2. CHAIRMAN'S ANNOUNCEMENTS

Transcription

1 Issue 17/2012 CONT News Committee on Budgetary Control MEETING MONDAY 8 OCTOBER h00-18h30 public meeting TUESDAY 9 OCTOBER h00-11h45 public meeting 11h45 12h30 in camera BRUSSELS BRUSSELS ALTIERO JÓZSEF SPINELLI ANTALL BUILDING BUILDING ROOM ROOM 3G2 6Q2 2. CHAIRMAN'S ANNOUNCEMENTS The Chairman draws the attention of Members to the following points: 2.1 Languages available: BG, CS, DA, DE, EL, EN, ES, FI, FR, HU, IT, LT, NL, PL, RO and SV. MONDAY 8 OCTOBER H00-18H30 (PUBLIC MEETING) 1. ADOPTION OF DRAFT AGENDA The draft agenda (in EN) was ed to Members on 26 September 2012 and is in the dossier for this meeting. 2.2 Webstreaming: Members are informed that this CONT meeting will be webstreamed on the following link: Please be aware that each time a speaker activates the microphone to make an intervention the camera will be automatically directed to the speaker. 1

2 2.3 Information for participating Members of the Annual visit of the European Court of Auditor: Please note that there will be no presence list on the bus so you have to sign at the meeting room, or at the Central Register in the Altiero Spinelli building, office ASP 3H340 which is open from 07h00 till 22h00. Registrations after the9 October will not be accepted. 2.4 Staff changes in the CONT Secretariat: Bent ADAMSEN retired on 1 September József BLASZAUER left CONT secretariat on 1 September 2012 and Christoph NERLICH left on 1 October A new Administrator, Tereza PINTO DE REZENDE has joined the CONT Secretariat. We wish them success in their new assignment. *** ELECTRONIC VOTE *** 3. THE REFORM OF THE EUROPEAN ANTI-FRAUD OFFICE (OLAF) CONT/7/06265 Rapporteur: Ingeborg Gräßle (EPP) Administrator responsible: Christian Ehlers Consideration and approval of the agreement 4. INTERIM REPORT IN THE INTERESTS OF ACHIEVING A POSITIVE OUTCOME OF THE MULTIANNUAL FINANCIAL FRAMEWORK APPROVAL PROCEDURE (2011/0177(APP)) CONT/7/09789 Rapporteur for the opinion: Jan Mulder (ALDE) Main committee: BUDG Administrator responsible: Christian Ehlers Adoption of draft opinion The draft opinion seeks to look at the future Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) from the point of view of budgetary control. The rapporteur proposed, inter alia, that: the ECA should analyse the functioning of the MFF, the importance of budgetary control for future budgets be respected, the scope of the future MFF should be limited and detailed provisions should rather be incorporated into the next Interinstitutional Agreement on budgetary discipline, and that Member States should shoulder more responsibilities for budget execution. The rapporteur also made suggestions on how to handle EU revenues and unspent appropriations. The Secretariat received 4 amendments. The EN version of the amendments, together with an indicative voting list was distributed on 2 October. During the trilogue meetings an overall agreement was achieved on the revised text of the OLAF regulation. The agreement was discussed and endorsed at the coordinators meeting on 13 September. The compromise text was sent to all Members on 19 September in English. Additional language versions will become available during the first week of October. Members will be asked to consider and approve the compromise text with a view to an early second reading agreement. 5. DIRECT PAYMENTS TO FARMERS UNDER SUPPORT SCHEMES WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE CAP CONT/7/07520 Rapporteur for the opinion: Monika Hohlmeier (PPE) Main committee: AGRI Administrator responsible: Rudolfs Verdins Adoption of draft opinion The rapporteur presented her draft opinion to the Committee at the meeting of 10 July In addition to 56 amendments forming part of the draft 2

