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European Parliament
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What is said in the sittings, update by update, the latest first. Each update opens the video at the second it was said.
Committee on Budgetary Control Ordinary meeting
A left-group MEP criticizes the ECF’s core logic of de-risking private investment with public money, warns that merging 14 funds and allowing intra-fund flexibility undermines democratic budgetary control, and asks how Parliament can prevent the Commission from shifting resources and eroding its budgetary authority.
Committee on Budgetary Control Ordinary meeting
Shadow rapporteurs stress the need to simplify applications and reporting without weakening transparency, highlight support for innovation, SMEs and financial instruments, and refer to the European Court of Auditors’ opinion while calling for strong roles for OLAF, EPPO and ECA through targeted amendments.
Committee on Budgetary Control Ordinary meeting
The Commission representative explains the structural competitiveness challenge, the consolidation of 14 programmes into the ECF, its directly managed and selection-based nature, simplification via a single rulebook and gateway, use of financing not linked to costs with safeguards, and the relationship with cohesion instruments for addressing territorial disparities.
Committee on Budgetary Control Ordinary meeting
Rapporteur Ondřej Knotek outlines the Budgetary Control Committee’s focus on transparency, governance and evaluation, flags weaknesses in geographical balance, technical assistance and reporting, and presents his amendments on OLAF/EPPO/ECA competences, third-country obligations, and safeguards for financing not linked to costs.
Committee on Budgetary Control Ordinary meeting
The Chair reopens the meeting, introduces the agenda item on the draft opinion to ITRE regarding the European Competitiveness Fund, outlines its link to defence research and innovation, and explains the speaking order between rapporteur, Commission and shadows.
Committee on Budgetary Control Ordinary meeting
Following adoption, Renew announces its intention to submit a minority position under Rule 56(4), and the chair reminds members of the tight deadline to file it. The committee then turns to the opinion on the Council regulation on the multiannual financial framework (MFF), hears a brief confirmation from rapporteur Protas of broad compromises, adopts a series of compromise amendments and an individual amendment, approves the opinion by 25 votes to 3, and the chair closes with information on upcoming CONT meeting dates and the move to coordinators.
Committee on Budgetary Control Ordinary meeting
Before voting, the chair records formal substitutions of members and then conducts a series of votes on compromise amendments 1–21 and certain individual amendments to the PIF report, with repeated electronic checks confirming a stable majority in favor. The committee then holds the final vote on the report, adopting it by 15 votes to 12 with one abstention.
Committee on Budgetary Control Ordinary meeting
The chair announces interpretation and web-streaming arrangements and moves to item 3 on protection of the EU’s financial interests. The rapporteur thanks shadows from all groups, recalls the extensive technical meetings and wide‑ranging compromises across political groups, and underlines the technical, cross‑party nature and importance of protecting the EU’s financial interests.
Committee on Budgetary Control Ordinary meeting
The acting chair opens the CONT meeting, explains the delayed start, proceeds to adoption of the agenda, and hears a request (Freund) to postpone the vote on the PIF report, arguing chaotic procedure and insufficient treatment of the ID scandal and Hungary. An EPP representative (Zdechovský) opposes postponement, emphasizing anti‑corruption commitments and possibility to amend in plenary, after which the committee votes electronically and rejects the postponement, keeping the agenda as planned.
Committee on Budgetary Control Ordinary meeting
The committee votes on discharge decisions and politically sensitive amendments for the EEAS, Ombudsman, EDPS, European Council/Council (discharge refused), EPPO, Court of Justice, EESC, Court of Auditors, Committee of the Regions, and all Joint Undertakings plus the Cybersecurity Competence Centre, before adopting final reports and closing the sitting.
In this chapter
Committee on Budgetary Control Ordinary meeting
Members examine the rapporteur’s and shadows’ positions on the opinion to the Horizon Europe 2028–2034 framework (governance, simplification, error rates, OLAF/EPPO links) and then proceed to voting on the Gerbrandi report granting discharge to the Commission for the 2024 general budget with extensive amendment votes.
In this chapter
Committee on Budgetary Control Ordinary meeting
The Chair opens the CONT meeting, adopts the agenda and minutes, and hears the Cypriot Presidency present the Council recommendation on the 2024 discharge, followed by MEPs’ questions and the Council’s replies on error rates, cohesion funds, RRF transparency, Ukraine controls and the unresolved Parliament discharge of the Council.
In this chapter
The ECA clarifies the audit’s scope, selection shortcomings and indicator gaps and reiterates its recommendations, while the Commission distinguishes strategic projects from NGO grants, explains CINEA’s implementing role, provides figures and geographical coverage, outlines work on indicators, transparency and best practice sharing for the next MFF, and the Chair closes the joint meeting.
In this chapter
Right and far‑right MEPs contest NGO funding, traceability and alleged misuse within LIFE, whereas Renew, Greens, Left and other groups defend LIFE’s environmental impact, stress generic EU‑wide monitoring weaknesses, provide examples of benefits for farmers and vulnerable groups, call for stronger but streamlined follow‑up, and argue to secure LIFE as a standalone programme in the next MFF with clearer transparency safeguards.
In this chapter
The rapporteur gives an overall positive but critical assessment of LIFE strategic projects and raises detailed questions on selection, additional financing and afterlife, while EPP and S&D members ask about CINEA’s role, contract structures, impacts on farmers, transparency, outermost regions and the place of LIFE in the next MFF.
