Brussels, 16/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - The task force for Greece sought to coordinate the European Commission's technical assistance programme for the country. It was certainly set up “in haste”, lacked strategic vision and had at most a relative impact on the major reforms but its support for the Greek authorities ultimately proved rather effective and contained a certain dose of innovation.
This is the rather mixed balance sheet drawn up by the European Court of Auditors in a report presented on Tuesday 16 February on the subject of this task force, its organisational modalities and funding, as well as the way in which it provided technical assistance and contributed to pushing reforms forward.
The task force was set up in 2011 by the Commission to coordinate and underpin implementation of the reforms imposed through the economic adjustment programmes, as well as speed up absorption of EU funds. It consisted of its own agents, who cooperated with experts from other member states' public administrations, international organisations and the private sector.
This task force ultimately proved to be a “flexible mechanism” that provided “appropriate” technical assistance and acted “efficiently”, whilst ensuring “operational, indeed, innovative” coordination, explains the European Court of Auditors. Moreover, this assistance complied with the requirements set out in the programmes in all the different areas examined.
The other side of the coin involves its impact on progress with the reforms in Greece, especially with regard to public administration and taxation, which, at most, proved modest. The task force, however, is not entirely responsible for this, as the auditors emphasise, it had to work “in a context characterised by the unstable political situation” in the country and the “urgent nature of the reforms required”. It is also true that it lacked any genuine strategic vision that would have helped outline priority areas of action and navigate the long-term assistance projects that were not always well devised.
According to the Court, an “ideal” task force should therefore have had a strategy with well-defined objectives and technical assistance measures based on the different priorities. The Commission should also set up a team of external experts they can be sent to the country, whilst limiting the number of partners, in an effort to ensure coherent action and select the service providers on the basis of a comparative analysis with clearly defined roles. Finally, any assistance should be systematically inspected and assessed in order to draw the appropriate conclusions as quickly as possible. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)