Brussels, 20/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 20 February, the European finance ministers recommended that the European Parliament give a discharge to the European Commission on the implementation of the budget of the European Union for the financial year 2010. However, three countries (the United Kingdom, Sweden and the Netherlands) do not subscribe to this recommendation, stating this in a joint declaration. These countries strongly regret the fact that for the 17th year in a row, the European Court of Auditors has been unable to give a positive and unreserved declaration of assurances regarding the overall budget of the EU (they note that the overall error rate remains considerably above the acceptable threshold of 2%).
In its recommendation on the discharge of the budget 2010, the Council regrets that in the overall assessment made by the Court of Auditors, payments from the budget continued to be materially affected by error and that supervisory and control systems for payments audited by the Court remained only partially effective in ensuring the legality and regularity of transactions. It appreciates that the Court's audit results show evidence of a generally stable quality in the implementation of the budget compared to the financial year 2009, and of a most likely error rate level considerably lower than found in years prior to 2009. The Council reaffirms its wish to see year-on-year improvements creating the basis for an unqualified audit opinion from the Court.
Agriculture. The Council regrets that still 37% of the transactions audited by the Court in 2010 were affected by error and that the overall most likely error rate amounted to 2.3%. Specifically, it is concerned that, despite some improvement, Rural Development expenditure still suffered from a higher incidence of error and that the frequency of error in the sample of audited transactions rose from 31% to 50% .
Cohesion, energy and transport. The Council regrets that in 2010, in the Cohesion, Energy and Transport policy group, the audited interim and final payments were affected by material error and that the most likely error rate estimated by the Court increased compared to the previous year. Despite the fact that the volume of declared expenditure in Cohesion doubled in 2010, the Council is concerned that the most likely error rate this policy group increased to 7.7% and that the lower error limit rose from 3% to 4.7%. It also strongly regrets that for the 58% of the transactions affected by error, member states should have been in a position to detect at least some of them prior to certification of expenditure to the Commission.
The Council notes with satisfaction that the Court's audit shows that overall, payments for External Aid, Development and Enlargement and Research and Other Internal Policies were free from material error. (LC/transl.fl)