Brussels, 29/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - The audit of the systems put in place by member states to recover identified debts and the Commission's supervision of the process “concludes that overall they have improved since 2004”. That was the finding of the EU Court of Auditors, in a report adopted on Wednesday 28 September. Some weaknesses, too, are flagged up.
The European Union spends some €55 billion per year on agriculture and rural development, some of which is wrongly paid out as a result of irregular or incorrect claims or, indeed, errors. The Court of Auditors examined procedures for the recovery of undue payments and, in particular, recoveries by member states and the monitoring role of the Commission.
For the most part, member states process and record debts in accordance with the rules and requirements in force. However, there are sometimes significant differences in the interpretation of the regulations: debts are recognised at different times; reported figures are not comparable; interest is applied inconsistently; and the date and the circumstances under which debts are written off vary considerably.
For example, the Court identified “the number of PAs (payment agencies), particularly France, Italy and Greece, where debts were recorded unjustifiably late after the detection of the irregularity. Out of 494 cases examined in the abovementioned countries, 39 were affected by unjustifiable delays”.
The Court believes that member states are now recovering a greater proportion of new debts, although the amounts being recorded as new debts have fallen. The reports says that the “annual rate of recovery of amounts for which recovery is ongoing is rather low”, at around 10% of the total recorded debt.
The Court notes that approximately 90% of the amounts reported in the EU annual accounts as “recoveries of undue payments” were made by the Commission through deductions from member states and not actual recoveries of the unduly paid aid from beneficiaries. This undoubtedly protects the financial interests of the EU but does not have the full deterrent effect of a recovery made from an unduly paid beneficiary, the report states. (LC/transl.rt)