ddrg/super_eurlex huggingface dataset:
4.

Regrets in general a tendency in Council not to honour its commitments towards countries in need which have fulfilled the conditions for the mobilisation of the EUSF, by not mobilising additional resources as provided for by the special instruments, but rather by taking money away from the existing programmes; welcomes however the fact that the Council did not follow this approach for Draft amending budget No 4/2015;
10.

Welcomes the Centre's implementation of a common pre-processing approach for Community trademarks with the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) with the aim of sharing translation memories and harmonising respective workflows so as to ensure transparency and efficiency of the process; notes that a final decision could not be reached during the financial year 2014; acknowledges that both agencies agreed to proceed with the project in 2015; supports such agreement and invites the Centre to inform the discharge authority of the developments of this initiative;
D.

whereas Belgium submitted application EGF/2015/007 BE/Hainaut-Namur Glass for a financial contribution from the EGF, following redundancies in the economic sector classified under the NACE Revision 2 Division 23 (Manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products) in the NUTS level 2 regions of Hainaut (BE32) and Namur (BE35) in Belgium, and whereas 412 redundant workers, as well as 100 young people from the Hainaut Region not in employment, education or training (NEETs) under the age of 25, are expected to participate in the measures; whereas 144 of these workers were made redundant following the closure of the production plant in Roux (Hainaut), owned by AGC Europe SA, and 268 following the closure of the production plant in Auvelais (Namur Region), owned by Saint-Gobain Glass Benelux;
14.

Acknowledges the fact that the Agency, in its communication with the local authorities and the Commission, has continued to emphasise the advantages of relocating the Agency to the single office in Athens; notes, furthermore, that the estimated cost regarding the relocation of the remaining 14 members of staff in Heraklion as well as of all the furniture is approximately EUR 360 000; encourages the Greek authorities, the Commission and the Agency to find a solution for the issue of the Agency's two locations as soon as possible in order to ensure a much more efficient use of Union funds;
41.

Notes that, according to the Network, all agencies have already adopted generic rules on whistleblowing as part of the ethics guidelines on whistleblowing and in accordance with the provisions of the staff regulations; notes with concern however, that only 65 % of the agencies have adopted additional internal rules on whistleblowing; acknowledges the Network's observation that, in the cases where the relevant rules are not yet in place, the process is ongoing, with adoption of such rules pending; notes that in several cases, the agencies are waiting for guidance or input from the Commission before they can finalise their rules; acknowledges moreover that the rules should be finalised and implemented in the first half of 2017; calls on the agencies which have still not adopted the internal whistleblowing rules to do so without delay and by doing so reinforce their internal whistleblowing policies in order to foster a culture of transparency and accountability in the workplace, regularly inform and train employees on their duties and rights, ensure protection of the whistleblower from reprisal, follow up the substance of whistleblowers' alerts in a timely manner keeping both the whistleblower and any potentially involved person informed of the progress of the procedure, and put in place a channel for anonymous internal reporting; calls on the agencies to report back annually to the discharge authority on the number of whistleblower cases and their follow-up activities; calls on the agencies and equally on the Commission to provide the necessary guidance and approval where required;
14.

Notes that the Agency's administrative board adopted the policy for the prevention and management of conflicts of interests, applicable to its staff with specific provisions for management, as well as to its administrative board, its board of regulators, its board of appeal, its working group chairs and co-chairs and its task-force convenors; notes, furthermore, that the Agency published the declarations of conflicts of interests on its website but points out that some CVs and declarations of the members of the board of regulators remain missing; calls on the Agency to publish those documents and allow the public the necessary overview of its senior management; notes that in 2016 the administrative board detected a potential conflict of interests of one of its members and followed the ad hoc procedure provided for; asks the Agency to provide further information about this issue to the discharge authority;
17.

Notes that the Agency published the declarations of absence of conflicts of interests and the CVs of their respective management board members on its website; regrets however that some of the CVs are still missing or show inconsistencies; notes moreover that the Agency has put in place a policy on the prevention and management of conflicts of interest which takes into account its external members of staff, interim staff and seconded national experts; regrets, however, that the Agency did not foresee any checks of the factual correctness or a process for updating the declarations of interest; encourages the Agency to remedy the situation to ensure necessary public oversight and scrutiny of its management; notes that the Agency set up and implemented internal rules on whistleblowing;
7.

