Changes from plenary report to adopted text

Change 9

Changed2. Highlights the importance of the Union budget for achieving the Union’s political priorities, as well as its role in assisting Member States in unforeseen circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic, international conflicts or crises and their consequences; notes in this regard the continuing relevance of investments and support from the Union budget for reducing disparities between Member States and regions, for promoting economic growth and employment, for combating poverty and social exclusion, and thus for improving the daily life of Union citizens and economic impact within the Union; urges the Commission not to water down the pace and ambition needed to achieve the climate-related goals set in the European Green Deal and stresses the need for increasing the necessary investments for this purpose; stresses the fact that in 2022 the Union has fallen muchshortmuch short of the level of efficiency needed to achieve the climate-related goals set for 2030, 2040 and 2050;

Change 10

Changed3. Stresses that the sound and timely implementation of the budget contributes to addressing needs and challenges in different policy areas more efficiently and effectively; stresses that the simultaneous implementation of multiple instruments with different rules under time constraints, in addition to the pressure of the final closure of the 2014 - 2020 MFF, may lead to a delay in implementation and an increase in errors, irregularities and fraud; recalls the role of the Commission as guardian of the treatiesTreaties to protect the financial interests of the Union;

Change 11

Changed8. Recalls the importance of the RRF in facing the economic downturn following the COVID-19 pandemic, reminds that the RRF delivery model puts much, lighter requirements on the Commission, and reduces the control burden from the Commission towards the Member States; is concerned that the Court, in its assessment of the RRF, identified shortcomings in the Commission preliminary assessment and ex post audits and considers that weaknesses remain in the Member States’ reporting and control systems; is worried that such weaknesses have led to the establishment of ‘control milestones’ indicating that the relevant Member State systems were not fully functional when implementation of the plans began, thus posing a risk to the regularity of RRF expenditure and the protection of the Union’s financial interests;

Change 12

Changed9. Underlines the risk of conflicts of interest in cases where actors involved in the implementation of the Union budget, at any level, might be compromised for reasons beyond economic interest, particularly family, emotional life, political or national affinity;interest; notes the highly fragmented legal framework across Member States and regions concerning conflicts of interest and welcomescalls for the Commission’s guidance into promotingensure legal clarity and promote a uniform interpretation and application; supports the Court’s observation in its Special Report 6/2023 that “data mining, by comparing information from different sources, has the potential to help detect possible conflicts of interest”;

Change 13

Removed12. Notes the measures undertaken by the Commission in 2022 under the Conditionality Regulation, but considers them to be introduced with considerable delays and following long-lasting political considerations; asks the Commission to conduct thorough assessments and ensure adequate control mechanisms to guarantee the sound financial management and the protection of the Union budget in current and future cases of lack of respect for Union values and the Rule of Law affect or threaten to affect the Union’s financial interests;

Added12. Emphasises, in the context of the rule of law principle, the need to ensure clear standards and the effective separation of powers; highlights that all Union institutions and bodies should fully respect the principle of the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary and should refrain from acting as a disciplinary chamber outside of the independent judicial system; highlights that in the case of breaches of law, the relevant Union institutions or bodies or the national authorities should be responsible; emphasises the need to avoid unfair denunciation or whistleblowing procedures and that such procedures should be based on clear rule of law standards;

Added13. Notes the measures undertaken by the Commission in 2022 under the Conditionality Regulation, but considers them to be introduced with considerable delays and following long-lasting political considerations; asks the Commission to conduct thorough assessments and ensure adequate control mechanisms to guarantee the sound financial management and the protection of the Union budget in current and future cases of lack of respect for Union values and the Rule of Law which affect or threaten to affect the Union’s financial interests;

Change 14

Changed14.15. Reminds the Commission that all legislative proposals that have a significant economic, social and environmental impact have to be accompanied by solid and thorough impact assessments, including their impact on the cost of living for Union citizens, the level of bureaucratisation for beneficiaries and administration as well as gender-related issues, to guarantee a fair distribution of the Union budget.; stresses that this is part of the Commission’s betterBetter regulationRegulation agenda; underlines that the Commission should conduct impact assessments in a completely neutral and impartial way; furthermore, expects the Commission to improve the costs-and-benefits analysis of the concerned options by enhancing the participation rate of different stakeholders with different views in open public consultations;

