Brussels, 11/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - Over the course of the year, the Court of Auditors of the EU is planning to launch a new audit specifically devoted to the European Commission's response to the refugee crisis, “building on the knowledge of EU policy in this area that we have acquired on the migration audit”, the President of the Court, Vítor Manuel da Silva Caldeira, said on Monday 11 January.
He was presenting the committee on budgetary control of the European Parliament with the 2016 working programme of the Court. In particular, the Court's attention will be turned to efforts to consolidate the internal market. The Court plans to start audits on workers' mobility, high-speed broadband infrastructure and road and rail networks. As regards economic governance, the Court will report on financial assistance to member states, the excessive deficit procedure and the supervision of EU credit rating agencies based in the EU. The Court is also planning to assess the Single Supervisory Mechanism and the Single Resolution Mechanism for the first time, and to start work on assessing the first five years in operation of the European Semester.
“We have one major new audit priority for 2016: Asylum, migration and security”, Caldeira said. An audit is currently being carried out into migration expenditure in the countries of the Southern Mediterranean and Eastern Neighbourhood countries. The preliminary observations are currently the subject of an “adversarial procedure” and, in view of the interest your committee is currently expressing in the issue, will be finalised as soon as possible, the President of the Court told the MEPs. In 2016, the Court is also to start audits into terrorism protection tools, measures to prevent the trafficking in human beings and on aid to states that could be potential sources of migrants and asylum seekers, such as Tunisia and the Central African Republic.
Special reports. In 2016, the Court is to adopt a long list of special reports, covering the following, amongst others: maritime transport, financial instruments, the classification of nuclear power stations, guarantee facility for SMEs, implementation of the directive on services, partnership agreements (cohesion policy), the rules on state aid, integration of the Roma, closing the programmes for the period 2007-2013 (cohesion policy and rural development), railway transport, the strategy for the Baltic Sea region, animal disease, biofuels, the conditionality of agricultural aid, Natura 2000, food waste, climate action objectives, EU aid to Ukraine, the reinforcement of administrative capacity in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and in Montenegro, support to the populations affected by conflicts in the African Great Lakes region, EU aid to Moldova, pre-accession aid granted to the countries of the Western Balkans and, finally, the Single Resolution Mechanism (banks). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)