Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

Added95. Takes note of the Bureau minutes of the additional meeting of 6 July 2022 where the Bureau took note and endorsed the results of the International Architectural Design Competition for the Renewal of the SPAAK building; notes that 5 laureates were endorsed by the Bureau; notes that no other decision was taken during 2022 on this topic and there were thus no financial consequences while at the same time stresses the increasing urgency to start the renewal works as soon as possible; highlights that on 14 February 2024 the final plans to begin renovation works were swiftly approved at committee level, given the deteriorating condition of the building; stresses that the current building has a very low energy efficiency rating and lacks much needed flexibility to be fit for purpose; highlights that the European Parliament should be a forerunner with its own building portfolio in terms of energy efficiency and sustainability to safeguard citizen’s support for the objectives of the Green Deal; notes that the renovation would lead to significant cost savings of several million EUR per year and in addition help to comply with the requirements of the future European Energy Efficiency Directive and Building Performance Directive;

Added96. Takes further note of the Bureau decision of 6th July 2022, on the building strategy for Strasbourg, focusing on improving hosting and accommodation capacity, optimising the use of Parliament premises, enhancing accessibility and consolidating staff functionality;

Added97. Notes that Parliament’s self-service canteen on the -1 floor of the Spinelli building is frequently overcrowded at peak hours, resulting in long queues and waiting times; calls on the Bureau to reflect on imposing access restrictions to the canteens in Parliament’s main buildings for external visitors and visitor groups; is concerned about the unsatisfactory price/quality ratio and particularly the lack of affordable vegetarian options; asks the administration to propose solutions to remedy that situation;

Added98. Notes that in 2022, after the COVID-related capacity restrictions were lifted, the offer of seats in the service fleet going on Mondays from Brussels to Strasbourg was 250 places and that per part-session week in 2022, on average 162 seats or 65% of seats available in the fleet were occupied; reiterates its call on Parliament’s administration to widen the use of seats while making sure that Members’ seats are secured to avoid wastage of resources;

Directorate-General for Translation

99. Recalls that the Directorate-General for Translation (DG TRAD) is responsible for the provision of high-quality multilingual legislation and other linguistic services to the European Parliament, Parliament’s services and all citizens of the Union, based on the principle of full resource-efficient multilingualism; notes that by 31 December 2022, there were 1 109 members of staff, of which 945 were officials, 97 temporary agents, 66 contract agents, and 1 agency member of staff;

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Changed75.100. Notes that DG TRAD’s final appropriations amounted to EUR 17 105 500 in 2022, representing 0.80,8 % of Parliament’s budget; highlights that, of that amount, a total of EUR 16 834 967 was committed; welcomes the high use of appropriations;

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Changed76.101. Welcomes DG TRAD’s commitment to providing high-quality language services in a timely manner; notes with satisfaction that, in 2022, over 2.892,89 million gross pages were translated, representing a 26 % increase compared to 2021; notes with satisfaction that the vast majority of work was delivered on time (98.5(98,5 % in normal circumstances and 98.698,6 % when the requests were not in accordance with the rules);

102. Welcomes DG TRAD’s promotion and production of content in ‘Citizens’ language’, Parliament’s own approach to clear language adapted to people’s needs in the 24 official Union languages; welcomes the establishment of a Ukrainian language team, providing linguistic services in Ukrainian, including translations, audio products and subtitles for a dedicated website;

103. Notes with satisfaction the successful completion of the first round of the open competition for intercultural and language professionals, covering 11 languages, and organised by DG TRAD and DG PERS; highlights that DG TRAD also started recruiting successful laureates of its first ever open competition for clear language professionals; welcomes the fact that cooperation significantly accelerated made the recruitment of highly qualified officials with up-to-date and forward-looking profiles;

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Changed79.104. Recalls that the official languages to be used by the Union institutions, bodies and agencies are established in Regulation No 1; acknowledges that DG TRAD ensures that Parliament’s procedural content is available in all 24 official and working languages of the Union,Union; therebywelcomes enablingthe Parliamentexceptional work done by interpreters in 2022, ensuring, as far as possible, that public debates are interpreted in all official Union languages; stresses that, under Rules of Procedure of the Parliament, Members have the right to fulfilspeak itsin commitmentany of the 24 official languages of the Union, which reflects European cultural and linguistic diversity and also makes the Union institutions more accessible and transparent to all Union citizens; notes that one working language in particular is often used widely in the policyParliament’s work; calls for multilingualism to be respected by ensuring, where necessary, an adequate number of multilingualism;translation and interpreting staff;

