Brussels, 04/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 3 June, the European Commission adopted a report on the synthesis of its management achievements for the year 2014.
In this report, the Commission instructs its services to develop a common calculation for their cost of control so as to improve consistency across the whole of the Commission.
Shortfall in payment appropriations. The level of unpaid bills at the end of 2014 stood at €24.7 billion… The Commission instructs its services to continue to manage budget implementation and take measures where appropriate to mitigate the risks resulting from any shortfall in appropriations.
Amount risk. The data show that under the most likely scenario, the overall amount at risk for the Commission as a whole is between €3.6 and €5 billion (total expenditure of €142.4 billion). The Commission estimates that the controls it will implement in successive years will identify and correct errors for a total amount of approximately €2.7 billion.
Statements of assurance of the Directors General and overall opinion of the Internal Audit Service (IAS). The reservations issued concern all major areas of expenditure. In all cases, the competent authorising officers by delegation adopted action plans to remedy shortcomings and mitigate risks.
As regards the European Social Fund, the main new problem in 2014 concerns Greece, where the error rate for the four operational programmes under the ESF is provisionally estimated at 5%.
In the field of agriculture, there were reservations regarding various aid regimes in six countries (Austria, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom). New reserves have been issued regarding France and Romania. The amount at risk corresponds to 3.13% of the expenses disbursed. As regards expenditure under the EAFRD, 28 reservations were issued for 16 countries in 2014 [Bulgaria and Germany (3), Denmark and Spain (6), France (2), the United Kingdom (2), Greece, Hungary and Italy (4), Lithuania, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Sweden]. The amount at risk corresponds to 4.76% of the expenditure disbursed.
For cohesion, the Director General of DG Regional Policy has issued reservations regarding serious deficiencies observed in key elements of the management and control systems for certain operational programmes, including a financial reservation concerning the management and control systems of 77 operational programmes under the ERDF and the Cohesion Fund 2007-2013 in 12 member states.
Regarding administrative expenditure, the Commission insists that the European Schools further strengthen their control procedures.
In the Europe in the world category, there are reservations regarding the residual error rate of 2.13% for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). Ex post controls showed a high percentage of errors concerning the budget allocated to non-proliferation and disarmament in the framework of the CFSP. The Director General of DG Development and Cooperation - EuropeAid (DG DEVCO) maintained his overall reservation covering all activities and management cycles, since the overall residual error rate in terms of legality and regularity of underlying transactions was 2.81% in 2014 (3.35% in 2013 and 3.63% in 2012). (Lionel Changeur)