Change 15

Added16. Highlights that gender equality is one of the founding values of the Union and is enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights; recalls the long-standing commitment of the Union to gender mainstreaming in its policy-making in order to identify and redress inequalities, as well as it being a necessary condition for the achievement of the Union's objectives of growth, employment and social cohesion; stresses the importance of continuing the efforts made in gender budgeting in particular, such as the pilot methodology to track gender equality expenditure in the multiannual financial framework, in order to ensure that gender mainstreaming in the Union budget is a success;

Change 16

Changed18.20. Stresses the importance of Union cohesion policy for economic and territorial convergence and development in the regions of the Union, as well as for supporting the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights; highlights the synergies of the cohesion funds in coordination with other Union programmes, particularly the RRF, to maximise the impact and the efficiency of public spending;

Change 17

Changed22.24. Notes that after the end of the transition period following the UK’s withdrawal process, the Commission estimated that, at the balance sheet date, the Union accounts showed a net receivable due from the UK of EUR 23,9 billion (2021: 41,8 billion), of which it is estimated that EUR 9,1 billion will be paid in the 12 months following the reporting date; considers that any amount in excess of the estimated EUR 9,1 billion that is received from the UK should be used to reduce the debt incurred through the borrowing and lending activities of the Commission;

Change 18

Changed33.35. Considers that both approaches serve different purposes and have their benefits, disadvantages, strengths, and weaknesses, and should be used to complement each other while understanding the differences and particularities, such as the different concepts of error and the risk categorisation used by each institution; considers the Court’s error rate to be an important indicator of compliance with the legality and regularity of the implementation of the Union budget; is concerned about the great divergence in the rates provided by the Court and the Commission in relation to the weaknesses identified on the Commission side; welcomes in this regard the Court’s findings, observations and recommendations as a very useful contribution to the further improvement of the budget management and implementation under different management modes and by all relevant stakeholders; deplores that the analysis of the risk alone neglects the real performance, the quality, the sustainability and the European added value of implemented projects; reiterates its support for the audit approach and methodology of the Court which should qualify the impact of corrective measures on the overall level of error and invites the Commission to cooperate with the Court with a view to increasing harmonisation and to providing for more comparable figures;

Change 19

Changed34.36. Notes that, on several issues, the Court’s and Commission’s findings are aligned, most notably concerning the main sources of irregularities in ‘Cohesion’, and the higher risks for market measures and rural development in ‘Natural resources and environment’; notes that specifically in ‘Cohesion’ some cases of eligibility errors identified and quantified by the Court are not necessarily considered to be ineligible by the Commission; the Commission does not see a legal basis to qualify the error as an irregularity to be corrected in line with the definition laid down in Article 2(36) of Regulation (EU) No 1060/20212021/1060 (‘the Common Provisions Regulation’ or CPR) and thus, the Commission cannot pursue financial correction procedures, and such errors would not enter into the Commission’s estimate of risk at payment;

Change 20

Changed52.54. Repeats its calls for a dedicated budget line for gender equality, in particular within the Daphne programme in the light of the crisis of gender-based violence facing the Union; stresses the importance of strengthening the specifically dedicated Daphne initiative by increasing its resources, in particular measures that aim to combat all levels and all forms of gender-based violence against women and girls and domestic violence in line with Article7(6)Article 7(6) of Regulation (EU) 2021/692 and to properly support victims; stresses, in addition, the importance of using European Structural and Investment Funds such as the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) to promote gender equality, women’s employment, women's empowerment, entrepreneurship, leadership and management roles, as well as long-term care facilities; notes that a study requested by FEMM committee shows that men are often favoured over women and marginalized groups when it comes to the design of subsidies and support under the Fit for 55 package, as well as in other policies, programmes and funding for the green transition;

Change 21

Changed(v) continue to support the administrative capacity of Member States’ authorities; identify ways to help member states accelerate the use of Union funds, and reducing thereducethe level of outstanding commitments, notably in shared management funds under the Common Provisions Regulation;

Change 22

Changed(vii) provide sufficient measures to protect the Union budget from the different risks identified in particular the RAL, the increasing debt, the increased budget exposure including to Ukraine, the increasing inflationinflation, etc;

Change 23

Added(ix) provide and fund IT infrastructure to the EPPO for as long as is necessary for the EPPO to implement an independent and adequate IT system, in order to ensure a smooth transition and to avoid loss of data;

