ddrg/super_eurlex huggingface dataset:
26.

Regrets that the contribution to the Youth on the Move Flagship Initiative is slightly reduced compared to last year; highlights in this context the added value of the Lifelong Learning, Erasmus and Erasmus Mundus programmes, which, against a modest financial backdrop, yield great returns in terms of effective implementation and positive image of the Union vis-à-vis its citizens; recalls that in many Member States young people are being significantly hit by the economic and financial crisis and that in this context adequate funding and targeting of educational and mobility schemes and lifelong learning programmes are significant in modernising education and training systems and raising the levels of skills, mobility and adaptability of young people, thereby contributing overall to an innovative, knowledge-based, smart and inclusive Europe; to this end strongly supports the promotion of equal opportunities in order to enable young people, whatever their educational background, to benefit from the EU’s various youth programmes and policies; opposes, therefore, the proposed reduction by EUR 10,2 million as compared to the 2012 budget for the Lifelong Learning Programme and, in line with its established position in the last budgetary procedures and the excellent performance rates of this programme, intends to reinforce the commitment appropriations for the corresponding budget line;
7.

Deplores the fact, however, that as regards the revision in commitments the Council decided to neglect the political importance of adopting the Commission's proposal as such, opting instead to offset the appropriations required; considers that that position contradicts the spirit of the unanimous decision taken when signing the Treaty of Accession as well as of the IIA of 17 May 2006; highlights that that decision sends a wrong political signal not only to Croatia but to the other candidate countries as well; stresses that that decision is accepted only because it concerns the last 6 months of the current MFF (2007-2013); points out that this should not constitute a precedent for future enlargements that might occur under the next MFF (2014-2020);
10.

Welcomes the fact that the social partners adopted a social plan for the redundancies in First Solar Manufacturing GmbH and that a transfer company will design and manage the coordinated package of personalised services; notes that its operation during the first six months is paid by First Solar Manufacturing GmbH and the ESF via its federal programme and that the services of the transfer company will be extended to new measures financed by the EGF; notes that a policy of equality between women and men as well as the principle of non-discrimination will be applied during the various stages of the implementation of and in access to the EGF;
7.

Underlines that the adoption of Draft amending budget 6/2013 does not address the lack of payment appropriations authorised in the 2013 budget which are necessary to pay outstanding bills; insists once more on the need for the Council to adopt as a matter of urgency Draft amending budget 8/2013; reiterates once more that it will not give its consent to the MFF 2014-2020 Regulation as long as Draft amending budget 8/2013 has not been adopted, as clearly stated in its resolution of 3 July 2013.
14.

Expects the EESC, when preparing the negotiations of the new administrative cooperation agreement with the CoR, to create a more regular screening of the budgetary savings resulting from its implementation, as stated in last year’s recommendations; requests detailed information on the results of this cooperation and on the precise amount of budgetary savings that will ensue from this new cooperation;
5.

Notes that the Institute has reduced the overall level of carry-overs of committed appropriations from 50 % in 2011 to 32 % in 2012; points out that the carry-overs to 2013 amount to EUR 2 500 000 and mainly concern title II (administrative expenditure), amounting to EUR 300 000, and title III (operational expenditure), amounting to EUR 2 100 000, representing 23 % and 59 % of the corresponding committed appropriations; acknowledges that carry-overs for title II mainly relate to commitments made at the end of 2012 in connection with the move to a new premises, which took place in January 2013, while carry-overs for title III mainly relate to procurement procedures that were concluded late in 2012; notes, furthermore, that 7 % of committed appropriations carried over from 2011 to 2012 had not been used and had to be cancelled;
11.

