to assess whether Member States are ready for the introduction of own resources and able to submit robust, comparable and reliable data beforehand;

Or. en