Change 24

Changed69.71. Calls the CommisionCommission to conduct a deep analysis of all amounts recovered on the basis of EPPO notficationsnotifications and to inform the discharge authority about the results; recalls that the CommissionMember playsStates play the primary role in the follow up and recovery of damages to the EU budget,budget under shared management, including recoveries following EPPO notifications;notifications, and the Commission can impose financial corrections; regrets that EPPO until now is not aware of the mechanisms set up by the Commission to that effect; notes that the issue of EPPO notifications has been raised in the inter-institutional exchange of views on Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2223 );2020/2223); welcomes the EPPO Working Arrangement and the set up of a working group to ensure that EPPO notifications will enable the Commission to maximize recovery to the EU budget;

Change 25

Changed(v) provide detailed explanations to the discharge authority on reasons why the CommisionCommission only partially implemented 13 % of the Court’s recommendations from 2019 and has not implemented further 10 % of their recommendations;

Change 26

Changed72.74. Notes that the budget for the programmes under MFF heading 1 ‘Single Market, Innovation and Digital’ was EUR 25,2 billion (12,9 % of the Union budget) distributed as follows: EUR 15,8 billion (62.8(62,8 %) for Research, EUR 3,5 billion (14.0 %) for Transport, Energy and Digital, EUR 2,7 billion (10.6 %) for InvestEU Programme, EUR 2 billion (8.0 %) for Space, and EUR 1,2 billion (4.6%)(4,6%) for other areas; notes that as of 31 December 2022 the final adopted budget commitments appropriations were EUR 21 845,08 million and 99,99 % of them were implemented (EUR 21 842.58842,58 million); notes further that the final adopted budget payment appropriations amounted to EUR 20 605.64605,64 million and 99,35 % of them were implemented (EUR 20 4710.31471,31 million);

Change 27

Changed75.77. Notes that the Court has examined 127 transactions covering the full range of spending under this MFF heading, notably the Horizon2020Horizon 2020 programme, the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), financial instruments and the space programme, including the regularity information in the annual activity reports of the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) and Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space (DG DEFIS);

Change 28

Changed81.83. Stresses the importance of having transparent and clear rules applied to the selection procedure and to the public procurement procedures in all executive agencies; regrets the rise of complaints of researchers for non-transparency, notably for the Research ExcutiveExecutive Agency; recalls that under the 2021-2027 long-term Union budget, the REA manages several Union programmes and support services; calls for the Commission to conduct an assessment of all procedures and an ex-post evaluation of the added value of all their executive agencies in accordance with Article 3.1 of the Council Regulation (EC(EC) No 58/2003 of 19 December 2002 laying down the statute for executive agencies to be entrusted with certain tasks in the management of Community programmes (Official Journal(OJ L 011 , 16/01/2003 P.11, 000116.1.2003, –p. 0008));1));

Change 29

Changed83.85. Recalls that fostering, attracting and retaining talent is one of the five flagships comprising the New European Innovation Agenda (NEIA), adopted on 5 July 2022; notes the statements of Commissioner Ivanova in her discharge hearing on the efforts made by the Commission to increase inclusivity in Horizon2020Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe; notes the Commissioner’s acknowledgement that further efforts are necessary to increase the participation of women and young people in Union R&I programmes; notes in that regard the efforts made by the Commission to implement the provisions on gender equality plans in Horizon Europe, and the joint RTD-EAC effort to attract female talent to STEM; welcomes that, in addition to other Union initiatives aiming to support and empower women in tech and innovation, in 2022 the Commission launched the second edition of Women TechEU call with an increased budget of EUR 10 million, which attracted a record number of interest with 467 applications from 35 Member States and Horizon Europe Associated Countries;

Change 30

Changed86.88. Notes the disparities in R&I development within the Union and welcomes the different measures taken by the Commission to boost Member States’ R&I investments, especially less performing R&I countries, including around EUR 48 billion from the RRF, coupled with EUR 43 billion from the cohesion Policy and EUR 3 billion from the ‘Widening participation and spreading excellence’componentexcellence’ component of Horizon Europe; notes that despite the Commission’s efforts to increase funding allocated to researchers in widening countries several ‘catch-up countries’ are not yet showing progress;