Welcomes the fact that social partners were involved in negotiating the measures to be supported; appreciates furthermore that trade unions are involved in the monitoring of the implementation and possible redesign of the measures, as well as being associated with the evaluation of the results; welcomes also the fact that the planned measures, their content and relevant aspects of their implementation (including the timeline) were presented and discussed with the former workers of the Whirpool plant of Spini di Gargarolo during several meetings (15 in total) held between February and March 2014 and that, of the total number of workers participating in these meetings, 393 have registered as participants in these measures;
EN Official Journal of the European Union C 294/72

P8_TA(2014)0091

Mobilisation of the EU Solidarity Fund: Floods in Italy — Earthquake in Greece — Ice in Slovenia — Ice and floods in Croatia

European Parliament resolution of 17 December 2014 on the proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on the mobilisation of the European Union Solidarity Fund, in accordance with point 11 of 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 (floods in Italy, earthquake in Greece, ice in Slovenia and ice and floods in Croatia) (COM(2014)0565 — C8-0137/2014 — 2014/2072(BUD))

(2016/C 294/28)

The European Parliament,

— having regard to the Commission proposal to the European Parliament and the Council (COM(2014)0565 — C8-0137/2014),

— 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 conclusions agreed by the Parliament and the Council on 8 December 2014,

— having regard to the letter from the Committee on Regional Development,

— having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets (A8-0073/2014),

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.
18.

Ascertains from the Centre that its 2012 budget surplus was generated mainly by external factors beyond its control and that the Centre took actions in order to reduce it; notes that in light of the Centre's 2012 cost analysis, as well as its cost analysis of the first half of 2013, the Centre decided to lower its prices for 2014; acknowledges from the Centre that its 2014 and 2015 budgets were planned as deficit budgets in order to use part of the previous years' surpluses;
1.

Notes from the Court's report that regarding three comments made in the Court's 2011 report and marked as ‘Outstanding’ in the Court's 2012 report, as well as regarding one comment marked as ‘Ongoing’, one corrective action has been taken and is now marked in the Court's report as ‘Completed’, two were marked as ‘Ongoing’ and one as ‘Not Applicable’; notes furthermore that for the six comments made in the Court's 2012 report, one corrective action was taken in response to the previous year's comments and is now marked as ‘Completed’, two are marked as ‘Not Applicable’, two as ‘Ongoing’ and one as ‘Outstanding’;
13.

Points out that between November 2012 and May 2013, the Commission's second interim evaluation of the Joint Undertaking was carried out; notes that the report contains several recommendations, such as assigning of more resources to operations through the sharing of administrative functions with other Joint Undertakings and/or returning them to the Commission's services as well as a sharper focus on the research strategy for the continuation of the Joint Undertaking in Horizon 2020 in accordance with the three main principles (alignment with EU policies, areas where Europe has or can achieve leadership, adaptation to the changing needs of the sector) and strengthening of the capacity for change; acknowledges that an action plan is being revised by the Joint Undertaking in order to address these aspects;
2.

Acknowledges from the Agency that: — in 2012 the Agency procured cleaning services via cascading framework contracts to two suppliers and due to a clerical error during the evaluation of offers, the ranking of the contractors was incorrect; acknowledges that in line with the reporting to the Court, the contract was cancelled, the ranking corrected and a new contract was signed with the correct winning supplier; — the information on the impact of its activities on Union citizens is provided on the Agency's website through multiple tools and through the publication of strategic documents such as the Annual Activity Report; — the Agency continues to apply the Commission's whistleblowing guidelines following a decision of its Executive Board; notes that these guidelines will be replaced as soon as the Agency adopts the Regulatory Agencies' model guidelines on whistleblowing; — the cooperation agreements on closer coordination were established with the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, the United Nations, the European Asylum Support Office, the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union, the European University Institute, the European Institute for Gender Equality and the Council of Europe;
6.

Acknowledges from the Joint Undertaking that an action plan, was submitted which aims to remedy the deficiencies identified by the Court in its qualified opinion; acknowledges receipt from the Joint Undertaking of the last update with regard to the ex-post audit implementation in the Joint Undertaking; awaits the Court's opinion on the new formula proposed for the calculation of an estimated residual error rate in the Joint Undertaking's transactions; notes that the implementation of the action plan commenced in 2014; looks forward to the successful implementation of the entire action plan, as well as to the opinion of the Court on its outcome; points out that difficulties may arise on the boundary between the NFA's sovereign authority and the Joint Undertaking's authority; calls on the Joint Undertaking to provide a first interim evaluation report on the implementation of the action plan;
13.

