Brussels, 10/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 12 February, the Council of Ministers for the Economy and Finance of the EU is expected to recommend the European Parliament to give discharge to the Commission in respect of the implementation of the budget of the European Union for the financial year 2014. These recommendations require qualified majority in order to be adopted by the Council.
The Council is basing its analysis on the annual report of the Court of Auditors on the 2014 budget. It notes with satisfaction the observations of the Court and calls upon the Commission to take account of this, as applicable and, if possible, also in the framework of the work underway to prepare for the mid-term review of the multi-annual financial framework (MFF). It regrets that the estimated level of error reported by the Court for payments as a whole was 4.4%. It also regrets the insufficient reduction of the estimated level of error, which remains well above the materiality threshold of 2% laid down by the Court for all policy areas. The Council reiterates its wish to see year-on-year improvements in the financial management systems and in the estimated level of error across all policy areas, with a view to obtaining an unqualified opinion from the Court.
Quality of controls. The Council calls on the member states to continue their cooperation with the Commission and to make it a priority to improve the quality, rather than the quantity, of first-level controls in order to prevent or identify and correct errors before declaring the costs to the Commission.
Additionally, the Council notes with concern the Court's assessment that the Commission has been provided with only limited information on pre-financed amounts to financial instruments under shared management and that it may need to make significant adjustments at the closure of the 2007-2013 programming period. The Commission is called upon to ensure that the information it receives on financial instruments under shared management is adequate and transparent.
Finally, the Council urges the Commission to take steps to ensure further simplification and, together with the member states, to redouble efforts to prevent errors in the public procurement field and effectively to implement the measures set up in the 2013 Commission Action Plan on public procurement. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)