European Parliament 2019-2024

Committee on Employment and Social Affairs

2019/2067(DEC)

13.12.2019

AMENDMENTS 1 - 22

Draft opinion Tomáš Zdechovský (PE642.929v01-00)

on discharge in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions for the financial year 2018 (COM(2019)0316 – 2019/2067(DEC))

AM\1194706EN.docx PE644.922v01-00

EN United in diversityEN AM_Com_NonLegOpinion

PE644.922v01-00 2/13 AM\1194706EN.docx EN Amendment 1 Elena Lizzi

Draft opinion Paragraph 1

Draft opinion Amendment

1. Expresses its satisfaction that the 1. Notes that the Court of Auditors Court of Auditors has declared the has declared the transactions underlying transactions underlying Eurofound’s Eurofound’s annual accounts for the annual accounts for the financial year 2018 financial year 2018 to be legal and regular to be legal and regular and that its financial and that its financial position as at 31 position as at 31 December 2018 is fairly December 2018 is fairly represented; represented;

Or. it

Amendment 2 Elena Lizzi

Draft opinion Paragraph 2

Draft opinion Amendment

2. Expresses its satisfaction that the 2. Observes that the budget budget implementation rate stood at 99,6 % implementation rate stood at 99,6 % in in 2018 (100 % in 2017); 2018 (100 % in 2017);

Or. it

Amendment 3 Alex Agius Saliba, Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, Alicia Homs Ginel, Estrella Durá Ferrandis, Milan Brglez, Elisabetta Gualmini, Marianne Vind

Draft opinion Paragraph 2

Draft opinion Amendment

2. Expresses its satisfaction that the 2. Expresses its satisfaction with the budget implementation rate stood at 99.6 % very positive performance of the in 2018 (100 % in 2017); Foundation of having an 83 % delivery rate and a close to 100 % budget

AM\1194706EN.docx 3/13 PE644.922v01-00 EN implementation rate at 99.6 % in 2018 (100 % in 2017);

Or. en

Amendment 4 Véronique Trillet-Lenoir, Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, Sylvie Brunet, Dragoş Pîslaru, Jordi Cañas, Samira Rafaela, Atidzhe Alieva-Veli

Draft opinion Paragraph 2

Draft opinion Amendment

2. Expresses its satisfaction that the 2. Expresses its satisfaction that the budget implementation rate stood at 99.6 % budget implementation rate stood at 99.6 % in 2018 (100 % in 2017); in 2018 (100 % in 2017) and the programme delivery rate at 83 %;

Or. en

Amendment 5 Elena Lizzi

Draft opinion Paragraph 3

Draft opinion Amendment

3. appreciates Eurofound’s work to deleted provide knowledge and expertise to support policies on improving living and working conditions across the Union;

Or. it

Amendment 6 Véronique Trillet-Lenoir, Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, Sylvie Brunet, Dragoş Pîslaru, Jordi Cañas, Samira Rafaela

Draft opinion Paragraph 3

PE644.922v01-00 4/13 AM\1194706EN.docx EN Draft opinion Amendment

3. Appreciates Eurofound’s work to 3. Appreciates Eurofound’s work to provide knowledge and expertise to provide scientifically sound, unbiased, support policies on improving living and timely and policy-relevant knowledge and working conditions across the Union; expertise to support better informed policies for upward convergence of living and working conditions across the Union; particularly welcomes the publication of the Foundation's overview report from the most recent European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) and its publications related to the future of work and digitalisation, particularly in the area of platform work;

Or. en

Amendment 7 Alex Agius Saliba, Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, Alicia Homs Ginel, Estrella Durá Ferrandis, Milan Brglez, Elisabetta Gualmini, Marianne Vind

Draft opinion Paragraph 3

Draft opinion Amendment

3. Appreciates Eurofound’s work to 3. Stresses the importance of provide knowledge and expertise to Eurofound's high-quality work to provide support policies on improving living and knowledge, expertise and evidence-based working conditions across the Union; support for European policy development and policymakers in the areas of living and working conditions, labour market and industrial relations across the Union, and the importance of retaining the tripartite nature of its governance model involving employer and worker organisations, governments from all Member States, as well as the European Commission;

Or. en

Amendment 8 Marc Botenga, Sandra Pereira, Konstantinos Arvanitis

AM\1194706EN.docx 5/13 PE644.922v01-00 EN Draft opinion Paragraph 3

Draft opinion Amendment

3. Appreciates Eurofound’s work to 3. Appreciates Eurofound’s work to provide knowledge and expertise to provide knowledge and expertise to support policies on improving living and support policies on improving living and working conditions across the Union; working conditions across the Union; stresses the necessity of providing the agencies with enough material and human resources to fulfil their tasks in a proper manner, while ensuring their pre- eminence over private contractors;

