Written explanations of vote Karen MELCHIOR

One of the European Parliament’s key roles is to ensure the budget of the EU is well spent. This week, we scrutinised the budget of the European Commission, highlighting where improvements can be made. Unfortunately, some political groups decided to use the discharge to call for an end EU financial support for UNRWA, the UN-ran organisation that supplies hundreds of thousands of Palestinians with education and healthcare. Given the terrible humanitarian situation in Gaza, it would be irresponsible and inhumane to end our support, therefore I voted against this proposal. I supported amendments taking the Commission to task over the sometimes excessively generous salaries and pensions they receive, highlighting the benefits of the innovative approaches to cohesion funding that were used during the pandemic and calling for the further greening of EU cohesion funding.

In order to ensure Parliament’s budget is well spent, every year Parliament prepares a resolution on how it spent money in prior years, approves that spending, and proposes future adjustments. In the discharge of the 2022 budget, I voted in favour of amendments calling for more transparency on how Parliament spends money, better working conditions for the hundreds of interpreters, cleaners, technicians, cooks, and crêche staff who make our work possible, more power for the EU’s anti-fraud agency when scrutinising our work, stronger rules to regulate revolving doors, and a move towards a single seat for the European Parliament, ending the monthly journeys to Strasbourg. The report also highlights the numerous benefits of using Open Source software in the European Institutions. I hope Parliament will lead by example in the coming mandate.

One of the European Parliament’s key roles is to ensure the budget of the EU is well spent. This week, we scrutinised the budget of the European Ombudsman, who is responsible for promoting good administration and investigating complaints about how the EU is run. One particularly commendable decision by the Ombudsman’s office was to expand the use of Open Source software. The use of Open Source software cuts costs and guarantees technical independence and sovereignty of our institutions. It also contributes to achieving the public money-public code principle. It was one of the key demands of my report on Digitalisation and Administrative law, which I shared with the Ombudsman, and I am very glad to see that her and her office are leading by example. For this reason, I supported an amendment commending the ombudsman on her use of Open Source software.

Recently made a set of changes to how Parliament works to make it more efficient, democratic, gender-balanced, and fair. In addition to this, I voted for amendments to give MEPs more time to debate important issues, and open the floor to a wider range of MEPs.
There was also a reform on the way parliament makes laws: up until now, one or two committees are put in charge of making a law, and other committees can send suggestions to the committee in charge in the form of an “opinion”. On one hand, opinions are often ignored, and require lots of resources. But on the other hand, they also let us best use the different committees’ expertise, and improve the laws we make. As a compromise, I voted to keep opinions, but to make them binding, and limit them to the parts of the law that fall under their area of expertise of the committee giving the opinion,

Part of the European Agenda on Migration, the Common procedure for international protection in the Union aims to harmonize the legal framework concerning the border procedure and ensure that all asylum seekers are treated equally across the 27 Member States of the EU, thus minimizing the risks of unjust violations of their fundamental rights. I have advocated for the establishment of an independent monitoring mechanism inside each MS to ensure the respect of the fundamental rights of the asylum seekers, as well as managed to secure the inclusion of free legal counseling for all stages of the procedure, thus guaranteeing additional safeguards in that matter. Furthermore, to secure better management and international protection of vulnerable individuals, such as unaccompanied minors, the insurance of additional support from the EUAA and FRONTEX is a welcoming step.
While the document contains many compromises, agreeing on the common EU template is a fundamental step to remove the complicated divergence between the legal frameworks of the EU Member States and guarantee the efficient implementation of the procedures in compliance with the individual's procedural and fundamental rights.

Part of the European Agenda on Migration, the Regulation addressing situations of crisis and force majeure in the field of migration and asylum provides concrete tools to ensure the efficient resolution of sudden migratory crises and put an end to the ad hoc solutions by strengthening the Solidarity Mechanism.
While we made many positive additions to the regulation like the independent monitoring mechanism for fundamental rights and the presence of strategies related to crisis preparedness, I cannot overlook certain concerns surrounding it. The instrumentalization of the derogation practices may worsen the cases of the Member State’s non-compliance within the legal framework, which undermines the main idea of the regulation - guaranteeing fast, efficient and humane cooperation within the EU to unburden the Member States under crisis. Furthermore, giving the Commission the power to go beyond what is provided in the treaties goes against the principle of proportionality, even if the situation is deemed force majeure.
For this reason, I wasn’t able to fully support the regulation and thus abstained.

I voted in favor of the report. The current system, placing immense strain on frontline states, is broken. This mandatory relocation mechanism ensures fairer burden-sharing among EU members. This report fosters solidarity and creates a more efficient asylum process, benefiting both asylum seekers and member states.
The report prioritizes vulnerable groups like unaccompanied minors, guaranteeing they receive proper support. Additionally, the regulation strengthens border management, enhancing overall security. While concerns regarding resource strain in receiving countries exist, the report allocates significant financial aid to assist with integration.

Part of the European Agenda on Migration, this regulation is focused on standardizing the return border procedure applying to third-country nationals and stateless persons and its rules during crises. Though the core objective is making it a standalone act from the Common Procedure, it also includes further financing for solidarity actions. The importance of passing a homogenous and specific legislation in the Migration agenda to guarantee long-term asylum guidelines cannot be understated.
For that reason, I have voted in favor of the regulation.

Part of the European Agenda on Migration, the Screening of Third Country Nationals at the External Borders introduces uniform rules regarding the identification of those in need of international protection that fully respect the fundamental rights of the third country and non-EU nationals and are in line with the asylum acquis.
To ensure the humane treatment of the people in need of international protection, I have pushed for the implementation of preliminary health and vulnerability checks as well as needed safeguards for the protection of minors. The introduction of the independent monitoring mechanism will also ensure transparency as well as effectively detect any violations of the fundamental rights for which Member States are obliged to provide appropriate punishments. While certain provisions raise reasonable concerns over the possible abuse of the database and the fiction of non-entry, the harmonization of the EU rules in the field of migration and asylum is essential to guarantee better cooperation within the European Union in that sphere.
For this reason, I voted in favor of the regulation.

Part of the European Agenda on Migration, the EURODAC Regulation is an essential part of the Pact, providing effective tools to guarantee safeguards for missing children and child victims of trafficking. I have ensured additional protection for minors with the prohibition of their detention to verify their IDs or biometric data as well as introduced the benefit of the doubt in the process of their age authentication.
Of course, some provisions in the regulation provide a reasonable ground for future concerns. It is worrying that the possible malfunctioning of a Biometric Matching Service may result in the increase of false positive hits and endanger innocent individuals. Furthermore, the unclear definition of relevance in relation to the granting of sensitive data to the EU agencies and the MS authorities may result in the probable abuse of the system. Nevertheless, these challenges have the prospect to be resolved in the near future. Right now, the adoption of the EURODAC Regulation will lastly settle the common legislative framework in the field of migration and asylum, which will ensure the efficient cooperation within the EU in line with the protection of fundamental rights.
For this reason, I voted in favor of the regulation.