Brussels, 19/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 19 January, Vítor Caldeira, the president of the European Court of Auditors, told the committee on budgetary control of the European Parliament that the Court plans to publish 55 annual audit reports and specific reports in 2015. It is also planning to publish some 30 special reports, mainly on subjects related to performance.
“With citizens' trust in the EU still a problem, making the EU's performance and added value plain for all to see is more important than ever”, said the President of the Court of Auditors. To this end, the Court's annual report on the EU budget will focus on the question of “whether the current performance framework enables the Commission to monitor and steer progress towards EUROPE 2020”.
As the weak EU economy is continuing to put pressure on national budgets, the implementation of the EUROPE 2020 strategy and strengthening growth, employment and public finances matter more than ever, Caldeira stressed. This means that in 2015, the Court will be working on reports on specific aspects of these three themes, for example on innovation, youth employment and the excessive deficit procedure.
And with 2014 the hottest year on record, taking action on climate change and the environment is once more high on the political agenda. So, in 2015, the Court also plans to report on the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme as well as on a range of environmental protection measures including those related to the preservation of nature by farmers, water quality in the Danube river basin, Baltic Sea pollution, and combating illegal logging and developing countries.
The Court's work programme also includes audits that relate to emerging issues, in particular EU financial assistance to Ukraine, EU policy measures and infrastructure investments for energy security as well as on the newly established single supervisory mechanism for euro area banks.
Additionally, while a good number of the Court's audits will focus on the implementation of policies, others will focus more specifically on the types of financial support the EU offers.
Furthermore, the Court will be looking to reduce the average time spent on drafting its reports in 2015, whilst continuing to comply with the international standards of higher supervisory institutions, as this time could be brought down if the provisions of the financial regulation on the examination of special Court reports were revised as the Court has suggested, Caldeira said. (LC)