Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

Change 9 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Added10. Stresses that the Agency should become the main implementing agency of all components of the Union space programme, guaranteeing secured services provision and accreditation of all space programme components Galileo, EGNOS, Earth Observation, Space Traffic Management and governmental Telecom and Connectivity, offering robust services that continuously evolve in accordance with the needs of current and future users, also to governmental users with resilience, defence and security needs;

Added11. Calls on the Agency to make use of its added value for the implementation of the future Union Space Law, as cornerstone for ensuring the Union’s security, safety, and sustainability in space addressing the Union economic Security in space activities and the acceleration of New Space growth;

Change 10 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed10.12. Notes that the Agency dedicated significant effort to further streamline and automate the human resources management processes to achieve efficiency gains; observes that in this context, the Agency continued on the deployment of various Sysper modules (e.g. TIM, FLEX, TELEWORK), and interconnecting them with the existing in-house supporting applications (e.g. Intranet-based working time recording tool;tool); notes that the HRhuman resources department has introduced an e-ticketing system to streamline processing of various requests from its staff; invites the Agency to find more internal procedures that could be streamlined via new IT tools;

Change 11 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed11.13. Notes that, under the Financial Framework Partnership Agreement (FFPA), the Agency is obliged to collaborate with the Commission and the European Space Agency (ESA) to jointly define modalitiesarrangements to reach the European Union climate objectives, and to cooperate on activities contributing to these targets; notes further that, under Art. 30 FFPA, the Agency is obliged to implement the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) by the end of 2023;

Change 12 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Added16. Recalls the importance to increase the digitalisation of the agency in terms of internal operation and management but also in order to speed up the digitalisation of procedures; stresses the need for the agency to continue to be proactive in this regard in order to avoid a digital gap between the agencies; draws attention, however, to the need to take all the necessary security measures to avoid any risk to the online security of the information processed, insist on the need to step up action against cyberattacks or infiltration attempts particularly originating from Russia or China;

Added17. Calls on the Agency to further identify and stimulate the synergetic use of the Union Space Programme components and of IRIS2, among others for the implementation of the Union Space Strategy for Security and Defence in order to ensure that all tasks can be merged long-term into one unified space programme allowing for better synergy between the various components;

Added18. Calls on the Agency to continue its work in partnership with the Commission for GOVSATCOM Hubs and looks forward to the synergies which will be realized with IRIS2 system; highlights the role of EUSPA in the development, deployment and operations of IRIS2 ensuring the access to highly secure, sovereign and global connectivity services based on advanced encryption technologies;

Added19. Highlights the Agency’s role in the evolution of Copernicus in particular when it comes to the governmental use of Earth Observation given the geopolitical situation and recalls the need to make use of the Agency's expertise in the security accreditation, monitoring and contract implementation in this regard in order to strengthen the operational capacity of the Union to act in all phases of disaster risk management, in both natural and man-made disasters;

Change 13 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed15.21. Notes with concern the lack of gender balance within the Agency’s senior and middle management, with 3 out of 3 being men; regrets the lack of gender balance within the Agency’s administrative board members, with 22 out of 28 being men; further notes the gender balance within the Agency’s overall staff, with 153 out of 232 being men; notes with satisfaction from the Agency's report with regard to the follow-up measures taken in light of the discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the Agency for the financial year 2021 (hereinafter The(the ‘Agency's follow-up report’) that the Agency has adopted a Diversity and Inclusion Strategy in 2023, accompanied by an action plan including concrete measures how to contribute to diversity and inclusion, including gender perspective; notes that the gender balance within the Agency’s senior and middle management and the administrative board needs to be improved; recalls the importance to ensure gender balance and calls on the Agency to take this aspect into consideration with regard to future recruitments of staff and appointments especially within its senior and middle management; insists that the Commission and the Member States take into account the importance of ensuring gender balance when nominating their members to the Agency’s administrative board;

