Debate: Discharge
Date: TUESDAY, 27 APRIL 2021
Speaker: Petri Sarvamaa
Country: Germany
Language: EN

Trust between citizens and institutions is based on the responsible and lawful use of public funds. I am therefore pleased to say that, with regard to Parliament’s administrative expenditure, the level of error was below the materiality threshold in 2019. EU money is public money, and Parliament’s budget represents almost one fifth of the total administrative expenditure of all the EU institutions. All EU spending must be based on simple and clear rules. However, this is, unfortunately, not currently the case when looking at the errors found by the Court concerning the contributions received by one political party at European level. It is inappropriate for a political party at European level to be unable to present written agreements or receipts for expenditure paid with taxpayers’ money. The Court should not have to make the same recommendation from year to year. The year 2019 was affected by a staff reduction target, which required Parliament to eliminate 59 posts from its administration. In the report, we warn of the negative effects of these cuts and point out the increased workload and responsibility of certain committees. We must ensure that Parliament continues to have sufficient resources in the future, and that our working conditions are appealing in order to bring top talent in-house from every corner of Europe. The staffing situation and staff workload should be reassessed. We should also look carefully at the current recruitment practices. The EPSO competition is not adapted well to Parliament’s current needs, and we call for a new selection framework to be developed for specialist competitions. At the same time, we should pay attention to geographical and gender balance. One of the most pressing issues in the report is the voluntary pension fund. On the one hand, we must recognise and respect the legal basis of the commitments that Parliament has made to its Members. These rights are stated directly in the Statute of Members, Article 27, and there is no running away from them. But on the other hand, I am extremely worried about the situation, and we need to find a solution that is fair to all sides. At the moment, we have to be patient and wait for the European Court of Justice’s ruling. After the ruling, we can reassess the situation and explore all possible legal options in order to limit and avoid using taxpayer money to cover the deficit. The report raises issues across different areas of Parliament’s operations. We need to note the increasing importance of cybersecurity and learn from the good practices developed during the election campaign. We can also be happy about the highest-recorded voter turnout in 20 years, and I think we should continue to engage citizens actively and use all our communication channels through the entire term and not only a brief period before the elections. In the report, we paid close attention to the sustainability aspect of Parliament’s operations. Although officially carbon-neutral since 2016, there is still more to be done. We can keep improving by making a gradual shift to zero-emission vehicles, reducing our paper consumption and by improving the energy efficiency of our buildings. The pandemic has brought a lot of changes to the way Parliament operates, and many innovative solutions have been developed quickly to accommodate the situation. It is imperative for Parliament to keep innovating and developing a variety of technological solutions to improve its functioning. With smart solutions and automated systems, we can release resources into other activities, increase efficiency and reduce the amount of human errors. Normally, we would hold 12 plenary sessions a year in Strasbourg, but the exceptional circumstances have forced us to keep the sessions in Brussels instead. Despite my call for further automation and our technological preparedness to be developed, I also call for us to get back to normal as soon as possible. And in the report, I really want to highlight the temporary nature of the current situation. There is always scope for improvement, and the discharge procedure gave us a tool to effectively monitor the way taxpayer money is being used. As the rapporteur, I recommend granting discharge to Parliament for the year 2019.