105. Highlights that DG TRAD is the linguistic authority of the European Parliament, both by supporting the adoption of multilingual legislation and by contributing to multilingual communication in clear language with Members Union citizens by introducing clear language standards;

Directorate-General for Logistics and Interpretation for Conferences

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Changed81.106. Recalls that the Directorate-General for Logistics and Interpretation for Conferences (DG LINC) is responsible for providing linguistic, technical and logistical support for meetings and conferences; notes that by 31 December 2022, there were 554 staff members, of which 443 were officials, 29 temporary agents and 82 contract agents; highlights that the quality of the interpretation provided has a direct impact on the message conveyed to the citizens of the Union;

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Changed82.107. Notes that DG LINC’s final appropriations amounted to EUR 79 569 347 in 2022 representing 3.73,7 % of Parliament’s budget; highlights that, of that amount, a total of EUR 79 282 501 was committed; welcomes the high use of appropriations;

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Changed83.108. Highlights that demand for DG LINC services started increasing considerably as from the beginning of 2022 while COVID-19 restrictions were still in place; acknowledges that this put pressure on resources as more interpreters, technical support and complex planning operations were needed due to social distancing and other restrictions; takes note that the effects of inflation had an impact on the remuneration of external conference interpreter agents; notes that the increased cost of interpretation was partially mitigated by remote interpretation of Strasbourg plenary sessions from Brussels; with the aim of improving working conditions, primarily better sound quality and a limitation on the number and duration of interpreting hours of remote speakers;

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Changed84.109. Takes note that interpreter representatives contested the working conditions applicable to interpreting for remote participants;participants due to the impact on the health and well-being of interpreters that resulted from remote interpretation for long periods of time, in particular the reported hearing problems; recalls the duty of care owed by the European institutions to their workers; highlights that the resulting industrial action in the summer and autumn of 2022 led to interpreting stoppages, affecting remote speakers; remarks that interim Interpreter Working Arrangements for meetings with remote participation entered into force on 17 October 2022; notes that they allowed for restoration of interpretation for remote speakers while maintaining the reduced weekly working hours for interpreters, thus resulting in a reduction of the service provision; notes that social dialogue aiming to establish a permanent framework and full restoration of interpretation services was ongoing at the end of 2022 and was concluded in 2023;

110. Welcomes the fact that, in 2022, DG LINC was able to consolidate its provision of interpretation services while adapting to the challenging regulatory environment; notes with satisfaction that DG LINC serviced a total of 5 278 parliamentary meetings with interpretation and delivered an average of 5 266 interpretation hours per working week, up from 4 172 meetings and 4 039 weekly hours of interpretation in 2021; notes that this is still below the 2017 and 2018 pre-COVID averages;

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Added111. Reiterates its long-standing request to the Secretary-General to analyse the feasibility of international sign language interpretation for all plenary debates and to implement without delay this request; believes moreover that plenary sessions retransmission in the sign languages used in each Member State would increase participation of persons with disabilities in the EU democratic process;

Directorate-General for Finance

112. Recalls that the Directorate-General for Finance (DG FINS) is the administrative body responsible for Parliament’s budgetary and financial affairs; notes that by 31 December 2022, there were 246 members of staff, of which 149 were officials, 27 temporary agents, 63 contract agents, and 7 agency members of staff;

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Changed87.113. Notes that DG FINS’s final appropriations amounted to EUR 396 723 134 in 2022 representing 18.418,4 % of Parliament’s budget; highlights that, of that amount, a total of EUR 395 647 243 was committed; welcomes the high use of appropriations;

114. Notes that, in 2022, many of the tasks for which DG FINS is responsible more or less returned to pre-pandemic levels; notes that the war in Ukraine had a tangible impact on DG FINS’ activities, requiring resilience and adaptability to ensure the continuity of certain activities in Parliament through the mobilisation and reallocation of the financial resources needed to cope with the inflationary shock;

115. Welcomes the fact that in response to the significant increase in inflation and interest rates, as well as the global energy crisis, DG FINS tightened its supervision of the levels of utilisation of budget appropriations and had to take exceptional measures to ensure the continuity of Parliament’s operations, including through numerous budget reallocations and a request for an amending budget in November 2022;