3 opinion, 13 more amendments to the Commission's proposal were received by the deadline of 12 July The draft opinion and the amendments can be found on CONT webpage: 4/organes/cont/cont_ _1500.htm The draft voting list with the draftsperson's indications will be sent to CONT Members as soon as possible. The main AGRI report will be voted in November 2012 (to be confirmed). *** END OF ELECTRONIC VOTE *** DISCHARGE: EU GENERAL BUDGET, SECTION III, COMMISSION CONT/7/10295 Rapporteur: Jens Geier (S&D) Administrator responsible: Christian Ehlers and Urszula Mojkowska Exchange of views with the Member of the European Commission responsible for Taxation and Customs Union, Audit and Anti-Fraud, Algirdas Šemeta, in the presence of the Member of the European Court of Auditors responsible, Kersti Kaljulaid, and consideration of the following documents: the follow-up to the discharge for the 2010 financial year (COM(2012)585), the Synthesis of the Commission's management achievements in 2011 (COM(2012)0281 final), the Annual Report to the Discharge Authority on internal audits carried out in 2011 (Article 86-4 of the Financial Regulation), in the presence of the Commission's Internal Auditor, Philippe Taverne (COM(2012)563). The Synthesis Report was sent to the Members on 19 June The Annual Report to the Discharge Authority on internal audits carried out in 2011 (COM(2012)563) was sent to Members on 2 October The follow-up to the discharge for the 2010 financial year was sent to Members on 4 October All three documents are available at the Committee's website at e/other_procedures/2011_budget_discharge/commissio n_2011discharge The Commission adopts the Synthesis Report, on the basis of the assurances and reservations made by its Directors-General and Heads of Service in their Annual Activity Reports. It is the Commission's understanding that by doing so it takes overall political responsibility for management of the EU budget. In the report, the Commission also identifies the key management issues to be addressed as a matter of priority and the action to be taken to address identified weaknesses. The Annual Report to the Discharge Authority on internal audits carried out in 2011 is based on the audit and consulting work done by the Internal Audit Services in 2011 in Commission Directorates- General and executive agencies. It does not report on audit work in decentralised European Agencies, the European External Action Service, or other agencies or bodies audited by the IAS, for which separate annual reports are drawn up. 7. THE COMMISSION'S RECENT INITIATIVES TO FIGHT AGAINST FRAUD AND CORRUPTION AND ITS INTERACTION WITH THE PROTECTION OF THE UNION'S FINANCIAL INTEREST CONT/7/10675 Rapporteur: Jens Geier (S&D) Administrator responsible: Urszula Mojkowska Exchange of views with the Member of the European Commission responsible for Taxation and Customs Union, Audit and Anti-Fraud, Algirdas Šemeta 3

4 On 15 October 2012 CONT will hold a hearing on "Commission's recent initiatives to fight against fraud and corruption: An improvement for the protection of the Union's financial interest?" Within the context of that hearing Commissioner Šemeta is going to present the Commission's initiatives from the point of view of relevant improvements in terms of protection of the Union's financial interests. He will explain how those initiatives address institutional and structural questions and the kind of obligations the package would impose on Member States in terms of monitoring and fighting corruption. 8. HERCULE III PROGRAMME TO PROMOTE ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF THE PROTECTION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION'S FINANCIAL INTERESTS CONT/7/08304 Rapporteur: Iliana Ivanova (EPP) Administrator responsible: Tereza Pinto de Rezende Consideration of draft report Commission the detailed data of their activities funded by the Programme. The Commission is asked to provide information on the implementation of the Programme to the European Parliament and the Council on a yearly basis and to present the results when preparing the independent mid-term evaluation report. The Rapporteur clarifies that administrative and financial penalties, when appropriate, shall be applied and concludes by including a special standard clause on OLAF's performance in the legislative act. Adoption of the draft report has been foreseen for 15 November BUDG committee will provide an opinion to the draft report (Draftsman: Richard Ashworth). * * * TUESDAY 9 OCTOBER H00-11H45 (PUBLIC MEETING) The Rapporteur tabled her draft report proposing amendments that take into consideration the contributions made by the experts participating in the Hearing and the result of the debates on the working documents. The draft report proposes to reinforce the cooperation between the Member States and the Commission within the general objective of the Programme and to be more detailed in the measuring of the prevention and combating fraud, corruption and other illegal activities that are against the Union's financial interest. Therefore, the Commission should develop key performance indicators to assess the effectiveness of the programme. This idea is even reinforced by moving the operational objectives from the annex to the articles. The participation of countries and international organisations in the Programme, which according to the Rapporteur should only be public, need to respect the relevant provisions of the Financial Regulation. Those entities should provide the 9. SPECIAL REPORT NO 1/ 2012 (2011 DISCHARGE) EFFECTIVENESS OF EUROPEAN UNION DEVELOPMENT AID FOR FOOD SECURITY IN SUB- SAHARAN AFRICA CONT/7/09092 Rapporteur: Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) Administrator responsible: Mauro de Oliveira Consideration of draft report in the presence of the Member of the European Court of Auditors responsible, H.G. Wessberg Food security has been defined as a condition where all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life". Food security is a major problem in sub-saharan Africa, where 30 % of the population suffers from hunger. 4