Change 14 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Added22. Notes that the Agency has a policy on protecting the dignity of the person and preventing psychological and sexual harassment, and that the Agency is part of the interagency task force of confidential counsellors; looking forward to receiving their report and recommendations; notes that there were no reported cases of harassment in 2022 and encourages the Agency to continue and develop the work to prevent cases in the future as well;

Change 15 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed17.24. Recalls that, the Agency continues to implement the gradual and progressive reduction in the total number of Contractontract Agentagent posts to be in line with the overall resourcing provided to the Agency; notes that at the same time, the Agency continues to further focus its remaining Contractcontract Agentagent posts on security and Galileo Security Monitoring Centre (GSMC) operations functions; highlights that in this regard the Agency continues to note that there are risks associated with the reduction of Contractcontract Agentagent posts and that this indeed requires additional outsourcing which induces increased financial costs and results in the development of competency and know-howknowhow outside of the public sector;

Change 16 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed19.26. Welcomes that, in 2022, the Agency has fully on boarded the TIMtime management module including Teleworkingteleworking and Flexitimeflexitime and has signed an additional service level agreement for the HRhuman resources reporting and analytics module, to be deployed in 2023; notes that the Agency has adopted the Commission decision on Workingworking Timefime and Hybridhybrid Workingworking C(2022) 1778 and is closely monitoring the results of this decision, which is expected to improve the staff’s wellbeing at work and facilitate work-life balance;

Change 17 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed20.27. Notes from the Court's report that in September 2021, the Agency launched a negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice with a national public entity for the provision of various services in relation to search and rescue activities; highlights that the tenderer had already been providing similar services to the Agency since 2016 and the Agency intended to conclude a new framework contract with an expiry date set on 31 December 2032 and a maximum budget of EUR 120 million; notes that the final framework contract was signed on 1 December 2022, including the involvement of several subcontractors; observes that Court noted that there were some discrepancies between the tender specification requirements and the evaluation committee’s assessment; notes that, for example, the requirement to declare absence of a conflict of interest for the contractors in the evaluation phase was either waived or not properly analysed, another example is that the offer received, instead of using 2021 as reference year for setting the prices, as per the technical specifications, used 2022 as the reference year; takes note of the Agency's considerations that the discrepancies were justified by the status of the main contractor which is a national public entity and by the checks performed by the latter and that, in regards to the reference year used for setting the price in the offer, the Agency accepted the deviation because of the length of the procedure which led to the conclusion of the contract at end of 2022;

Change 18 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed22.29. Notes that the Agency executed a broad assessment of the implementation of its Anti-Fraud Strategyanti-fraud (AFS)strategy in 2020 and, consequently, in 2022, the Agency released its new AFS,anti-fraud strategy, which has been adopted by the Agency’s Administrativeadministrative Board;board; observes that the Agency is now starting to implement it with major/broadmajor and broad measures affecting in particular its staff; notes with satisfaction that declarations of interests and CVs of the Administrativeadministrative Boardboard members and senior management are published on the Agency’s website;

Change 19 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed24.31. Takes note of the fact that an internal register is kept for senior management meetings with industry but it is not published on the Agency's webpage; emphasizes the importance of transparency and calls on the Agency to publish them without delay;

Change 20 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed25.32. Insists on the need to continue working on transparency, incompatibilities, conflictconflicts of interests,interest, illegal lobbying and revolving doors;

Change 21 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Added33. Recalls the importance for the Agency to develop greater visibility in the media, internet, and social media in order to make its work known to the citizens;

Change 22 under “3. MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION”

Changed26.34. Commends the Agency for continuing to be active on the biggest social media platforms, for opening accounts in the privacy-aware EuropeanUnion social media channels Mastodon and Peertube, for publishing 107 news stories on its website and 13 press releases (majority in all official EU languages), aiming to reach all the member states; notes further that the Agency organizedorganised events as EU Space Week (3k(3 000 visitors onsite/online),onsite and online), EUSPA Open Days, CASSINI Hackathons, Horizon Europe info sessions, and numerous webinars on public procurement opportunities;