Notes that, according to the Court's report, the Centre did not respect the ceiling contract which was specified in the contract notice for a framework contract signed in 2012; notes also the Centre's explanation that the referred amount was mentioned as an estimate in the contract notice in line with the relevant financial rules, and the concluded contract neither mentioned this amount nor did it refer to any maximum threshold; acknowledges that the Centre terminated this contract and launched a new procurement procedure for the services concerned; welcomes the fact that the Centre has put in place a specific process to improve central planning and monitoring of its procurements, including for framework contracts;
12.

Points out that the coordinated package of personalised services benefiting from the EGF should be geared, in terms of its design, to initiatives conducive to employment, to upskilling of workers and to making the most of their employment history so as to reach out to the business community, including cooperatives, and should be coordinated with existing Union programmes, including the European Social Fund; is convinced that a coherent strategy would reduce the risk of relocation and create an environment conducive for industrial production to return to the Union; stresses that a serious policy of preventing and pre-empting restructurings ought to be given priority over any use of the EGF; stresses also the importance of a genuine industrial policy at Union level to bring sustainable and inclusive growth;
7.

Highlights as a matter of particular concern that the Court issued a qualified opinion on Joint Undertaking's payments related to projects taken over from its legal predecessors, the ARTEMIS and ENIAC Joint Undertakings and invites the Court to reconsider the methodology that results in repetitive qualified opinions based on this reoccurring issue that cannot be solved until the Seventh Framework Programme projects are terminated; notes that the payments made for those projects by the Joint Undertaking in 2016, against certificates of acceptance of costs issued by the NFAs of the Participating States, amounted to EUR 118 000 000, which represents 54 %of the total operational payments made by the Joint Undertaking in 2016; notes that the NFAs compiled ‘declarations of assurance’ on the 2016 expenditure as received on 22 January 2018 from Joint Undertaking; which cover 98 % of the participation fees from the Participating States for the Seventh Framework Programme expenditure in 2016;
3.

Notes that, according to the current discharge procedure, the Supervisor submits annual activity reports to the Court in June, the Court then submits its report to Parliament in October, and the discharge is voted by Parliament in plenary by May; notes that, unless the discharge is postponed, at least 17 months pass between the closing of the annual accounts and the closing of the discharge procedure; points out that auditing in the private sector follows a much shorter timeline; stresses that the discharge procedure needs to be streamlined and sped up; requests that the Supervisor and the Court follow best practice in the private sector; proposes in this regard to set a deadline for the submission of the annual activity reports of 31 March of the year following the accounting year and a deadline for the submission of the Court’s report of 1 July; proposes also to review the timetable for the discharge procedure as set down in Article 5 of Annex IV to Parliament's Rules of Procedure so that the vote on the discharge would take place in Parliament’s plenary part-session in November, thereby closing the discharge procedure within the year following the accounting year in question;
11.

Notes that Sweden is planning five types of actions for the redundant workers covered by this application: (i) counselling and career planning, (ii) measures for disadvantaged groups, (iii) entrepreneurship support, (iv) education and training, (v) job search and mobility allowances; notes also that the proposed actions would help redundant workers to adapt their skills and facilitate their transition to new jobs or help them set up their own enterprises; stresses that the measures described constitute active labour market measures within the eligible actions set out in Article 7(1) of the EGF Regulation and do not substitute social protection measures; welcomes Sweden’s decision to start providing personalised services to the targeted beneficiaries in February 2017, in advance of the EGF application;
28.

Notes that for the restricted call for industrial research which was limited to the Joint Undertaking’s industry members, the Joint Undertaking awarded grants to project consortia, despite the fact that, in two cases, the checks of the financial viability of the beneficiaries performed by the research executive agency indicated that the financial capacity of the coordinating industry member of the consortia was weak; notes that this implies a higher financial risk to the completion of those projects and the financial risk is also higher for the other projects in which these two beneficiaries are involved; notes that the Executive Director’s decision in those two cases was based on complementary ad-hoc risk assessments performed by Joint Undertaking staff; is concerned by the fact that the Joint Undertaking has not yet established a systematic internal procedure to reassess a weak financial viability of a grant project coordinator, including measures to mitigate and compensate for the increased financial risk; notes that following the results of complementary risk assessments carried out in accordance with the Horizon 2020 guidelines, the Joint Undertaking found that rejecting the project coordinators on the sole basis of the analysis conducted by the research executive agency could have exposed the Joint Undertaking to a significant risk of litigation; notes that the Joint Undertaking agrees that an internal procedure for the reassessment of a weak financial viability of a grant project coordinator, including measures to mitigate and compensate for the increased financial risks, should be established;
P8_TA(2018)0502

Mobilisation of the European Union Solidarity Fund to provide for the payment of advances in the EU general budget for 2019