Notes that in accordance with the audit plan, the Commission’s Internal Audit Service (‘IAS’) did not carry out an audit during the course of 2014; ascertains that at the end of 2014, all six recommendations issued by the IAS following the 2013 audit on expert management and missions were addressed by the Foundation; notes furthermore that the evidence was provided to IAS for its annual review in 2014 and that in July 2015 the IAS formally closed five out of six recommendations while downgrading one recommendation from ‘very important’ to ‘important’;
B.

whereas the Court of Auditors (the ‘Court’), in its report on the Agency’s annual accounts for the financial year 2014 (the ‘Court's report’), stated that it had obtained reasonable assurances that those annual accounts were reliable and that the underlying transactions were legal and regular;
18.

Recalls that, as an EU Agency, the Centre has a budget denominated in euro, but has a lot of expenses in another currency (Swedish crown (SEK)) as it is based in a non-Eurozone country; notes that in early 2014, the Centre had to implement a revised EUR to SEK exchange rate and adjust upwards the cost in EUR of expenses in SEK going back to 2011, leading to several revisions of its work programme; welcomes that, despite this, by the end of the year 2014, the Centre had delivered nearly 85 % of the deliverables planned in its work programme for 2014, as well as delivering 117 emergency outputs on the major disease control emergency of 2014, namely, the unprecedented Ebola epidemic that emerged in West Africa and subsequently evolved into a global concern;
43.

Welcomes the progress that has been made regarding translation and interpretation efficiencies; acknowledges the quality and added value of services provided by the interpreters; calls for an early, sustainable agreement between the Secretary-General and the representatives of interpreters combining high quality working conditions and efficient management in order to avoid situations of imbalances in terms of working hours and overall insecurity among interpreters, taking into account social rights; asks the Secretary-General to make further rationalisation proposals such as increased translation and interpretation on demand, particularly concerning the activities of the Intergroups of the European Parliament; considers that the linguistic profiling system in place since October 2014 for committee-stage amendments is an example of efficiencies that can be made and that can be further developed; takes the view that interpretation and translation are core components of a European democracy that is open to all, and accordingly calls for no reform to be allowed that detracts from maximum accessibility to Parliament's activities and documents on as inclusive a basis as possible;
—

having regard to Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union and repealing Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 (1), and in particular Article 41 thereof,
13.

Emphasises that geographical balance, namely a proportional relationship between the members of staff of a particular nationality and the size of the relevant Member State, must remain an important element of resources management, particularly with respect to the Member States that have acceded the Union in or after 2004; welcomes the fact that the Court has reached an overall balanced composition of officials from the Member States which acceded to the Union before 2004 and from the Member States which acceded in or after 2004; points out that, nevertheless, the Member States which joined the Union in or after 2004 remain underrepresented at the higher level of administration and in managerial posts, for which progress is still needed;
8.

Notes that the Foundation's target of 80 % regarding the number of planned outputs in its work programme was not achieved, even though the Foundation improved its performance in comparison to 2014; notes that the reasons why the Foundation missed the target are principally related to delays by contractors and the scarcity of staff resources; notes, furthermore, that a more realistic number of projects and deliverables was planned and implemented in 2016, in line with the Foundation's reduced resources; is concerned that, with the current resources outlook, the Foundation's pan-European surveys are not secured in the long term as well as that the Foundation cannot commit to embark on further work, such as on migrants and refugees or undeclared work, despite strongly worded requests by its governing board; calls on the Foundation and the Commission to tackle the scarcity of staff resources and report back to the discharge authority on the possible solutions;
5.

Recalls that, according to Regulation (EU) No 1077/2011, countries associated with the implementation, application and development of the Schengen acquis and Eurodac-related measures (Schengen Associated Countries) must make a contribution to the Agency's budget; notes that the arrangements with Schengen Associated Countries defining detailed rules for their participation in the work of the Agency, including provisions on voting rights and their contribution to the Agency's budget, have still not been concluded; notes with concern that, in the absence of such arrangements, Schengen Associated Countries contribute to Title III (operational expenditure) of the Agency's budget following a provision in the association agreements signed with the Union, but they do not yet contribute to activities under Titles I and II (salaries and other administrative expenditure) of the Agency's budget; acknowledges that all legally possible actions have been taken in order to acquire financial contributions from Schengen Associated Countries to the Agency's budget; recalls that the negotiations with Schengen Associated Countries on budgetary contributions are led by the Commission rather than the Agency;
A.

whereas in 2014 the European Parliament and the Council mobilised the contingency margin in the amount of EUR 3 168 233 715 in payment appropriations; whereas an amount of EUR 350 million was included in the mobilisation of the Contingency Margin pending an agreement on the treatment of payments for special instruments;
5.