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Changed90.116. Notes with satisfaction that DG FINS was able to take advantage of the efficiency of its processes and the commitment of its staff to ensure the continuity of the services for which it is responsible and the achievement of the objectives set in its annual work programme; notes the concerns expressed by Members about undue and often significant delays in the processing of reimbursements;reimbursements, with an average time for reimbursement of travel and subsistence allowances of up to 40 days; welcomes that Parliament is continuously modernising its processes in order to offer Members better services by applying automation, simplification and digitisation; calls DG FINS for further speeding up of the workflows to provide more expedited procedures; notably by equipping its agents with the necessary tools and software to manage workloads efficiently, thereby reducing processing time;

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Added117. Acknowledges the work of local assistants as an essential part of member’s activities in their constituencies and as first contact point for citizens; stresses that the hiring and contract-signing process for local assistants has been increasingly challenging for some years now due to a myriad of administrational requests resulting in double checks and unclear requirements; stresses that DG FINS should recognise that local assistants are subject to national legislation and therefore requests country-specific desks to deal with the hiring process; further recalls that voluntary and political activities of local assistants, within the rules set by the European Parliament, are often regular occupations, which should not warrant unnecessary checks;

118. Takes note of DG FINS’ involvement in the changes to the regulatory framework for the funding of political structures; welcomes the fact that it contributed to the drafting of the proposal adopted by the Bureau in July 2022 to amend the rules on the use of appropriations relating to the funding of political groups; notes that the amendment takes into account the situation arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and provides, by way of exception, a method for maintaining the carry-over ceiling from 2022 to 2023 of unspent funds at 75 % instead of 50 %; notes with satisfaction that DG FINS was also involved in the work on the revision of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1141/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2014 on the statute and funding of European political parties and European political foundations;

119. Welcomes the sustained efforts made during 2022 to digitalise processes, including the development of new functionalities and the redesign of the e-Portal application; notes with satisfaction that as a result the rate of use of the application increased;

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Added120. Recalls that long-Covid requires long-term care and is still subject to intensive research activities; notes that there are long-term patients among EU Parliament members, staff and APAs, who require continuous assistance; regrets that the current JSIS rules do not foresee adequate reimbursements leaving those concerned with a huge financial burden; stresses that similar unfavourable conditions apply to many persons with auto-immune diseases, which are not appropriately recognised; calls on DG FINS and PMO to modify the reimbursement rules to better reflect their needs;

121. Welcomes the organisation of working sessions on specific public procurement topics, including contract price management and fraud management; takes note of the comparative and feasibility studies that concluded in favour of the Commission’s model based on e-Procurement;

122. Notes that DG FINS coordinates the services connected with the organisation of travel tailored to the needs of Members and all Parliament’s administrative services, including the travel agency; welcomes the fact that DG FINS, in partnership with the travel agency, made efforts to automate the management of the reimbursement of Members’ rail travel expenses; notes that 2022 was the second last year before the contract of the current agency ends; reiterates that the new agency chosen should be able to offer more flexible and well-priced solutions for Members that are similar to the offers they can find on the open market;

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Added123. Is concerned that in 2022, five cases of suspected fraud were found where allegedly Members claimed specific means of transport while in fact using a cheaper one; notes that two recovery orders totalling EUR 39 807 are expected to be issued and that the other cases are currently under further investigation, these covering several budgetary years, and could amount to EUR 801 000;

124. Notes the announcement at the Bureau meeting of 7 March 2022 regarding the setting up of an ad-hoc Bureau Working Group on the General Expenditure Allowance (GEA), which is tasked with evaluating the implementation of the Bureau decision of 2 July 2018 establishing a list of expenses which may be defrayed from the GEA on the basis of the experience gained during the 9th parliamentary term; observes that the Bureau, at its meeting of 17 October 2022, adopted a set of amendments to the Implementing Measures for the Statute for Members (IMMS), clarifying the rules applicable to the entitlement and use of the GEA and measures aimed at increasing transparency and providing more legal certainty regarding the entitlement to the allowance; highlights that the ad-hoc Working Group was asked to take duly into account aspects of transparency, accountability and sound financial management of funds made available to Members, bearing in mind the principle of freedom and independence of the parliamentary mandate and the objective of not creating unnecessary administrative burdens for Members, their offices and Parliament’s services;

