Brussels, 19/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 18 March, the European Parliament's budgetary control committee granted the Commission a discharge for the execution of the EU's 2011 budget. MEPs, however, urged member states to take more responsibility in the management of EU funds spent in their respective territories. Parliament will be voting on the discharge reports at the April plenary session in Strasbourg.
The Parliamentary committee approved expenditure for 2011 for which the Commission is responsible. This approval came after the Commission provided answers that were deemed satisfactory with regard to questions put to it by MEPs on rural development, cohesion policy and research. Member states' administrative spending, however, as part of “shared management” (80% of the budget) has not improved, to the regret of MEPs.
More than 60% of errors made in cohesion policy should have been detected by member states' control systems. The rapporteur, Jens Geier (S&D, Germany) declared that “these funds are badly managed but it would be unfair to blame the Commission simply becauseit is formally responsible on paper”. Rates of error proved to be particularly high in rural development funding (7.7%) and regional policy (6%), compared to the general rate of error of between 3.7% and 3.9% in 2011. Geier emphasised that member states could substantially reduce the rate of errors by improving inspection of spending measures at national level.
As in previous years, MEPs appealed for greater responsibility to be displayed by member states by making national declarations signed by member states' finance ministers, who accept responsibility for the management of Community funds carried out by the national authorities and agencies.
The parliamentary committee also called for a halt to the practice of financing projects that are physically completed before a request for funding is made, given that they can prove difficult to monitor.
Many errors are due to too complicated rules that member states impose, in addition to EU procedures, particularly for public procurement (a practice called “gold plating”), notes the Parliamentary committee. To put an end to this practice, the committee is recommending a simplification of the rules as far as possible.
To encourage peer pressure between member states with a view to improving financial management, MEPs encouraged the Commission to publish a list, country by country, which publicly illustrates financial corrections made, as well as recoveries made and action undertaken to improve the management and control systems. (LC/transl.fl)