Or. en

Amendment 9 Marc Botenga, Konstantinos Arvanitis

Draft opinion Paragraph 3 a (new)

Draft opinion Amendment

3a. Highlights that transparency and citizens’ awareness of the existence of the agencies are essential for their democratic accountability; considers that usability and ease of use of agency resources and data are of paramount importance; calls therefore for an assessment of how data and resources are currently presented and made available and of the degree to which citizens find them easily to identify, recognise and use; recalls that public awareness in this respect can be raised by Member States through developing a comprehensive plan to reach out to more Union citizens;

Or. en

Amendment 10

PE644.922v01-00 6/13 AM\1194706EN.docx EN Alex Agius Saliba, Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, Alicia Homs Ginel, Estrella Durá Ferrandis, Milan Brglez, Elisabetta Gualmini, Marianne Vind

Draft opinion Paragraph 3 a (new)

Draft opinion Amendment

3a. Stresses the importance of the Eurofound’s contributions for the development of forecasting tools and gathering of information in different areas such as the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights, work- life balance and quality of life, the future of work, manufacturing, digitalisation and platform work;

Or. en

Amendment 11 Elena Lizzi

Draft opinion Paragraph 4

Draft opinion Amendment

4. appreciates the Foundation’s 4. Considers it necessary for the cooperation with other EU Agencies under Foundation to be more efficient with other the remit of DG Employment; EU agencies under the remit of DG Employment, in terms of costs and resources;

Or. it

Amendment 12 Alex Agius Saliba, Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, Alicia Homs Ginel, Estrella Durá Ferrandis, Milan Brglez, Elisabetta Gualmini, Marianne Vind

Draft opinion Paragraph 4

Draft opinion Amendment

AM\1194706EN.docx 7/13 PE644.922v01-00 EN 4. Appreciates the Foundation’s 4. Appreciates the Foundation’s cooperation with other EU Agencies under support to trade unions, employer the remit of DG EMPLOYMENT; organisations, national governments, and European institutions and its cooperation with other EU Agencies working in the field of employment, social affairs and inclusion under the remit of DG EMPLOYMENT and particularly between the Foundation, EU-OSHA, Cedefop, ETF and EIGE; highlights the importance of maintaining active cooperation with all actors and of supporting their work in the development of sustainable competitiveness, social inclusion, social dialogue, and partnership;

Or. en

Amendment 13 Marc Botenga, Sandra Pereira, Konstantinos Arvanitis

Draft opinion Paragraph 4

Draft opinion Amendment

4. Appreciates the Foundation’s 4. Appreciates the Foundation’s cooperation with other EU Agencies under cooperation with other EU Agencies under the remit of DG EMPLOYMENT; the remit of DG EMPLOYMENT within and beyond the framework of the EU Agencies' Performance Development Network, allowing to build synergies and to exchange ideas and best practices and aiming to achieve more balanced governance, improved efficiency, reduced costs and greater coherence between them; stresses the necessity of improving cooperation between the agencies and EU institutions, avoiding the externalisation of services that can be provided by them;

Or. en

Amendment 14

PE644.922v01-00 8/13 AM\1194706EN.docx EN Alex Agius Saliba, Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, Alicia Homs Ginel, Estrella Durá Ferrandis, Milan Brglez, Elisabetta Gualmini, Marianne Vind

Draft opinion Paragraph 4 a (new)

Draft opinion Amendment

4a. Appreciates Eurofound's efforts to create operational synergies and to avoid overlaps with other agencies working in the area of employment, social affairs and inclusion; notes, in this regard, that cooperation between Eurofound and Cedefop has been recently reinforced; welcomes that the 4th edition of the European Company Survey was jointly managed by Cedefop and Eurofound and that beyond sharing costs, the analysis of the findings benefited from the combined expertise of the two agencies and will assist policymakers in establishing evidence-based policies for better working conditions for employees and for supporting companies to thrive;

Or. en

Amendment 15 Alex Agius Saliba, Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, Alicia Homs Ginel, Estrella Durá Ferrandis, Milan Brglez, Elisabetta Gualmini, Marianne Vind

Draft opinion Paragraph 4 b (new)

Draft opinion Amendment

4b. Notes the Foundation's increased workload and stakeholders' increased expectations and highlights the importance of ensuring adequate staff and financial resources allowing the Foundation to fully implement its tasks;

