FINAL COMPROMISE AMENDMENTS DISCHARGE 2020
Commission - 2021/2106(DEC)
AMs: 26
Covered: AM 1 EPP, AM 2 Greens, AM 5 EPP AM 7 Renew, AM 10 EPP, AM 11 ECR, AM
12 ECR, AM 13 Greens, AM 14 ECR, AM 15 Renew, AM 16 EPP, AM 18 Greens, AM 20
S&D, AM 21 Renew, AM 23 Greens, AM 25 Renew, AM 26 Renew
Fall: AM 3 ECR, AM 4 ECR, AM 6 The Left (1st part ‘notes’)
Not included in the compromises: AM 6 The Left (partially), AM 8 ECR, AM 9 The Left, AM
17 ECR, AM 19 Renew, AM 22 Renew, AM 24 Renew
Updated on 4/02/2022
CA 1
Covered: AM 1 EPP, AM 2 Greens, AM 5 EPP, AM 12 ECR, AM 18 Greens
Fall: AM 3 ECR, AM 4 ECR, AM 6 The Left
1.
Notes that for expenditure specifically for Heading III (Security and Citizenship) the
Court of Auditors (the ‘Court’) chose to examine a sample of 27 transactions designed to
contribute to the Court's overall statement of assurance; regrets that the Court did not estimate
the error rate for Heading III
, while taking into account the Court’s explanation that (AM 1
EPP) the audit scope was not designed to be representative for this Heading; regrets this choice
by the Court despite multiple calls from Parliament to calculate the estimated level of error;
deplores the fact that eight out of the 27 transactions examined by the Court contained errors
among which four contained quantifiable errors which had a financial impact on the amounts
charged to the Union budget
and four showed non-compliance with legal and financial
provisions, but without a financial impact on the Union budget; agrees with the Court that
failure to abide by the rules can undermine the sound financial management of Union
spending and, potentially, affect the eligibility of the costs claimed (AM 2 Greens); highlights
that such cases may have an important negative reputational impact
and may eventually
undermine compliance with the principles of sound financial management of Union
spending; urges
the Member States to address the causes which led to these situations of non-
compliance and asks (AM 1 EPP) the Commission to report to the discharge authority about
the progress achieved;
1 a (new)
Stresses that the Court found five errors in payments made by the
Commission; points out that one of the errors concerned a minor overpayment of costs for
software licences while the other four related to staff allowances; notes the recommendation
from the Court to reinforce consistency checks on staff declarations of allowances received
from other sources and raise staff awareness of this issue in order to improve the
Commission’s system for managing statutory family allowance (AM 18 Greens);
1 b (new)
Welcomes that in the Court's examination of the internal control systems of
four authorities responsible for auditing their respective Member States' AMIF/ISF annual
accounts and providing the Commission with an annual control report (ACR), the Court
stipulated that all the audit authorities under examination had developed and implemented
detailed procedures of sufficient quality to report on their work in the ACR; notes further
that the Court identified shortcomings in the ACR's whose impact on the accounts was not
material enough to detract from the audit authorities’ conclusions, namely relating to
sampling units not being clearly defined, audit samples being too small, responsible
authorities submitting draft accounts to the audit authority before completing their own on-
the-spot controls and before including technical assistance payments, error rates being
calculated and presented inaccurately in the body of the ACR's, value and coverage of the
audit samples being incorrectly reported and failures to report that some audit work was
outsourced; further notes that the Court found that the audit authorities had detailed audit
programmes and used checklists to support their conclusions, while identifying
shortcomings in the work of audit authorities relating to checks of project selection
processes, inadequate testing of the eligibility of expenditure, insufficient audit trails or poor
documentation of audit work, ineligible costs that were not always reported, procurement
issues wrongly classified and inadequate reviews of outsourced audit work; regrets any
shortcomings that make audit conclusions less reliable and that limit the assurance provided
by the audit authority's work and asks Member States to address the issue; (AM 12 ECR)
2.