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Added125. Points out that in 2022 there were only 32 voluntary declarations on the use of the GEA submitted by 26 Members, of which 29 contained an auditor's report; welcomes efforts by the Secretariat to encourage MEP’s to make increased use of these options;

126. Highlights that Members are free to document their use of the funds under the GEA, in detail or by type of cost, on their own or with the support of an external auditor, and to have this information published in whole or in part on their online page on Parliament’s website in accordance with Rule 11, paragraph 2, of the Rules of Procedure of the European Parliament; welcomes that a simplified list of types of costs is integrated into the IMMS and that an amendment clarifying the possibility for Members to use the GEA in the case of exhaustion of other allowances has also been adopted;

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RemovedDirectorate-General for Innovation and Technology Support

Added127. Recalls that OLAF has the mandate to investigate suspicions of serious misconduct by Union staff and members of the Union institutions, including possible breaches of the Code of Conduct for Members of the European Parliament; notes that in 2022 there were no cases in which OLAF requested access to offices or email accounts of Members; notes that a procedure to strengthen the mandate of OLAF in Parliament in cases of substantiated suspicions regarding individual Members when it is strictly needed and proportionate for the investigation and fully respecting confidentiality in accordance with the principle of immunities as laid down in Protocol No 7 on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Union could be completed; reiterates its call on the Bureau to set up such a procedure without delay;

Added128. Notes that, in 2022, OLAF investigated 32 cases involving Parliament on issues related to, in particular, Members’ financial and social entitlements, the financing of political structures and the discharge of professional obligations by staff; highlights that OLAF issued 14 reports, some of which had more than one recommendation, of which 5 included financial recommendations, 5 included disciplinary recommendations, 1 included an administrative recommendations, and 7 did not include any recommendations; takes note that in 2022 the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) investigated 4 cases involving Parliament on issues related to Members’ financial and social entitlements, and the financing of political structures; notes that none of the investigations conducted by EPPO in 2022 was concluded on the same year; asks the administration to the extent legally possible whether the recommendations made by OLAF have been fully implemented and the amounts at risk have been recovered, as well as to provide a summary, without any sensitive data, of the typology of cases investigated in order to be able to draw conclusions and make improvements;

Added129. Notes that Parliament has systematically rejected OLAF’s requests to conduct inspections of MEPs’ offices and access their electronic servers and devices;

Added130. Regrets that despite at least 25 breaches of the Code of Conduct by Members recorded in the past twelve years, Parliament’s Presidents have not a single time imposed a financial sanction on a Member; calls on the President to consider imposing financial sanctions when it has been proven that Members have breached the Code of Conduct to ensure the sanctions actually have a deterrent effect;

Added131. Notes that in the year 2022, the amount of 261.891 EUR was recovered by the European Parliament from individual MEPs on revenue budget line 3300 "Repayment of amounts wrongly paid"; notes that large part of this amount is not related to parliamentary assistance allowance; notes that in general, amounts recovered on revenue budget line 3300 (from individual MEPS but also from political groups/parties/foundations, third parties, staff, other individuals, etc.) for the largest part represent technical recoveries such as the regularisation of amounts spent related to contracts evolved or terminated and for a large majority they do not concern APAs; observes that these amounts also include cases which relate to the voluntary reimbursements by a limited number of MEPs and the specific case of corrections, which were due either to administrative errors in the EP calculations or retroactive change of the rules in some Member States and off-set; notes that changes in terms of contracts and potential related recoveries after validated adaptations of the terms of contract are also falling under this category;

AddedDirectorate-General for Innovation and Technological Support

132. Recalls that the Directorate-General for Innovation and Technological Support (DG ITEC) provides Parliament with information and communications technology (ICT) services and equipment, videoconferencing and multimedia services as well as publishing and printing services; notes that by 31 December 2022, there were 543 staff members, of which 349 were officials, 53 temporary agents and 141 contract staff;

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Changed98.133. Notes that DG ITEC’s final appropriations amounted to EUR 134 808 679 in 2022 representing 6.26,2 % of Parliament’s budget; highlights that, of that amount, a total of EUR 134 439 573 was committed; welcomes the high use of appropriations;

134. Welcomes the fact that DG ITEC partners with client Directorates-General to deliver a user-centred, secure, hybrid and data driven working environment for Members and staff; notes with satisfaction its promotion of the sustainable and responsible deployment of innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence and data analytics to enhance the decision-making capabilities of Parliament’s services;

