Protection of the European Union’s financial interests - combating fraud - annual report 2022

Wording as published by the EP, in English.

1. Amendment 6Rejected

   Paragraph 27 a (new)

   Tabled by Joachim Kuhs, Jaak Madison, Matteo Adinolfi +1 · ID

   Added: 27a. Recalls that the Qatargate scandal exposed civil society organisations as enablers of corruption; regrets the fact that NGOs and civil society organisations remain exempt from most anti-money laundering transparency and reporting requirements; underlines that the European Court of Auditors Special report No 35/2018 warns that NGOs are prone to be used for money laundering purposes; calls, therefore, for the establishment of a definition of NGO at EU level, and for NGOs to be brought under the scope of the EU anti-money laundering framework;

2. Amendment 7Rejected

   Paragraph 55 a (new)

   Tabled by Joachim Kuhs, Jaak Madison, Matteo Adinolfi +1 · ID

   Added: 55a. Recalls that grants awarded from the EU budget to NGOs amounted to at least EUR 3.7 billion in 2022, making the EU one of the largest financial backers of civil society organisations; is concerned about cases of fraud and irregularities in situations where EU-funded NGOs are at risk of conflicts of interest, double funding, corruption or money laundering; is concerned about the lack of publicly available data on fraud cases involving NGOs;

3. Amendment 8Adopted

   Paragraph 46 b (new)

   Tabled by Cristian Terheş · ECR

   Added: 46b. Regrets the lack of transparency in the spending of public money by the Commission during the COVID-19 pandemic; notes that according to unpublished information provided to the Court, the Commission provided EUR 12.9 billion in commitments under direct and indirect management and EUR 34.2 billion in commitments under shared management for purposes related to the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020; regrets the fact that the Commission has not yet published a report on COVID-19-related expenditure2a; 2a European Parliament resolution of 4 May 2022 with observations forming an integral part of the decisions on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2020, Section III – Commission and executive agencies, Texts adopted, P9_TA(2022)0144.

4. Amendment 8Rejected

   Paragraph 46 b (new)

   Tabled by Cristian Terheş · ECR

   Added: 46b. Regrets the lack of transparency in the spending of public money by the Commission during the COVID-19 pandemic; notes that according to unpublished information provided to the Court, the Commission provided EUR 12.9 billion in commitments under direct and indirect management and EUR 34.2 billion in commitments under shared management for purposes related to the COVID-19 pandemic during 2020; regrets the fact that the Commission has not yet published a report on COVID-19-related expenditure2a; 2a European Parliament resolution of 4 May 2022 with observations forming an integral part of the decisions on discharge in respect of the implementation of the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2020, Section III – Commission and executive agencies, Texts adopted, P9_TA(2022)0144.