On Wednesday 22 March, the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control recommended granting discharge to the European Commission for the EU 2021 budget by 19 votes to 6.
In the same voting session, MEPs signed off the 2021 expenditure of the European Development Fund (EDF) and 33 EU agencies (https://aeur.eu/f/5yb ).
Recovery Plan. Adopting the draft report by Monika Hohlmeier (EPP, German) on the discharge of the 2021 budget by 19 votes in favour, 3 against and 3 abstentions, MEPs say that since the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) funds were set up “under time pressure”, the control requirements are much more lenient than those in place for cohesion and agriculture.
MEPs note that the control systems of some national authorities are “too error-prone and unreliable” and can lead to misuse, fraud and organised crime. MEPs call for the establishment of a mechanism for reporting fraud to the Commission and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO).
NGO. To ensure that EU funds only finance organisations that strictly respect EU values, MEPs propose to set up a public list of NGOs that engaged in activities such as hate speech, incitement to terrorism, religious extremism, or misappropriating European funds to block them from accessing EU institutions. The Transparency Register must be improved and NGOs must register as lobbyists.
MEPs also called for a new regulation on NGOs that would include conditions for receiving EU funds and obligations to declare sources of funding and activities carried out on behalf of foreign principals. The European Parliament plenary votes on the discharge decisions (2021 budget) will take place in May. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)