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Added135. Recalls the added-value of free and open source software in improving security since they make it possible for Parliament to identify and fix weaknesses, keep control over the data by hosting in its servers and designing solutions according to its own specifications, while being able to avoid vendor lock-in effects;

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136. Notes that Parliament’s cyber-defence activities were strongly marked by a constantly growing cyber threat and risk landscape around Parliament and the other Union institutions, bodies and agencies; welcomes the fact that additional resources have been used by CERT-EU to guide Parliament in the domains of cloud infrastructure applications, enhanced cyber threat intelligence and 24/7 monitoring of the security perimeter, as well as vulnerability identification;

137. Welcomes the creation of the Directorate for Cybersecurity in 2022, responsible for information security and composed of three units, dealing with security operations, security policy and security risk; urges Parliament to maintain its efforts and increase its investment in cybersecurity; welcomes that DG ITEC offered the possibility to check IT equipment for evidence of spyware such as PEGASUS, calls for DG ITEC to keep working in this area;

138. Notes that following the increased use of portable devices in 2022, DG ITEC issued a global study to plan improvements to the Wi-Fi network in Parliament buildings; notes that, in 2022, the SPAAK building in Brussels was reinforced with the deployment of 351 additional antennas; acknowledges the efforts made to improve the Wi-Fi network in Parliament buildings; calls for further enhancement of the mobile network in Parliament buildings in Strasbourg in order to improve mobile phone reception;

139. Highlights that worldwide inflation coupled with supply chain issues are causing cost increases in areas from hardware to professional services; welcomes the fact that DG ITEC has reprioritised ongoing IT investments; welcomes the new and faster IT governance cycle as part of DG ITEC’s Agile IT programme;

140. Notes that the COVID-19 pandemic has been a catalyst for the rapidly accelerated digital transformation of Parliament in the last few years; highlights the move to a hybrid Parliament with fully flexible working arrangements from physical presence to a fully digital working environment; welcomes the resilience demonstrated by Parliament in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that its response was rapid and flexible and benefited from previous investments in digitalisation;

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Added141. Welcomes the fact that the Digital Signature Portal (DiSP) allows Members to digitally sign documents, which improves efficiency, traceability and transparency to the procedures, notes that, regardless of the possibility to send signed plenary AMs to the plenary services by email or via the EP Transfer portal, signing plenary amendments is still an outdated and burdensome procedure; calls on the Bureau to take the necessary steps for introducing the possibility for Members to sign plenary amendments digitally in the future;

Directorate-General for Security and Safety

142. Recalls that the Directorate-General for Security and Safety (DG SAFE) seeks to anticipate, prevent and mitigate security risks and threats to Parliament and its Members and staff by using a risk-based approach that takes into due consideration the democratic nature of the institution and the values it embodies, in particular openness and transparency; notes that by 31 December 2022, there were 882 members of staff, of which 170 were officials, 22 temporary agents and 690 contract agents;

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Changed106.143. Notes that DG SAFE’s final appropriations amounted to EUR 29 507 334 in 2022, representing 1.41,4 % of Parliament’s budget; highlights that, of that amount, a total of EUR 28 370 796 was committed; welcomes the high use of appropriations;

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Changed107. Recalls144. thatWelcomes the internalisation of general security services in Luxembourg which entered into force on 1 January 2022; confirms the difficulty of attracting and recruiting specialised staff from all Member States in the security field with the conditions offered under function group I; recalls the particular situation in Luxembourg, where the salary offered in this function group is lower than the national minimum inter-professional wage, forcing Parliament to resort to social compensation;

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145. Points to the increased demand for DG SAFE to provide additional and exceptional security and safety services in all places of work for a growing number of large-scale events; recognises the challenge it represents for Parliament’s security services, which have a fixed number of agents, to positively respond to these growing needs;

146. Welcomes the return to normal of the level of visitors following the relaxation of COVID-related restrictions in 2022; is concerned that the lack of space in Brussels to welcome and accredit event and conference participants might pose a risk to Parliament’s security;

147. Stresses the importance of thorough forward planning for projects related to European Parliament Liaison Offices and Europa Experience Centres to be able to carefully estimate expenses for security and safety services and equipment;

Horizontal issues with implications on Parliament’s budget for the 2022 financial year