Or. en

AM\1194706EN.docx 9/13 PE644.922v01-00 EN Amendment 16 Tomáš Zdechovský

Draft opinion Paragraph 5

Draft opinion Amendment

5. Notes with regret from the Court’s 5. Notes from the Court’s report that report that the ex-ante controls performed the ex-ante controls performed by by Eurofound within the context of Eurofound within the context of intermediary services provided by a intermediary services provided by a framework contractor were not effective, framework contractor were not effective, as well as the Court’s observation that the as well as the Court’s observation that the Foundation should adapt ex-ante controls Foundation should adapt ex-ante controls on payments under such contracts and on payments under such contracts and ensure the existence of a competitive ensure the existence of a competitive procedure for all procurements; notes from procedure for all procurements; notes from the Foundation’s reply that the respective the Foundation’s reply that the respective framework contract had expired and the framework contract had expired and the new one had successfully addressed the new one had successfully addressed the issues raised by the Court; issues raised by the Court; recognises that the Foundation had only limited input in the design and the pricing structure of this respective contract as it was an inter- institutional contract led by the Commission’s DG DIGIT;

Or. en

Amendment 17 Alex Agius Saliba, Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, Alicia Homs Ginel, Estrella Durá Ferrandis, Milan Brglez, Elisabetta Gualmini, Marianne Vind

Draft opinion Paragraph 5

Draft opinion Amendment

5. Notes with regret from the Court’s 5. Notes with regret from the Court’s report that the ex-ante controls performed report that the ex-ante controls performed by Eurofound within the context of by Eurofound within the context of intermediary services provided by a intermediary services provided by a framework contractor were not effective, framework contractor were not effective, as well as the Court’s observation that the as well as the Court’s observation that the Foundation should adapt ex-ante controls Foundation should adapt ex-ante controls on payments under such contracts and on payments under such contracts and

PE644.922v01-00 10/13 AM\1194706EN.docx EN ensure the existence of a competitive ensure the existence of a competitive procedure for all procurements; notes from procedure for all procurements; stresses the Foundation’s reply that the respective that the inter-institutional contract was framework contract had expired and the led by the European Commission and that new one had successfully addressed the Eurofound did not have an input in the issues raised by the Court; design of the tender nor in the setup of the pricing structure, which made it harder to compare easily with other providers; notes from the Foundation’s reply that the respective framework contract had expired and the new one provides for greater promotion of fair competition and has successfully addressed the issues raised by the Court;

Or. en

Amendment 18 Elena Lizzi

Draft opinion Paragraph 6

Draft opinion Amendment

6. Welcomes the fact that the 6. Notes that the Foundation had Foundation had completed the corrective completed the corrective actions in relation actions in relation to the Court’s to the Court’s observations from previous observations from previous years while the years while the introduction of e- introduction of e-submission was still submission was still ongoing; ongoing;

Or. it

Amendment 19 Alex Agius Saliba, Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, Alicia Homs Ginel, Estrella Durá Ferrandis, Milan Brglez, Elisabetta Gualmini, Marianne Vind

Draft opinion Paragraph 6 a (new)

Draft opinion Amendment

6a. Welcomes Eurofound's commitment to economic, social and

AM\1194706EN.docx 11/13 PE644.922v01-00 EN environmental sustainability of its operations ensuring a cost-effective and environment-friendly working place and for using public procurement as an important instrument towards all three categories of sustainability in its operations;

Or. en

Amendment 20 Alex Agius Saliba, Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, Alicia Homs Ginel, Estrella Durá Ferrandis, Milan Brglez, Elisabetta Gualmini, Marianne Vind

Draft opinion Paragraph 6 b (new)

Draft opinion Amendment

6b. Notes that the Foundation was subject to the external ‘cross-agencies’ evaluation by the European Commission (published in 2019), together with Cedefop, EU-OSHA and ETF, which focused on the assessment of the agencies’ work; welcomes that an action plan is under development to address the findings of an overall very positive evaluation report by the Commission;

Or. en

Amendment 21 Guido Reil

Draft opinion Paragraph 8

Draft opinion Amendment

8. Recommends, on the basis of the 8. Recommends, on the basis of the facts available, that discharge be granted to facts available, that discharge should not the Executive Director of the European be granted to the Executive Director of the Foundation for the Improvement of Living European Foundation for the Improvement and Working Conditions in respect of the of Living and Working Conditions in

PE644.922v01-00 12/13 AM\1194706EN.docx EN implementation of the Foundation’s budget respect of the implementation of the for the financial year 2018. Foundation’s budget for the financial year 2018.

Or. de

Amendment 22 Elena Lizzi

Draft opinion Paragraph 8

Draft opinion Amendment

8. Recommends, on the basis of the 8. Recommends, on the basis of the facts available, that discharge be granted to facts available, that discharge should not the Executive Director of the European be granted to the Executive Director of the Foundation for the Improvement of Living European Foundation for the Improvement and Working Conditions in respect of the of Living and Working Conditions in implementation of the Foundation’s budget respect of the implementation of the for the financial year 2018. Foundation’s budget for the financial year 2018.

Or. it

AM\1194706EN.docx 13/13 PE644.922v01-00 EN