Brussels, 18/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Court of Auditors has stated that the ERDF is not hitting all its biodiversity targets. A report published on Wednesday 17 September, states that member states are not making enough use the European regional development funds to compensate for the loss of biodiversity in the EU.
European Court of Auditors member Phil Wynn Owen has scrutinised 32 ERDF-funded projects during the 2007-2013 period. He has found that, although biodiversity protection in Europe was indeed the objective in these projects, they exclusively supported the preparation of protection and management plans, without any follow-up on the results. The European Court of Auditors regrets that member states did not put the results indicators in place. Owen explained that these plans “will need to be implemented if tangible results are to be achieved. Efforts must also be made to monitor better the contribution made by ERDF co-financed projects to promoting biodiversity, and an accurate record should be maintained by the Commission of direct and indirect EU spending on biodiversity”.
The Court of Auditors' report formulated a series of recommendations to the Commission, such as supporting the EU's 28 member states in drawing up their priorities for reintroducing biodiversity in operational programmes or taking advantage of the complementarity between EU-funded projects on biodiversity. The Commission should also help member states to ensure project follow-up and to forecast and evaluate results on the environment. Cohesion policy reform, in the way will be applied for the 2014-2020 period, already includes this kind of correction. (MD)