5 The overall audit question was whether European Union (EU) development aid for food security in sub-saharan Africa is effective: whether EU development aid for food security is relevant to the countries needs and priorities and whether the EU interventions are effective. The audit focused on EU direct development support for the three dimensions of food security, i.e. food availability, access to food and nutritional utilisation of food. The Court concludes that EU development aid for food security in sub-saharan Africa is mostly effective and makes an important contribution to achieving food security. However, there is scope for significant improvement in several areas, in particular areas where the Commission did not sufficiently consider the potential scope for EU support in other countries which also suffer from chronic food insecurity, the Food Facility which was not designed to address long term food price volatility and the Commission has not placed adequate emphasis on nutrition and could have done more to encourage countries to set up appropriate nutrition policies and programmes at an earlier stage. The draft report (EN) was sent to Members by on 25 September Other language versions will be put on the CONT website when they become available. This report will be dealt with according to the new procedure. The DEVE Committee has decided to give an opinion. Members can table amendments to the draft report of Bart Staes, until 15 October 2012, (12.00). The vote on the draft report and the amendments received is scheduled for 15 November. 10. STUDY ON "DETERRENCE OF FRAUD WITH EU FUNDS THROUGH INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM IN EU-27" CONT/7/07893 Rapporteur: Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) Administrator responsible: Helmut Werner Presentation of the study by Margo Smit and Ides Debruyne (Fonds Pascal Decroos) and exchange of views CONT approved a proposal by the coordinators to commission this study on 25 January 2011 and assigned Bart Staes to follow the study. On 29 July 2011 a first invitation to tender for the above-mentioned study was sent by the Policy Department D Budgetary Affairs to 14 institutes competent in this subject area, but no offers were received by the deadline (14 September 2011). In agreement with the then CONT chair, the Policy Department sent a second invitation to tender to 23 institutes on 13 October Following the unanimous opinion of the evaluation committee the contract was awarded to the "Pascal Decroos Fund for investigative journalism vzw", Belgium, on 25 November The project team was composed of 8 authors from 7 different EU Member States. The study was ed to Members on 2 October 2012 and is also available on the CONT meeting documents site: 4/documents/cont/dv/deterrenceoffraud_study_/dete rrenceoffraud_study_en.pdf After the presentation in CONT the study will be available in Parliament's studies database ( The study will be presented by the project leader Margo Smit, principal author for "Fonds Pascal Decroos" and director of "Vereniging van Onderzoeksjournalisten" (the Netherlands) and by Ides Debruyne, director of the "Fonds Pascal Decroos voor Bijzondere Journalistiek", Belgium. Abstract: The study depicts the state of investigative journalism in the 27 EU Member States, with a focus on Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Spain, UK and a special focus on the interaction between European institutions and investigative journalists. It illustrates conditions promoting or impeding good investigative journalism in general, and in particular for reporting on fraud with EU funds and revenues. It recommends: a swift implementation of workable freedom of information laws across the EU, comprehensiveness of data provided by EU bodies and Member States on their spending, targeted training for journalists, promotion of investigative centres and more cooperation between journalists and officials at EU and national levels, this in view of advanced transparency and helping citizens to understand the added value of EU spending. 5

6 11. SPECIAL REPORT NO 7/2012 (DISCHARGE 2011) - THE REFORM OF THE COMMON ORGANISATION OF THE MARKET IN WINE: PROGRESS TO DATE CONT/7/09973 Rapporteur: Eva Ortiz Vilella (EPP) Administrator responsible: Mauro de Oliveira Consideration of draft report in the presence of the Member of the European Court of Auditors responsible, Harald Wögerbauer The Common Organisation of the Market (COM) in wine was created in At that time, there were only a few legislative instruments regulating the wine market. The COM then supported production with virtually guaranteed sales through intervention measures such as distillation and export refunds, which resulted in a structural surplus. In 2008, the Council introduced a reform of the common organisation of the market in wine aimed essentially at improving the competitiveness of EU wine producers and balancing supply and demand in the wine sector, this in a context of a long persisting structural surplus of supply and falling demand. The European Union (EU) is the world s biggest wine producer accounting for around 60 % of the world s wine production. The Court of Auditors' performance audit assessed the progress achieved to date as regards one of the main objectives of the reform: improving the balance between supply and demand. The audit focused on the grubbing-up and restructuring and conversion of vineyards measures, because they are the two largest areas of spending and are crucial to the achievement of the objective of improving the balance between supply and demand. The audit found that for the grubbing-up measure the aid rates were set at too high levels in the first two years of the scheme and the scheme could have been more efficient since it is likely that smaller increases or even keeping the aid rates at their previous levels would have made it possible to achieve more significant results with the resources made available or the same results with less resources. As regards the restructuring and conversion measure a significant impact has been achieved for large areas of vineyards across Europe. However, the Member States have used the flexibility accorded to them in implementing the measure to select a wide range of operations to be covered as well as very different aid rates. In her draft report the draftswoman, Eva Ortiz Vilella, insists on the need to realise an in depth impact study assessment of the planting rights liberalisation, in line with the Court's recommendation and asks the European Commission to evaluate the potential consequences of the elimination of this regime in order to adopt the most convenient decisions to guarantee the balance of the wine market. The draft report (EN) was sent to Members by on 26 September All language versions will be available on CONT website from 5 October onwards. Members can table amendments to the draft report of Eva Ortiz Vilella, until 15 October 2012, (12.00). The vote in CONT on the draft report and the amendments received is scheduled for 15 November. * * * 11H45-12H30(IN CAMERA) 12. COORDINATORS' MEETING (IN CAMERA) 13. ANY OTHER BUSINESS 14. DATE OF NEXT MEETINGS The next meetings of the Committee on Budgetary Control will take place in Brussels on: Monday, 15 October 2012,