Change 31

Changed87.89. Notes that, following Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the Commission stopped the participation of Russian public entities in ongoing Horizon 2020 projects and future Horizon Europe projects; notes that the latest amendment of the ‘main’ Horizon Europe work programme 2021-2022, adopted on 10 May 2022, included actions to support researchers previously active in Ukraine; notes that the Commission provided financial support of in the form of a grant of EUR 1.5million1.5 million to the National Research Foundation of Ukraine for the establishment of a Horizon Europe Office in Ukraine (Kyiv), which will promote funding opportunities and offer support in drafting proposals and finding partners in Europe;

Change 32

Changed88.90. Acknowledges that, in 2022, CEF reached its full implementation phase and deems it an achievement; regrets the decrease, compared to 2021, in funding for calls for proposals under the CEF Transport 2022 funding instrument on projects targeting new, upgraded and improved European transport infrastructure; takes note that CEF Transport 2022 calls that were launched during the 3rd quarter of 2022 opened additional funding possibilities with an extra EUR 6 billion. of Union co-funding; insists that a sufficiently high CEF Transport budget line is key to ensuring implementation of the Trans-europeanTrans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) network, including the enlargement in the Eastern region to provide connection to the Eastern partners such as Ukraine, greening of European transport, increased military mobility and offsetting the unprecedently high inflation rates;

Change 33

Changed89.91. Applauds the initiative of the European Air Traffic Management Voluntary Solidarity Fund for Ukraine and Moldova under the responsibility of Eurocontrol, aiming to sustain staff/training costs and any other costs to ensure operational readiness when air traffic recovers; furthermore, welcomes another Eurocontrol solidarity mechanism to assist the front-line states struggling with the effects of a sharp drop in air traffic; points out that the Eurocontrol Member States decided to establish two specific funds: one in the form of a donation to Ukraine and Moldova of EUR 46.5 million.million and one in the form of a loan of EUR 46,1 million.million to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland;

Change 34

Changed90.92. Notes the complexity of the energy policy framework in the Union and stresses that ensuring better interconnectivity is at the core of the Union energy market; welcomes the adoption of the new trans-European energy infrastructure Regulation (EU) 2022/869 (‘TEN-E Regulation’); considers that the Union has, through TEN-E, CEF and the RRF/ RePowerEU Plan, made a robust legal framework available for investments in energy infrastructure, addressing the challenges of decarbonisation and decreasing dependency on imports of fossil fuel; notes the efforts made to coordinate the construction of high-priority electricity infrastructure across Member States, digitalise the Union energy system, and stimulate the grid investment with the right regularityregulatory environment, in particular through CEF Energy;

Change 35

Changed98.100. Notes that the absorption rate for cohesion policy funds under the programming period 2014-2020 reached 79,2 % at the end of 2022 (86 % at the end of 2023, including newly added Recovery assistance for cohesion and the territories of Europe (REACT-EU) in 2021-2022), having a similar level at the same point in time as in the period 2007-2013; is concerned that this level of absoptionabsorption was only achieved through a temporary 100% Union co-financing rate waiving any requirement for national co-financing of projects that have been a long-established principle of Union finances; notes that the 2014-2020 programmes account for over 1 million projects and that so far, they have supported 2,4 million businesses, created 370 000 new jobs, increased the energy performance of more than 540 000 households, created 6 000 megawatts of new renewable energy sources and that 6,3 million households benefited from broadband; notes that absorption in 2022 improved for a large part because of CRII, CRII+, CARE, and FAST-CARE for the purpose of crisis response, diminishing projects to support the structural cohesion objectives of creating convergence and cohesion in the Union;

Change 36

Added107. Notes that the Commission accepts all recommendations of the Court under MFF heading 2 ‘Cohesion, resilience and values’, although divergences persist in the classification of the errors identified by the two institutions; calls on the Commission to work closely with the Court, and all relevant stakeholders, to further clarify the applicable rules and reduce divergences while ensuring that audits do not lead to an excessive administrative burden on beneficiaries;

