Brussels, 05/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Court of Auditors has corroborated the EU's budget for 2013 but has warned that 4.7% of spending still does not comply with European rules. This rate of error is more likely to be due to the member states, as part of the system for sharing European funding with the European Commission. According to the Court, it is high time that they focused on fund performance rather than using up funding at any price. Given that the examination of the 2013 accounts is now finished, the 2013 discharge procedure can now go ahead.
The annual report 2013 was published on Wednesday 5 November and presented by the president of the Court of Auditors, Vítor Caldeira, to the members of the EP's budgetary control committee. The new Commissioner for the Budget, Kristalina Georgieva, has commented on the results of the report.
Accounts approved. The annual report considers that the EU Council 2013 accounts are reliable, which means that the Court can deliver a positive opinion on the subject. Nonetheless, it has not been able to give the same verdict for payment compliance. The rate of error is still around 4.7%, which accounts for €7 billion in the European budget for 2013 (a total of €148.5 billion) that has been paid out but which has not respected European rules (ineligible projects or public procurement infringements, for example). It involves a rate of error that appears to be stabilising after having risen to 3.3% in 2009 and 4.8% in 2012.
Errors committed during shared management. The persistent problem once again appears to be when member states are involved. As explained by Caldeira, “the estimated rate of error is higher in areas where the Commission and member states share responsibility for managing Union funding”. This rate of error is 5.2% for 80% of EU funding under shared management (mainly CAP and cohesion), as opposed to 3.7% in other areas directly managed by the Commission. Caldeira welcomed the correction measures put in place by the Commission and national authorities, without which the rate of error would have climbed to 6.3%. Nonetheless, he is encouraging more control efficiency and is particularly calling on the member states to, “take action to reduce the number of errors and improve the quality of information they provide about their control systems”. Commissioner Georgieva said that she hoped that Commission efforts in this connection would begin to pay off and highlighted the fact that in 2013, 2.3% of payments had been corrected or recovered (€3.4 billion). She also said that since 2014, the Commission's supervisory role had also been strengthened in this connection.
Focus on performance. The European Court of Auditors also delivered a very clear message to the European institutions to develop a more performance-based culture. Caldeira regretted that during the 2007-2013 period, EU fund managers were primarily concerned about, “spending available funding, secondly, respecting the rules and lastly, obtaining results”. Although the Court acknowledges that the Commission had made a number of efforts to emphasise performance, it is still recommending the framework for this to be improved. Caldeira concluded “this is not about whether to spend money, respect the rules or obtain results. It is about doing these three things at the same time”. Georgieva highlighted the improvements that had already been acknowledged whilst sharing the Court's analysis “Let's imagine building a road without any accountable errors but which does not lead anywhere, in practice this would be a total waste of taxpayers' money”. Her example sought to highlight the need to, “work more towards finding the right balance without sacrificing investment”. She also confirmed the setting up of an inter-institutional workgroup on performance, as requested by the European Parliament.
Unpaid invoices. The president of the budgetary control committee, Ingeborg Grässle (EPP, Germany), opened the Parliamentary debate and highlighted the need to work out where the problems were located in the respective member state administrations that had led to the errors being committed. The president of the budgets committee, Jean Arthuis (ALDE, France), underlined the problem of the growing disparity between EU payment appropriations and commitments, which Caldeira had also confirmed as being very worrying. In this connection, the Court is recommending that the Commission establishes long-term financial forecasts. Inès Ayala Sender (S&D, Spain) also recommended that the Court examined European budget receipts and exclaimed, “if we had begun with this, we would not have the scandal of a member state refusing to pay its contribution to the budget”. (MD)