European Parliament resolution of 12 December 2018 on the proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on the mobilisation of the European Union Solidarity Fund to provide for the payment of advances in the general budget of the Union for 2019 (COM(2018)0281 — C8-0221/2018 — 2018/2074(BUD))

(2020/C 388/32)

The European Parliament,

— having regard to the Commission proposal to the European Parliament and the Council (COM(2018)0281 — C8-0221/2018),

— having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 2012/2002 of 11 November 2002 establishing the European Union Solidarity Fund (1),

— having regard to Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1311/2013 of 2 December 2013 laying down the multiannual financial framework for the years 2014-2020 (2), and in particular Article 10 thereof,

— having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 2 December 2013 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline, on cooperation in budgetary matters and on sound financial management (3), and in particular point 11 thereof,

— having regard to the results of the trilogue of 4 December 2018,

— having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets (A8-0453/2018),

A. whereas, in line with Regulation (EU) No 661/2014 which amended Regulation (EC) No 2012/2002, an amount of EUR 50 000 000 is made available for the payment of advances through appropriations in the general budget of the Union;

1. Approves the decision annexed to this resolution;

2. Instructs its President to sign the decision with the President of the Council and arrange for its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union ;

3. Instructs its President to forward this resolution, including its annex, to the Council and the Commission.

(1) OJ L 311, 14.11.2002, p. 3.

(2) OJ L 347, 20.12.2013, p. 884.

(3) OJ C 373, 20.12.2013, p. 1.
ANNEX

DECISION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

on the mobilisation of the European Union Solidarity Fund to provide assistance to Greece, Spain, France and Portugal

(The text of this annex is not reproduced here since it corresponds to the final act, Decision (EU) 2018/846.)
20.

Acknowledges from the Agency that in 2017 it reviewed the process in place concerning its ‘Policy on impartiality and independence: prevention and mitigation of Conflict of Interest’ to extend the completion, review and update of Declarations of Interest to all staff members; notes that according to the Agency the publication of an IAS audit report on the prevention and mitigation of conflict of interest is expected in April 2019; calls on the Agency to report to the discharge authority on the comprehensive review of its current system for prevention and mitigation of conflict of interest in 2018/2019 and on the implementation of the Commission's recommendations; welcomes the Agency's new guidelines on whistleblowing;
14.

Notes the Agency's existing measures on and ongoing efforts to secure transparency, prevention and management of conflicts of interests, and whistleblower protection; points out with concern, however, that only the CVs of the executive director and the Chair of the management board (MB) are published on its website, and furthermore, that the Agency publishes only the executive director's declaration of conflicts of interests on its website, but not of the other senior management members; calls on the Agency to publish the CVs of all the members of the MB and the declarations of conflicts of interests of its senior management and to report to the discharge authority on the measures taken in this regard;
2.

Notes from the Court's report that the Office requested translations from the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union (CdT) for four calls for expression of interest for the establishment of staff reserve lists; notes that, taking into account that the establishment plan was already fulfilled, the Court concluded that that request for translation was not justified; notes that, according to the Office's reply, the request was made because the Office's management committee requested the establishment of reserve lists for 75 % of job profiles with the aim of keeping the vacancy rate below 15 % in order to mitigate risks related to high staff turnover;
4.

Recalls that research and innovation is not an isolated process using a simple rule for process management; stresses therefore that it is significantly important to identify among the research and innovation projects those that are capable to bring innovative solutions to the market; highlights that changes in the Regulation establishing the Joint Undertaking and in its Statutes will be very important for the next development of the Joint Undertaking in order to improve its efficiency; stresses, in particular that there is a need to foresee the use of the principle of multiannual financing and to adopt flexible timetables for publishing projects proposals;
P9_TA(2019)0070

Mobilisation of the EU Solidarity Fund to provide for the payment of advances in the general budget of the Union for 2020

European Parliament resolution of 27 November 2019 on the proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on the mobilisation of the European Union Solidarity Fund to provide for the payment of advances in the general budget of the Union for 2020 (COM(2019)0252 — C9-0008/2019 — 2019/2027(BUD))

(2021/C 232/23)

The European Parliament,

— having regard to the Commission proposal to the European Parliament and the Council (COM(2019)0252 — C9-0008/2019),

— having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 2012/2002 of 11 November 2002 establishing the European Union Solidarity Fund (1),

— having regard to Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1311/2013 of 2 December 2013 laying down the multiannual financial framework for the years 2014-2020 (2), and in particular Article 10 thereof,

— having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 2 December 2013 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline, on cooperation in budgetary matters and on sound financial management (3), and in particular point 11 thereof,

— having regard to the joint text approved by the Conciliation Committee on 18 November 2019 (A9-0035/2019),

— having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets (A9-0036/2019),

A. whereas, in accordance with Article 4a(4) of Regulation (EC) No 2012/2002, an amount of EUR 50 000 000 is made available for the payment of advances through appropriations in the general budget of the Union;

1. Approves the decision annexed to this resolution;

2. Instructs its President to sign the decision with the President of the Council and arrange for its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union ;

3. Instructs its President to forward this resolution, including its annex, to the Council and the Commission.

(1) OJ L 311, 14.11.2002, p. 3.