Change 37

Added113. Expresses strong concern about the recent case of alleged misuse of Union funds in contracts involving the purchase of face masks known as the “Koldo case”; is concerned that this misuse of Union funds and Union taxpayers’ money involved EUR 14,6 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and EUR 3,1 million from the EU Solidarity Fund; regrets that the EPPO received the relevant information from a private individual and not from the relevant national authority; urges Member States to report without delay to the EPPO any suspicion of misuse of Union funds in compliance with Article 24 of the EPPO Regulation; encourages the Commission to make use of external experts for audit purposes if a severe lack of capacity is identified in a Member State; notes that the alleged misuse of funds in the case was not discovered by the Commission despite having conducted audits; encourages the use of the four-eyes principle and a multiple step verification during the awarding of contracts in crisis situations if procurement procedures are not possible due to the crisis, in order to avoid possible misuse of Union funding; emphasises that the Commission should conduct in-depth ex-post audits for contracts awarded without procurement procedures during crises in all Member States concerned; further notes that similar situations have occurred in other Member States including in a recently uncovered case of alleged fraud in Portugal involving ERDF funds and several cases in the Czech Republic on alleged misuse of REACT-EU funds in the purchase of medical equipment;

Change 38

Changed125.129. Notes from the AnnualPIF Report on the Protection of the EU’s Financial Interests for the year 2022 (PIF Report) that from 2021 to 2022, the number of fraudulent irregularities relating to the Cohesion Policy decreased by 11,6 % (233 reported in 2021 compared to 206 reported in 2022), while non-fraudulent irregularities increased by 9,3 %; notes that the Commission requested audit authorities to pay particular attention to new risks related to the multiplication of Funds and additional funding under NGEU, in particular, ‘double funding’, conflicts of interest, fraud or corruption; notes the efforts made by the Commission to promote the use of the ARACHNE risk scoring tool to the reluctant Member States, and to introduce improvements in the tool; notes that the audit authorities explicitly addressed the risk of fraud for 65 % of the audited operations in the 2014-2020 period, which is an improvement on the 38 % found in 2021 by the Court;

Change 39

Changed(ix) continue the implementation of its 4th revision of the“actionthe “action plan on public procurement” in cooperation with Member States to help programme authorities and contracting authorities to improve their practices in the area of public procurement, including how to avoid the most common errors in public procurement linked to the management of the ESI Funds, as well as targeted training sessions for Member States’ officials;

Change 40

Changed(xi) further enhance simplification in the implementation of cohesion programmes; furthermore encourages the Commission to implement tools for digitalisation of public procurement based on the the model of e.procurement ,e-procurement, and to help Members states in this transition;

Change 41

Changed166.170. Notes that in 2022 the funds under MFF heading 4 were instrumental in addressing the impact of Russia’s war of agressionaggression against Ukraine; notes that more flexibility was introduced under the 2014-2020 funds to enhance Member States’ possibilities to channel funding towards new needs, and EUR 400 million of Emergency Assistance was triggered under the Thematic Facilities; notes that the adoption of the Member States’ programmes for 2021-2027 allowed them to access to more than EUR 10 billion under the new funds for the programming period;

Change 42

Changed187.191. Urges the Commission to increase transparency and accountabililtyaccountability of the programming and implementation of Home Affairs funds in third countries, and NDICI funding, such as in countries like Tunisia and Libya; calls the Commission to generate a publicly available overview of all migration related spending in third countries, and urges for ex ante human rights impact assesmentsassessments for migration related spending in third countries, and to share these assesmentsassessments with the Parliament where required by rules;

Change 43

Changed188.192. Stresses that, following the despicable terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas against Israel on 7 October 2023, the Commission announced on 9 October 2023 its decision to review the Union’s assistance for Palestine; notes that the review, finalised on 21 November 2023, has shown that the Commission applies adequate ex-ante and ex-post controls, that the safeguards in place are effective and that no evidence has been found to date that money has been diverted for unintended purposes; insists on the need for European funds to go only to beneficiaries that share Union values regarding Rule of law, democracy and human rights; recalls in this regard the Parliament’s report 2023/2122 INI2023/2122(INI) adopted the 17 January 2024 on transparency and accountability of non-governmental organisations funded from the Union budget calling for a reinforcement of the Commission control mechanisms and the development of a harmonised monitoring system aiming to track Union funds up to final beneficiaries;

Change 44

Removed191. Is concerned by the serious allegations made by Israel that 12 employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) might have participated in the despicable terrorist attacks in October 2023; notes that the Agency immediately terminated their contracts and welcomes the launch of an UN investigation; notes that the allegations involve 12 out of 13 000 local members of staff of UNRWA in Gaza alone, who are themselves victims of the ongoing humanitarian tragedy while playing a critical role in distributing food, water, and medicine; notes that UNRWA has developed a specific framework to ensure the neutrality and independence of its operations in line with the UN standards, which includes vetting and due diligence measures, and shares the list of all its staff with the host countries, including Israel, on an annual basis; calls for full transparency regarding the conclusions of the UN investigation;