Notes that the level of committed appropriations carried over for Title II (administrative expenditure) was at EUR 1 076 583, i.e. 36,9 % (compared to EUR 635 492 in 2014, i.e. 28,7 %); acknowledges that these carry-overs mainly relate to consulting services for ICT developments contracted in the last quarter of 2015 (EUR 400 000) as well as to investments in IT infrastructure (EUR 300 000) in view of the expected recruitment of additional members of staff following the decision of the budget authority at the end of 2015 to increase the establishment plan; notes that these carry-overs were justified and planned in advance, due to the Office's role in the migration crisis, in consideration of which the budget authority significantly increased the budget and staff of the Office for 2016; notes that carry-overs may often be partly or fully justified by the multiannual nature of the agencies' operational programmes, do not necessarily indicate weaknesses in budget planning and implementation and are not always at odds with the budgetary principle of annuality, in particular if they are planned in advance by the Office and communicated to the Court;
21.

Notes that all members of the management board are obliged to issue an annual public statement of interest in writing, which is published on the Agency’s website; notes that the CV of the executive director and the chairperson of the management board are also published and kept up to date; notes that the Agency is preparing new rules on the prevention and management of conflicts of interest; regrets that the members of the management board and of the advisory group have published declarations of ‘absence of conflicts of interest’ rather than declarations of interest as it is not for the members to declare themselves that they have no conflicts of interest but for third parties to verify independently declarations of interest; calls on the members of the management board and of the advisory group to publish declarations of interest listing their membership of any other organisation; calls on the Agency to report to the discharge authority on this matter by the end of July 2018;
16.

Draws attention to the fact that in two cases out of eight, the Joint Undertaking awarded grants to project consortia, despite the fact that the checks of the financial viability of the beneficiaries performed by the Research Executive Agency indicated that the financial capacity of the coordinating industry members of the consortia was weak; notes that this implies an unnecessarily high financial risk for the completion of those projects and the financial risk was particularly high in one case, in which the coordinating partner had been assigned over 45 % of the total project funding; calls on the Joint Undertaking to provide before the end of 2018 the clear reasons why it decided to take such risk and to inform in written the discharge authority about the development of both projects as a part of the discharge follow up; draws attention to the ongoing and substantial need for a proper risk assessment system that should be followed in a comprehensive fashion;
19.

Acknowledges the fact that all recommendations stemming from the agreed action plan which resulted from the internal audit service (IAS) audit on procurement, including fraud prevention and legal advice at the Centre — carried out in 2015 — were implemented and sent for review by the end of 2016; notes that four out of five recommendations were closed and one was recommended by the IAS to be closed; notes, moreover, that the IAS carried out a risk assessment exercise at the Centre in March 2016 in order to prepare the Strategic Audit Plan for 2017 to 2019;
ANNEX

DECISION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

on the mobilisation of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund following an application from Germany – EGF/2017/008 DE/Goodyear

(The text of this annex is not reproduced here since it corresponds to the final act, Decision (EU) 2018/513.)
18.

Expresses concerns that, at the end of 2016, the Joint Undertaking had only partly completed the integration of its control systems with the Commission’s common Horizon 2020 grant management and monitoring tools; notes from the Joint Undertaking's reply, however, that it has decided to continue to use its own dedicated grant management application (Grant Management Tool, GMT) developed under the Seventh Framework Programme, as some of the required features specific for the CS2 grant were not available in the common Horizon 2020 grant management tools; notes furthermore that the Joint Undertaking started to work with the respective Commission's services to implement the necessary developments for the integration of the grant agreements for members (GAMs) into the Horizon 2020 grant management and reporting tools by the end of 2017; understands that in order to ensure a smooth transition between the two systems, the current tool developed by the Joint Undertaking will continue to be used until the migration has been fully completed; points out that it is intended that the 2017 reporting cycle will be done in the GMT and the GAMs will be fully managed by the Horizon 2020 tools from 2018 reporting period onwards;