Brussels, 10/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - EU economy and finance ministers are expected to recommend, on Tuesday 15 February, that the European Parliament give a discharge to the Commission for the implementation of the budget of the European Union for the 2009 financial year.
According to the text, the Council welcomes the Court of Auditors' statement of assurance (DAS) for the financial year 2009 which shows evidence of “improvement” in the implementation of the EU budget as a whole. It regrets, however, that payments from the budget continued to be materially affected by error, that supervisory and control systems for payments remained only partially effective, and that the principal objective of obtaining a positive DAS on the underlying transactions was still not achieved.
The Council notes that the error rate as a whole decreased, the most likely error now being estimated at between 2% and 5%. It is satisfied with improvements made in the area of cohesion, even though further efforts are needed. While the most likely error rate remained above 5%, it was significantly lower than in previous years. The Council is concerned that payments for the policy areas agriculture and natural resources as a whole and education and citizenship were materially affected by error, in addition to research, energy and transport and external aid, development and enlargement for which the Court's opinion remained adverse.
With regard to agencies, the Council regrets the irregularities discovered by the Court in the procurement procedures of the European Medicines Agency (the Agency has pledged to make improvements). The Council deeply regrets that the Court identified recurrent irregularities at the European Police College. After College management changes at the start of 2010, the Council hopes that improvements will be initiated “without delay”. (L.C./transl.rt)