Added195. Is concerned about credible reports that Union taxpayers’ money or funds of other donors could have been partially misused by the terrorist organisation Hamas; emphasises that the relevant Union funds should benefit the Palestinian civilian population and provide food, medical supplies, housing and basic infrastructure to the suffering population and notably to children, women, elderly and disabled persons; urges the Commission, in the context of delivering support and humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population, to diversify trusted partners, such as the WHO, UNICEF or different Red Crescent organisations; furthermore, is worried about other credible reports that certain employees of UNWRA could have been involved in or associated with acts of terror by the Hamas terrorist organisation; urges the Commission to guarantee independent controls of UNRWA by external experts, the European Court of Auditors and experienced international partners, such as, but not limited to, Global Affairs Canada or AusAid;

Change 45

Changed193.197. Stresses the importance of education and the critical need to denounce and eradicate all manifestations of hate speech and violent actions on both sides; underscores that the suspension of funding should not occur arbitrarily or without transparent and independent evidence of misuse; commends UNRWA for its indispensable humanitarian endeavours in Gaza and its pivotal role in delivering quality education, with a specific emphasis on fostering a human rights culture, even in challenging times;

Change 46

Added201. Expresses shock over the terrorist attacks of 7 October 2023 in which Hamas perpetrated violence, rape and other forms of sexual torture against women, female teenagers and girls of Israeli and other nationalities; emphasises that this targeted form of sexual violence and torture against women is systematically used as a war crime and terrorism; regrets the lack of focus of the EEAS and the Commission in the area of conflict-related sexual violence against women; calls for the setup of a mechanism to identify and provide support to victims, collect testimonies, identify perpetrators and take timely actions to ensure that similar situations do not occur in the future; calls for the establishment of a platform to provide visibility to victims and their suffering; calls for increased support to entities such as the Association of Rape Crisis Centres in Israel or similar entities in conflict areas; emphasises that additional Union funding should be provided to victims of conflict-related sexual violence as well as to relevant education activities; notes the lack of data in annual activity reports on the amount of Union funds budgeted to support such victims and relevant entities; recommends the Commission provide clearer reporting on Union aid provided to such victims and relevant entities;

Change 47

Changed200.205. Notes the Reform Growth Plan for the Western Balkans which was proposed by the Commission to further support convergence efforts in the region; stresses the need for a more clarity on the use of different financial instruments toward the region, primarily among IPA III, Economic and Investment Plan, and the Reform Growth Plan; urges the Commission to provide the sub-national level to have more direct access to Union funds;

Change 48

Changed206.211. Notes that the Court examined a sample of 60 transactions covering the full range of spending under the MFF Heading 7 involving all the Union institutions and bodies; notes that the Court also examined the regularity information given in the AARs of all the institutions and bodies, including those of the Commission’s directorates-generalDirectorates-General and offices primarily responsible for administrative expenditure, and then included in the Commission’s AMPR; notes with satisfaction that the Court estimates that the level of error in the MFF Heading 7 was not material and notes that there are no new recommendations addressed to the Commission;

Change 49

Changed211.216. Notes the adoption and implementation of an action plan to increase the attractiveness of careers in Luxembourg; notes the Commission’s considerations against introducing a correction coefficient for Luxembourg at this stage in its report assessing the evolution of purchasing power of remuneration and pensions of Union officials (COM(2022) 180(COM(2022)0180 final); recalls its reiterated requests to the Commission to find ways to mitigate the growing problem of the purchase power disparity suffered by the members of staff posted to Luxembourg, which is mainly due to the cost of living;

Change 50

Added219. Notes the creation and subsequent recruitment of an EU SME Envoy which is an Hors-Classe Temporary Agent at grade AD15; regrets that multiple media outlets reported that the successful applicant was ultimately appointed despite having been outqualified in the recruitment assessments by the two remaining female candidates from underrepresented Member States, which questions whether the principles of merit, gender and geographical balance were taken into consideration; notes with concern that the successful candidate is an outgoing Member from President von der Leyen’s own German political party; calls on the Commission to rectify the situation by rescinding the appointment and launching a truly transparent and open process for the selection of the EU SME Envoy;