In this chapter
Committee on Budgetary Control Ordinary meeting
In a joint CONT–ENVI session, the ECA presents its audit on LIFE strategic projects, highlighting targeting, indicator, additional‑funding and sustainability weaknesses; the Commission largely accepts recommendations while defending the programme’s strategic value and current monitoring, and rapporteur and groups broadly support LIFE as an effective, autonomous instrument that should be reinforced rather than diluted in wider MFF reforms, with calls for better selection, traceability and post‑LIFE follow‑up.
In this chapter
The joint CONT–ENVI meeting is opened, the agenda and purpose are set, the ECA presents the LIFE strategic projects’ rationale and main weaknesses in selection, indicators, funding and sustainability, and DG ENV and DG CLIMA respond with overall support for the instrument while accepting most recommendations and outlining planned improvements.
In this chapter
Committee on Budgetary Control Ordinary meeting
After presentation of the ECA’s special report on ‘patchy’ fraud protection in the RRF and its recommendations for stronger Commission checks and minimum standards, the Commission defends the RRF control model and announces improvements, then two rounds of MEP questions probe fraud risks in a performance‑based scheme, Member State practices, data tools (Arachne, IMS), EPPO/OLAF statistics, post‑2026 follow‑up and tracking of final beneficiaries.
In this chapter
Committee on Budgetary Control Ordinary meeting
CONT examines the annual report on control of EIB Group financial activities, with the rapporteur and political groups pushing for a shift from volume to impact, stricter risk and transparency rules, broader technology‑neutral and security/defence financing, followed by the EIB’s defence of its record lending, AAA rating and new competitiveness, security and cohesion priorities, and closure with the amendments deadline.
In this chapter
Committee on Budgetary Control Ordinary meeting
OLAF reiterates commitments on digitalised information exchange, more granular and member‑state‑level reporting in upcoming OLAF and PIF reports, and completion of ECA‑requested analyses, after which the Chair thanks participants and adjourns the meeting for plenary.
Committee on Budgetary Control Ordinary meeting
MEPs query gaps in member state reporting, national incentives and control models, and call for clearer, non‑overlapping mandates and stronger enforcement tools, while the Commission, ECA, EPPO and OLAF address underreporting, national disparities, new reporting obligations and incentives, and the need for customs data access and EU‑level coordination to combat VAT and customs fraud.
In this chapter
Committee on Budgetary Control Ordinary meeting
Standing rapporteurs and MEPs raise questions on benchmarking recovery effectiveness, fragmentation between administrative and criminal tracks, OLAF Regulation evaluation, and the scale and timing of financial recoveries, with the Commissioner, ECA, EPPO and OLAF detailing upcoming legal evaluations, impact assessments, methodological limits to common performance metrics and updated recovery data.
In this chapter
Committee on Budgetary Control Ordinary meeting
The European Court of Auditors presents its special report on the EU anti-fraud architecture and mandates of OLAF, EPPO, Eurojust and Europol, followed by the Commission, EPPO and OLAF outlining their reactions, cooperation priorities, recovery figures, data gaps and plans for an interoperable common repository and broader architecture review.
In this chapter
Committee on Budgetary Control Ordinary meeting
Extraordinary meeting opens to elect the new CONT Chair under Rule 219, Andreas Schwab is elected by acclamation, assumes the chair, and conducts a single electronic vote adopting the committee opinion on the 2027 budget guidelines sections.
In this chapter
Wrap‑up debate on the distinction between lobbying and advocacy in NGO funding, contradictions in transparency and work‑programme disclosure, and calls from MEPs for stricter alignment of NGO political activities with EU financial rules and electoral campaigning standards, including requests for past contracts and a future revision of the Financial Regulation.
In this chapter
Further exchanges focus on alleged political instrumentalisation of NGOs, EU‑funded strategic litigation and cabinet involvement, ideological balance and high‑risk beneficiaries, and DG BUDG’s role in defining and applying advocacy guidance, with the Commission stressing co‑legislators’ role in setting priorities, value‑compliance safeguards, conflict‑of‑interest consequences and the case‑by‑case nature of assessing lobbying/advocacy clauses.
In this chapter
Members question the methodology and scope of the screening, the selection and influence of external experts and their conflicts of interest, and raise examples of contracts with explicit influence or litigation activities, while DG HOME and DG JUST defend their interpretative work with DG BUDG, clarify advocacy versus project communication, describe risk‑mitigation steps, and justify partial transparency of NGO agreements under Regulation 1049/2001.
In this chapter
DG HOME and DG JUST outline the architecture, legal bases and objectives of AMIF/ISF/BMVI, Justice and CERV programmes, describe competitive procedures, controls and expert use, and explain how they applied the 2024 advocacy guidance in a comprehensive screening that found no legal breaches but led to updates in model calls and acknowledgement of reputational risks.
In this chapter
The chair opens the CONT Scrutiny Working Group, clarifies procedural aspects and mandate, then co-authors frame political concerns over the first batch of NGO contracts and the broader link to migration policy, before introducing Commission representatives and the focus on the May 2024 advocacy guidance and 2025 screening exercise.
In this chapter
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Raffaele Fitto 4 sittings European Parliament broadcasts the sittings of the Committee on Budgetary Control (CONT). Polyfact shows each one live, keeps it as a replay with its transcript and links its key moments to the second they were said.
66 sittings on Polyfact since 14 May 2025
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