Welcomes the fact that the Court did not find major flaws in the Commission’s
clearance procedures regarding the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and the
Internal Security Fund (ISF);
welcomes that Member States stepped up their national
programmes in 2020, but notes with concern that for both the AMIF and the ISF significant
amounts
, corresponding to roughly 50 % of the available budget for those programmes,
remain undisbursed
; acknowledges that the significantly lower level of payments disbursed
for Union actions compared to previous years resulted from advance payments and delayed
project activities caused by pandemic-related restrictions; calls on the Commission to further
engage in dialogue with the relevant national authorities and identify areas where it could offer
support; reiterates
furthermore its call on Member State authorities to increase their efforts for
accessing funding available under those programmes
with a view to contributing to the
achievement of their important policy objectives;
(AM 5 EPP)
CA 2
Covered: AM 10 EPP, AM 13 Greens, AM 14 ECR, AM 15 Renew, AM 16 EPP
3.
Welcomes that, according to the Commission 2020 Annual Activity Report, the average
residual error rate across the AMIF and the ISF is 1,37 %, well below the material threshold of
2 %; recalls, however, that that data refers only to detected errors and that the Court has
previously identified shortcomings in the error detection mechanisms of the Commission for
funds under shared management; calls on the Commission
, in accordance with the findings of
the Court, to maintain its efforts
in improving the error and irregularities detection rate and
calls on (AM 10 EPP) Member States to improve the reliability of data transmitted to the
Commission with respect to error rates for all funds under shared management;
4.
Regrets that the residual error rate has
remained almost in the same range as in (AM
15 Renew, AM 16 EPP) the previous year (2,69 % in 2020 as compared to 2,65 % in 2019)
,
for grants under direct management of the Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers (DG
JUST); notes that the main cause of error is the lack of supporting documents which has even
worsened in 2020;
reminds that due to the COVID-19 crisis the audits had to be performed
remotely without access to the bookkeeping of the beneficiaries; calls on the Commission to
address this issue and make use of digital tools that allow remote access to bookkeeping of
beneficiaries; welcomes the corrective action plan outlined by DG JUST; recalls the
importance of
regular (AM 14 ECR) monitoring visits for ensuring sound financial
management
and calls on the Commission to step up efforts in that direction (AM 13 Greens);
CA 3
Covered: AM 20 S&D, AM 25 Renew
4 a (new)
Welcomes the strong cooperation between the European Anti-Fraud Office
(OLAF) and the Court to combat fraud against the budget; notes that in 2020 six cases of
fraud were reported to OLAF by the Court (compared to nine in 2019) and that for all those
cases an investigation was opened by OLAF; (AM 20 S&D) notes that the main types of
suspected fraud detected by the Court are artificial creation of the necessary conditions for
Union financing, declaration of costs not meeting the eligibility criteria, use of grants for
purposes other than what is allowed and procurement irregularities (AM 25 Renew);
CA 4
Covered: AM 23 Greens, AM 26 Renew
4 b (new)
Calls on the Commission to fully comply with the Interinstitutional
Agreement 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 on the work
towards the implementation of a roadmap for the introduction of new own resources over
the duration of the MFF 2021-20271a as a matter of compliance with the Union’s legal
provisions and good governance principle.
_________________
1a OJ L 433I , 22.12.2020, p. 28.
CA 5
Covered: AM 7 Renew, AM 11 ECR, AM 21 Renew
4 c (new)
Notes that for two of the AMIF-funded projects audited in Greece, the Court
found non-satisfactory documentation of services provided (AM 11 ECR); welcomes that DG
HOME took steps to improve the referral and reporting system through a centralised
approach; calls on the Commission to report to the discharge authority on the progress
achieved; (AM 7 Renew)
4 d (new)
Calls on DG HOME to provide guidance to the Member State authorities
responsible for implementing its funds for both the 2014-2020 and 2021-2027 MFFs on how
to document the completeness and quality of services when funding is based on standard
unit costs; (AM 21 Renew)