Change 51

Changed218.224. Notes with satisfaction that the Court, in its Annual Report on the accounts for hethe European Schools for the 2022 financial year, found no material errors in the final consolidated annual accounts of the European Schools for 2022; welcomes further improvements highlighted by the Court in the quality of the final individual and consolidated accounts compared to previous years;

Change 52

Changed234.240. Is concerned by the Court’s findings in SR 26/2023 that milestones and targets vary in ambition between Member States and considers this is yet another example where the Commission does not treat MemberSstatesMember States equally; notes that the Commission confirmed the differences and will try to enhance equal treatment during the implementation phase; considers that Member States by default should be treated equally and regrets this has not been the case when negotiating the RRPs; insists that equal treatment should be ensured when evaluating the completion of milestones and targets;

Change 53

Changed238.244. Emphasises that the protection of the financial interests of the Union is a top priority and that more precise implementation and performance monitoring will help prevent and reduce fraud at early stages; emphasises that in particular rule of law and anti-corruption related M&Ts are essential in hindering corrupt individuals, organisationsn,organisations, governments or criminal systems; calls on the Commission to monitor closely the fulfilment of rule of law and anti-corruption M&Ts and report on possible reversals;

Change 54

Changed241.247. Stresses the fact that the RRF was established as the Union’s common instrument for mitigating the serious economic and social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and for making European economies and societies more sustainable, resilient, inclusive and better prepared for the challenges and opportunities of the green and digital transitions, and its financial means thus can not be understood as Member States’ own budget resources; emphasises the crucial role of the Court and the Commission in their proactive ex-ante and ex-post controls in making sure the funds are spend effectively with satisfactory fulfillmentfulfilment of M&Ts;

Change 55

Changed245.251. Expresses concern that the Commission is dependent on the information provided by the Member States and recommends a more active communication to proactively identify any potential reversal of M&Ts; welcomes that the Commission accepts the recommendation to carry out a revision of its ex-post audit procedures to verify the potential reversal of M&Ts after the payment, although regrets that it does not foresee any post-2026 monitoring on potential reversals; is particularly concerned that there is no legal provision in Regulation (EU) 2021/241 establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility (the ‘RRFRRF Regulation’)Regulation that addresses the reversal of M&Ts after the last date for payments from the RRF and that the Commission’s methodology, consequently, does not provide legal clarity in case a M&T is reversed after the implementation period of the RRF once all payments have been made, especially given that some important M&Ts included in RRPs are probably to be fulfilled in the last part of the RRF lifetime;

Change 56

Changed257.263. Criticises that in contradiction to the main goals of the facility the definition of “resilience” is insufficient to ameliorate the preparadenesspreparedness of future crisis situations;notessituations; notes that very little emphasis is placed on resilience or added-value in contributing to resilience when milestones and targets are emphasised; urges the Commission to create a ‘contribution to resilience’ indicator for the RRF scoreboard and to present the impact in the area of resilience in a table; further urges the Commission to consider contribution to resilience when considering new milestones and targets that are introduced into revised national recovery and resilience plans; encourages the Court to look more closely at RRF impact of resilience in all the pillars in a future study;

Change 57

Changed262.268. Welcomes the RRF's crucial contribution to preventing a severe economic downturn and social crisis following the COVID-19 pandemic, and the fact that it enabled an unprecedented wave of reforms and investments across the Union that will have an important long-lasting effect on the Gross domestic product(product GDP);(GDP); points out that the European added value of the RRF has long been proven by the fact that its innovative and flexible nature allows Member States to achieve common Union policy objectives; notes that, at the same time, the RRF enables Member States to address country specific challenges through the design of the RRPs while a single assessment framework is applied equally for all Member States and payments requests;

Change 58

Changed(ii) work in close cooperation with the discharge authority to map different options, and the relevant legal base, to address the reversal of milestones after the end of the implementation period of the the RRF;

Change 59

Changed(xviii) address the interaction between Cohesion and RRF funds and, in particular, those requirements that may facilitate using one fund rather than the other, and as well as to work with and guide Member States to select funds according to what is most fitting and efficient for the project in question; encourages the Commission to actively cross-check between databases to ensure double funding does not occur;

Change 60

Changed(xxiii) be more proactive in publishing documents and statistics regarding how they handle document access requests, as such information would help with assessing the institutions’ proactive approach to document access; calls that an application for access to a document must be handled promptly;promptly.