Brussels, 29/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament is expected in May to grant the European Commission a discharge on the expenditure of the 2009 EU budget but with a close eye being kept on all those involved in management of European pubic funds, according to Jorgo Chatzimarkakis (ALDE, Germany) whose report on the budgetary discharge was approved by the EP budgetary control committee on Monday 28 March.
The budgetary control committee recommends granting the Commission discharge on the implementation of the budget for 2009 but criticises the management of some policies, in particular cohesion. According to an ALDE Group press release, the parliamentary committee wants to see an end to the lack of accountability shown by member states - who, after all, jointly administer structural funds - and recommends a number of strong measures: - a requirement for national management statements signed by the 27 ministers of finance; - the introduction of a system of automatic payment interruption or suspension as soon as deficiencies or errors in the functioning of national control structures become apparent.
“I am satisfied that corrective mechanisms are gradually being put in place to eliminate bad practice. In times of austerity, which also affect the European budget, we can no longer tolerate scandals or poor use of public money”, Chatzimarkakis said. The Court of Auditors annual report contained a number of points which, he said, “could have led us to postpone discharge”. “However, the truth of the matter is that it is less the Commission's fault than that of member states who do not feel sufficiently accountable for the sound management of EU subsidies for regional development where the error rate remains at 5% whilst falling to 2% for CAP subsidies.”
The Commission has taken a huge step in meeting the demands of the EP in proposing, as part of the recasting of the financial regulation, that financial statements of assurance be included by national authorities. “This is a clear step towards national management declarations which should, in future, be a condition for receiving structural assistance”, Chatzimarkakis said.
European Anti-fraud Commissioner Algirdas Šemeta pledged to ensure that the principle of the signing of national management statements would be accepted at political level by the member states. He also responded positively to the other demands by the EP on: - the systematic use of interruption or suspension of payments in cases where member states' monitoring and management systems proved deficient; - improving recovery of incorrectly spent funds; - putting more effort into making the rules on spending EU money less complex. (L.C./transl.rt)