(2) OJ L 347, 20.12.2013, p. 884.

(3) OJ C 373, 20.12.2013, p. 1.
4.

Welcomes the Foundation’s agreements and annual action plans on cooperation in areas of policy overlap with the European Foundation for the Improvements of Living and Working Conditions and with the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training; appreciates the fact that the Foundation became the leader of the inter-Agency contract for the provision of benchmarked staff engagement surveys; commends this practice as an example worth following; strongly encourages the Foundation to actively seek further and broader cooperation with all of the Union agencies;
17.

Deplores the fact that, following the termination of a EUR 1,4 million contract due to a contractor’s unsatisfactory performance, the Agency signed, a few months later, a new EUR 2 million contract ‘in cascade’ for the same type of service with the same contractor, without inserting in the technical specifications elements to neutralise the risk of similar problems arising again under the new contract; is of the opinion that such contracting behaviour raises serious concerns as to the Agency’s sound financial management; calls on the Agency to award contracts only if satisfactory performance can be expected; and asks the Agency to report back to the Court and the discharge authority on the performance of the contractor;
12.

Acknowledges the complex nature of the studies carried out by the Agency covering the law and practice of all Member States; highlights the value of those studies and opinions for the development of Union legal acts and the importance of adequate financial resources provided to the Agency to enable it to perform its duties better; welcomes the Agency’s continuous research and reporting on all types of discrimination within the Union, which contributes to improving inclusion strategies and related policies of the Union and the Member States; welcomes, in particular, the commitment of the Agency to the protection of vulnerable groups by conducting specific studies, such as the reports concerning the right to independent living of persons with disabilities, the social inclusion of young Roma and racial discrimination and racist crime against people of African descent; regrets the fact that the Agency’s current mandate limits its ability to act and to undertake studies in certain thematic areas; stresses the fact that the remit of the Agency should extend to all rights protected under the Charter, including issues of judicial and police cooperation in criminal matters, and believes that the Agency should be able to offer opinions on legislative proposals on its own initiative;
17.

Notes from the Court's report that the Agency did not systematically check prices and uplifts charged with supplier’s quotes and invoices issued to the framework contractor for the acquisition of software licences; notes from the Agency’s reply that it has no possibility to change the conditions and provisions of the framework contract signed by the Commission and that it will implement the new framework contract to address the issues raised concerning the old contract;
Official Journal of the European Union

P9_TA(2020)0049

Mobilisation of the Contingency Margin in 2020: providing emergency assistance to Member States and further reinforcing the Union Civil Protection Mechanism/rescEU in response to the COVID-19 outbreak

European Parliament resolution of 17 April 2020 on the proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on the mobilisation of the Contingency Margin in 2020 to provide emergency assistance to Member States and further reinforce the Union Civil Protection Mechanism/rescEU in response to the COVID-19 outbreak (COM(2020)0172 — C9-0097/2020 –2020/2057(BUD))

(2021/C 316/11)

The European Parliament,

— having regard to the Commission proposal to the European Parliament and the Council (COM(2020)0172 — C9-0097/2020),

— having regard to Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1311/2013 of 2 December 2013 laying down the multiannual financial framework for the years 2014-2020 (1), and in particular Article 13 thereof,

— having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 2 December 2013 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline, on cooperation in budgetary matters and on sound financial management (2), and in particular point 14 thereof,

— having regard to the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2020, as definitively adopted on 27 November 2019 (3),

— having regard to Draft amending budget No 2/2020, which the Commission adopted on 2 April 2020 (COM(2020)0170),

— having regard to Rule 163 of its Rules of Procedure,

1. Approves the decision annexed to this resolution;

2. Instructs its President to sign the decision with the President of the Council and arrange for its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union ;

3. Instructs its President to forward this resolution, including its annex, to the Council and the Commission.

(1) OJ L 347, 20.12.2013, p. 884.

(2) OJ C 373, 20.12.2013, p. 1.

(3) OJ L 57, 27.2.2020.