Study – The Impact of Organised Crime on the EU’s Financial Interests – 31-07-2021

This ‘Horizontal Substitute Impact Assessment of the European Commission’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum’ was requested by the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE). The impact assessment focuses on the main proposed changes implied by the European Commission’s New Pact, with a particular focus on the following four proposals: 1) Asylum and Migration Management Regulation (RAMM); 2) Crisis and Force Majeure Regulation; 3) Amended Asylum Procedure Regulation (APR); and 4) Screening Regulation. The horizontal substitute impact assessment critically assesses the ‘system’ and underlying logic of the proposed New Pact with the aim to analyse how the four Commission proposals would work and interact in practice. The impact assessment also assesses whether and to what extent the proposed New Pact addresses the identified shortcomings and implementational problems of the current EU asylum and migration law and policy. Moreover, the impact assessment identifies and assesses the expected impacts on fundamental rights, as well as economic, social and territorial impacts of the proposed New Pact.

Source : © European Union, 2021 – EP

Each year, millions of live animals are transported by road, sea, rail and air within, and to and from, the European Union, for a number of reasons, such as slaughter, fattening or breeding. To protect their welfare during those journeys, the EU adopted Regulation 1/2005 on the protection of animals during transport. An evaluation of the regulation showed that, when correctly implemented and enforced, it had a positive impact on animal welfare. However, in some areas weaknesses still persist, largely due to insufficient implementation. In the light of these conclusions, and bearing in mind its 2012-2015 animal welfare strategy, the European Commission announced its intention to revise the animal welfare legislation, including legislation on animal transport. Despite the action taken, however, in recent years, repeated breaches of the rules, resulting in accidents and severe animal welfare crises, have been highlighted by EU and national control bodies and by animal welfare organisations. On 19 June 2020, the European Parliament set up the Committee of Inquiry on the Protection of Animals during Transport (ANIT). The work of the committee focused on investigating how EU rules laid down in Regulation 1/2005 are being implemented by Member States and enforced by the European Commission. It held public hearings with the participation of stakeholders, representatives of national authorities and experts. Insight from these debates fed into the committee’s report and recommendations to Council and the Commission. This briefing is one of four requested by the ANIT committee to provide research and analysis following the results of a questionnaire sent out by the committee to Member States. It gives an overview of available data on the transport of live animals.

Source : © European Union, 2021 – EP

The research, which focused on a sample of 14 EU Member States (BG, CZ, ES, FR, FI, DE, GR, HU, IT, LU, LV, MT, SE and SK), involved a combination of desk-research, interviews and quantitative modelling. The study considered the impact of organised crime on EU expenditure (e.g. Cohesion Funds) as well EU revenues (e.g. VAT own resources).

Source : © European Union, 2021 – EP

Draft Amending Budget No 3/2021 (DAB 3/2021) to the European Union’s 2021 general budget aims to enter as revenue in the 2021 budget the surplus resulting from the implementation of the 2020 budget. The 2020 surplus totals almost €1.77 billion (as compared to €3.2 billion in 2019, €1.8 billion in 2018 and €0.56 billion in 2017). It consists mostly of higher than expected revenues, plus under-spending on the expenditure side. Inclusion of the surplus will reduce the gross national income (GNI) contributions of the EU Member States to the 2021 budget accordingly. The European Parliament is expected to vote on the Council position on DAB 3/2021 during its July plenary session.

Source : © European Union, 2021 – EP